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

Bill Self goes hungry

October 15, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Bob Huggins and Bill Self spent a moment chatting together before breaking off to speak to the media for about an hour Tuesday at the Big 12’s basketball media day, and that little window into their friendship inside the Sprint Center reminded me of a story from last season.

Huggins and West Virginia beat Self and Kansas inside the Coliseum on March 8, the final game before the conference tournament. Huggins has a clause in his contract that pays him $25,000 for winning a regular-season game against the Jayhawks.

You’ll remember that clause was the source of some confusion. Huggins wasn’t sure why it was included in a deal that he felt would take care of him nicely without it. His agent, Richard Katz, was responsible for it and athletic director Oliver Luck didn’t think it mattered much to slip it in at the end of the negotiations.

And truth be told, Self wasn’t even that concerned with it, which is not to say he was beyond having some fun with it.

“I think the world of Bob Huggins and consider him a good friend,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep money out of his pocket, and if I don’t, I know who’s buying dinner.” 

Self updated the situation Tuesday as to whether Huggins has picked up a check.

“You know what? He hasn’t,” Self said. “He’s too tight. Tell him that.”

Wednesday Walkthrough: Baylor

by Mike Casazza

Good morning. I’m in Kansas City for Big 12 basketball media day. Here’s the Walkthrough.

And below, I’ll try to update things from the Sprint Center, which is the worst place for WiFi and me.

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Dana Holgorsen: Baylor week

October 14, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Thanks to BlueGoldNews.com for the video. We had equipment issues today that I haven’t experienced before, but here’s today’s presser.

The Good and the Bad of WVU v. Texas Tech

by Mike Casazza
TTUmen2

So there’s Saturday’s second half in a nutshell. It’s the third-and-9 when Clint Trickett and Kevin White finally connected on a deep (deepish?) pass for a momentous touchdown. And Texas Tech not only has 10 players on the field, but is pulling a player off the field before the snap. There’s a level if disorganization on that side of the ball, in case you didn’t know.

Texas Tech also started the second half with a delay of game, which might require practice, and committed seven other penalties after that. In one very special sequence, senior James Polk committed back-to-back holding penalties, laid low for a snap and then committed a false start.

Eight penalties in a half is above the average for the Red Raiders, but not by much. Eight penalties in a game as an average would be No. 107 nationally. Texas Tech is, by a full penalty per game, the most-penalized team in the country.

After going up by two touchdowns with half of a quarter left in the game they really had controlled, the Red Raiders ran nine plays and picked up 30 yards and but one first down the rest of the way, and that first down was a fluke where a hurried pass fell into the lap of a receiver who had tripped and fallen. DeAndre Washington carried twice for 1 yard in that sequence. He carried 27 times for 131 yards before that.

WVU’s offense, meanwhile, snapped it 22 times for 195 yards to close on a 17-0 run. WVU had, up to that point, 72 snaps for 355 yards.

Texas Tech lost the game and WVU won the game, but my point here is that these games, as we have already witnessed, come down to singular moments and single plays, and who are you going to trust when one side is running 10 players on the field and the other team not only has 11, but has No. 11, who is a GAM?

Thought so.

And here’s the weird part: I’m not certain 10-on-11 hurt Texas Tech here.

The defense is missing a defensive lineman, not a cornerback or a safety who might cover White. The safety who spent most of the game double-teaming White instead stepped forward to step on the shallow cross … on third-and-9 … and the deep safety is not deep enough to get over to keep White out of the end zone. Bad form there, and bad timing, because truth be told, Texas Tech played a nice game defensively and didn’t have those issues. But when it slipped, the Mountaineers caught it and took advantage of it.

I think what you’ll find is WVU was fortunate to have it happen for them there and to not have it happen to them earlier in the game. The Mountaineers won late due in large part to the fact the Red Raiders didn’t put a lot of distance between themselves and the visitors earlier.

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

Good: Dodge!
Not to be confused with (Seth) Doege, who obliterated the Mountaineers the last time this game was played in Lubbock and is now behind Darian Durant and Tino Sunseri in Riderville. Anyhow, here’s a touchdown pass that never happens. WVU is out of sorts and you see Cullen Christian, the fella with the pants towel, run up and cover absolutely no one and nothing and instead let Jakeem Grant go free. Icky Banks sees it and takes a line between his man and Grant and more or less says a prayer. It’s answered when Davis Webb makes a bad read and doesn’t see six points running up the rail. That’s one.

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Texts From Texas Tech Game Day

October 13, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Allow me a moment to indulge and expound, this is from Thursday’s chat:

There’s a subtlety I rather enjoy about Holgorsen. He seems uniquely aware of the concerns and critiques people have about his decisions or his management or his coaching staff.

Like, we bring up topics and never in a way to say, “Yo, you’re driving people nuts with these timeouts.” We finesse it, but he knows what’s being asked. And not only that, he seems to ever so slightly touch on the most common complaints and address them directly, but never in a way to say, “I know what you’re saying and you’re out of your minds and I’m the coach and that’s that.”

It’s a delicate balance and it seems to, well, not disarm the disapproval, but at least temper it. Just something I’ve noticed of late with regard to timeouts, DeForest, special teams, punt returns, Jordan Thompson, so on and so forth.
Thursday October 9, 2014 11:15 

And this is Holgorsen from Saturday’s postgame press conference.

I think everybody was happy, was excited that I finally used a few timeouts and got our kicker in a position to make a school record 55‑yarder, which we knew he could do, had confidence that he’d be able to do it, which got us the victory.

Fantastic. Frustrating, I’m sure, for you because you’re living and dying on these moments and openly and justifiably questioning decisions and indecision, but it’s still fantastic. In one moment, you’re wondering why you picked this Saturday to quit sniffing glue, but then all the pieces come together and you exhale. In another moment, he comes out all cool and calm and even celebratory with a victory and like 11 timeouts in his pocket and he just traces his finger around that nerve of yours and you go from wanting to throttle this man to wanting to muss his hair and call him a scamp.

It’s chaotic, it’s not easy, but it’s 4-2 right now and 2-1 in the Big 12, and for all the seemingly disheveled moments, they haven’t conspired to cost the Mountaineers a thing except maybe a little sanity. The best part, or perhaps the worst, depending on how you look at these things, is WVU seems content and comfortable with this identity its crafted.

“We’ve shown pretty much all season that our guys keep fighting,” WVU offensive line coach Ron Crook said. “They keep fighting and they play to the end. We don’t do everything perfect. We make things hard sometimes. But our guys keep fighting to the end, and as long as we keep doing that, we’ve got a chance to win a lot of football games.”

It ain’t supposed to be so hard. I always said I’d quit if it felt like a job. I’d rather be pissed than pretend that I’m not and try to text along with the whole facade. My edits are in [brackets]. 

11:18 am:
Metroing in to DC on this rainy day to show my cousin around. Did the same thing during last year’s Maryland game. Hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.

12:02 pm:
Did you know the girl on Friday Night Lights, Jess Merriweather (east Dillon, dated”Lance”) was Michelle Tanner’s friend on Full House?! Mind Blown.

12:06:
Did Zorro go to TT?

12:11:
Three yards and a cloud if turf

12:23:
TG! JT ain’t on punts!

12:34:
WVU GETS TAVON’d

12:34:
Is this team going to get well on WVU?

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WVU v. Texas Tech: Here they come

October 11, 2014 by Mike Casazza

You are looking live at pregame warmups at Jones AT&T Stadium, warmups that would include on the far right erstwhile suspended cornerback Daryl Worley. He went through all the drills and looked every bit like someone who is going to play today.

Not that that comes as any sort of surprise.

What I found interesting — and, again, maybe not all that surprising — is that quarterback Clint Trickett, who is to Worley’s right and wearing the white Beats by Dre headphones, did all this after doing all of the quarterback warmups and his extensive throwing routine.

Speaking of quarterbacks, William Crest traveled, but is not in uniform. And that’s about all I can tell you about personnel because West Virginia is now not even giving its sports information employees dress lists for the game. So now not only do the people who cover the team have to make guesses about who’s traveling, dressing and playing, but so do the people who are employed by the team.

More importantly, a word about the wind: Mild.

That’s all I’ve got for you about that. As for the game? I’ve got plenty. See the rest, see the rest, made of real gorilla chest.

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There can only be one

October 10, 2014 by Mike Casazza

You can will vote now to help pick the name for Morgantown’s new New York-Penn League baseball team. There are 10 options. Some of them are pretty good. Only one is the Moonshiners.

The pressure is on. Minor league teams are clever with their names, and the NYPL is no exception.

To Lubbock, via Abilene, with a stop in Dallas

by Brad McElhinny

That there is my preview of week seven in this crazy college football season. Here’s a slightly more detailed video preview of what the Big 12 has to offer.

I’ll get to Lubbock sometime this evening and I’ll bring you an important update on the wind. And yes, I wrote about the wind today because Clint Trickett made me do it.

“I was watching White Men Can’t Jump the other day and there’s that part about shooting with the wind up and how it pushes it 6 to 8 inches to the right or left,” Trickett said. “It’s the same thing.”

After that update, I’m going to Sizzler, I’m going to Sizzler.

I was sort of looking forward to hanging around Abilene and seeing McMurry University play — it’s one of six or so colleges in Abilene — but Hal Mumme is now long gone, so the Dana Holgorsen stories cannot flow.

Joe Lee Dunn had been the McMurry defensive coordinator with Mumme and even stayed on as associate head coach after Mumme left after the 2012 season. Dunn is to the 3-3-5 what Mumme is to the Air Raid. We could probably talk about Ole Miss, too, since he was in charge there for one season 20 years ago. But he’s gone, too. I can’t even find him.

So it’s Friday night lights in Lubbock, perhaps. All the high schools there fling it, which is what one does in West Texas. It’s what Holgorsen did when the young assistant coach was growing up in Lubbock, but it’s not quite what he does now.

The present is sometimes best understood in the company of the past, which is what makes Saturday’s game so interesting. The Mountaineers play at Texas Tech and the noon game at Jones AT&T Stadium (Fox Sports 1) will feature Holgorsen’s most prolific pupil. This is Holgorsen’s past meeting Holgorsen’s present.

“It wasn’t like I went from one extreme to the other,” he said. “There are seven years in between there. That was an evolution based on the people around me, based on personnel, based on just kind of changing with the times, I guess.”

You’ll Never Talk Alone: S3E6

October 9, 2014 by Brad McElhinny

Good morning. We’re planning to start on time at 11 a.m., but fair warning: It might be a little late because of Life Stuff. As always, the chat is open now so you can submit your questions early.

Live Blog You’ll Never Talk Alone: S3E6
 

Daryl Worley pleads no contest, is reinstated

October 8, 2014 by Mike Casazza

This was to be expected, especially following the news and subsequent vagueness at Tuesday’s press conference, but Daryl Worley pleaded no contest to a lesser assault charge and was fully reinstated to the team Wednesday.

As I understand things — and not that we need to thoroughly define “fully reinstated” — Worley is permitted to travel with the team, never mind start or play, this weekend. Will he do any or all of that? Probably, but I can’t tell you if he will. A Holgorsen statement emailed to reporters Wednesday evening made no mention of such scenarios.