First early note of the day: Matt Lindamood in dressed and, who knows, might play. Between this development and Michael Molinari’s nod as the starting punter, it could be a bid day for Parkersburg. Captains, if you’re curious, are Keith Tandy, Eu Smith, Najee Goode, Tyler Urban and Julian Miller.
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Dana Holgorsen values yardage above all else in football. Nothing is more important than positive plays. He obsesses over yardage lost and yardage not gained.
He tracks negative plays. He hates penalties. He abhors sacks. Every one of them interrupts the schedule he likes to keep on offense.
In a way, special teams is just as important and this explains why Holgorsen has made such a point out of Tavon Austin’s inability to field a lot of punts this season.
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(And here’s your link to today’s chat: See you at 11.)
So Wednesday was a busy Wednesday and the cell phone and the email and the little hamster that powers it took me to various parts of the country. Thursday doesn’t look all too busy — which means it will be — but join me at 11 a.m. to ask me about stuff (anything).
And for the record, I have vacation days coming next week. Do with that what you will.
The Bunker Hill native and University of Alabama departee who you may know from 14-, 14-, 27- and 32-yard punts and the lead role on the shaky kickoff coverage team, is apparently out at WVU.
“Punt team, we only had one opportunity [against Bowling Green], but it was a repeat of what we saw last week,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said Tuesday.
In Smith’s place, redshirt freshman Michael Molinari will get the first start of his career at punter. To this point, the Parkersburg, W.Va. native has been the team’s holder, but has not gotten a single rep with the punt team.
“We’re going to let Mike punt it this week, just to kind of see how he does,” says Holgorsen. “In practice, we clearly think Corey was better, so we did that, but Corey’s struggling a little bit with it right now, so we’ll get Mike out there and see what he does. Corey will still be there if we need him and if we’re not liking what we see out of Mike, we’ll put Corey in there. It may be like that the rest of the year.”
Tyler Bitancurt, who has kicked off just 21 times in two-plus seasons, will pick up where he left off against Bowling Green.
“We had no issue whatsoever putting him on the kickoff team,” Holgorsen said. “He’s been doing that in practice all year.”
Josh Lider was WVU’s top kickoff specialist in 2009 and handled it 48 times. Bitancurt did it 19 times as the coaching staff varied its tactics with a kickoff defense that finished ranked No. 105 nationally.
Corey Smith took all 64 kickoffs last season and averaged 62.2 yards with eight touchbacks. He kept the job this season while adding punting. Smith has struggled with punts the past two games with kicks of 14, 14, 27 and 32 yards. The kickoff defense has allowed a 99-yard touchdown and a 72-yard return the past two games.
Bitancurt’s two kickoffs averaged 59 yards – a yard better than Smith’s. The first went to Bowling Green’s 1-yard line and was returned to the 30. The second went to Bowling Green’s 21 and was returned five yards.
Just go ahead and skip to the 13:00 minute mark here.
Per WVillustrated.com: WVU Head Coach Dana Holgorsen met with the media for his weekly news conference Tuesday afternoon. Holgorsen looked back at the Bowling Green game and looked forward to the upcoming game against UCONN. He also discussed the poor attendance at the game.
Harry Hawk starred last night as Asa Trenchard in “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. President Lincoln was also assassinated.
(Here’s how today’s press conference ended: http://bit.ly/p2tNdg.)
Johnny MeEntee is indeed the starting quarterback for the Connecticut team that comes to Mountaineer Field Saturday. He’s one-third of Coach Paul Pasqualoni’s three-player rotation and though McEntee had some low moments early, he’s pulled it together recently. McEntee’s best game was his last game — 300 yards and four touchdowns in the shootout loss to Western Michigan.
McEntee is beginning to look more like a Division I starting quarterback than a trick shot quarterback.
“I think so,” said UConn receiver and dangerous kickoff and punt return specialist Nick Williams. “I’m happy for him that he was able to get through a little bit of a rough patch in the beginning of the season where people were calling for his head a little bit in the media. He was able to settle in and get through the adversity and start playing in a positive fashion. He’s someone we can look to in a big situation or for a big play to lead our team.”
WVU’s past two games have been periodically interrupted when players from the other team’s defense have gotten hurt in the short amount of time the Mountaineers allow to pass between the end of one play and the start of the next. A few were legitimately hurt. Others were faking it. I say that with complete security.
It’s absolutely infuriating for Dana Holgorsen, who watches his offense work and hustle and really try to play with a demanding tempo, and then sees it all deflated when a defender takes a seat. Let’s just call it embarrassing.
And let’s fix it. The NCAA’s rule book addresses “feigning” injury — and I love that the fancy word is used in the same manual that addresses high stepping and as the “goose step” — and really does go out of its way to discourage it. It also stops short of preventing and, most importantly, penalizing it.
Marlon LeBlanc, coach of WVU men soccer, fan of Arsenal, enthusiast of the game played with the skill and integrity it deserves, has seen flopping and diving in soccer futbol and has seen it fixed and discouraged. Let’s apply that logic to college football’s problem.
Soccer is a visually striking game when it’s played without interruptions. The same can be said of WVU Coach Dana Holgorsen’s up-tempo offense. Flops and dives in soccer are no different than faking injury in football. Soccer calls it simulating. Holgorsen calls it “destroying momentum.”
Soccer has tried to fix it. Football must do the same.
“You get a yellow card for simulation,” LeBlanc said. “If the referee catches it, they get booked. When they’re not caught, they’re going back to the film. The Premiership is now suspending players for cheating. It’s considered cheating. You can’t do things like that and try to pull the wool over a ref’s eyes.”
It’s worked. Players don’t pretend to get fouled nearly as much and the quality of play has benefited. The same can happen in college football.
Find more suggestions at the bottom and then feel free to add your own ideas.
No. 16 WVU plays host to Connecticut Saturday and the Huskies have a run defense that is one of the country’s best. They also have the defensive like that gave the Mountaineers a lot of problems last season.
Yet WVU offers up a new problem this time. Dustin Garrison, at the very least, makes Paul Pasqualoni lean forward when he watches the film. The Mountaineers will run the ball and might be good at it. And, of course, the Mountaineers will pass the ball and they have thus far been very good at it.
This is especially useful because even though the film does not lie, it can mislead.
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“I think we found a running back.”
Hold the phone, Dana Holgorsen! I mean, Dustin Garrison, he of 291 yards Saturday and better than nine yards per carry, wasn’t even the Big East Conference player of the week. That went to Ray Graham. Of Pitt!
Needless to say, though, the freshman from Pearland, Texas, via New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, has taken the lead in that developing competition among two or three others at the position. What was once Andrew Buie’s, and what belonged to Vernard Roberts before that, is now Garrison’s. For the time being. No one over there is going to guarantee anyone anything … and if we’re going to throw the name of Kay-Jay Harris around, let’s remember Harris had 337 yards and four touchdowns in the 2004 opener and then 622 yards and six touchdowns the rest of the way. Harris wasn’t really healthy much that season, either, which leads to this.
Garrison, all 175 or so pounds of him, had 32 carries Saturday. That doesn’t happen very often and hadn’t happened since Steve Slaton ran 33 times in 2006. Yet of all of Garrison’s stats from high school, I remain startled by 406 carries as a senior. This is a different level, but maybe he’s a littler tougher than his size would indicate.
“If you look at 16 games of high school film last year, they look just like that,” Holgorsen said. “He’s used to 200-yard games. I think he gets better the more you give it to him. The more he plays, the better he probably gets.”
“High school film,” you say?
Onto the texts from Saturday. Another fine and fun edition. Another chance for you to catch the again game for the first time. Side bet: More page views or more people at the game? Dunno, but I will hold on hope and I won’t let you choke on noose around your text.
My edits are in [brackets].
(1:41 PM):
Probably the worst tailgate weather I’ve ever experienced
(1:52 PM):
I’m doing zip lines at wisp tomorrow
(3:23 PM):
God must hate Bowling Green. This weather sucks.
(3:34 PM):
They just showed a balding Kelchner signing autographs. Dude couldn’t find a mullet wig?
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