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

Grab a bottle of water!

October 18, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Dana Holgorsen’s press conference is at 1 p.m. and I wonder if he’ll highlight the verve with which Syracuse played on that telling extra point in 2009.

Meantime, crack that bottle and take a trip inside the film room with Jake Spavital, Geno Smith and Paul Millard.

Spavital said he got lucky when he inherited Smith. He is confident and he is a handful for his coaches and Smith’s personality is prone to competitive occurrences, but he’s also controlled and coordinated. Underneath that determination, Smith is actually deeply invested and interested in reviews.

“You learn to challenge them in different ways,” Spavital said. “He’s a competitive guy, but he’s pretty smart as well. He understands what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. The good thing for us is we have an open room. Everyone rags on everyone. It stays in that room, but it’s pretty funny.”

Does carousel stops spinning? Or start anew?

by Mike Casazza

Big East Conference commissioner John Marinatto will conduct a conference call at 1:30 this afternoon with the media and you better believe hope it’s designed to discuss significant decisions by the membership to steer this league away from the iceberg. It has to be definitive and detailed and let no one hang up thinking, “All that for what?”

The obvious news is that the Big East presidents voted last night — I’m now told unanimously, 14-0 — to increase the exit fee. If you’re a WVU fan, or a fan of Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers or UConn, for that matter, I wouldn’t get too judgmental. There was no other choice — to better your future, you had to help the Big East attract and assure prospective members — but this isn’t an anchor that will keep you stuck in the Big East if you were to get invited somewhere else.

Say, as a complete hypothetical, the Big 12 calls Jim Clements some time in the future and extends an invitation. And say WVU wants to do it. Ten million dollars isn’t keeping Clements in the Big East, if Clements and his people, think of being in the Big East as being “stuck” in the Big East.

One think did pop up last night — gee, news broke at night! — that got me thinking. This was something people were beginning to hear about and could not, at that point, clarify, but it is nevertheless interesting before this conference call.

Continue reading…

Geno Smith grabs the mic, accurately sends message

October 17, 2011 by Mike Casazza

… well, technically, the  cell phone, but here is his stated goal, as delivered by Twitter.

The only thing I been thinking about is playing a mistake free game this friday. I gotta start being more consistent, would you agree?

Before you answer, a few things:

1) I think — and I think Geno thinks — last year’s Syracuse game was the worst of his career. He was sacked five times and hit a bunch more. He looked more hesitant and confused that I can ever remember. He threw three interceptions and two of them were just bad decisions from someone who didn’t and still doesn’t make bad decisions. So maybe the motivation is there, which leads to this …

Continue reading…

Dustin Garrison to remain Dustin Garrison, if coach has his say

by Mike Casazza

It’s late in WVU’s victory against Bowling Green and freshman Dustin Garrison has just discovered he had 291 rushing yards. He doesn’t know the school record is 337 yards, that he’s tied for the second-best total in school history or that WVU’s freshman mark is already his. All he knows is a lot of players have 200 yards games. Few have 300 yards. He’s nine yards away from that.

And here comes Robert Gillespie, the team’s running backs coach. What does he want, Garrison wonders, though deep down already aware of what Gillespie will have to say. So he gets in the first word.

“You gonna let me get nine more yards?” Garrison asked with a smile behind his facemask.
“… get on the sideline,” came the reply.

And that right there is the nature of the nurturing relationship the two have built, the one that began when Gillespie rescued Garrison from the ranks of the unsought and offered him a chance and the Division I scholarship no one else had mentioned.

Continue reading…

Do not be fooled by wild and wonderful wiles of WV Living

October 14, 2011 by Mike Casazza

New magazine in town and this is not what you think. This is not Dana Holgorsen moving into his new pad — but it is a pretty neat publication. Reminds me of “Newport Living.”

As for me, today is the day I actually, physically, literally leave town and today is the day the Big East brass has its most potentially consequential meeting as it relates to conference affiliation and expansion.

The premise is to address the exit fees and exit schedule and any adjustments will require a 75-percent vote, one in which the basketball-only schools get to participate. If it passes, it’s obviously a big step in solidifying the Big East because you’ll see the $5 million hiked way up, perhaps three times that. If it doesn’t, well, quite the opposite and not only do you begin to doubt whether Air Force and Army, let alone Boise State or UCF, will join, but you wonder why TCU hurried out the door, too. It’s hard to keep secrets.

That said, even if it does pass — and when I say “it,” I’m not exactly sure what “it” will be because “it” can take on different and negotiated forms — let’s note who participated and who voted for and against.

After that, enjoy your weekend. I think we’ll begin to fill in some major blanks next week.

The Dasani tolls for thee …

October 11, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Dana Holgorsen’s press conference, in which he talked about the crowd and other factors that might appeal to recruits and, shall we say, other interested observers, can be found here. And who on Earth got the water bottle this week?

Brad Starks and his new look

by Mike Casazza

He’s playing more lately, and while he’s not playing a lot, he is playing more than just receiver. At his primary position, though, he’s still making plays at the alarming rate he has throughout most of his stop-and-go career. What’s the biggest difference slow-to-praise Dana Holgorsen sees? “He’d padded up.”

Translation: He’s healthy and actually practicing. Both are prerequisites for establishing trust.

“We’ve had conversations with him and said, ‘Look, it’s all about trust with us. We can’t put you into a critical situation or position until we feel that we can trust you,’ ” Roberts said. “And to his credit, we were very hard on him because we felt like he was an upperclassman who could take it and he withstood a lot of criticism and a lot of hard coaching. He’s really done well for us and he’s going to continue to get chances to play.”

Did Gene DeFilippo let the 500 pound gorilla out of the bag?

by Mike Casazza

DeFilippo’s quote got a lot of traction yesterday and today and, not surprisingly, he’s getting out in front of it:  “I spoke inappropriately and erroneously regarding ESPN’s role in conference expansion.” He said it was wrong of him to “express personal feelings” that people might have read to be the position of the school and the conference … and, while he didn’t say it, also ESPN.

The Boston College athletic director, who has now been in the thick of two expansion episodes, recently said something a lot of other people have said. Specifically, DeFilippo said television is driving expansion … but then he added an interesting detail.

“We always keep our television partners close to us,’’ he said. “You don’t get extra money for basketball. It’s 85 percent football money. TV – ESPN – is the one who told us what to do. This was football; it had nothing to do with basketball.’’

Somehow, the conversation allowed that to be left at that and there was neither a follow-up nor a presence of context. It might have been a part of a larger quote. It might be irresponsible of me to make too much out of it. It might also say exactly what it says — that ESPN “told” the ACC to go after Pitt and Syracuse. (Then again, maybe the ACC asked ESPN for advice and ESPN said, “If we were you …”)

This is worth mentioning because a while back the Big East Conference turned down a television deal because there was an opinion among representatives of some schools that the conference could do better when it arrived at the time to formally renegotiate at the end of the contract. Remember, this is what a lot of people want to blame Pitt A.D. Steve Pedersen for, but I’ve heard several times there was more than one voice in that conversation. Still, you see the accusation and implication.

So, too, did this fella, a fella who has been around here for a while, a fella who makes a case for making a case against collusion and tortious interference.

What now?

October 10, 2011 by Mike Casazza

The Big East Conference statement after this morning’s teleconference:

On a teleconference earlier today, our Presidents and Chancellors authorized the BIG EAST Conference to engage in formal discussions with additional institutions and are considering moving to a model that includes 12 football playing schools.

This is getting a little repetitive and it reads a lot like previous statements, but the more definitive move toward 12 schools is newsworthy, as is the noticeable absence of a mention of increasing the exit fee. I guess my point is there’s no way schools like WVU or Louisville are going to agree to a substantial commitment to the league when their exit is one phone call away.

I just wonder if this isn’t all wasted time and everyone would be better off actually doing something as opposed to talking about something. How many times can these guys talk without action? It just seems like a purposeful pause.

Still, suppose — I said suppose — WVU, Louisville, South Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut and Rutgers remain. Six down, six to go.

Figure Navy and extremely interested Air Force remain a big part of this and that there will be a move to include Army to get all three service academies, but figure, too, there might not be entirely reciprocal interest. Non-conference games are very big for those schools and nine conference games cut into those opportunities. The non-AQ schools to be considered include Temple, Central Florida, Southern Methodist, Houston and East Carolina.

What are your your six schools — doesn’t have to be from the group mentioned — and why?

If Eu, offense doesn’t run around with heads cut off …

by Mike Casazza

Through six games and half a season, we can arrive at a number of assumptions about Dana Holgorsen, his offense and this offense at WVU. The one most of us can probably agree on is these Mountaineers can be frustrating and fantastic, often in equal doses and often without warning that the former might become the latter.

Continue reading…