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

(Updated) Day Two: “It’s a lot easier to do the right thing.”

August 6, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Those are the words Dana Holgorsen directed to … well, I don’t want to pile on, but let’s just say Holgorsen has been on this fella since the beginning. Anyhow, there was a punt return drill and said target decided to add some panache at the end and went with high steps for the final few yards.

Holgorsen spotted this out of the corner of his eye, spun in the offender’s direction and ordered 30 up-downs. “We just had a meeting about this,” Holgorsen said. He finished with the brief lecture, which was quiet and reserved and wasn’t made into a spectacle. and let the player begin his penance. “I’m keeping count,” Holgorsen said.

Speaking of Holgorsen, he added his name to the list of coaches who have thus far thrown passes in drills to lighten the workload for Eu and Paul Millard. What do you think?

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(Updated) Day One: And at 5:26, the let us inside …

August 5, 2011 by Mike Casazza

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Who’ll be “that guy” in camp?

by Mike Casazza

Happens every year. Someone steps from the newcomer pack or out from obscurity and makes a name for himself in camp. Bruce Irvin. Ryan Clarke. Ellis Lankster. Josh Jenkins. Ryan Mundy. On and on through the years. For some who get to see this thing every day, it’s one of the most worthwhile trends to follow. Off the top of your head, who is going to be That Guy? I’ll start keeping tabs now. We’re allowed in practice at 5:30.

Casteel runs to and not away from challenges of 2011 season

by Mike Casazza

It’s been, what, three years now that people have been readying for Jeff Casteel’s seemingly inevitable departure for another defensive coordinator position? He’s had chances to do his thing at Michigan and Vanderbilt and twice he’s declined — and that doesn’t account for what I’m sure were other offers that stayed quiet. His kids are in high school, with years to go there, and his wife isn’t far from her home and her family in Paden City.

Still, everything that happened in the offseason, with his friend Bill Stewart, who was one reason Casteel chose to stay in 2008, ousted and a new staff built on the offensive side of the ball, there was at least this idea he couldn’t possible be comfortable with the present and the possibilities of the future. And Vanderbilt couldn’t possibly come calling at a better time with a chance for Casteel to coach with friends in a league where, if he succeeded, would be a catapult to a head coaching position.

And yet Casteel is here and really not concerned about what awaits him when practice begins here shortly.

Family was part of the process, but football couldn’t be ignored, either. The defensive staff members signed new contracts, with Casteel getting a raise and a three-year contract and the other three assistants getting raises and two-year deals. Yet the transition was forced upon them and it was easy for outsiders to project a division between the new and the old.

Whatever the reality, Casteel – who has crafted a career that has taken him from a Miami high school to the WVC to UTEP and ultimately WVU – didn’t run away. He ran to it to overcome it.

“It’s a challenge when you take a look at the things that have gone on over the last eight or nine months, but we have a great staff of coaches here and some really good guys,” he said. “I really like the fact we’re all on the same page and we’ve got experienced guys everywhere.

“We enjoy working with each other. It was a situation where we thought we’d stay together and we’ll do what we need to do to be successful. It’s going to be interesting to go about that, but I think we have a good plan and I’m excited to get it going now.”

Maybe no one knows what Eu is about to go through …

by Mike Casazza

… but maybe Rasheed Marshall has a better idea than most. It’s been 11 years — sheesh — since Rasheed came from that high school in Pittsburgh that earlier gave WVU Major Harris and Marshall studied Don Nehlen’s pro style offense so he’d be ready a year later.

A year later, Nehlen was gone and Rich Rodriguez arrived with the antithesis of Nehlen’s offense. Marshall wanted to be the quarterback, and he probably would have had he not broken his wrist in the season opener, but getting there took a ton or work and research. He learned to speak one language one year and then had to learn another the next year.

Pat White didn’t have quite as dramatic a change to endure when he went from the Rodriguez offense to the Jeff Mullen Version 1.0 offense and Jarrett Brown had been around long enough to grasp JM V 1.1, which was kind of wrapped around Brown’s abilities, too. Geno Smith is a junior already, but he’s really been the guy for just one season. The Mullen offenses he encountered, a grab bag of formations and packages and ideas, aren’t the same as what he’s had to grasp since Dana Holgorsen arrived in December. It’s a significant shift and one Marshall can relate to through experience.

After Smith learns the offense and what he’s supposed to do, Marshall said the next task is to figure out how the defense will align and attack. If the Mountaineers pass more and run less frequently, the defenses will look and act different. There may be, for example, more defensive backs on the field than Smith was used to last year. There may be fewer situations when the safeties approach the line of scrimmage to stop the run.

Smith has to be aware of that as he becomes familiar with Holgorsen’s approach, Marshall said.

“Say the cornerbacks are playing Cover 2, you have to know that cornerback’s job is to funnel everything inside,” Marshall said. “You may think the corner is supposed to take an outside release, but nine times out of 10, that’s not going to happen because that cornerback’s only job is to make sure he goes inside. The cardinal sin is to let a guy get outside in Cover 2, so you don’t want to get caught waiting on that. Understanding what the defense is going to do is as important as anything else.”

Big East favorite not in top 25

August 4, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Actually, the entire Big East can’t be found in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. People probably needed to make a bigger deal out of the fact the top two teams in the media’s preseason Big East poll have new coaches and will employ entirely new offensive systems with personnel that is not entirely new.

Three items to pull from this clip

by Mike Casazza

The first: Dana Holgorsen will have his own television show and not by way of the usual suspect, but rather by way of West Virginia Media Holdings and West Virginia Illustrated … and I’m still not sure how I feel about this. Hasn’t been a problem on the basketball side, as WVi does the Bob Huggins show, so it’s probably misplaced apprehension, but it’s still a strange arrangement. And it would be for anyone covering the team, but I don’t think there’s any way to avoid it these days, so you might as well adapt. It’s a win for them. Second, the Big East’s defensive player of the year award will be decided by a coin flip. Finally, Bruce Irvin is not a fan of Pitt’s.

Say hello to the new player and the Big East’s possible benefactor

August 3, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Credit NBC for paying just enough attention to what’s happening outside its main network and primetime programming.

The Versus network continues to struggle to find an audience and was fledgling before it was acquired by NBC in February. Monday it was renamed the NBC Sports Network, beginning in January. There are immediate issues, though. The somewhat attractive World Extreme Cagefighting will go away now as its property of the UFC and, as best as I can tell, the replacement is the National Lacrosse League. There’s bull riding and the Tour de France, as well as a 10-year contract to be the NHL’s main network, but those aren’t mainstream sports — ie, they don’t draw the ratings Versus lacked and NBC seeks, especially if the new network will carry Olympic events next summer and could expand to include NFL playoff action in the future.

The key could be college football. Versus aired a great deal of Mountain West and Pac-10 games in recent years and has been re-airing Notre Dame games. NBC seeks a bigger splash and it may have come along at the perfect time for the Big East. NBC’s attempt to assimilate into the mainstream coincides with the notion ESPN has kind of neglected the Big East.

Lazarus says his fledgling network intends to actively pursue the rights to Big East Conference sports – the backbone of ESPN programming in its early years.

“We are very interested in talking to the Big East,” he says. “It is preeminent college basketball — among the top divisions in the sport.”

NBC Sports Network want to step in if the Big East is feeling lost in ESPN’s big schedule.

“We think we can provide an outlet for some of those people who may not have been as shining a star as they once were,” he says.

 

Talk about story ideas

by Mike Casazza

I retreated to my basement for a few days and spent some time on my job. Last night, I made a loose budget of stories for preseason camp, which begins Friday. There are 14 practices and eight are open while a scrimmage is listed as TBA for now. Dana Holgorsen will speak with the media every day of practice and players ara available six, maybe seven times, with freshmen and first-year players not permitted to talk until the second week.

I’ve knocked out two weeks worth of story ideas, which is probably a waste of time because things change so fast and storylines develop — and disappear — just as quickly. Nevertheless, it’s done and in my notebook, but I’m always open to ideas. And now I’ll solicit them in a three-part question that serves as our preview of what’s to come:

1) What’s the story you need to read?
2) What’s the story you have no interest in reading, but know will be written?
3) What’s the unexpected player feature or theme that will take off in camp?

Geno Smith will not be having a beer with his lobster

August 1, 2011 by Mike Casazza

WVU is on its way to Big East Media Day, in Newport, R.I. Representing the Mountaineers: Keith Tandy, Bruce Irvin and Geno Smith. You’ll have to trust me on Smith since he won’t be able to prove his identity, if he was allowed through the gates.

At the airport headed to Rhode Island for the big east media day and this man Geno forgot his ID