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Connect the dots

May 10, 2016 by Mike Casazza

As someone trying to simply follow the topic of Big 12 expansion, I think the hardest thing to do is discern sources. Or Sources. Take this as an example. The Dallas Morning News attempted to recap the Big 12 meetings, and this is a necessity for a paper that’s so big and has so many professional rooting interests in the sports section. Not everyone following the Cowboys, Rangers and Stars is attuned to the Big 12, and even the Texas, TCU or Oklahoma fans who are keeping tabs on things could use some help.

So there was this review, by the capable Chuck Carlton, and it’s your synopsis of record. One paragraph got plucked again and again.

Since any expansion dovetails with a TV network, look to the markets of possible candidates. For now, the top four are believed to be Connecticut, BYU (which has a national following), Cincinnati and possibly Colorado State (Denver market), although the situation is fluid.

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Up, up and away

by Mike Casazza

 

As (sort of) predicted here before, West Virginia took some funds liberated by a coaching change and invested in its coaching staff. With $200,000 “available” after Lonnie Galloway departed and was replaced by Tyron Carrier, Athletic Director Shane Lyons used 40 percent of that in raises on running backs coach JaJuan Seider and offensive line coach Ron Crook.

Seider was also given an extra year, meaning only he, head coach Dana Holgorsen, offensive coordinator Joe Wickline and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson have multiple-year deals. But Seider’s contract now also and finally has the buyout clause that minimizes what it would owe him, Wickline and/or Gibson if they are let go following the 2016 season. (Poor Mark Scott! We thought he’d get a bump, too, because everyone but him, Carrier and Blue Adams has gotten a raise — including Matt Caponi! — but he did not.)

Broom for improvement

May 9, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

West Virginia is almost four full seasons into the Big 12 experience and is 8-4 against Texas with three series wins. That’s a mouthful, when you consider from where the Mountaineers came.

True, the Longhorns are down, they couldn’t pitch or field over the weekend and change is probably coming, but WVU had a lot to do with chasing three good starters and sending them on their way with a 13.09 ERA in just 11 innings, with constantly putting the ball in play and with looking like the better team the entire time.

This is beginning to feel like validation, not so much the result of one weekend series, but the way Randy Mazey’s young team has gone 10-3 since finding itself a game over .500 on April 16.

“When we joined the Big 12, we knew we were going to strap in on against teams like Texas and Oklahoma, and we didn’t know what to expect,” Mazey said. “I think we’ve showed right now we’re as good as anybody. I think as this program matures and we get recruiting classes in here, this is going to start happening more often.”

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Wingspan

by Mike Casazza

Last week was a busy one for West Virginia’s assistant coaches. Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson popping up in Charleston, S.C., is new and interesting, and it further developed a relationship with a very good player there. Not listed is new tag team JaJuan Seider and Tyron Carrier working New Orleans together early in the week and targeting players who are already committed to SEC programs.

By one count, WVU went to more than 100 schools in 13 states and offered 19 players a scholarship.

 

 

‘Got her.’

by Mike Casazza

 

Tryon Carrier would set two NCAA records when he was playing at the University of Houston, one for returning seven kickoffs for touchdowns in his career, another for catching at least two passes in 53 straight games. That’s a pretty good stretch, right?

And to think, it wasn’t supposed to happen. Carrier’s mother forbid him from playing football when he was in the third grade. For nine years, Carrier, his brother and their uncle kept his career a secret until one day she found out.

Tyron was never big, listed at 5-foot-8 in college and, as he said, “140 pounds soaking wet” when he was returning kicks or running routes across the middle or blocking linebackers maybe 100 pounds heavier.

But the lie was gigantic.

“It was just unbelievable,” Sharon said. “I was afraid for him. He had asthma — very bad asthma — and the doctor said he could have no direct contact to his chest, so I said, ‘No football.’ I didn’t want anything to happen to my baby, but after I said no, they kept doing it.”

Tyron is now West Virginia’s receivers coach, his first job as a full-time assistant. But for nine years, from his start in Pop Warner in the third grade to the dawn of his final year at Houston’s Worthing High, Tyron, McDonald and their uncle Tyron North signed permission slips, hid football equipment, covered up football games and practices and made up stories for scrapes, bruises and even casts brought about by football.

“It was the most amazing thing hiding all the games and the uniforms and stuff like that so she never knew what was going on,” North said. “But when she found out, she was pissed. She used some choice words when I was talking to her, but once she found out how we were all behind him and how long we’d had him in it, once she saw how good it was for him, she went along with it.”

 

Friday Feedback

May 6, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is 4 to 5 percent more likely to be more productive if we can ever figure out a way to make the mobile site more user friendly, 10 to 15 percent more likely to add a few posts per week if we become easier to navigate and 62 percent more likely to feel the same if we sustain status quo.

I don’t know what more to tell you about conference expansion. There are myriad outcomes available, and yet, I don’t think that’s what concerns many of you the most. Instead, I think what alarms people is that we might be entering a summer of speculative tweets and talking points and stories and such. There’s at least a month more of this, and then reactions to whatever does or does not happen after that. What does or does not happen could be really dumb, too.

So, buckle up. Yay? We’ll touch on it a bit below, and then I’ll be cautious about how and how much we revisit the topic in the days and weeks and months ahead.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, sink or swim.

Big Al said:

This looks like a done deal to me. Assuming Commissioner Bowlsby is correct, how can a University president vote for the status quo and risk falling “‘$20 million [per school]’ behind the SEC and Big Ten in 12 years”?

Because either additions won’t make up that gap or because there are other ways to make up that gap?

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More, please

May 5, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

Two years ago, WVU and Texas played the final series at Hawley Field, and three of the four largest crowds in the venue’s history — and a total of 5,413 for the three games — saw the Mountaineers take two out of three. It was highly entertaining and at times combative. Roger Clemens was there, and I want to say the Texas catcher was ejected from the Sunday game, that after having some some to-and-fro with fans earlier in the weekend. But it was fun, and that was really the school’s introduction to this high-level baseball the Big 12 was to deliver.

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Propaganda!

by Mike Casazza

This is popping up in DMs all across the country today, and why not? These things are simple and priceless, and that’s one reason you see so many college programs — not merely football — searching for social media skills to assist with recruiting operations.

 

Sigh.

by Mike Casazza

OK, this came Wednesday, and it followed Monday’s revelation that the Big 12 was 4 to 5 percent more likely to reach the CFP with a championship game. We discussed that here, and we agreed it was a flimsy number, and further, it ought to be hard to trust because it’s based on running simulations with significant variables like, you know, how you asses the ways 13 subjective individuals will act on the selection committee.

But we also thought the 4 to 5 percent was for simply adding a playoff, and we then figured that adding a playoff was a precursor for adding two (or more teams), losing one conference game and splitting into divisions. What we didn’t seek to articulate was how the CFP odds increase by adding teams, losing one conference game, splitting into divisions and playing a title game. I was told those were maybe separate items with separate percentages.

Yesterday, Navigate Research, which is both the outside firm the Big 12 contracted and a delightful double entendre, spoke to coaches and athletic directors. That chat revealed that adding to the league and adding a title game was expected to increase the CFP odds by 10 to 15  percent, which is a bit more alarming.

But then that 62 percent thing stirred the drink in another direction. So, this is nuts, but it’s here for at least the rest of the month (zero change Navigate ever shows its work, and nor should it, because these are trade secrets in an oddly lucrative trade). The Big 12 presidents, who ultimately hold the voting power, meet in Dallas at the end of the month, but you should not expect a decision there. Soon? Ideally, but not there. So says Shane Lyons from the site of the league’s spring meetings.

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Found: Devin Williams

May 4, 2016 by Mike Casazza

That’s not Puerto Rico. That’s the Hard Work Basketball gym. Stereo silence was broken yesterday when Williams appeared on a Charleston radio station to promote an appearance there this weekend and also talk about what’s happened and what’s happening in his life.