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

Friday Feedback

April 12, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to introduce you again to Dana Holgorsen. We haven’t heard too much directly from the head coach in the first 10 spring practices, but he spoke after the 11th. Among many topics things, he gave quite possibly the best explanation for why Vernon Davis is auditioning at receiver after meddling at cornerback.

Watch it, uh, forward to backward or backward to forward and you’ll get a bunch of tips and updates. Oh, and stop calling Hertz in the middle of the presser!

Hey, how about that depth chart? He didn’t want to give one out because it’s really just names on paper. But the Gold-Blue Game program needed a depth chart, so it has a depth chart.

It’s pretty pointless. It not only might be inaccurate April 20, but it absolutely won’t be accurate in August. Seriously, WVU thinks something like 20 of the summer arrivals will rearrange things. We’ll hold onto this and revisit it a few months from now. I guess for the time being it’s useful to see who is where, ie Hodari Christian at Spur, Brandon Napoleon in the mix, Jordan Thompson in reserve, so on and so forth.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, good grief.

Homer said:

BREAKING: Coach tells reporter exactly what he wants to hear, reporter believes it. Film at 11.

Aw, man. I thought I hedged pretty clearly and attributed everything to Patterson and even added a disclaimer that you had to be willing to believe everything he said. Am I going down this road again?

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Let’s make this easy on everyone: Nicky Flash!

April 11, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Maybe it’s because I missed Jim Lewis and knew Cecil Level would be graduating, or maybe he was just an increasingly effective player last season. Whatever the trigger, I rather  liked how Nick Kwiatoski played toward the end.

He wasn’t great, but he was sound, which is acceptable for his experience and his exposure. And more importantly, he wasn’t dragging a gas can around the field. That was a distinguishing quality in 2012.

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Legislature’s center, er, centre of attention

by Mike Casazza

Behold the way the sausage is made! Fine pork products seem headed to Braxton, Mingo and Barbour counties because of, believe it or not, Senate Bill 125, the one that was initially intended to create the TIF district for WVU’s new baseball stadium.

It was ensnared in a political web with the capture spiral in Harrison County. It seems “many” delegates were prepared to spike the bill because they weren’t happy about the treatment, and presumed fate, of a separate bill that was intended to give magistrates in certain counties pay raises.

Suddenly, two seemingly unrelated issues are attached at the hip and we’re getting a look at the process better than we have since that high school civics class, though now we have fun descriptions you never saw in your textbook, like “unconscionable”  and “old-school horse trading.”

The legislative session is nearing its end, and today and probably tomorrow are big days for these issues. There are people against the TIF, or the implied necessity, but I think we can agree raises for teachers and law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel are good ideas.

And what a world if the TIF gets muddied, but ends up getting WVU and Granville a ballpark and county magistrates their raises.

All we know, for sure, is people’s feelings are hurt

April 10, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Monday was the day John Raese and his camp met with the State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who, it is important to remember, was asked by WVU to help the university review the Tier 3 RFP process.

Accounts differ, but we do know that the meeting did not go well.

Take a peek with Keith Patterson

by Mike Casazza

Keith Patterson is rolling up his sleeves and re-configuring what was just a dreadful defense last season, and though we haven’t seen anything to give us any idea how it will look, Patterson has opened up a little bit to talk about what’s happening in the closed parts of workouts.

Granted, you have to be willing to believe all of it to be true, which is not an easy request in this age of opponents gathering all available information and coaches acting understandably cautious.

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Video blog: Day 10

April 9, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Old faces in new places, old faces in old places. Enjoy.

Note on the “new” receiver who I’m not ready to call a receiver: Usually it’s a bad thing when Ford Childress throws one to Vernon Davis because Vernon Davis is a cornerback. Or at least he was until Tuesday when Dana Holgorsen slid Davis over to receiver for who knows how long.

“Vernon looked pretty good out there for his first day,” Childress said. “I had no idea he was coming over, but I like him in the slot. He looked pretty good.”

One more thing about this, and pardon me if I temper excitement. All that we saw were throw-catch drills designed mostly for the quarterbacks to rip off a variety of different throws to different receivers in different sets.

While that was happening, cornerbacks were going through tackling drills on the other half of the field. For all we know, Davis may have been shuttled back to cornerback once the media left and the defense got to doing real work.

WVU needs your (responsible) assistance

by Mike Casazza

There has been a lot of attention, at least on the sports side, given lately to red and black numbers, though perhaps from some corners without a thorough understanding of the contributing factors at WVU.

Whatever the factors, these are real issues. And they’re not exclusive.

In reality, you may soon remove the “on the sports side” divider because times are potentially tough for the entire university. There are possible budget cuts looming and a number as large as the one you’re about to see can cause a dramatic shift. It won’t be easy, and WVU wants your help.

WVU is operating in financially uncertain times. The University is facing a proposed 8.9% cut in state appropriations ($13.3M), a competitive enrollment environment, and reductions in federal appropriations and research grant funds due to sequestration. There is also concern that the decline in state revenue collections and growing mandates at the state level may negatively impact state appropriated allocations in FY15.

As the FY14 revenue picture becomes clearer, the campus community is urged to explore various options to effectively manage the loss of state appropriations. The magnitude and duration of the state cuts will have an impact on the type of corrective actions required to maintain the University’s stable financial position.

At this time, it would be helpful if the University community would assist senior leadership in developing a list of cost saving and revenue generating ideas; (e.g., consolidating programs and modification to existing practices or policies to streamline operations). Please share your ideas by e-mailingbudget_suggestions@mail.wvu.edu or making an anonymous suggestion here.

Off to practice in a little bit and back later with your Tuesday vlog.

Back to the past?

by Mike Casazza

Way back before the start of spring practice in early March, Dana Holgorsen said a few things about the past and future direction of his offense.

Offensively, coach (Shannon) Dawson and myself have been studying the cutups of what we saw and what we need to improve on. We are pretty much critiquing every aspect of what we do offensively – what we feel like we need to get better at and what direction we need to go based on what our production is.

Not a lot of context attached to that, and considering the prolific success of the offense the past two years, and all the seasons before that, you had to wonder precisely what that meant.

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‘The Mountain State will be watching.’

April 8, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Well, it either happens tonight and a good story gets a great ending addition, or it doesn’t and John Beilein will try again in the 39th year of his coaching career to win the national title that would have gone twice to Rick Pitino and three times avoided Beilein.

I’m not really used to nerves before a big sporting event since my teams are mostly terrible. They’re not often on the cusp of something special and it rarely goes right when they are. This is not to say I’m a Michigan Wolverines fan, either. Nor am I opposed to Louisville.

But to be completely honest with you, I want Beilein to win tonight and I think I’m nervous. Maybe excited. I won’t bore you with the details, most of which I trust you know already, but that outcome would make me really happy for John and his family and everyone they’ve affected through the years.

You may or may not disagree, but I think it’s a pretty fitting testament that Beilein, after all these years, and after a tricky exit, remains the object of so much admiration from those who knew and continue to know him.

“He’s always nothing but gracious, nothing but complimentary about his time at West Virginia,” Richardson said during a phone interview from Atlanta, site of this year’s Final Four. “He always remembers that I was a reporter at WVU and he wants to know what I’m up to.

“He’s a special guy when it comes to people skills.”

Adam Fletcher, a 2005 graduate of St. Albans who played his hoops at Miami University in Ohio, was an assistant strength coach at Michigan for two seasons. Fletcher just completed his first season as the strength coach at Towson University in Maryland.

“You won’t find a better guy in the business who does things the right way and if you’re around him long enough it’s pretty impressive how he manages that on a daily basis,” Fletcher said. “Whenever I was up for the Towson job, one of the better things I had going for me was John Beilein went out of his way to call for me for that position.

“I saw him at a closed practice (at the Final Four on Friday) and it was like he just saw me yesterday.

“With all the stuff you see going on now in college basketball, the reports you see in the paper and on television, you know something like that would never happen in his program. He’s always doing the right thing.”

 

Georgia on the mend

by Mike Casazza

WVU’s recent history of recruiting Georgia has met mixed results. There’s Bruce Irvin, via a California junior college, and Pac Jones, and both were first-round draft picks. Irvin has done nothing but represent the Mountaineers in a rewarding light, while Jones might be in the infant stages of a career renaissance after dark ages nearly doomed him, and still define him.

There was also Quadral Forte and Quantavious Leslie and Ben Bradley and none of them worked out. There’s promise attached to the summer arrivals Jeremy Tyler, Mario Alford and Brandon Golson this summer — though, to be fair, we must assume nothing is promised to Golson.

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