It’s official, I will finish my academic/athletic career at WVU. This is a dream come true to be playin for the state I love. #CountryRoads
— Clint Trickett (@ClintTrickett9) May 1, 2013
I’m sure this will turn into a big story, because it’s May 1 and where else is the ink going to go, but I’m torn on this one. So I’m hesitant to project much when we talk about resetting the quarterback derby at WVU.
That said …
Continue reading…
Good day for WVU baseball Tuesday. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed SB1001 that creates the TIF which will help finance the school’s new baseball stadium. That happened before the first pitch of what is likely the last college game ever at Hawley Field, a good old-fashioned WVU v. Pitt.
And as you can see, there were a lot of people at the game. In fact, the game set a stadium record at 2,535.
The record crowd more than doubles the previous Hawley Field record of 1,174 that was set against Maryland in 2007.
“It was unbelievable. I can’t even put into words how good I felt about the atmosphere tonight,” coach Randy Mazey says. “I was hitting infield/outfield to the team before the game and our guys were hopping around with a lot of energy. To look on the hill and see all the fans, I thought, OK this is Big 12 baseball right here.”
Continue reading…
The other shoe fell and Geno Smith, who early on declined an invitation to the Senior Bowl and later on told ESPN he was leaving New York City and going home as he made his early exit from last Thursday’s first round, has fired his agent.
Source: QB Geno Smith has left his agents at Select Sports. Smith, 2nd round pick of NY Jets, cannot hire another agent for 5 days. #NFL
— Liz Mullen (@SBJLizMullen) April 30, 2013
The guy knows how to stay in the news, and you better believe this is going to open him up to more and new critiques, valid or otherwise.
How about this: Geno Smith thought he would be & should be the No. 1 overall pick, I’m told. That’s why he fired his agents. #nyj
— Manish Mehta(@MMehtaNYDN) April 30, 2013
Yeah, how about that?
WVU’s baseball team was picked to finish last in the Big 12 this season. Unanimously, in fact, with just eight points in the coaches’ preseason poll. There are just nine baseball teams in the 10-team Big 12, but sources told me Iowa State, sans baseball since 2001, was above WVU in a preliminary straw poll. Let’s keep that between us, OK?
But that? That can be accepted as sensible. Coach Randy Mazey even made it useful upon hearing the news in February.
“Fellas,” Mazey said, “I’ve got some really good news I want to share with you. Everyone in the league voted you last place. Nobody thinks you can do anything. They think you’re by far the worst team in the league. And that’s really good for us. If people underestimate what the Mountaineers are capable of this year, that could be dangerous for them.”
Continue reading…
From the media’s first interaction with new St. Louis Rams receiver Stedman Bailey.
(On the origin of his first name)
“I was told by my mom that she got it from Oprah Winfrey’s boyfriend. His name is Stedman Graham and I guess she liked it, so that’s what she named me.”
Continue reading…
The now former WVU receiver is getting his mom and grandma out of the hood — his words, not mine.
“The goal was to get my mother and my grandmother out of the city,” Austin said. “I don’t know if they want to leave, but I’ll definitely get them a better house in a gated community so they don’t have to worry about living in the hood. That was my No. 1 goal and that’s happening now.”
Text from a peer over the weekend, after Geno Smith had been drafted and ironed out that messy situation hastened by his departure Friday night (Aside: The spin on that one is the Smith Camp doesn’t know where the report that he was leaving came from … though ESPN reported Geno told Suzy Kolber he was going home.)
Tebo & Geno. Jets have 2 guys who think they’re the Second Coming. Only 1 max can be right!
That’s obviously not true. The Jets waived Tebow today.
Continue reading…
No, not losing me in the sense I go incommunicado whilst zipping along the rails outside of Altoona, but in the sense that maybe I’ve run out of gas or out of my mind at the conclusion of this very entertaining and enlightening week spent following the NFL Draft.
Seemingly every conversation has been about Geno or Tavon, and for good reason, even when it was a bad reason. But why is it we’re at the end of the week and with all the conversations I had with all those people now drifting off into the distance that I can’t help but think about another WVU name and how his relates to the NFL.
“Who?” you ask?
Oh, only one of the reasons why Tavon Austin ended up at WVU in the first place.
“She was there to have somebody away from home that he knew would be there for him,” Lonnie Galloway said. “As a coach, we’re not going to tell him what he wants to hear all the time. He talked to Miss Galloway a lot when we were here. We still talk to him and he still talks to her now. When I’m recruiting a kid, I want him to feel like I’m bringing him, whether I’m going to be his coach or not, into my family.”
With whatever due respect for Geno Smith, the talk of the day ought to be Tavon Austin. Kudos to him for getting to a height that was probably out of reach for someone of his stature just a few years ago.
He’s the right guy in the right place at the right time and if the St. Louis Rams didn’t jump up and take him No. 8, believe the Jets were primed at No. 9.
Jets would have selected Tavon Austin with No. 9 pick if they couldn’t trade down, I’m told. Rams-Bills deal made it a moot point. #nyj
— Manish Mehta(@MMehtaNYDN) April 26, 2013
Continue reading…
