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

1 p.m. chat

September 24, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Don’t forget, the fun starts at 1 p.m. Tell your friends. Get in line now. People are waiting.

Mourn on the bayou?

September 23, 2010 by Mike Casazza

You know the numbers by now, but LSU is pretty good at home … and home games are more often than not played on Saturday nights. That’s one of a couple of traditions the Tigers hold — white jerseys at home, “H” goalposts, “Chinese Bandits” being some others — and it goes back to the school trying to help out its fans.

“It goes back further than I do, but they started playing night games in September because it was still pretty hot in September, so it was cooler at night,” Nader, 65, said. “Louisiana being a blue-collar state, a lot of people in those days, for them the work week included Saturday.

“So it got to be popular for the games to be at night and those folks could work and still get to the games. Then it just caught on and I think anything that happened in the late ’50s became tradition. It was a very successful time for the Tigers.”

Keep an eye on WVU’s injury report today. It’s quite possible the Mountaineers will be without five starters: DE Julian Miller, MLB Pat Lazear, LG Josh Jenkins and TE Tyler Urban are injured, in some capacity, and we still don’t know about CB Brandon Hogan. The loss of Jenkins might be the biggest as it poses problems for an offensive line facing an LSU defense that poses plenty of problems of its own.

On the road now, but remember tomorrow’s chat at 1 p.m., as well as Fledgling Texts From Game Day.

Housekeeping

September 22, 2010 by Mike Casazza

A quick sweep through some in-house stuff:

1) The now-weekly chat will not be tomorrow, but instead at 1 p.m. Friday. I travel tomorrow — more on that in a moment — and rather than ditch it, I decided to delay it. As always, you can drop your questions into the queue now. Click here.

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Jordan Jefferson knows the numbers

by Mike Casazza

The LSU offense has been a little shaky so far this season: No. 94 in passing efficiency, No. 91 in total offense , N0. 115 in passing offense. The Tigers are 9-for-12 in the red zone with four touchdowns and five field goals.

They also have explanations to remind people the numbers could be better.

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Decoding Bill Stewart

by Mike Casazza

Bill Stewart gets a lot of grief for the sometimes meandering manner of his press conferences. Sometimes we get confused trying to follow along and sort sense from nonsense. Quite often, there’s a good point lost in translation. 

Fortunately, there’s value in decoding Bill Stewart. This week, WVU’s head coach goes into historical detail on developing his team’s diurnality while explaining when he’d like to play his home games.

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Brief press conference recap

September 21, 2010 by Mike Casazza

I’m having major cell phone issues — it’s dead; Texts From Game Day is in peril — and battling other nuisances on the busiest day of the week. Deadline is approaching rapidly and here are a few things from the press conference I’ll be blending into tomorrow’s paper:

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Bill Stewart press conference at 1 p.m.

by Mike Casazza

Among  topics I trust will be discussed: Brandon Hogan, Pat Miller’s role if Hogan is out, Josh Jenkins and his knee, Pat Lazear and his knee, SEC speed, the Tea Party and what it means for Mountaineer Nation.

Meanwhile, consider the similarities between Saturday’s opponents and what might ultimately decide the game. Or have a laugh. Why not both?

Try and follow me here

by Mike Casazza

I guess I’m contratian, but I didn’t hate and immediately assail WVU’s doomed double pass Saturday. I kind of liked it — at least the intent.

I was not a fan of the blocking, where normally reliable Ryan Clarke whiffed … out on the perimeter, where’s not as effective, and I didn’t like the decision to pass by normally reliable Jock Sanders, who was probably a little too proud and should have instead allowed himself to be tackled. In that regard, sure, it was a bad play because those two were put in positions where they made critical errors. I get that.  

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the play was good. Honest.

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Bill Stewart is not being handled with kid gloves

September 20, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Curious about Brandon Hogan? Wondering if he’ll play Saturday at LSU? Wondering why in the world he was allowed to be with the team on the sideline for the Maryland game? Trust you are not alone on that one as it was the top topic on Sunday’s teleconference.

The opinion seems to be Stewart is not winning a lot of points for that decision, no matter if Hogan returns this weekend or some time in the future. The handling of this disciplinary matter as opposed to others, namely the Jock Sanders indefinite suspension from Februay-August 2009, has caused some head scratching.

This was out of character for Stewart, who in February 2009, slapped an indefinite suspension on Jock Sanders for what at first glance seems to be a similar violation, driving under the influence. Like Hogan, Sanders also had a prior run-in with authorities, a bit more serious than public urination in that a fight was involved, but it didn’t rise to Pac-Man Jones trying to separate someone from his teeth with a pool cue.

Stewart, at that time, cleaned out Sanders locker, banned him from practice and made him miss all of spring drills while he worked on rehabilitation.

Considering the positive way Sanders responded, such a harsh penalty seemed to turn the pilot light on in Sanders’ head and he has become not only one of the team’s most respected players but opted to return for a senior season when he could have tried the NFL waters.

Hogan, obviously, has been handled far differently.

“There is a difference because the situations are different,” Stewart said. “Different case, different scenario. Different offenses.”

Saturday night on ESPN2, it’s WVU v. WVU

by Mike Casazza

Got finished with work following the Maryland game and made it home in time to watch LSU open its home schedule against Mississippi State. Reclined on the sofa as the pregame discussions unfolded, my wife and I eventually looked at one another and I said, “Uh, it sounds like they’re talking about your team, doesn’t it?”

There are differences in the matchup — conference affiliation, for example, couldn’t be more different; WVU’s offense is more effective — but there are some similarities, namely sincere concern projected from the outside.

Stop me if you’ve heard this, but the Tigers can’t seem to do enough to make their supporters sing a happy song, or take the heat off the head coach … or his offensive coordinator, which sound a lot like the sitaution in Morgantown. Never mind this is a matchup of ranked 3-0 teams.