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

Rainout for tonight

October 9, 2009 by Mike Casazza

WVU-UConn was washed out tonight. It’ll be played tomorrow (Saturday) at 4 p.m.

Friday Feedback

by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which celebrates the anniversary of maybe the most memorable/forgettable Friday Feedback yet. That one — containing the Tajh Boyd nothing-to-see-here proclamation (I’m still not over that) and the you-better-hammer-Syracuse line — went over about as well as a fat pole vaulter.

But it’s in the past. Know what makes me feel better? Yackity Sax. I wonder if tomorrow’s game is best viewed with that playing in the background. Syracuse and USF turned the ball over five times inside the first five minutes Saturday. WVU — did you know it has a turnover problem? — turned the ball over on the same play it created a turnover against Colorado. These are error prone teams and I have a hunch whichever team screws up less wins. 

Then again, I could see Noel running around the Syracuse defense while the Orange pursued like bikini clad buxoms after Benny Hill.

Either way, the live blog will be fun. I’m going for regular updates and not some quarterly analysis. Feel free to chip in with comments during the game. Also, some have experssed a concern Texts from Game Day might disappear this week. It will not. Send those, too.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, sweat the small stuff! 

rekterx said:

If Syracuse eliminates its turnovers, and West Virginia doesn’t, we will have a lot of very nervous WVU fans in the 4th quarter.

And I have to go with USF to beat Cincy next week

Five days deep into Syracuse stories, I don’t think that defense has seen an offense’s like WVU’s. Yes, the Orange stop the run and have a nice front seven, but the secondary is really questionable and you know the Mountaineers are going to pass to run. As for the Bulls and the Bearcats …

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Ole, ole-ole-ole, 4K, 4K

by Mike Casazza

Well, the weather might provide a significant obstacle, but your men’s soccer team had has a lofty goal for this evening’s nationally televised game against Connecticut.

“I’ve challenged the fans,” LeBlanc said. “We’re looking for 4,000. We had 3,000 for Santa Barbara so I don’t think it’s too crazy to think a campus with 28,000 students, the football team on the road and a national TV game can put 4,000 in the stands.”

Too bad it’s not “Poncho Night” at the stadium. I’m actually worried. Not only does the rain threaten to keep the Mountaineers from hitting 4,000 … or even 2,000 … but a fully fueled bandwagon may idle quietly in the parking lot.

Things had lined up so well.

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The awesome accident

by Mike Casazza

(I’m not traveling this weekend, so why not a full Friday before the Feedback?)

Noel Devine carries this season? 73. Runs of at least 20 yards? Five. Touchdowns? Six. Times I’ve sat in the press box and remarked at one particular play “Wow, that looked bad”? Innumerable.

Again and again Noel takes a handoff and heads one way, then slams the breaks, turns the wheel and floors it in another direction. Very weird. It’s gotten to be such an — well, I can’t call it an epidemic because it always seems to work — intriguing occurrence that several of us in the press box figured it had to be planned that way. (Reporters! Brilliant!)

Then again, would a team intentionaly tempt disaster every time it calls that play? Would a coach design a play that looks as awkward as the last dance at my eighth grade formal? Not a chance, right? Right? Isn’t that right, Chris Beatty?

“It’s designed that way,” running backs coach Chris Beatty said. “We do that on purpose. We’re trying to make it look like an outside zone play so it’s hard to distinguish between the two and so we get (defensive) guys flowing between the blocks.”

Wonderful …

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The Mine Mule goes the distance

October 8, 2009 by Mike Casazza

The only part of the WVU v. Colorado broadcast I caught was when I was standing under a press box television trying to see who threw the block that sprung Noel Devine for his 72-yard touchdown … more on that tomorrow and I promise you’ll find it interesting.

Following the replay, the camera followed Devine, and Chris Fowler, a Colorado grad, said Devine was one one of the great homerun hitters in the game today.

True. How about the best? 

The junior from Fort Myers, Fla., has three touchdown runs of at least 70 yards – 92, 77 and 72 – while no other player in West Virginia football history has more than two regular runs of 70 yards or more.

“Noel Devine is a scary player from the standpoint of when he gets the ball he can go,” said Syracuse Coach Doug Marrone, whose 15th-ranked run defense attempts to slow Devine and the Mountaineers at noon Saturday at the Carrier Dome in the Big East Conference telecast game of the week (WCHS, Charleston). “He has tremendous speed and elusiveness.

“If he breaks a tackle, if you miss a gap, he’ll find it and he can take it the distance. All guys who have that type of speed are dangerous.”

Devine also has more 70-yard runs than any active player. Cal’s Jahvid Best has four and Florida’s Chris Rainey, Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer, Fresno State’s Lonyae Miller and Clemson’s C.J. Spiller have three apiece.

Staying power

by Mike Casazza

Jarrett Brown, fifth-year senior, starting quarterback and clairvoyant.

“Noel is one of the main reasons why I stayed here because everybody kept asking me and pushing me to transfer,” said Brown, a fifth-senior year. “I knew that when I played, I would have this guy in the backfield with me. He’s electrifying, because anytime he touches the ball, there’s a possibility that he could break for the distance.”

Madness forthcoming

by Mike Casazza

Yikes. Basketball season more or less begins next Friday with Mountaineer Madness. Autograph session at 6:30, requisite slam dunk contest and scrimmage to follow. The men’s team will also be debuting new uniforms and I’m told they’re black.

Your thoughts?

Halftime attitude adjustment

October 7, 2009 by Mike Casazza

We’d probably rank Thursday’s halftime scene as one of the top three ugliest in the Bill Stewart Reign — it battles ’08 East Carolina, Cincinnati, Pitt and perhaps North Carolina for position, but I think it’s up in the triumvirate.

So, too, did Stew, who was about to personify the moniker after witnessing four more turnovers. Then something happened, and you have my permission this one time to insert a Devine Intervention quip right here.

Devine pulled Stewart aside, tried to settle him down and simply asked for his coach to give him the ball.

“That’s something a coach cannot manufacture,” Stewart said. “That has to come from within.”

WVU threw five passes in the second half and Devine ran on 14 of the 28 running plays on the way to a career-best 220 yards. When Stewart spotted a tiring Colorado defensive line and decided to attack, Devine carried nine times for 52 yards on a 14-play, 69-yard touchdown drive.

“He showed character and grit,” Stewart said. “He quit the cutback stuff and lowered his shoulder and punished the guys trying to tackle him.”

Let’s turnover the page, yes?

by Mike Casazza
Bill Stewart is not a happy camper as he deals with his team's turnover trouble on and off the field.
Bill Stewart is not a happy camper as he deals with his team's turnover trouble on and off the field.

I think if I have to hear, read or write any more about turnovers, I’m going to turn over my lunch. It’s also wearing on the Mountaineers who, we’re told, don’t want to turn it over.

Bill Stewart also has preprogrammed responses and tactics to deal with the repeated inquiries, which, by his Tuesday press conference, are entirely played out for the week.  

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Greg Paulus (kind of) remembers

by Mike Casazza

Though Troy Nunes will beg to differ, Greg Paulus has WVU’s full attention this week. I, for one, thought WVU would have had Paulus’ attention for quite some time.

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