The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

Bob Huggins: Big 12 media day

October 20, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Poor Jaysean Paige. Did you know WVU was 10-0 when he started last season?

Texts From Baylor Game Day

October 19, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Before we get rolling here, a scheduling update: I’m traveling to Kansas City today for Big 12 media day, which is tomorrow, and then I’m heading back home Wednesday. Obviously no Tuesday Taboo, because there is no game, and Wednesday’s G&B is going to be backed up a bit, probably a full day and possibly longer, because my stupid job got in the way.

That also presumes you want it. If one viewing was enough Saturday, I understand. Plus, I don’t know how much you want me poring over Baylor’s silly trips-to-the-boundary sets — my wife was non-plussed, I think; more from her in the texts, and I dare you to guess which one is hers — and I’m somewhat certain you wouldn’t like many of my takes, which sometimes will be me shrugging and going, “I mean, Baylor…”

Up to you.

And then no chat Thursday, again because there is no game, and no F Double because at the end of this wonky week, I’ll be out on assignment.

So that’s a sketch of where we’re going, but what about where we are? Let’s pause.

I think this is an interesting stretch of road for Dana Holgorsen and for this season. WVU has an open weekend, and time is a variable some choose to manipulate and others want to see manipulated. You are, after all, reading the words of a guy who wondered last week if Saturday would be Skyler Howard’s last start, basically because there was extra time to work with and game plan for a new starter — if need be. Important caveat there.

I don’t think the need is there. Howard wasn’t the problem Saturday. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t at the root of the defeat, and replacing him doesn’t seem like the fix or maybe even a fix. It doesn’t sound like it, either. Holgorsen really backed Howard up after the game. The timing here is maybe curious and definitely convenient, but there is such a thing as idle time, too.

I see David Sills in the game and doing things — feel free to submit the most outlandish Sills hype tweet you saw, but I promise you can’t top the one that found me — and I can’t believe Ka’Raun White isn’t going to be getting more snaps. So I wonder, assuming we’d call those optimistic developments, why you’d change quarterbacks now, too. There’s something about discretion and valor, I guess, and this isn’t a team that can flirt with sidesteps and worse.

People in the Puskar Center will grab their magnifying glasses this week, of course, and things will be addressed, but what changes and what needs to be changed might underwhelm you and will definitely upset the people who think you cross a bridge in an open week and find a box with a magic wand.

Here’s my point: It’s really hard to get a read on the state of things right now. This schedule is brutal. I still have no idea how Texas beat Oklahoma or, perhaps more precisely, how Oklahoma lost to Texas. The Sooners, who endured great travel trouble Friday, beat the hell out of Kansas State Saturday. Kansas State could and/or should have beaten TCU. Oklahoma State might feel like a bad loss, but that’s an undefeated ball club. And Baylor? I mean, Baylor…

Worst part? It’s not yet over. WVU has one more to go, and TCU’s going to enjoy all the advantages you suppose the Mountaineers will enjoy with an open weekend and extra time, and the Horned Frogs have the added edge of playing at home.

My bad. Back to the point: I just don’t know. No one has to tell anyone 62-38 and 3-3 aren’t good enough, but who knows how bad this team is, either? (Or how good they are. Question mark. Period. Again, I don’t know.) Do you? The offense is shaky — do not let “Thirty-eight points!” skew your view, because it’s 31 with an asterisk and then a kickoff return touchdown — and you’re free to submit questions and/or complaints about recruiting and developing skill players. The defense can be had, the secondary is and always was thin and the preseason hype was so inflated that it ably masked the fact these offenses are good, never mind so, so good. But if the Mountaineers had just played, Kansas, Iowa State and Kansas State in succession, would we be having the same conversations?

I don’t really know your business, been in here since I was bending Lego blocks. Now you tell the world about me, dry snitch. Tater tots on my shotgun, now I’ve got to text one at the stars. Sky’s the limit, now I’ve got to finish as the first rapper on Mars. My edits are in [brackets].

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Sunday brunch: Baylor 62, WVU 38

October 18, 2015 by Mike Casazza

This is a great picture, not because I want to gift you Darrien Howard posters, but because WVU’s nose guard audaciously chased Corey Coleman into the end zone Saturday.

Coleman’s a bad man, everybody. There was a memo to that effect circulating before, and I’m not certain you saw it. But the eyeful he provided Saturday was more or less what the memo said — and he flat dropped three passes.

Dana Holgorsen, who, I guess, went straight from the field to the press conference, which kept me from getting video, was highly complimentary afterward. You can that see and everything else he had to say here. Baylor’s got a few of those players, and the Mountaineers were left to admit, if not believe, that the Bears were not only better at McLane Stadium but that they could also be good enough to be in the semifinals and standing at the end.

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WVU v. Baylor: First things in the morning

October 17, 2015 by Mike Casazza
2015-10-17 07.55.45

You are looking live at beautiful McLane Stadium, a $266 million recruiting brochure on the Brazos River. This is an impressive place that, perhaps remarkably, looks just like the renderings. I’m not sure how Baylor built it with that budget (actually $250 million at first, but who’s counting?) seeing as if the renovations at Texas A&M’s current stadium cost $485 million. Quite an arms race in these parts. This stadium is festively surrounded, and on three sides you’ll find ample parking lots and tailgates. The fourth side is the open end, which is picturesque as can be with the river, the campus buildings and the fans crossing bridges to get to the stadium.

Baylor’s won a ton of games, praise and prizes the past few years, but this is the program’s biggest move to join the elite.

They haven’t lost here, where they’re 8-0 as part of the NCAA-best 18-game home winning streak, and you wonder for how long they’ll live with a capacity of 45,000. There are plans for future expansion to 55,000, and it would seem the Bears could build atop the highest level of seating because there’s support standing behind the horseshoe. That ought to be enough to add another 10,000, and maybe Baylor one day wants more. In any event, it’d be a shame to close the open end of the stadium or do anything that could compromise that view, which really is the stadium’s signature.

So that’s where we start today, but where the game starts, as far as I’m concerned, is when the drives start. We’re done bowing at the alter of Baylor’s offense this week, but prepare yourself for something significant.

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Off to a good start

October 16, 2015 by Mike Casazza

We didn’t get to this yesterday, because a Thursday when I travel Friday is a brute, but we should have expected something similar to start this season because the conference made no sense last season. The Big 12’s preseason poll came out yesterday and West Virginia was sixth. Sixth. Now, we can understand the Big 12 is a difficult conference.

/Googles any Huggins article from the last three weeks
//Settles on this one

“It amazed me when I saw the statistics that the Big 12 has the second-most lottery picks in the last seven years or nine years or whatever it was, but it has the second-most lottery picks of any Power 5 conference,” Huggins said. “It has the second-most first-round picks and the second-most picks.

“Then you stop and think about it, and the other people have 16 teams. This league has 10 teams. It’s mind-boggling the talent that has come out of this league, and you can’t play in the NBA and not be a great athlete.”

(Mostly, though, get your Esa Ahmad fix there, please and thank you.)

Kansas is the preseason favorite because Big 12 basketball. Oklahoma is second, and that’s somewhat noteworthy because Iowa State is actually higher — No. 7 to No. 8 — in the preseason top 25 poll the coaches put out Thursday. They are but two points apart in the Big 12 poll, and Nos. 4-6 are separated by four points. Nos. 8-10 look possibly dreadful, and woe those stories about how the Big East had a bunch of soup cans and the Big 12 does not.

But Texas was No. 4 in the Big 12 poll, and this is not football, and Shaka Smart is new and has a quirky roster not yet catered to his chaotic press and eager offense. The Mountaineers are 11 spots higher in the preseason top 25 with nearly 100 more points. The Mountaineers are No. 23 — buried the lede there — and Texas is kind of receiving votes. These are preseason rankings, so give them a once over and maybe a second glance, but that one felt weird.

I’m up in the air today, but let’s hear predictions for tomorrow’s game and a line or song title from former Baylor student Willie Nelson.

 

You’ll Never Talk Alone: S4E5

October 15, 2015 by Mike Casazza
Live Blog You’ll Never Talk Alone: S4E5

The Good and the Bad of WVU v. Oklahoma State

October 14, 2015 by Mike Casazza

I’m not sure I buy home-field advantages much these days. Maybe that’s just me covering WVU, which is 5-10 in Big 12 home games with four overtime losses. I mean, Oklahoma State chose to go into the hostile section of the stands in overtime Saturday and then won the game. But around the country it just seems to mean less and less, and nights like Saturday, when I think you’d have a hard time saying the Cowboys were the clearly superior team and when the Mountaineers were perplexed about why they didn’t start the game with greater verve, may as well prove it.

Whatever the truth, the reality here is that it doesn’t really exist. I’m not saying this to tease or offend the great people who go to great lengths to fill the stands and try their hardest to impact the game. I’m saying this because WVU isn’t winning games that, when put together, make a huge difference.

Three years ago, the Mountaineers led TCU 27-17 with 7:11 left in the fourth quarter and lost when the Horned Frogs went for two and won the game in the second overtime. A season later, Texas scored first in overtime and WVU couldn’t answer. In the finale, WVU was up 38-21 on Iowa State in the fourth quarter and lost in three overtimes. Saturday’s game — at home, at night, where and when Dana Holgorsen is now just 3-8 — is new to the list. Add two more one-point losses in regulation (Oklahoma in 2012, TCU last season) when WVU couldn’t stand up one last time on a fourth-down touchdown pass by the Sooners and then sprung a leak in the secondary to facilitate TCU’s game-winning drive, and you do wonder.

Like, what if WVU won some or all of those games? How different would things feel?

But Saturday was sort of cool, too. The crowd was come-and-go, for which it is not to be blamed, and was on the verge of making a quarterback change when it switched from groans and boos aimed at Skyler Howard to audible “We want Crest! We Want Crest!” chants as Howard was scooping himself up off the turf after his fumble and Oklahoma State’s recovery for the game’s first score. By the time Howard lost his helmet and tagged in William Crest to uncomfortable applause, I thought we might see a change at halftime. We didn’t, and I might have an explanation below, but the crowd was nevertheless there the rest of the way, and like it or not, 7NA has a place for the people.

The flashlight scene was tremendously tremendous, though. I don’t know where it came from, and WVU people I quizzed were excitedly clueless. Just an organic thing that looked great in person and on TV. (Aside: Somewhat familiar, but I’ve always likened WVU crowds to WWE crowds, and if this means Broken Out in Love becomes WVU’s Jump Around, so be it.) Who knows when we’ll see it again, because I’m not sure there’s another home night game on the schedule in 2015, but it was so Good on a night there weren’t many others.

How did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look at the Good and the Bad of WVU v. Oklahoma State.

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Dana Holgorsen: Baylor week

by Mike Casazza

He is, as was to be expected, high on Saturday’s opponent, a program that’s doing things no one else has done or is doing … including Baylor. This could be the best offense West Virginia has ever faced. One thing Dana Holgorsen did not mention was Wendell Smallwood’s odd revelation Saturday night that the running backs choose who at a given time. JaJuan Seider heard about that attempted to explain.

“That was blown out of proportion,” Seider said.

Seider said Smallwood did not misspeak but that what he said was only true “to a degree.”

“Do they have input? Yeah. Do I value what they say? Yeah. ‘Hey coach, I’m fresh,’ or, ‘Let him get it going, and I can come in,’ ” Seider said. “We’ve got a good rapport with that. I saw [the quote] out there. Everyone’s making too much of a deal out of it.”

Seider said he talks to his running backs between series and asks who’s taking the field because “they’re playing in the game and I want to know how they feel.” Ultimately, he makes the call, and he considers everything about the situation and the way his running backs are performing.

“In a game, I make that decision,” he said. “If I don’t feel like the decision is right, it’s, ‘You come back. He’s going in.’ The only person who overrides me is Dana.”

Tuesday Taboo: Is this the end?

October 13, 2015 by Mike Casazza

How about that headline. You have no idea what I’m talking about. As usual? And speaking of William Crest — that’d be a hint to precede pressing play — his role this past Saturday and on Saturdays to come is sort of fluid.

“Will’s a good player,” Smallwood said. “I think we should get the ball to him a lot and let him make plays.”

That might not be the outcome. Holgorsen has given no indication he’s even considering making Crest his starting quarterback even as Howard has committed seven turnovers in this two-game losing streak and completed 35 of 67 passes for 361 yards.

It would also appear Crest’s role against Oklahoma State was a matter of necessity and not creativity. Smallwood missed practice time last week with a bad ankle and Seider wasn’t sure Smallwood would play, never mind top 100 yards for a third straight game. Crest practiced at running back for the first time in a long time in case Smallwood couldn’t play.

“I wouldn’t say he’s our third running back,” Seider said.

Seider said he intended to use Crest to keep Smallwood and Rushel Shell fresh, but he knew Crest could also capably replace one of those two and let WVU use its two-back sets.

“He’s a good athlete,” Seier said. “It gives us another chance to get a guy on the field they have to worry about.”

Texts from Oklahoma State Game Day

October 12, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Apologies in advance today — and not because what follows is especially crude. I mean, it is, but that was to be expected, no? But it turns out that Mountaineer Field is not the best place from which to send and receive text messages. Why didn’t anyone tell me this?!?!

The transmissions were all akimbo Saturday night. This hasn’t happened before, so I’m not completely sure what actually happened, but it’s safe to say there was traffic in the air. Texts arrived in swaths, sometimes separated by big gaps. (I bury my phone during a game, so I didn’t see it happening.) It appears to me they maintained a chronological order, but there was roughly a 100-minute gap between the last time-stamped text late in the third quarter and then the 150 or so that popped up after midnight.

So I scratched out the times on those late-arriving texts and just ran them in the best order I could assemble. I’m hoping this doesn’t happen again.

/segue

I trust you feel the same way about Saturday night.

And with that, I don’t want to keep you much longer, but I’ll open it up to a discussion to fill the space that would normally — and still might! — be filled with you typing in the times of your favorite texts. Without turning Saturday into a blame game between the offense and the defense, I think it’s fair to ask this: Is the offense constructed in a way that actually lets it assist the defense, and/or is the defense good enough to hold up what’s suddenly and certainly become a tawdry offense anchored by an earthbound passing game?

No. 2 Baylor scored 66 points Saturday and averages 64 per game. No. 3 TCU scored 52, including 35 after halftime, and averages 51. Those are the next two opponents for the Mountaineers (3-2, 0-2 Big 12), who in a two-game losing streak have totaled 50 points.

Much will be made of the second half of WVU’s brutal four-game stretch of ranked opponents, but when the Mountaineers are clear of those four teams they gets a home game against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders scored 66 against Iowa State, lead the nation in passing offense and rank No. 2 nationally between Baylor and TCU in total offense and scoring offense.

WVU’s offense leads the Big 12 in turnovers and is second-to-last in sacks allowed between Iowa State and Texas, which is not the sort of company the Mountaineers expected to keep even two weeks ago.

But the offense scored seven points in the first half on the road against Oklahoma to trail by 10 points at halftime, and then didn’t even score while playing what Seider said was “as bad a half as you can play offensively” to trail 17-2 at halftime against the Cowboys.

This was a home night game against a team WVU had beaten back-to-back years, which is something that shouldn’t be dismissed because the Mountaineers haven’t won successive games against any other Big 12 team since joining the conference.

“They were pretty wide-eyed early,” Holgorsen said.

And I’m going to hold on for the rest of my days, because I know what it means to text along the lonely street of dreams. My edits are in [brackets].

12:55:
WVU has become OU’s Super Bowl? Another OU slide looms?

4:21:
Karl Joesph’s knee died so Big 12 receivers may live.

6:22:
We are winning this [competition]…big picture…the big 12 is ours

7:07:
I could have smuggled so many more beers in. I’m disappointed in myself.

7:15:
In a bar. In Birmingham. They just changed my 1 little tv that I was watching to to the Alabama game.

7:17:
CREST

7:17:
Announce team includes the Lesser Huard

7:21:
Just caught myself cheering with the Bama fans. What have I become?

7:21:
I have so much hate for lane kiffin. So conflicted right now.

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