Doesn’t happen every year, but it does in 2009.
Tickets will be available for home games against Liberty, East Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut and Louisville. Purchases will be limited to four tickets per customer for each home game. Tickets will not be available for the home contests against Marshall and Pitt.
There’s a new “Waterboy” at WVU … and what a neat little story receiver Payton Brooks is. The hour is late and the odds are slim the senior makes a splash, but, in truth, the kid from Hurricane already has.
He wanted to be a football star, played his freshman and sophomore year but found that he was better at swimming than football and began to concentrate on that sport. Brooks was recruited by Sergio Garcia to West Virginia as a swimmer and went on to become a five-time All-Big East swimmer in the freestyle sprints.
When his swimming eligibility was up, he still had some school left and decided that he would walk on to the WVU football team.
“I kind of threw the thought around my whole senior year,” Brooks said. “I gave myself a week after the Big East championships to think about it and decided I wanted to go through with it.”
I’m not going to make a big deal out of it because — and I’ve said this before — I’ve had some pretty cool conversations with the kid for as long as he’s been at WVU. I also think it’s natural and totally understandable for someone to have no idea how to function at first with a swarm of cameras and recorders, but eventually learn to handle it.That said, your early not-football-related storyline this year is how Noel Devine’s personality has gone from caterpillar to butterfly. When Stewart finished his press conference Saturday evening, the media paraded to the player interview room. The doors opened and Devine, who is often the last player to come out, if he makes himself available at all, was there waiting for us. And he was good. Really, really good.
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Sanders reinstated, Stewart explains Finau, updates on Geno and Barclay and an unknown upstart on defense.
No Tevita Funau, but Jock Sanders was the first-team slot receiver … probably because Wes Lyons returned home due to a death in the family.
A little less than 3.5 hours from the opening practice of fall camp and a few items to prepare you for the onslaught from the first weekend:
– A general overview of the team as it enters camp.
– Perhaps the Mountaineers are the Big East favorites after all?
– Of the newcomers, most the talent is supposed to fall on offense, but WVU likes its freshmen cornerbacks.
– If Bill Stewart could wish a few things up for his team, these would be his wishes.
– The Mountaineers have a lot of questions to answer in these two weeks.
– Weed through a lot of the other variables and focus on just three things in 2009.
Chik-fil-a, Patteson Avenue in Morgantown. Also now my favorite restaurant ever.
Welcome to a revealing edition of the Friday Feedback. First off, the coaches’ poll came out today and it’s maybe the one time that poll deserves legitimate attention. The coaches rarely vote, if at all, but I’ve always heard they make a collective attempt to feign interest in the first one. Probably to get their team up somewhere noticeable.
There really weren’t any surprises — apart from Spurrier not giving Duke a vote — and the top 10, and certainly the top five, is about what you may have expected. So, then again, does it really mean anything this time?
If you’re the Mountain West — TCU No. 17, Utah No. 18, BYU No. 24 — you better believe it does. If you’re the Big East — Cincinnati No. 29, Pitt No. 3o, WVU No. 31, Rutgers No. 32 — it matters not. Irregardless, it’s a tad askew so early in the year.
“That’s a piece of credibility I think we lose,” says the Big 12’s Dan Beebe, who oversees the Bowl Championship Series with 10 other major-conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick. “Because I don’t think you can know now — no matter how much you know about who’s coming back and how teams looked at the end of last year, any of that stuff — how strong those teams are until you see them play. Or at least see the results of them playing.”
Secondly, the WVU Sports Blog is now on Facebook. What’s this mean? Difficult to say, aside from I’m way behind the wave here. It’s not going to be for everyone, I know. For example, you have to have an account to follow. It’s also something of an imposition to ask you to follow that and this. But it probably won’t be exclusively WVU and, fear not, you won’t find anything relevant to WVU sports there that you won’t find here.
However, it occurs to me slightly more people are on Facebook than this old blog. So, in essence, it’s another avenue for access and publicity for the blog, but also another way to way to provide immediate information and amusement. I hope.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, you can have it your way.
Birch said:
So we’re going to strong arm the Gator Bowl now? That plan should work brilliantly. So basically that will leave us with: Toronto and the cold, Charlotte and its 11 AM kickoff, or El Paso and the drug cartels. Bowl Mania! Catch It!
I’m very curious to see how far the Big East will take this tactic. They always make the right decisions and use the right approach, but this one just seems potentially dangerous. It’s not new, either, which means it hasn’t produced anything yet. Plus, the alternatives in the Big East’s pocket aren’t great and with the MWC teams and a few other mid-majors making a push, there is greater competition for the spots and a greater appeal for old friends to look for new faces. It’s risky, for sure, but I can’t believe it’s being done haphazardly.
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Indianapolis Colts via WVU punter Pat McAfee is quietly doing his thing in camp, sending tight spirals skyward and playing the role of humble, observant rookie. Lost in all of this, though, is Pat padding his resume.
McAfee also is adjusting to using his hands more. He is expected to replace Smith not only as the Colts’ punter, but also the holder on extra points and field goal attempts.
McAfee said he occasionally held for his backups at WVU, but has no live game experience with the new task. Fortunately, he has a couple of experienced tutors. In addition to Vinatieri, Indy’s long snapper is Justin Snow, a 10-year veteran.
“You have a 10-year veteran and a 14-year veteran and then me right there in the middle,” McAfee said. “So, I’m surrounded by experience and definitely trying to learn as much as I can from both of them.
P.S. I’ve heard The Rumor about you-know-who. I’m efforting, but it appears to be smoke and no fire.
