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

Texts from the Orange Bowl

January 6, 2012 by Mike Casazza

A day later and everything was still coming up Milhouse! That’s a shot from yesterday afternoon. “About two-dozen fans gathered at Milan Puskar Center in Morgantown on Thursday.” There could have been more, but the game went late and the team gave the fans plenty of incentive to say up even later.

I’d have to imagine there will be something for the team at tomorrow’s basketball game, too. Hell, I bet they could have something at every game the rest of the year and get a crazy cheer. The party is going to last a while here. I don’t think people have felt this good since the 2006 Sugar Bowl, when the players sat in the locker room after the game, looked around and thought, “Sophomore. Sophomore. Freshman. Sophomore. Freshman. Fr — holy crap, we’re going to be really good.”

So enjoy that. Don’t even worry about the coaching staff or the roster or recruiting or the lawsuit or anything else. Smell the oranges. Behold the best TFGD yet, where things were dicey early, but just out of control after about 10:15, with a major assist from Pat Miller.

Daddy wrestles alligators. Mama works on carborators. Her brother is a fine mediator for the president. And here she is again on the phone, just like me, hates to be alone. We just like to sit at home and text the President. West Virginia.

My edits are in [brackets]. So, too, are some of yours.

7:32 pm:

Aconga at the ready! Let’s do this!

8:30:
Lou holth only guy to pick us

8:31:
Herbie picked WVU to get its [backside] kicked. I hate him.

8:36:
Run ALL OVER THAT [SQUAD]!

8:42:
Gruden too busy squawking out the producer’s hype notes to recognize that P.I.

8:43:
That guy Barber stinks..just stinks.

8:44:
Darwin Cook was naturally selected to [stink … I know, the original word is not a bad word, but a rule is a rule] on that play

8:46:
Ugh. He made Cook look slow … Or maybe Cook is slow.

8:52:
[Lucky] a, Buie. That was amazing!

8:54:
Baba buie!

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Well …

January 5, 2012 by Mike Casazza

… that was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. Seventy points? In the BCS? It’s going to be after 5 in the morning when I post this, so I’ve had plenty of time to think things through overnight (TFGD on Friday!). That’s at the top of the list of the surreal things I’ve covered. I thought WVU v. Kentucky in 2010 was going to be hard to beat — remember how crazy that first half was?

It was beaten. To a … pulp?

(P.S. Daily Mail coverage — and we’re over 30 stories this week — is stacked again. Find us here.)

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WVU v. Clemson: Orange you glad it’s here?

January 4, 2012 by Mike Casazza

You are looking somewhat live at Sun Life Stadium. Took that photograph a little while ago before the sun was setting and we took a lap around the field. The lights are on now and the field is populated with all sorts of suits. Kickoff is 2 hours, 45 minutes away now. Still?

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Two-minute warning: Chat!

by Mike Casazza

See you there?

Seven days later, the prep is almost done

January 3, 2012 by Mike Casazza

That’s just about all the previewing we’ll do for tomorrow night’s Orange Bowl, with one last act to follow. I’ll be hosting a chat at 11 a.m. tomorrow. Here’s your link.

If you need more, check out our coverage in the Daily Mail. Six more stories there tomorrow. You can also see the videos at the blog’s YouTube channel.

Whether it’s the chat, newspaper website or the YouTube channel, tell RT tell your friends. See you tomorrow.

WVU has a pretty good offense, eh?

by Mike Casazza

 

Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele sure seems to think so.

“You know, the best way to describe it for the person who doesn’t have to defend it is it’s in some ways like playing in Canada,” Steele said at Clemson’s media session here Monday. “There are 12 men, two guys in motion.

“That’s not the way we play American football, but it almost looks like that sometimes because it goes very fast. They’re spread out. They lead two open edges all the time.

“There are football coaches that I’ve coached with that say you can’t play a football and lead two open edges all the time and throw the football, but they do and they do it very effectively.”

 

Jack Bogaczyk tells tales of redemption

by Mike Casazza

Neither has to do with the palm tree limb that nearly ended him earlier this windy Tuesday. Rather, what of Jorge Wright, who was in the dog house in the offseason, but isn’t far here from his house in Miami. And it’s all good for Wright now. That “trouble” is in the past and he’s been just about all he needed to be this season.

Wright eventually went to court this past fall, a WVU athletics source said, and charges were dropped. Wright had been driving a borrowed car and the gun and marijuana in the car belonged to the car’s owner, as Wright explained in court.

Fast forward several months, and the 6-foot-2, 281-pounder is established in the middle of the 3-3-5 stack’s front line.

“He’s doing well and he’s been solid all year,” Holgorsen said of Wright. “That’s obviously an important position in the defensive scheme that we run to be able to hold his own and let guys like (linebacker) Najee Goode make a whole bunch of tackles.

“He’s doing well, but there’s always room for improvement. (Defensive line coach Bill) Kirelawich cusses at him at a very, very, very high rate for a reason.”

And then there’s Joe Madsen …

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How the calm coach came to oppose the wild one

by Mike Casazza

There are two coaches in tomorrow night’s Orange Bowl. One is a youngish guy perceived by outsiders to be a little goofy who  sometimes says things that make people laugh because those words aren’t the ones that normally come out of a coach’s mouth.

The other one is holding a can of Red Bull in the above picture.

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Wednesday night: Rise of the backups?

by Mike Casazza

Shawne Alston is starting at running back in the Orange Bowl and Andrew Buie will play a bunch as well. The impact of Dustin Garrison’s injury is absolutely not something that concerns Dana Holgorsen.

“Shawne give us a lot of maturity, as he has all year,” Holgorsen said. “Andrew Buie has probably looked as good as he has since camp. We’ll start Shawne because Shawne’s a guy who has been playing all year and has done a good job for us. Buie’s a guy who played a lot early. He just got hurt. Between the two of them, we can do anything we want.”

Best way to combat the hand-wringing is to say what Holgorsen said: WVU thought Buie was better before got hurt — although you have to worry what happens  if he catches another big hit, a habit he couldn’t shake during the season. But as far as those around him are concerned, Buie is a better player now than he was before … and that includes ball security.

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‘The bathroom got a phone by the toilet and a TV in it’

by Mike Casazza

This is the Fontainebleu and though WVU’s stay there ends today as the team checks into a remote hotel with fewer distractions the night before the Orange Bowl, they won’t soon forget the accommodations.

My room,” he said. “I’ve never had a room that had an actual computer, right there, in the room. The balcony, the view, the overhead shower. It’s just an amazing place.”

WVU junior receiver J.D. Woods, from cross-state Naples, also is enjoying his first stay at the famed resort.

“I love the Fontainebleau,” Wood said. “It’s very, very nice hotel, an experience I’ll never forget. It’s my first time there, and it’s leaving a lasting impression.”

Obviously, WVU standout quarterback Geno Smith hasn’t been the biggest star for Fontainebleau lobby watchers.

“That lobby is pretty sick,” Smith said Monday. “The other night we saw the Hilton sisters there. Rihanna. I think everyone has passed through since we’ve been here.”