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

Friday Feedback

April 8, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is installed in three sittings, but is always a finished product within 15 days. Not a lot happening this week, but it was subtly eventful. Linda Burdette-Good retired. Spring football is developing and sides of the ball are starting to take shape. Basketball recruiting is nearing the signing period and WVU picked up a new name. Two in-the-periphery stories got some shine this week and I feel like they’re going to come to light soon.

But enough of that. Plenty to cover, so onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, arm yourself properly. 

Josh24601 said:

Enough of the Mount Pleasant wink-nod affiliation and Elena Kagan non-expiry law degree stories; these tales are played out already. Can’t someone get Daron Roberts a Jimmy Johns sandwich and some Pitt film?

Josh24601 said:

Daron, the truck of life doesn’t need a rearview mirror, cause we ain’t a-goin backwards.

Josh24601 said:

I have to admit though, it’s impressive how Roberts used to sleep at Arrowhead Stadium to ensure that he’d arrive before Gunther Cunningham. There’s a man who never hits the snooze button!

Josh24601 said:

Does anyone know whether Mount Pleasant, Texas has enough oil to light up Mountaineer Field? Or at least gas up Roberts’s comp car?

And we’re off!

Continue reading…

Right now, WVU has a bunch of Joel Filanis, but will a Joel Filani emerge?

April 7, 2011 by Mike Casazza

That old Texas Tech receiver was, by Dana Holgorsen’s description, “absolutely terrible” for two years. Then he went on to back-to-back all-Big XII seasons and a slot in the 2007 NFL Draft.

“One thing this offense allows you to do is develop kids,” said Holgorsen, WVU’s first-year offensive coordinator. “This is the beginning product. I think the talent we have is fine. The way guys develop is what I think is most important to me.”

Ask Oklahoma State players, coaches and fans. Justin Blackmon won the Biletnikoff Award last season. Two weeks into preseason camp he was the team’s “third-best receiver,” Holgorsen said. “Based on his development and maturity, he ended up being pretty good.”

Uh, yes. Right now, the most pointless and unanswerable question posed to any offensive coach is “Who’s looking good?” at a position. In truth, this whole three days and revisit model on offense keeps a reigns on evaluations, especially early. We know the second week is really the first week and the third week is really still the first week, but this second week is unique because it’s the first time to see if the players are picking things up on offense.

In reality, you can’t do things once until you’ve done them twice. The development get interesting after Saturday’s practice.

“Now after day No. 6, how much do we have to go back and do on the first day of the third week – practice No. 1 – again?” Stewart said. “At that point, after six practices, we have to figure out what these guys are doing well, but at that point, if we’re not doing something well we need to either get good at it or get out of it.”

The third week ends April 16 with the first scrimmage of the spring and Stewart and Holgorsen will again evaluate where the team stands entering the final two weeks.

“Do I stick with the lesson plan or do I deviate from the subject to get to the means?” Stewart said.

Official: WVU v. Kansas State

by Mike Casazza

Somewhat old news, but WVU and Kansas State have a date and a site for their game next season. Get to know the Wichita Wildcat Classic!

This is the first game of a two-game series. WVU’s challenge will be to come up with a catchy name and a decorative Web site for the return game in 2012 … definitely on a non-home court and quite likely in the Charleston Civic Center.

Brandon Hogan was arrested again Tuesday

by Mike Casazza

This time he’s alleged to have been involved in a car accident driving a car that wasn’t registered in his name. That’s one problem, and a very minor one. The other and larger issue is that he apparently was going about his day on a license suspended for his prior DUI conviction. That could and probably should nix the deferral program he entered into that was supposed to dismiss the charge and expunge the incident from his record. One condition involved was a suspension of his driver’s license.

I didn’t mention it yesterday because, frankly, I didn’t think it was significant news. I still don’t. But it’s funny how the events don’t affect people, but the side effects do. Bill Stewart was called the other day by a NFL team that was doing its homework on Hogan and looking past the knee injury and for reasons to roll the dice on the young, young man. Stewart had Hogan’s back.

“They were asking about character,” Stewart said.

Of that they weren’t sure, for the subject of the conversation was Brandon Hogan.

Today Stewart expects a return call.

Brandon Hogan is in trouble with the police again.

“Now you know why I’m mad,” he said. “I tell them about his character, and one day later he’s in trouble. They’ll call and they’ll ask, ‘Bill, how do you explain it?’”

Which was exactly why Stewart had been pulled aside after Wednesday’s initial spring practice in pads, to try and learn just why trouble keeps finding Brandon Hogan, a good kid with a bad reputation.

No one knows him better than Stewart, who recruited him out of Manassas, Va., and coached him at WVU, serving as much as he could as a father figure, offering advice and discipline, always frustrated in that Hogan would seem to want to do the right thing but couldn’t.

“You have to know where he came from,” said Stewart, trying to explain. “Oh, I’ve been in New York City. I’ve been in L.A. I’ve been in Boston recruiting, Philly, all inner city, and that over there is as bad as I’ve seen.” 

Why?

April 6, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? This is just great …

How a cell phone changed spring football at WVU

by Mike Casazza

The story goes that Paul Millard was this accomplished Texas high school quarterback with video game numbers, but no Division I scholarshio. Oh, there were flirtations and suggestions some schools might come around, either again or for the first time, and everything would work out in the end.

When we first got to know Paul Millard, though, it was as a kid who was headed to Stephen F. Austin until the coaching change prompted a switch of his own and had him following SFA offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson to WVU.

Turns out that’s not entirely true.

“I wasn’t going to Stephen F. Austin,” he said. “I was going to wait out the recruiting process as long as possible.”

Confident, confident kid — “I’m not going to go out there and impress people with my arm or my feet. I’m not that kind of quarterback. I’m more like a Drew Brees or a Tom Brady quarterback.” — which is why he’s doing really well thus far in spring football and looks like he knows what he’s doing.

Whatever the case preceding his arrival, Millard was tight enough with Dawson that when the coaching carousel was spinning and Millard was skiing in Colorado during a spot on the recruiting calendar that keeps coaches from calling prospects, Millard was able to contact Dawson at his home in Louisiana.

Millard made this call from a land line because the cell phone service where he was vacationing was spotty. And this is where you wonder what in the world the title above means.

Well, in short time it was agreed Millard would walk on at WVU and do so for the spring semester so the Mountaineers, who at that point weren’t quite as confident in Eu Smith’s foot as they are today, could have as many healthy quarterbacks as possible.

Getting to graduation early was as  unanticipated as a spot on WVU’s roster for Millard and it was going to me about as difficult as the 19-hour drive from Flour Mound, Texas, to Morgantown. That’s when the cell phone changed spring football at WVU.

Who knows when the Coal Bowl will be played?

by Mike Casazza

That’s not a question as much as it is wondering aloud. For all the long-term speculation about the series — and I get the sense more and more now it’s not coming back on an annual basis — there’s a likelihood it may be moved from season-opening Saturday this season to Friday. Or Sunday. Heck, why not both?

The Sept. 3 date at Mountaineer Field is now one of two first-week Big East home games listed on the conference schedule as “date subject to change.” The other movable game is Wake Forest at Syracuse.

ESPN has not announced a Thursday or Friday game for that opening week, and since it’s a week before the NFL is scheduled to open – even if the lockout ends with a labor settlement – the possibility of a Sunday afternoon or night Coal Bowl also exists on Labor Day weekend.

“It’s been informally discussed, but nothing has happened (to move the date),” said WVU Deputy Athletic Director Mike Parsons, who handles scheduling for the Mountaineer program. “It’s a possibility, but there’s nothing yet.”

Wednesday is Day Four, but it’s really Day One Part II

April 5, 2011 by Mike Casazza

People continue to ask and people, including myself, continue to wonder why and how Dana Holgorsen installs this offense in three days. To hear the actors tell it, it’s really not that complicated.

WVU installs in three days and then, in essence, starts over on the fourth day and concludes again in the sixth. The process is the same for days seven, eight and nine, 10, 11 and 12 and then 13, 14 and, presumably, 15, though that’s the spring game and all bets are off. As we are made to understand things, the lessons are mostly the same and the mistakes are supposed to dwindle and the breakthroughs are supposed to occur more frequently as things move forward.

I could go on and on in greater detail, but I’d be guilty mostly of regurgitating what I read here: “Why every team should install its offense in three days”

Jeff Casteel spots 500-pound gorilla, nods his head

by Mike Casazza

I think we’ve all been thinking about this. Why not talk about discuss this? Dana Holgorsen’s helter skelter offense is designed to put a lot of pressure on the opposing defense. There is no huddle. There’s only a little bit of time between a whistle and a snap. When the ball is to be thrown, a quarterback wastes no time getting it to one of the four or five receivers.

It’s a physical test, but he mind must be conditioned, too. A tired player is a sloppy player.

There’s another side to this, too. Tempo offenses can make life difficult on their own defenses. If a team is in a hurry to snap the ball and move toward points, it can also be in a hurry to snap the ball and move toward punts or turnovers. Even a highly successful and efficient tempo offense that spends only a brief amount of time on the field can ask its defense to spend a lot of time on the field.

WVU’s defense is going to be youngish and feature some new faces and some players in more impactful roles, but it is in very capable hands. Right now, though, there is very capable hand-wringing about one particular dynamic: How to maintain on defense with a manic offense.

“Our challenge will be to play a good, solid defense around that,” Casteel said, “and if you go and look at the numbers on the other side of the ball with some of the high-tempo offenses, usually …”

He trailed off, but the point was clear. Elite offenses are oftentimes exclusive.

Of the 20 best – or is it worst? – in time of possession last year, only one team had a top 20 defense (Syracuse, No. 7).

That group included Oklahoma State and Houston, where Holgorsen recently worked as the offensivecoordinator (2010 at OSU and 2008 and ’09 at UH), and where he left an influence those teams still follow today.

She are the champions

by Mike Casazza

Please congratulate Keri Smith for winning the inaugural bracket competition here. The only one to pick Connecticut as the winner, Ms. Smith tallied 99 total points in the tournament in a truly unpredictable postseason.

We’ll let her slide on missing wildly on Monday night’s total score. She said 150. Butler and UConn said 94. Not her fault.

By the way, did anyone else notice the baseball caps among the rather unfortunate championship gear the Huskies were sporting afterward? The front of the cap read “UConn No. 1.” The designer, though, got a little creative in incorporating — and you think about this — an asterisk.