The final box suggests WVU’s 9-for-17 performance on third down Saturday was pretty strong and 10 percentage points above last year’s finale 42.2 percent figure.
For a team that’s trying to own timne of possession every game and, at least for the time being, preserve and follow the defense, that’s an important number. And a deceiving one.
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… because this made me too scared of the alternative.
The first of either one or of many live chats is 2 p.m. Thursday. I’ll remind you of this many, many times between now and then, but consider this your first invitation/warning:
Ask me about live chats here …
Seriously, sign up for the email reminder. Feel free to slap this all over Facebook, Twitter and email so people you know will know. Heck, make sure people you don’t know will know.
(Update: We can change the future schedule, but Thursday’s chat is definitely 2 p.m. It’s been promoted in our print edition and it’ll come immediately after Chuck McGill does a Marshall version from 1-2 p.m. for the Daily Mail.
If you can’t make it, don’t worry. We’ll post the transcript on the blog. If you have a question you’d like to ask, but won’t be there to ask it, you can post it somewhere here in advance and I’ll get to it.
Beyond this first edition, the times are not set. We can do this at any point on any day. I’d really like to make this work, so perhaps we can all work together to find the right time of day … or the right day.
I’d prefer not to do Mondays and Tuesdays because those are very busy days for me. Not to say I couldn’t handle it, but I don’t want to mail it in. Wednesday is fine. Thursday seem best. I travel to road games on Fridays, you probably travel to home games on Fridays and I don’t want to compromise Friday Feedback. Oh, and don’t tell anyone, but I’m supposed to take Fridays off.
We target so-called “at work” hours because 1) a lot of people are in front of computer screens while at work 2) that’s when we have the most traffic here. That said, I’d be open to an “at home” hour if such a thing was agreed upon here.
Contrary to what you might think, there aren’t a lot of moving parts involved here. I’m actually running the entire thing from my laptop. I was stunned by the simplicity. We can do this, folks.)
Credit to the coaches for managing to behave themselves. So far. Bill Stewart has refrained from mentions of the “school down south” and Doc Holliday has jabbed cautiously, if it was a jab at all, to remind people he recruited a number of key players to WVU and now wishes he hadn’t. Doc says Marshall has to beat WVU eventually to make it a rivalry. Stewart seems to go out of his way to call it an “in-state” rivalry, as if to suggest it wouldn’t be a rivalry across state lines.
Then again, maybe that’s just me looking a little too deep for things I thought would be at the surface and, thus far, are not. It has become, as Stewart says, “game two” for these teams, which is a disservice to the series and the intent behind it.
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Word around the Puskar Center is Tyler Urban, who was tackled low and twisted as he fell making a run after a catch Saturday, is in some pain. Some. How much, we don’t know. Where, we’re not sure. I’ve heard there was an MRI scheduled for Sunday, but when asked on his regular conference call that day, Bill Stewart would only say Urban is “tweaked.” No one is sure “how long it’s going to be, if there’s any length to it at all.” What “it” is, we aren’t sure.
If that’s confusing to you, I think that’s the point — and this is not to pick at Stewart. Big East coaches are sticking to this new injury report and, at least early on, using that as the barrier between them and the media as it related to injuries. The intent, as explained to us, is to keep coaches from answering repeated questions about an injury. Never mind the status or a star player is very much part of the game/story (and an opponent’s preparation … don’t overlook that). Never mind it’s the coaches who typically avail themselves multiple times a week for TV, radio and media opportunities. Needless to say, this hasn’t gone over very well.
As for Urban, the starting tight end and a pretty valuable part of the blocking scheme, and Pat Lazear, the starting middle linebacker, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know their situation for the Marshall game.
Stewart said he agreed with the policy, which was announced at the conference’s media day in July.
“It’s an everyday question if it’s not answered, so let’s just get some kind of uniform policy, and I thought it was a pretty good deal,” Stewart said. “And now it’s out there for everybody. If you talk about it every single day you spend more time talking about bumps and bruises than about the guys that are going to be playing.”
C.J. Crawford played his high school football at Huntington High and says he “grew up on Marshall,” which meant getting a chacne to play collegiately for the Thundering Herd was pretty special.
Something similar can surely be said of players who starred at Morgantown and University High and then were able to play for WVU. Why, those kids might be compelled to get a WVU-specific tattoo on an arm or a leg or somewhere.
Crawford felt similarly inspired when destination met realization and … well, allow him to explain his curious ink.
There, on the back of his arm in indelible ink, is the West Virginia University athletics symbol – the “Flying WV.” The short sleeve of a jersey fails to conceal the tattoo, so it appears the Marshall University football player has allegiances to the state’s other FBS program.
Unprovoked and without mention of the tattoo, Crawford, a redshirt freshman and tight end for the Thundering Herd, defended his loyalties to Marshall ahead of Friday night’s Friends of Coal Bowl against West Virginia.
“This game always means a lot because I’m from here,” he said. “And I’m not a West Virginia fan. I never was. I’ve grown up on Marshall.”
Crawford’s defense was unsolicited. Did the former Huntington High School star feel his looming debut against WVU was the perfect time to set the record straight?
“That’s exactly why I said that,” Crawford said. “People here ask me about the tattoo all the time and I just want to clear the air.”
Funny thing about Labor Day is how every year I’m the only non-newspaper person I know who is laboring … and I know people in medicine. So I’m wondering, do I just put my head down and knock out my copy for the print edition and return here tomorrow or are there people looking for content here?
Meantime, one thing I liked seeing Saturday was that WVU intentionally stressed Geno Smith at the start of the game. Two-minute mode, varying passes, QB runs and a pass on fourth-and-goal on the opening series of the season.
“Honestly,” said receiver J.D. Woods, who would catch his first career pass for a touchdown on then ensuing play, “I thought we were going to kick the field goal.”
The Mountaineers instead continued with their plan to examine and encourage Smith.
“I told the staff, ‘If we get in there close, we’re going for it,'” Stewart said. “I wanted Geno to know I have all the confidence in the world in him, as I do in the other 10 players. Will I kick it next time? Maybe. But I wanted that young man to know. He’s a young guy, but we were going with him, we were going to showcase him from the git-go.
“That’s why we went fast-paced. I wanted people to know, ‘Here it is. We’re going to get them on their heels. This is what we’re going to do.'”
For the unitiated, we’ve eschewed the idea of recapping the game with traditional means in this space. Oh, there will be stories linked from writers and publications and you’ll find posts dedicated to parsing causes for concern and for optimism … and I think it’s fair to say Saturday’s 31-0 offered both.
I also think it’s fair to say you can find a lot of that fare in other places. Can you find compact, in-the-moment reflections of the game elsewhere? Hence Texts From Game Day. This is what we do. I can’t tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it feels like. And right now, there’s a text in my windpipe …
My edits in [brackets].
(10:59 AM): Best day of the year, Texts from gameday is back!!!
(10:59 AM): Oh yeah, and there’s a football game too
(2:46 PM): MSN Radio shares Mullen’s concern for the Beach Chicken multiple fronts. Is there a way we could just forfeit & save the impending embarrassment?
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Kickoff is 20 minutes away and after some technical issues the open post is open for your posts.
A few pre-kickoff notes:
– Pat Lazear is OUT at MLB. Rather than go with redshirt freshman Branko Busick, the Mountaineers will start senior Anthony Leonard, who has seven starts to his name.
– Leonard was the starting strong side linebacker. Junior Najee Good will fill in there and get his third career start.
– All told the starting defense has 180 career starts.
– Eric Jobe is the starting right guard.
– Freshman Trey Johnson is the No. 3 RB.
– Veteran press box afficionado says this will be “one of the best WVU teams ever.” Said vet touts potential of the receivers and says “I think Jock Sanders is the fourth-best receiver on this team.” I’m just putting this on the record.
– Don’t be surprised to see some trickery today. It’s the sort of things a FCS will resort to against a superior opponent. CCU Coach David Bennett is a Presbyterian College, so be on the lookout for this.
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which asked the aptly named Shaky Smithson to stay away today.
I hadn’t mentioned this at all, but now seems like a pretty good time. On Monday Bill Stewart was doing his part on the Big East teleconference and seemed alarmingly alarmed by whatever threat it is the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (SHAWN-tuh-cleers) may provide tomorrow.
“People who think this is a walk in the park have no idea what college football is about.”
Eh, I thought that was a reach. Grandstanding, of course, and probably being a little polite to his friend and counterpart, David Bennett. Stewart likes to point out he respects all and fears none, and this is as good an occasion as any for that.
In truth, WVU should have, if not a walk in the park, then a bounce on the moon jump. Little trouble, lots of fun. Right? CCU is not Appalachian State. It’s not even Liberty, which gave WVU a light headache last year and then later eased by the Chanticleers.
You can expect WVU to be creative enough to get a lead and give Marshall and Maryland the toss-and-turns, but also bland enough to keep the repertoire under wraps. Then again, I’m not sure another 33-21 game is going to appease season-opening appetites this time. But I don’t think it’ll happen again, either.
Three housekeeping items before we jump into the F2:
1) Can men’s soccer get to 4,000 tonight? Hurricane Earl might have a say in all of this.
2) Texts From Game Day. It’s back. Are you?
3) This happened.
Final thought: I was watching the unwatchable Versus broadcast of Pitt-Utah last night and one of the major talking points was how Pitt had a new quarterback and a new segment of its offensive line. Good enough defense, sure, but a good amount of concern on offense.
Sound familiar?
You saw what happens when an OL is targeted and can’t block and when a coach tries to ease his QB into a warm bath. Add to that the fact the Panthers have a stud at receiver that Eu Smith does not have and you do begin to wonder. Utah, of course, is not CCU and opening at home is not opening in front of the Mighty Utah Student Section, but walks in the part are still hard to come by for several reasons.
(P.S. I’m not getting into the uniform/politics thing and there isn’t much more to say about Mazzulla and Pepper beyond this: A) Cops don’t set up stings or target athletes for public urination B) Lots of people do it and those two can do it all they want but, but everyone can get in trouble for it and those two (and especially Mazzulla) probably shouldn’t have to be told their mistakes will be and should be treated differently. It’s part of that whole privilege/responsibility thing.)
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, press all the right keys.
The 25314 said:
The only things I’m sure of are death, taxes, and reading about a “vanilla offense” after the first game.
… and now before the game. Sorry.
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