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

Jedd strikes it rich

June 16, 2010 by Mike Casazza

The now-former WVU All-American signed his professional contract with the San Diego Padres Tuesday. If you’ve ever gotten Gyorko’s autograph, you should be happy to know it’s worth $614K.

One more about women’s track and field

by Mike Casazza

Who knew we’d like this so much? With its own party of five, finished 16th as a team at last week’s national championships meet. That’s … that’s pretty good.

Four of the five earned All-America status and Marie-Louise Asselin finished second in the 5,000 meters … though a half-minute behind this Lisa Koll, the superhuman at Iowa State who just has one of the best distance seasons ever.

Anyhow, based on cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, the Mountaineers finished the 2009-10 year as the fifth-best Division I program. And to think, they did this without a few who likely would have contributed, but will be back again to do so next year.

Cleary gives all his competitors a chance to redshirt and make the most of their eligibility in the different sports. A runner can have four seasons of eligibility in each of the three sports over the five-year period.

Sitting out this year are Chelsea Carrier, Alex Acker and April Rotillo. Carrier, a junior who’s “becoming the face of the program,” as described by WVU, is the top multi-event athlete and hurdler with three Big East Conference titles to her name.

“The big reason for her is the 2012 Olympic trials,” Cleary said. “Chelsea will now have eligibility in outdoor in 2011 and 2012 with us and we feel like that might be her best chance to compete on a high level for the U.S. Olympic team for 2012.”

Rotillo is the top sprinter who was part of an All-American distance medley relay team at the 2008 indoor meet with Asselin, Bland and Hamric. Acker is the pole vault specialist who was second in the Big East indoor and fourth in the outdoor last year.

Also, no Friday Feedback this week. A prior engagement will have me for the day. I’ll take some time today — and then again tomorrow — going back through the comments because many, of course, need to be addressed.

Perhaps you heard: Luck named new AD

June 15, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Touchdown Terrace overlooks what Oliver Luck still calls “New Mountaineer Field” from the North end zone of what is today known as Milan Puskar Stadium.

West Virginia’s newly hired athletic director would look at this addition he could have never imagined as a quarterback 30 years earlier  as he walked across the field and toward the terrace to literally step into his future Monday.

There’d be a press conference there not announcing his hiring, but welcoming him home. The formality was handled last Thursday. This was to be the festivity and for that there is no finer or more appropriate facility than Touchdown Terrace.

What better way to commemorate the score that was the hiring of a football hero?

Luck only interviewed last Wednesday and WVU only interviewed Luck.

“We had other interviews scheduled,” WVU President Jim Clements said. “But I sat back the night of the interview and said, ‘You know what? He’s so good, he’s so right for us that it doesn’t make sense to bring other people in who don’t really have a shot in my mind. Nobody was going to trump Oliver so we cancelled the other interviews.”

WVU went all out, as expected, to mark the occasion Monday.

Continue reading…

Follow Luck press conference live

June 14, 2010 by Mike Casazza

WVUToday has the live stream beginning at 1 p.m. These things are often good for unintentional comedy, but also for insight to what an event — in this case, the hiring of an accomplished graduate — means to the school.

Perhaps you can ascertain one or both from this … and maybe share it here with those who aren’t able to view it live.

Meanwhile, there are still some pertinent questions that must be asked and I’m curious what issues remain for you after sifting through news and opinions since Thursday’s announcement.

99 problems … finding time to read this may be one

by Mike Casazza

Off to the Oliver Luck “Welcome Home Celebration” here shortly. I’ll post the link that’ll allow you to follow live beginning at 1 p.m., if you’re interested in such things.

If not, or if you can’t stream video where you are, then here’s a  heck of a time filler.

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Frank Young returns to West Virgina

by Mike Casazza

Frank Young, he of school records for 3-pointers made and attempted — and missed! — during the 2007 season returned to campus over the weekend for the third annual Bob Huggins fantasy camp. Young had only been back to WVU for Darris Nichols’s graduation in 2008, but was invited to be a guest coach/counselor at this year’s fantasy camp.

Young was delighted. You forget he was teammates with Joe Alexander and Ales Alex Ruoff, with Da’Sean Butler and Wellington Smith, with Joe Mazzulla and Cam Thoroughman. They were all in town over the weekend. Nichols is back as a garduate assistant. Mike Gansey camped again and he watched the 2007 season from John Beilein’s seats.  All were happy to see Young, and vice versa.

Yet it always seemed to me Young never really got his just due.

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Friday Feedback

June 11, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which feels both Luck and Payne today. Begin with the latter. There are indications Tom Izzo will be the next head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. I don’t know what to do with this information. I do know Adreian Payne — you remember him — had WVU in his thought process to the very end and ultimately picked Michigan State.

Perhaps, you think, he might change his mind if Izzo bolts for the CLE. And, why yes, WVU does have an available scholarship. It all lines up, right? Not exactly. Payne is apparently enrolled and already listed in the student directory at MSU. If he were to want out, he’d need to do so as a plain old Division I transfer and sit out one year.  

As for Luck, well, perhaps the details surrounding Oliver Luck’s sudden acceptance of the AD position are interesting — no one else interviewed, a round of weekend interviews were cancelled in the 11th hour — but maybe they’re a little irrelevant, too. I don’t think it’s any great secret to anyone who observed or was involved that Luck was a top candidate, if not the top candidate, from the very beginning. And it’s no wonder. The guy is tremendously accomplished and capable. This is a “big picture” time and this is a guy who sees and then sees through those very things.

So WVU identified, quizzed and remained locked on its pick. I’m sure people will find something wrong with the whole process and I’d listen to, understand and appreciate that argument, but in the end, no matter what WVU did it’s quite likely it arrives at the same conclusion.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, mind the WAGs. (This is fantastic journalism.)

Oh, and we’re going to go pretty light on expansion stuff. Absolutely bizarre week and, as Drew said, “This is ludicrous.”

Jeff in Akron said:

The best thing that could happen for the BE is for the Big-12 to take the brunt of the early defections. If that happens, and the PAC-10 actually becomes the first super conference, it won’t be long until there are others.

It reminds me of that old black and white video of the guy standing in his house as it falls around him. Fortunately, out of shear luck, the wall that is falling on him happens to have an open window in exactly the right place.

That video could become a metaphor for the BE. By starting the dominoes out west, any conference with east in its name is better off.

Excellent. And it certainly appears it’s happening. In speaking with Ed Pastilong yesterday, we were discussing the obvious imminence and he said it’s going to happen fast. “Once the first school commits, there’ll be a major shift and it’ll be over quick.” Know what’s weird? When he first took over, Penn State joined the Big Ten and WVU, seemingly doomed, ended up well-positioned in the Big East.

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WVU opens Double Century Club

June 10, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Football’s assistant coaching staff is the highest-paid in the Big East and is pretty competitive nationally. This season, and for the first time ever, each assistant will make more than $200,000.

Despite the distinction, the Mountaineers have actually committed $50,000 less to their assistants than they did last season. Doc Holliday was making $400,000 and left that on the table when he left for Marshall. WVU hired Dave McMichael from UConn — where he was making $135,000 — at $200,000. Raises of $75,000 were given to Lonnie Galloway and Chris Beatty and bumped both to $200,000. WVU justified the raises for the purposes of “additional duties and critical retention.“

“Sometime coaches become hot commodities and obviously you want to retain them,” said Mike Parsons, WVU’s deputy athletic director.

Galloway and Beatty have had their names mentioned with open assistant coaching positions in each of the past two offseasons.

Beatty was promoted to assume Holliday’s role as recruiting coordinator and put in charge of recruiting Virginia and Washington, D.C. Galloway’s recruiting duties expanded to include North Carolina, Florida’s Palm Beach, Dade, Monroe, Broward and Martin counties and Georgia’s Florida, Fulton, Cobb and Dekalb counties.

Each was integral in helping assemble what Stewart said were WVU’s highest-ranked recruiting classes the past two years.

“I think it’s very head-smart by our administration and it tells the coaches, without a doubt, what the administration thinks of them,” Stewart said. “These guys are in a high-dollar profession and they’re making good money because they deserve to make good money.”

In all, the nine assistants are due $1.925 million. Bill Stewart’s $900,000 salary pushes the tab to $2.825 million. In 2007, the final year with former Coach Rich Rodriguez and his assistants on staff, WVU provided $3.018 million in salaries, including $1.235 million to the nine assistants.

Grandt boosts WVU in Terry Crawford standings

by Mike Casazza

WVU’s 10,000 meters maniac finished fourth at the NCAA championships Wednesday … and was 65 seconds better than her first-place finish in the Eastern Regional. Nothing wrong with that at all, especially when you consider she zoomed up six places in the final five laps.

Her All-American finish officially qualifies WVU for the USTFCCA Division I women’s program of the year award. The Mountaineers were No. 4 in the Terry Crawford standings entering the meet and still have three more All-American opportunities. Karly Hamric and Keri Bland are in a 1,500 semifinal at 7:45 p.m. tonight. If they qualify the final is at 1:18 p.m. Saturday. Marie-Louise Asselin’s 5,000 race is at 9:40 p.m. Friday. Top-eight finishes put the Mountaineers higher up in the standings.

“It’s a big goal of ours,” WVU Coach Sean Cleary said. “It’s about the duration of the year and one of our goals was to be in the top 10 for the entire year,” Cleary said. “If the girls do what they can do and we have some good results, combine that with those other two and we’re maybe the second- or third-best in the country.”

I go away one day and this happens?

by Mike Casazza

(Update No. 2: Luck will take office July 1 and immediately begin a six-month transition and he’ll apparently be full-time Jan. 1. I say apparently because he’s helping Houston build a new soccer stadium and nothing is guaranteed in building projects. This one is funded by a city/county commission.

And yes, both Luck and Jim Clements know there’s a lot happening on the college landscape today. Neither seems critically worried Luck’s split-employment will get WVU lost in the expansion era.

Luck said it’s too early to have an on-campus schedule — ie, one weekekend month, three weeks a month, etc. — but said “I guaranteee I’ll be in Morgantown a considerable amount of time through the transition period.”

Lastly, Luck will make $390,000 per year. No one else interviewed for the job and Luck praised Clements as a recruiter. Luck seems to have needed and taken time to find a way to make the move work.)

(Update: It’s official now. Has been for a few hours but those hours have been spent figuring a few things out. There’s a conference call at 1o a.m. and a press conference Monday. Two things we must ask about: 1) Did things chage in the past seven to 10 days? 2) What is Luck’s first day on the job?)

In past getaways, we had Larry Aschebrooke news and Doc Holliday’s departure. Now we’re getting Nebraska in the Big “Ten” as the first piece of a puzzle that’s going to come together extraordinarily fast now. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s looking like Oliver Luck, who last week almost certainly wasn’t going to be the WVU AD, will be the WVU AD.

So Wednesday was, uh, interesting for me and my MotoQ. I’m back at it today, eschewing golf to get to the bottom of a few things.