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

Dustin Garrison will miss Orange Bowl

December 31, 2011 by Mike Casazza

The freshman running back damaged knee ligaments in practice Friday.

Day Two: Here comes the insanity!

December 30, 2011 by Mike Casazza

I think this may have been the news of the day: You’re looking at Jake Spavital’s back and his T-shirt that I thought read:

Intensity:

Play fast

But I work hard and I pay close attention and I followed my instincts. It reads:

Insanity:

Play fast

You’re welome.

We’re still in the sputtering phase here in South Florida. Yesterday was the arrival. The team practiced late in the afternoon — I’m looking into the thing you’re wondering about, but remember there is a reason we’re not allowed at practice — and only tomorrow do we get to speak to the “star” players for the WVU defense and the Clemson offense.

Today was not without information, though. Check out the early notebook for a primer on the battle to start at spur safety in place of Terence Garvin (Hint: It’ll be a freshman!), how many Red Bulls Dana drinks in a game, the emergence of a heretofore anonymous receiver, Shaq Rowell’s bowl game comparisons and a man named Redhead.

As for practice, it looked a little like this …

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Keith Tandy gets to know Clemson

by Mike Casazza

The neat part about the bowl prep is that a lot of it happens without the “distraction” of classes. The days are free from going to and from the big buildings on campus and knocking out lectures and exams and study halls and the like. Teams can still only spend four hours a day and 20 hours a week on football.

There’s plenty of free time and the most sage players, the veterans who have gone through that before and most likely realized afterward they did’t use it to the fullest, are wise enough to use it to the fullest. Keith Tandy is one such veteran.

A noted wiz in the film room, the senior cornerback, who is now two-time first-team all-Big East, has figured out the Clemson offense. Doesn’t mean he’s going to stop the Tigers, but it means he’s seen enough to figure out what they like to do and that he’ll have some premonitions on the field Wednesday night.

“Usually the first couple of times, the first two or three times they’re in a situation, they might run something different,” Tandy said. “When everything gets tight and all the fire is flying, they run what you see on film.”

Clemson has the best offense WVU has seen this season with an all-ACC quarterback and a first-team All-American receiver and tight end. It appears the Tigers will have one more weapon at their disposal …

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The (Big East tri) champs are here

December 29, 2011 by Mike Casazza

(No idea why, but the YouTube clips won’t embed. I’m … sorry?) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMWkPVzVtuI

Whahey! Note the defensive coordinator conspicuous by his presence.

This arrival thingy was a very big deal, orchestrated with roughly half the Miami-Dade Police Department and their K-9 units, plus water cannons that shoot at one another from across the tarmac and create an arch for the arriving plane to pass through. Intense stuff. Look at the players struggle to contain themselves.

They knew what was awaiting them at the bottom of those steps …

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Different threads, same results

by Mike Casazza

We’re all probably going to make too much of the Tajh Boyd/WVU storyline as we get closer and closer to the Orange Bowl because this really does happen all the time. Kids make decisions and change their minds and eventually run into one of the teams he once thought was his future.

But Boyd’s story is a little different. He knows that. He understands he was responsible for that. The kid who spawned Mountaineer recruiting hysteria in wholly different ways in 2008 and is now the very good starting quarterback for Clemson welcomes the inevitable.

“The T-shirt was one of those things we did at the time because he thought we were going to be special,” Boyd said. “It was all about West Virginia and what we all were going to do there.”

Oooohhh, the T-shirt …

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… and we’re back

December 28, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Logically, we return with a basketball post! I don’t want to neglect Bob Huggins — bravo to him on No. 700 and Mike Carey on No. 500 today — and the round ball before I spend a week here in South Florida obsessing about the oblong one.

Big East Conference play begins tonight at home against a 7-5 Villanova team that may not look much like the Wildcats of the recent past, but does try to play like the Wildcats of the recent past.

Villanova is bigger than we’re used to and rebounds it pretty well, but no longer leans on four guards at once. Jay Wright does the 4 Out offense still, but it’s also 3 out more often than not. The guards can still go. They still penetrate. They still stop in transition and shoot 3s. They still kick it out for 3s. They still play a lot of pick-and-roll — and the big guy Mouphtaou Yarou is more reliable with the extended jumper than he once was. They, as a team, are just not quite as skilled as they have been in the past. Not yet, at least.

It’s an interesting matchup because WVU, at home, is favored, even with Deniz Kilicli seemingly unlikely to play and Jay Forsythe still slowed by his balky back. Yet Villanova poses its strengths against WVU’s strengths, WVU doesn’t always defend ball screens as well as Huggins would like and this is still not yet a team that will flat out out-score a team to win.

Still, WVU v. Villanova is always fun. Always. Plus, the Mountaineers have Kevin Jones, who is who we thought he was … only better.

“Honestly, I’ve just been playing like me and that’s rebounding and hitting open shots and finding teammates, which I wasn’t doing last year, when I was more reliant on doing something else and being somebody else,” he said. “That wasn’t working.”

Interesting. Really, you watch him play and he’s not doing anything new, except maybe posting up a little more, but I think he’s only more effective at that particular part of his game than what we saw before. He’s just focused on what he can do and he does it very well and very efficiently.

How often does a kid come back to school and try to add to his game or mess with what worked, yet wasn’t quite good enough for the NBA? Often. But not in this case. (Two very good Huggins quotes in that story, by the way).

As for business down here …

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Bowl notes

December 21, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Terence Garvin (knee) and Josh Taylor (knee) are both out for the Orange Bowl. Ditto Vernard Roberts, who is academically ineligible.

Garvin suffered cartilage damage against USF and has already had surgery. Rehab takes six months, so he’ll miss spring practice. Get to know Wes Tonkery, Shaq Petteway and Matt Moro.

Taylor missed three of the final four games with the knee injury. He missed one, tried to play the next and couldn’t go for long and then missed the final two. He was academically ineligible for last year’s bowl. He’s also a senior, so his career is over and he won’t get to play near home. Taylor made the trip from Miramar to WVU before Eu, Stedman and Ivan McCartney.

Roberts, you may have forgotten, started the second and fourth games, but was passed by Dustin Garrison and Shawne Alston and even Andrew Buie as the season progressed. Interesting to see what the future holds for him — remember, he was the starter in the spring and through camp. Combine this mishap with his brother, Vance, leaving the team and you do have to wonder.

It’s necessary to mention 42 players had grade-point averages at or above 3.0 in the fall semester. Fullback Ricky Kovatch, receiver Ryan Nehlen, long snapper Cody Nutter, linebackers Steve Paskorz and Casey Vance, walk-on quarterback Michael Burchett and walk-on running back Nate Majnaric all had 4.0s.

What, WVU worry?

December 20, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Do not be alarmed … yet? … but Dana Holgorsen still has not signed his contract with WVU. Not even the one he agreed to last December, when he was but an offensive coordinator. Things changed in a major way in June, of course, and I figure that has something to do with this delay. And for the record, he’s still contracted and bound to a term sheet. So there’s that.

But there’s also this: When complete — and at this point, it’s just a matter of putting the pen to the paper — you might be interested to find two things within the document. Make that, you might be interested to find one thing and not find another.

There will be no “no compete” clause in the contract and there will be a quirky buyout that is much nice to Holgorsen at the end of the contract than it is to WVU. The Mountaineers are not concerned.

“At the end of the day,” Luck said, “I’m delighted Dana is steering our ship into the Big 12. He’s been there and knows what it’s all about.”

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WVU v. Tennessee Tech: Toto says we’re not in Vegas

December 19, 2011 by Mike Casazza
Game No. 2 of preliminary play for the Continental Tire (!) Las Vegas Classic is to be played against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. I kid you not, they’re wearing purple.

7 pm: Looks like Jay Forsythe will be out again with more back issues.

7:02: Same Starting five tonight. I really don’t expect that to change, barring injury, anytime soon.

7:11: Save one possession where the Mountaineers allowed three offensive rebounds and a basket on the fourth shot of the possession, this is a good-enough start … and there is just no energy in here. Deniz banks in (on purpose) a left-handed hook shot on one end and then takes a charge on defense on the other. It’s 7-4 4:18 into this one and Huggins hasn’t angrily yanked anyone.

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How Deniz and Huggins overcome language barriers

by Mike Casazza

Interesting quote from Deniz Kilicli after the Dec. 10 home win against Miami. When asked about a conversation he had with Bob Huggins after one poor series of possession in the first half, Kilicli answered that he didn’t remember … and that that isn’t unusual.

“It comes to a point that I know what I’m doing most of the time and I know I screwed up,” he said. “So I mute it because the stuff that’s going to come out, I don’t take it very well.”

And that was that. I understood what he was saying … and honestly, having watched those two through the years, I often wondered if it was like that at times. Didn’t touch it otherwise because I was writing something else. I filed it away and figured I might one day use it in the future.

But, oh, was it used last week …

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