Good guy Tommy West was fired at Memphis yesterday. He started a press conference — in retrospect, giving him that platform was probably a mistake — by saying getting fired isn’t a good day at the office.
Somehow, I don’t believe that applied in this case. Somewhere, BCS conference facilitator Mike Tranghese’s jaw dropped and broke his foot.
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I’d say that sums up Kelly’s trying task quite nicely. If Tony Pike is 100 percent healthy, he is 100 percent Cincinnati’s starter.
The guy’s got enough problems to deal with — Purdue has his number on and off the field; he’s again crying behind the microphone; the NCAA looms; Jim Harbaugh is killing it at Stanford — but why not add one more to his resume. You may curse the man. He may have cursed you.
Not yet two years ago, The Product had that clandestine meeting in Toledo with his accountant Michigan officials.
That meeting happened on a Friday. If it wasn’t an omen, it should have been.
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Another game, another edition of Texts From Game Day that is wholly representative of the game and the season.
That was not pretty Saturday. In fact, it was pretty bad. In WVU’s postgame interviews, a lot of the players spilled the “We’ll take the win” mantra, but their attitude, their demeanor said something else. They, too, weren’t quite happy with that. The win? Sure. The overall? Nope.
I suppose that given all the injuries within the game it is a good thing WVU has the win rather than the alternative, but this is a team with very little momentum and very few things to feel good about going into this season-defining stretch. Maybe the Mountaineers can outscore Cincinnati, which does appear to have a few defensive concerns right now. Trouble is, WVU’s offense is vanishing before our eyes.
WVU passed for 879 yards the first three games and has 1,030 in the past six. The Mountaineers have passed for more than 205 just once in the past six and managed just 100 against the Cardinals.
WVU averaged 208.5 rushing yards the first four games, but is getting just 159.8 in the past five. A team that started the season scoring 33, 35, 30, 35 and 34 points has followed with 24, 28, 19 and 17.
Louisville, which had allowed 114 points and 1,353 yards in three Big East losses, was supposed to give WVU a break. The Cardinals, starting a third-string quarterback and running back, playing for a coach who is not guaranteed tomorrow, instead gave the Mountaineers trouble.
Just bought a Cadillac, throw some texts on it…
(12:09 PM): Everytime noel returns a kick I worry
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(Foreword: Don’t forget Texts From Game Day. I’m bummed last week’s edition was done in by the Raymond James cell phone chaos, but I’m confident we can keep the ball rolling!)
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to thank Steve Kragthorpe. People wonder if Krags perhaps went over the line with some comments he made this week about his rumored job status as well as his opponent tomorrow.
The first one, I think, is hilarious. The second one? Well, it’s harmless. And needed. And maybe that’s the problem.
What happened to WVU v. Louisville? Imagine if he said that in 2007. What if Bob Petrino had said that? A hard hat would indeed be a necessity for the game … and likely not enough protection. The sad truth today is this game has no spice to it and even if Kragthorpe was trying to pepper it with some zingers, it didn’t really work.
This was once the highlight of the Big East season and an annual matchup the conference suits could gather around and say, “Hey, this is going to work out for us.” Now? “Geez, is that John Congemi?”
I know the teams aren’t going to be dynamos every year, but this has happened so fast. Obviously, there was 2006. Two years ago a Louisville player allegedly spit in Pat White’s face and Pat was pissed. Then Louisville more or less acted as if it didn’t happen while Pat begged to differ. A year later Pat set the NCAA career rushing record for quarterbacks — and went way out of character and openly taunted Louisville on one touchdown run.
Now WVU is nearly a three-touchdown favorite. One coach is fighting for his job and the other is fighting a restless fan base. The game is on the Big East Network and you’re possibly looking at a crowd under 55,000 tomorrow.
Nothing short of the Energizer bunny leading Louisville out on the field will immediately restore the fervor. “What if Louisville wins?” you say. So what? Three years ago, sure, that was a big deal because it kept WVU out of the national title picture. This year? I hardly think anyone will foster a disdain for the Cardinals if they keep WVU out of the Car Care Bowl.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, hold yourself accountable!
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OK, Cincinnati and Pitt remain the likely options to win the Big East, but you’re as likely to find many of the conference teams rooting for the aforementioned trio.
USF, for example, needs to win out and have WVU, Cincinnati and Pitt end up with two losses to get a share of the conference title. If the Bulls do win out and everyone has two losses, they’re possibly the BCS representative. They’re therefore hoping someone beats WVU and two teams beat the Bearcats and Panthers … which means WVU has to help out.
UConn and Syracuse play The U.C. and Pitt this week and some teams wouldn’t at all mind seeing one or both win. It’d make the rest of the season less stressful for WVU, but, in a way, also Pitt or Cincinnati, who right now are striding toward the Dec. 5 showdown. That little game also makes WVU a favorite of the Bearcats and Panthers, as well, because one would be OK with the other having a loss before Dec. 5.
Just a small, though intresting dynamic to the rest of the season that still holds realistic BCS possibilities for five teams … remember Rutgers already played and lost to Pitt and Cincinnati, which is again the top team in these rankings.
1. Cincinnati (8-0, 4-0, LW No. 1): All this talk about the BCS already screwing Cincinnati and you know what’s going to happen. They’re going to lose some strange game — and doesn’t a home night game on ABC against sentimental favorite UConn seem like the obvious choice? Combine that with the fact this was the week everyone seemed to pick up on the fact the Bearcats are the only team in America that hasn’t lost a fumble. “You just jinxed us,” Brian Kelly said when the topic came up. Up next: 11/7 vs. UConn (8 p.m., ABC)
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Louisville’s Greg Scruggs is a 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive end. Imposing numbers, if not a little generic for the college game.
Not long ago, he was the most intimidating drummer you’d ever seen before becoming deciding to become one of the country’s top high school defensive ends.
In one season.
“People could always see me in the band and the way I played the drums and the way I moved on the field and the way I grooved and tell I was an athlete,” he said. “It totally translated for me. In band and in football, you have to be disciplined. That was the one big thing I took from band and applied to football.
“I could stand in the middle of the field holding a 30-pound set of drums for five minutes and not budge. I believe that helped me withstand the jobs you do in football. I can sit in a meeting and concentrate on the strategies and schemes being taught.”
The title is how we agreed Reed Williams’ name would appear in an injury report.
He does have problems with a big toe, a foot and both shoulders, but that’s too many items for one set of parenthesis (parenthesi?). Perhaps “miscellaneous” would have worked, but while it’s indicative of the number of issues Williams is working through, it overlooks the nature of the trouble, which is most troubling.
College football has had an accumulative effect on a great college football player.
“It’s going to wear on your body,” he said. “I’m 22 years old, but I’m not as young as I used to be. My body’s not in as great a shape as it used to be. It’s been banged up, but with that I’ve built a tolerance for pain and an ability to play through pain.”
So we’ve been talking about personnel this week and whether some people deserve a spot and whether others deserve a shot. Seems like there is incentive to make a change or two or, at the very least, consider the possibility and prepare for the occasion. Certain things could happen in this game Saturday that simply must trigger a consequence.
And so it was this little Bill Stewart snippet from Tuesday’s press conference sure seemed conspicuous by its presence.
“I don’t know if they like me. I don’t really care. I like some of them. Some of them I don’t like, to be brutally honest. I don’t like guys who waste talent. I don’t dislike them as a person, but I don’t like wasted talent. I detest people who waste talent. My fuse for them is very short. I sit them and go to the next person.”
Six reasons the season is not lost for the Mountaineers:
Will Stein, Adam Froman, Justin Burke, Tony Pike, Bill Stull and Tom Savage.
Those are the (possible) quarterbacks for the final four opponents … and that presumes Cincinnati has Pike back in time for next Friday’s game. If not, that’s a problem. Zach Collaros would play and he’s not included in the list. “Why?” you ask. Because the kid can move and make plays. He’s a lot like B.J. Daniels.
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