… but in the meantime, kick this around in your head. Uhoh!

Said chat goes down not in flames, but around the flames that make a certain seat very hot. Won’t you join us? Drop your questions in the queue (or in the comments) now. Here’s your link.

The men’s soccer coach would like some fans and, in particular, some student support tonight, as evidenced by this editorial in today’s Daily Athenaeum. And MLB  has an angle. It’s not just the soccer crowds that disappoint him.

So, I rolled the dice writing this column today. I didn’t take the usual approach of “come out to the game” or “pack the stands” and “support your team.” I guess I decided to tick you off instead and challenge your school spirit.

Goal!

WVU returns to practice this afternoon and a healthy portion will be devoted to a “turnover circuit” that, one would think, must be terribly boring and unnerving for the players and coaches. It’s something you do from the very beginning of spring practice on and you’d hope you can trend away from it.

Yet there they are, in November, back where they started and for a reason.

Possession is a lost art at WVU. The blame is hurriedly applied to the offense and the players who, for some reason, forget that brown thing they’re holding is really important and the other team really wants it.

Yet the defense — yes, the one that’s so highly ranked in so many categories and has done so much to help WVU win — isn’t free of guilt. Those Mountaineers haven’t caused a turnover the past two games (one against Syracuse was on special teams) and will admit they need to do a better job helping the offense.

“We’ve got to get in a situation where we make a play and turn the tide,” Casteel said. “I think that our kids defensively need to do what we need to do to help ourselves.

“We don’t turn (UConn) over and we needed a turnover. We needed a play to help turn the tide in the game. We didn’t do it, and we really do focus on those things.”

Big soccer match tomorrow night. The pitch is the place to be for Big East Tournament action. WVU-USF was tremendous last year.

Out of the regularly scheduled meeting of Big East presidents and athletic directors today in Philadelphia came results of another self-evaluation. The conference’s presidents have agreed in unanimity to explore expansion in a manner that results in 10 football programs.

Based on those results, the BIG EAST presidents agreed that the interests of each of the conference’s 16 member institutions would be served by increasing the number of Bowl Subdivision football-playing members to 10.  They unanimously approved the process to evaluate the terms and conditions for potential expansion candidates.  

“Today, our Board of Directors affirmed a set of key strategic initiatives, including expansion, designed to enhance membership stability and maximize our value,” stated Commissioner John Marinatto.

Villanova and TCU, you’re on the clock.

Everyone has chimed in on the press conference and Oll Stewart’s total self-evaluation of the program. It’s a pretty heavy topic, though, and I wonder if it’s been all-inclusive.

Stewart, as an example, listed just three items that need fixed on offense and defense — and not special teams. He may very well have left it at three or, just as easily, mentioned the top three of five or six he discovered. I’m not sure.

And, again, I didn’t come away with a lot of solutions that’ll be applied to the problems apart from practice and hard work and doing a lot of things the team already does.

So here’s my idea … and it presumes you weren’t satisfied by the thoroughness. Come up with your … three to five total neon signs on offense and defense. By that, I mean the things that are screaming for attention. This is your evaluation.

This is what Coach Bill Stewart performed in the past few days that have followed the 16-13 loss at Connecticut. Stewart examined “all phases, from me to the assistants to the players to what have you, what we’ve done good, what we’ve done OK, what we haven’t done good.”

This was the topic for the first nine-and-a-half minutes of Stewart’s weekly press conference. Unprompted, as you can see.

It’s happening a day early today because Stewart will be out recruiting tomorrow … which will be interesting, I’m sure. I’m also sure that’s something about which we must ask, given the current state of affairs.

One more  thing: I’ve already read a lot of things, online and in email, suggesting this particular press conference will be ugly. I’m not sure what is being suggested there, but it would seem to me people expect us to fire Stewart today. To those opinions, I say you’re really overestimating the role and/or the intent of the media in the entirety of this process. I don’t expect anything outside of the normal parameters of a press conference.

See you in a bit.

Coaches like to say they get too much credit when things are going good and too much blame when things go bad. There may be no better occasion than now to really dissect that and take it as more of a fact than a cliche.

Look, I understand there are issues that can only be attributed to and fixed by coaching. I also understand the guys in headsets can only be given so much blame for what’s currently happening at WVU. They get a lot of the blame, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not alone in this. The players have a share of the responsibility as well.