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

Coach Stewart parents them up!

September 24, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Tricky week for the Mountaineers. Good performance, bad result last weekend. Open week to polish, lots of time to wait. Lots of questions, no answers. It goes on and on and it takes a different approach to maneuver through it all. 

And now Bill Stewart has to regroup his team, look back at that loss and fix what was wrong.

More importantly, he has to see that it doesn’t become part of the fiber of the season.

“I relate coaching to parenting,” Stewart said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “If I was the kind of parent that continued to harp and point fingers and blame, then I would probably lose that child because I would turn him away.”

Of long – and not enough? – handoffs

by Mike Casazza

More fun with numbers in WVU’s fun or folly offense.

Through three games this year, West Virginia looks to have stayed in line with its recent past and run the football on 53 percent of its snaps.

In truth, virtually all of quarterback Jarrett Brown’s 38 rushing attempts this season have come on pass plays when he decided to ditch the plan and leave the pocket, meaning the Mountaineers are closer to a 60-40 pass-run ratio.

“We are throwing deep, we are throwing the ball down the middle and we are going to make them defend the field,” WVU Coach Bill Stewart said. “We are not backing off in our play-calling.”

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Rank you very much

September 23, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Perhaps improbably, West Virginia doesn’t lead the Big East in any of the 23 statistical categories … but is last in five (all turnover-related). What year is this?

The Mountaineers are No. 2 in rushing, passing and total offense because Jarrett Brown is No. 1 in total offense and Jock Sanders is No. 1 in receptions per game.

The national rankings are a mixed bag not entirely indicative of record. Seriously, 2-1 with the 84th-best scoring defense, but the 39th-best total defense?

Too early to base much off statistical rankings. However, some need some attention.

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In which you rush to wear gold

by Mike Casazza

Stewart takes to twitter to influence your wardrobe next Thursday. I hope this doesn’t mean more gold-on-gold uniforms.

A state turns its eyes to volleyball

by Mike Casazza

Marshall puts a seven-match winning streak on the line tonight when it plays host (!) to WVU.

It’s the first Herd-WVU match in Huntington since 2004, and pits a Marshall team that’s 12-2 against 10-4 WVU.

“We’re lucky enough where we do get this game on campus,” Jacobs said. “We go to West Virginia, they come back to us and we go to Charleston for a couple of years. I have no problem following some coaches before me, in their wisdom, when they say that it’s OK to make sure your team knows it’s more important, sometimes, to the people that support you.”

Denver! The sunshine state! Gorgeous!

by Mike Casazza

Given WVU has this Saturday off, that means WVU has Friday night off, which means recruiting and high school games. Bill Stewart said seven of the nine assistant coaches were on the road Tuesday — the max the NCAA allows — and a few didn’t even travel back to campus with the team following Saturday night’s loss at Auburn.

Auburn is in the south, which is where one would find Florida on the map. That’s likely where you’ld find Doc Holliday this week.

“What’s helped us at WVU is going back to the ’80s and ’90s, we had quite a few players from [South Florida] who came to us and were successful,” Holliday said. “I like the competitive nature of all the kids in South Florida. The way they’re brought up, playing in the rec leagues, they’re chasing down fast guys at a young age, and for a lot of them, playing football is a way out, a way to get to college. They’re great kids.”

West Virginia already has received verbal commitments from four county players — Glades Central defensive back Travis Bell, Dwyer defensive back Robert Clark, American Heritage all-purpose athlete Darius Millines and Pahokee wide receiver Fred Pickett. That equals the combined number of commitments given to UF, UM and FSU so far. At least six others listed among the county’s top 25 prospects are considering signing with the Mountaineers.

Expect to see the fruits of the staff’s labor in some form soon. Is the fruit a navel orange? We’ll see.

Mountain, meet mole hill

September 22, 2009 by Mike Casazza

You saw this coming. The timely topic is WVU’s turnover trouble, which is more troubling than it is trouble. I’ll explain…

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Dan Hawkins remains Dan Hawkins

by Mike Casazza

Best part about this series with Colorado? Well, two. First, the trip to the underrated Boulder campus. Second and foremost, two occasions to work with the CU coach — who, by the way, coaches Division I football … in the Big 12.

He has many things you’d want in a coach. Offensive ingenuity. Drive. Energy. Rapport with kids. Unique hobbies. Positive thinking (awesome profile). Not a lot of wins, no, but overall a solid set of characteristics.

Oh, and Dan Hawkins, head coach of the 1-2 Buffs, also has kids. I do not and that might be an issue. 

“The only speculation was from you guys,” he told reporters. “There was no speculation from my boss, there was no speculation from our big hitters (donors). That speculation came from you guys.”

OK. Was the week following a 58-34 loss at Toledo disconcerting?

“Not at all. I love these guys. I’ve said this many times before.

“Unfortunately in this (media) business, there’s not a lot of you that have children. I don’t know why that is. But when you have kids, you love them up. You give them unconditional love. And you hang in there.

“And sometimes they flunk science, and sometimes they strike out and sometimes they drop fly balls and sometimes they miss last-second shots. But when you’re a true parent, you’re a true teacher, and you hang in there and you keep believing them and keep working on things, and eventually it turns.”

Jeff Mullen on the river

September 21, 2009 by Mike Casazza

One text from game night still stands out among the many that deserve to stand out:

(1:24 AM): That’ll be all, Jeff Mullen. Drop your playbook off on the way out.

I’m guessing this came right about the time a second middle screen was intercepted and this time returned for a decisive touchdown. (By the way, I was a bit stunned to see another screen there and I quite distracted at that moment, but it occurred to me Noel runs a long way with that ball if he catches it. I saw a replay and I’m convinced it was something big waiting to happen.)

You surely know this, but since Saturday night a lot of people has asked a lot of questions about WVU’s offense, specifically of the direction and the play-calling. I’ve fielded many and addressed them thusly: Seeing as if the Mountaineers were moving the ball in the direction of Auburn’s end zone, the play-calling had to be OK.

Truth is, it will be examined, which then means it will be explained by the willing offensive coordinator, Jeff Mullen.

Could it be, Mullen was being asked, that this team was being asked to do too much, to rely far too much of gimmicks like hook-and-ladder pass plays and double passes and four receivers to one side? Was it playing that 7-K hand too often and not pressing a pair of queens hard enough?

“We felt we had to do that to win,” Mullen answered, again being as straight forward and honest in his answers as he has been whether his offense wins or losses. “We put our money in the middle and went all in.”

The problem was that the river card turned out to a joker.

A case of false advertising in Atlanta

by Mike Casazza

Not exactly what I was hoping for when I heard it on the radio this weekend.