From Bill Stewart’s postgame press conference Saturday:
“Maybe our football team now — as I said at halftime — will worry more about doing all the little things right and reading a few less press clippings and taking care of business when you have a chance to.”
Did the media conspire against WVU?
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The texts, as you’ll eventually see, say it all, but Bill Stewart had his regular day-after conference call Sunday and it was … well, it was pretty revealing. He said it all, too.
A day after almost no one spoke in the press game press conference, the queries were flying Sunday and Stewart, who, it must be said, addressed everything in an appropriate manner Saturday, was more of the same Sunday. There were tough questions — is the offense spread too thin, is it actually good at anything, were in-game adjustments present and/or effectice, so on an so forth — that had to be asked and, of course, answered.
Among admissions and admonishments:
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10:28 am: There’s naught to fear, the gang’s all here for Homecoming. No omissions from today’s dress list. Parking lots are crowded and today’s game is — and has been — sold out. The event staff army is well aware of this.
10:34 am: In case you haven’t heard, Ryan Boatright jumped ship. All that stuff I said about the luxury of having two point guards? Apparently the kid didn’t agree.
1o:59 am: The Las Vegas take today is interesting: WVU by 13.5 with the over-under at 43.5.
11:21 am: WVU … good and terrible on Oct. 23 through the years.
11:55 am: Highlight of the season and it’ll never make television. The marching band is performing and a presumably very drunk man in white sneakers and blue gym shorts with gold stripes — no shirt — ran onto the field and did his own performance.
He then laid down at the 43-yard line, face first, and put his arms behind his head, ready for the coming handcuffs.
The band, now lined up in the shape of the state, began to march right to left … and trampled the guy to a tremendous cheer. Authorities stormed the field and took the compliant criminal into custod.
11:58 am: … and the predictable Pat McAfee jokes flow like water in a canal.
12 pm: Joe Madsen had the sledgehammer. Big week for Joe, who was named one of the team’s offensive champions for the USF game.
12:05 pm: Doug Hogue survives the curse. Jumped the route, bumped Jock Sanders and made the interception. WVU defense tested right away.
12:11 pm: Six plays, 15 yards, 28-yard field goal. WVU had gone two games without a turnover.
12:18 pm: Eu starts 0-for-3 … he’s 5-for-8 for 72 yards and a TD. And how about Syracuse’s defense putting six defenders on the goal line and each one letting Tavon sneak to the back line?
12:26 pm: Just before the TD — and having watched Chew play this season and seen the cushion Tandy was giving — I said to Mr. Dunlap, “Tandy’s bubble may get burst today.” During the review, someone to my left said, “Maybe they’re killing time until the search dog finds Tandy.” Life as a CB, I suppose. Let’s remember Tandy did make 10 tackles last week, which was nice, but he had to make 10 tackles, too.
12:38 pm: Apart from the fourth quarter at Marshall, this is the most entertaining quarter of the season.
12:42: Stedmania. Leading with the helmet causes the turnover on the kickoff.
12:48 pm: Syracuse not buying WVU’s playaction game today. Geno’s made two of the poorest throws of his season today — bad throw in the middle of the field that msised Jock by 10 yards on the second drive and that INT.
12:56 pm: Chess game on fourth down from the WVU 1. Syracuse ran a fullback and some larger personnel onto the field and WVU countered and then Syracuse pulled a switch and ran the specialists on the field and called back the short-yardage group. Then Syracuse took a delay of game to back up and get a better angle, which WVU declined. The Orange never thought about going for it to make WVU pay. Fun little sequence there. I suppose Syracuse likes the reality of trailing 14-13 as opposed to the gamble of leading 17-14.
1:20 pm: WVU hasn’t trailed since the end of the LSU game, if that matters.
1:30 pm: Syracuse has been inside the 20 four times — as deep as the 11, 2, 16 and 5 — and has four field goals … including 22- and 19-yard kicks where the drive stalled inside the 10. Also, there’s a man below us screaming “BUBBLE SCREEN!”
1:35 pm: Doug Hogue has caught more Eu Smith passes than Brad Starks and as many as Jockay and J.D.
1:38 pm: Here’s the problem with WVU and just assuming the team would get through the Big East the rest of the way. It’s been proven more than contested the offense can’t stay out of its way. Today it has three interceptions and four penalties … and it’s still averaging five yards a snap, which is pretty good. Except that the second quarter was terrible: 15 plays for 19 yards and a brutal turnover.
1:40 pm: Syracuse has 132 yards rushing. In entire games, WVU allowed 132 to Marshall and 150 to LSU.
1:55 pm: Something to keep an eye on the rest of the way. Right now, Eu has completed more passes to Syracuse players than Ryan Nassib (3-2). It’s on!
1:58 pm: Mickey Furfari is not in attendance today. In his defense, his bookie said it was a 7 p.m. kick.
2:15 pm: WVU hasn’t subbed on the last two third-downs, and I suspect it’s because the Orange were running on it.
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is in a hurry today. It’s a beautiful day in Morgantown. Precisely the type of day to knock a few back and go canal swimming. Let’s dive right in, yes?
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, happy holiday to you, lowercase jeff.
The 25314 said:
“There are times we’ve got to score a bunch -”
And yet, in those games we don’t score a bunch, either. Our offense looks the same whether Florida State is scoring 33 or South Florida is scoring 6. Loads of potential, fast starts, no results.
Indeed, though I wonder if this isn’t an admision to such a reality. Maybe the offense is just better at doing this and the team is more likely to win this way. I also wonder if this is something WVU will really pursue or if it’s just a talking point, like increasing the regularity of a two-minute offense tempo. Either way, the dynamic as been defined and established now. It’ll be fun to follow.
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Today’s transcript is online now, including pre-queued questions.
LINK: Everyone’s doing it!
Oh, the irony. One person asks a question about the relative anonymity of Jeff Casteel — entirely legit, by the way — and then the indirect result is more favorable commentary written about WVU’s defensive coordinator than at any other one point I can recall in his now 10 seasons with the team.
So, in a way, the media acts as his non-existent agent.
That said, the way he’s coached, the way he’s conducted his professional affairs and the way he’s neither sought or really even avoided the attention does make his spotlight somewhat deserved this week.
Even though he wants nothing to do with it.
Jeff Casteel likely will never read this newspaper story.
First, he doesn’t have much idle time.
Second, it isn’t in his nature.
Casteel, in his ninth season as the defensive coordinator at West Virginia, isn’t part of the new-guard of college football coordinators. He doesn’t want the network television cameras to zoom in on him, he doesn’t need the announcers to talk about the wonderful job he does. He isn’t angling for a promotion, the limelight or bushels of praise.
He just wants to coach football.
Casteel, 48, is more comfortable in front of a dry-eraser board diagraming a blitz out of his signature 3-3-5 defense than he is talking to a mob of reporters huddled around him.
“I don’t concern myself with all that, that’s what people end up writing about,” Casteel said of the spotlight that comes with his unit’s success. “I just try to do a good job, and that’s the best I can do. I don’t worry about whether my name is in the paper or not. You are going to be a good coach [dependent on] whether you have good players; I learned that a long time ago.”
Delightful Syracuse blog “Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician” is heavy on men’s basketball — Headline for a preseason poll: “Syracuse Is Best Big East Team Outside Of Pennsylvania, According To Writers” — and, I suppose, that tends to happen there this time of year.
The bummer is the time of year our eyes focus most intently on their work just so happens to be filled with basketball news. The inhumanity. They’ve still covered Saturday’s game, but the basketball invasion has football people off their games.
The weekly WVU sports chat returns to its normal date and time this week: 2 p.m. tomorrow. Here’s your link and here is your invitation to drop questions in the queue or simply ask away in the comments section.
Possible talking point? Much was made of WVU’s odd habit of breaking NCAA rules, but are they guilty of not breaking enough?
“The most surprising thing I’ve learned about intercollegiate athletics and the NCAA,” Luck said, “is that the NCAA expects an institution like ours, a Division I football school, BCS conference school, automatic qualifier I guess is the proper term … the NCAA expects 15, 20, 25 self-reported violations a year.
“That’s an indication that you’re a healthy program, because it means you’re actively talking to your coaches, discovering things, and it’s almost impossible for a coach not to violate some of those many secondary rules (in the NCAA Manual).
“I was surprised by that, but it’s an indication to the NCAA that you have an active compliance staff, that the administration, school president, the athletic director is encouraging compliance, that you’re talking to coaches because that’s how you uncover that maybe a coach sent a text message to a prospect on the wrong day.
“That was really surprising to me, but when you think about it, most schools, like ours, report secondary violations, and there’s no damage to the school’s credibility or reputation because that’s actually a sign of health in a topsy-turvy sort of Alice-in-Wonderland world.”
At the conference’s media day Wednesday, WVU forward Kevin Jones was voted by the coaches to the preseason all-Big East first team. Georgetown’s Austin Freeman is the preseason player of the year.
WVU is predicted to finish fifth in the Big East. Pitt is the first-place pick with 12 of the possible 15 votes (yes, there are 16 teams, but a coach can’t vote for his own player or team).
An interesting note here: Four teams in the top six received a first place vote: No. 1 Pitt (12), No. 2 Villanova (1). No 3. Syracuse (2) and — prepare yourself — N0. 6 St. John’s (1). Remember, that one can’t belong to new coach Steve Lavin. I have a very good feeling I know who that one is, too.
