Technically speaking, that’s the difference between 6 foot, 4 inch Dante Campbell and 5-7 Jordan Thompson. But really, as far as WVU is concerned, those nine inches don’t exist and one is very much like other, so much so that Campbell and Thompson are both inside receivers. Two very different sizes and strengths, but the same positions and responsibilities.
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Remember Thursday when Dana Holgorsen said there are some players on his roster who might not be academically eligible in the fall? We have one candidate today and it’s a big name.
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Forget the atmosphere and the agenda, if you can. So much has changed inside the Puskar Center in 14 months that it’s really remarkable to look at it now and remember what it was once like.
Let me put this properly: It wasn’t bad. It was better than many other places I had been inside through the years. But it wasn’t impressive or special or something like that, which is to say it wasn’t then what it is now.
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Three things to note:
1) An ever so slight dig taken at Ivan McCartney that, I assure you, will be played into something bigger.
2) A not so subtle hint that WVU has a few players who need good marks in the concluding summer session in order to be eligible in the fall.
3) The scholarship number is up this year and that’s going to matter in a conference that will ask many questions about depth.
Oh, man. Preseason camp was going to be so cool. It started at 5 p.m. today and I rolled through the parking lot at the Puskar Center fashionably early and swerved into the sneaky elevated lot to the left of the main entrance.
There, waiting for me in the prime location just paces from a flight of stairs that leads to a short walk into the stadium, was the Bob Uecker spot.
Couldn’t have been more excited …
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Preseason camp opens shortly here and without certainty, I think, the chief concern as we gradually approach the regular season and then Big 12 play is West Virginia’s defense.
In truth, defense as a whole seems like a talking point throughout the conference. If the Mountaineers fit in because of their offensive pedigree, then they also merged nicely because of this apparent allergy to defense.
Once upon a time, though, the Big 12 was a good defensive conference and some might have you believe that could soon be the case again.
Yet in a league with such prolific offenses, a defense can make the difference and one person, or a few of them, can make it happen. When the Walter Camp Award preseason watch list came out and listed nominees for college football’s player of the year, four of the Big 12’s 11 candidates were defenders. Only the Southeastern Conference, steeped in a defensive tradition, could match that number.
Or else. Seriously, is something more frightening than the prospect of playing in this conference with statues on the field and boundary side? Now, this is not to say WVU features statues playing cornerback as Brodrick Jenkins got a lot better late last season and Pat Miller, who lost his starting spot to Jenkins, had big moments against South Florida and Clemson.
Yet I need not tell you that it’s been a difficult position for the Mountaineers to recruit through the years. That has to change, and in a hurry, if WVU is to make it in the Big 12. There is a chance that, if pitched properly, cornerbacks might one day flock to WVU and the Big 12.
“It’s a fun conference if you’re the type of player who wants to be in it,” said Oklahoma cornerback Demontre Hurst. “You know going in, each team is going to throw it 30, 40, 50 times a game. For me, going out there against the best receivers, tight ends, running backs, whoever, is really challenging and really fun.
“It’s a chance to intercept balls and play defense to the best of your ability. This is a (defensive back’s) world.”
