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

Friday Feedback

December 4, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to a smash-and-grab edition of the Friday Feedback. It was an abbreviated week for factors beyond my control, but I insist on a Feedback before I go sit in an airport for several hours … and then sit on a runway for several more.

Briefly about tomorrow’s game, for which I invite texts from game day for Texts from Game Day. This looks like a fairly even contest, but a few things stand out about Rutgers: Receiver Tim Brown isn’t healthy, Tom Savage is a true freshman quarterback who’s never seen the 3-3-5 and that’s been a bad combo through the years, the Mountaineers know the Wildcat offense because it’s a variation of their own, WVU’s defense looks healthy and hungry and quarterback Jarrett Brown has Rutgers’ number.

X-factor? There exists a thought the Mountaineers have nothing to gain with a win and nothing to lose with a loss and they’re in the Gator Bowl no matter what. Rutgers, meanwhile, has a lot to gain, including bowl position, but also the banishment of that 14-year losing streak to WVU. Emotion, energy and early offense will be big for a noon kickoff.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, hide your noodles.

Alli said:

There are so many reasons to not like this. Sure it’s a great story, but who wants to play in a New Years Day bowl against a 6-6 team. Also, if Pitt beats Cincy, does this mess everything up? I can’t imagine the BCS will take two Big East teams. The Gator Bowl isn’t going to match a 1 loss Cincy team with FSU, right? Can you imagine how horrible that would be. I assume then that Cincy would face Clemson (which would still be a horrible reward for Cincy’s season).

Ugh. I just hope we beat Rutgers

The Big East will only get one BCS team and it appears there’s a very good chance 11-1 Cincinnati wouldn’t make the Gator Bowl now that the ACC admits the Gator contract allows the Gator to claim the Seminoles. That’s a strong WVU magnet, I think. Such a weird ordeal and, as mentioned, I’m not even sure it’s a very intriguing game. Alli, I’m not insinuating you’re insinuating this — in fact, I don’t think you are, but I’ll just put this here — but it’s odd to me to see WVU fans upset about playing a team not worthy of the game when WVUs’ spot is somewhat suspect. I even think the story is somewhat tired. It’ll surely be beaten into the ground by kickoff. The most meaningful part of the game, as far as most of the audience cares, will be when Stewart strides from his sideline toward Bowden marching from his and they shake hands. (Yawn)

Continue reading…

Bill Stewart: History afficionado

December 3, 2009 by Mike Casazza

A friend texted me last night: “Ferdinand Foch is a beast!” I asked why, he explained, I did some research and I tend to agree. Sadly, this has nothing to do with Ferdinand Foch.

It is about history and it is about Bill Stewart and, specifically, how one affected the other.

Continue reading…

Feast fit for a …

by Mike Casazza

Tyler Bitancurt was, as you might imagine, a busy guy Friday night. Celebrations, interviews, rendezvouses, so on and so forth. When the time came to exit Mountaineer Field and meet up with his friends and family, who were waiting to meet up with the Backyard Brawl hero, it occurred to Bitancurt he was hungry.

And out of luck.

Continue reading…

Head of state at head of Backyard Brawl win

December 2, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Once upon a time someone saw the Governor walk by and shake my hand on some sideline or outside some locker room at some WVU game and the witness joked to me, “Manchin’s seen more sporting events this year than you have!”

I found that funny, but no one really laughed. (Aside: Another funny governor moment? When he was escorted out to midfield for the coin toss of the 2007 Marshall game by two state troopers. The Product had three.)

Truth is, Oll Governor hasn’t been seen courtside or in the press box too often the past few years and, if nothing else, you’ve got to give him credit for maximizing his opportunities. He toweled his brow after working a soup kitchen last Wednesday and secretly sneaked into the Puskar Center to rally the Mountaineers. 

Think about that for a moment. Here you have the governor of the state, not accompanied by cameras and public relations people, not caught up in the heat of a tough re-election campaign, not trying to shake off the latest scandal in his administration as how many politicians have had to do in recent years, stopping by to talk to the football team.

It wasn’t a national championship game. It wasn’t even a game for the Big East championship.

But Gov. Manchin cared.

He’s a former Mountaineer quarterback and has a zipper on his knee to prove it.

Do you think, for one moment, that his counterpart in Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, took the time to address Pitt? Hardly.

The antagonizing protagonists

by Mike Casazza

I have no doubt that by the time WVU is knee-deep in Big East play and the rotation has been established and the dispersion of minutes has been mastered, it’s going to be very worthy of a very good tanking.

There’s too much talent and too many pieces to think otherwise and if and when they’re assembled properly and handling it capably, the Mountaineers could be very difficult to beat.

Continue reading…

Remember “Remember November”?

by Mike Casazza

Yesterday being Dec. 1, as well as the day of his weekly press conference, Bill Stewart, who 31 days earlier stood in a dark hallway inside Raymond James Stadium made a pledge about a four-game season, was asked how he remembered November.

He began instead with how it started and recited a quote from French World War I general Ferdinand Foch.

“Hard-pressed to the right, out-flanked to the left, my center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking,” Stewart said. “That’s what I remember about November. You think about that.”

The translation was clear.

Gator bait?

December 1, 2009 by Mike Casazza

I was somewhere last night doing something and heard the news about Bobby Bowden. I listened and gathered he’d be allowed to coach the bowl game, which meant he’d be put on a big stage for a final farewell. That, to me, meant Gator Bowl and why not induce a storyline within a story by matching him up against West Virginia.

This was not an original thought.

According to sources familiar with the Gator Bowl Association selection process, it was decided Monday night at a meeting of the selection committee to match the teams under two conditions: that Bowden actually retire as the FSU coach today, as has been widely reported, and that the Seminoles are eligible to be invited to the game, given the outcome of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Saturday and the ACC bowl selection guidelines.

So after all of the speculation, it turns out the most important player in WVU’s bowl destination was not Bill Stewart or Bill Stull, not Tony Pike or Tom Savage, but T.K. Wetherell.

Turkey break

November 25, 2009 by Mike Casazza

kramerturkey

I’m going to attempt to fly to Santa Ana, Calif., today and then motor over to Anaheim for the 76 Classic. I don’t anticipate much traffic here the next few days so I won’t provide much content, ie no Friday Feedback.

That said, I’ll be out there for work and following the basketball team and the tournament. You can find game stories and tournament posts here. Might have a diary for Friday’s game. Maybe we’ll get together for the Backyard Brawl as well. We’ll see. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

In the meantime, questions and comments can go below and I’ll get to as many as I can.

Continue reading…

Jurassic Pitt

November 24, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Maybe it was Pete Carroll who helped pioneer the failed-NFL-coaches-succeeding-in-college movement, but what Dave Wannstedt has done at Pitt cannot be overlooked. Why, you could even give some credence to the struggles his first three years — 5-6, 6-6 and 5-7 records — because despite the losses, he was kind of revolutionizing the program.

The Panthers would move away from so-called conventional college systems and players and recruit a different demographic. They’d rely on the city and the western part of the state to get players who fit a mold and then gradually allow them to grow into a system that more mirrors the NFL.

Right now, the Panthers are 9-1 overall and 18-5 since winning 13-9 while developing a dropback passer, an I formation running back, a gritty fullback, a versatile tight end and an enormous line and emerging as an effective rarity in the college game. 

“We’re definitely in the minority with what we are doing here. We’re dinosaurs,” Wannstedt said. “There are very few college teams using a fullback like we use him. We’re running a pro-style offense. That’s one comment that we get after playing opponents, that their defensive coaches express to our coaches afterwards, that they don’t see our offense week in and week out.

Flowers carries new backpack, extra baggage

by Mike Casazza

It’s been said before John Flowers is comfortable in  his skin. It is he who sports the headband precariously perched atop his head and it is he who leads WVU’s swaying huddle before a basketball game. He wore an Afro wig when introduced at Mountaineer Madness this year and (not coincidentally) he won the slam dunk contest. To celebrate, he jumped onto a courtside table in front of the student section and thumped his chest. Through the years, he’s been seen on campus wearing a “Cars” backpack.

It goes on and on and you realize he’s pretty popular among his teammates and cares not what others think. He’s grown that way as a player, too, and late last season settled into a nice role as a defensive ace who could rebound and get scores at the basket. Leave him open and he could make a shot, too.

Something is a little different this year and it goes back to that backpack.

Continue reading…