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

Keep this man happy

Big summer for the Greenbrier. A PGA Tour event is coming to West Virginia and the world’s best players can dine on the finest steaks known to man. But when they leave Lewisburg and brag about that amazing dinner, what’s the name of the place they’re telling friends to look up on the yellow pages?

I was initially partial to “West Wing” … until I saw it was already being discussed. They can keep that, I suppose, but I can’t take credit for it. I think someone can come up with something, though. Let’s craft a menu of suggestions.

Bigger East and its bowls

Amid the whispers Tuesday at Big East media day were a few mentions about the future direction of the league and its bowl picture. Thank goodness the NYC tabloids were there to chronicle them.

The sources said that Mark Holtzman, marketing director of Yankee Stadium, discussed the possibilities of a bowl game at a meeting with the Big East athletic directors.

Two sources said the eight-team Big East would consider adding a ninth member by exploring whether there was interest on behalf of Maryland to jump from the ACC, and for Boston College to rejoin the league.

Continue reading…

Darren Studstill

If you’re wondering whatever happened to the former WVU quarterback and NFL defensive back, well, so, too, is Darren Studstill. His run as head coach at Royal Palm Beach High came to an abrupt end Tuesday.

Principal Guarn Sims suspended Studstill and an assistant coach for Royal Palm Beach’s Oct. 24 game against Lake Worth after a dispute between the two, but Studstill’s first season was otherwise considered a success. He was a finalist for the Lou Groza Coach of the Year award last year.

Continue reading…

Bulls still on defensive?

New York Yankees misanthrope Wally Burnham is no longer the great and grizzled defensive coordinator at South Florida. I’m told that’s a sign of the camaraderie of the USF coaching staff — it’s musical headsets there — and that that state of coexistence perhaps explains how a team with that much talent is picked to finish fourth in the Big East.

Continue reading…

Democracy at its finest

Perhaps you’ve never been to Charleston — hell, I’ve only been there a few times and I work for a newspaper there — but there’s a rather busy, sometimes difficult-to-navigate bridge that takes cars from I-64 toward and away from downtown Charleston. They say 100,000 or so cars a day cross it.

Well, because it’s so important and because this is, after all, West By God Virginia, it must be painted and it must be painted blue or green … and by that, I mean WVU blue or Marshall green. There’s actually an online poll to pick which one. Really. I’m serious.

Continue reading…

T.G.I. twitpic!

 

If you couldn’t make it to Big East Media Day, either, Oll Twitter & Co. have you covered with a few snapshots from a Blackberry.

By the way, I understand the presence of Joe Schad and Pete Thamel and Stewart’s excitement to speak with them, but why is Bob Ryan at media day? Just asking …

Rutgers is it?

I think we can agree parity — or is it above-averageness? — is the theme this year in the Big East. Four teams received between three and eight of the 24 first-place votes. The third-place pick had as many first-place votes as the first-place pick. Various predictions selected no less than five of the teams to win the league. I saw Pitt, WVU, USF, Cincinnati and UConn crowned favorites in different publications.

Well, how about a sixth?

Continue reading…

Pitt is it!

The Pittsburgh Panthers, last seen losing 3-0 in a bowl game, a team that lost its stud to the NFL and has no discernible difference-maker at quarterback, is the preseason favorite to win the Big East.

The Panthers received eight of a possible 24 first-place votes to finish with 161 points in the poll of media representatives from each of the eight BIG EAST markets. Pittsburgh returns 14 starters from last year’s squad, which was one of the most improved teams in the nation, with a particularly veteran presence on the offensive and defensive lines. In addition, Dave Wannstedt’s squad returns a pair of veteran quarterbacks in Bill Stull and Pat Bostick and boasts a potential breakout star in wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin.

West Virginia, which has won the BIG EAST title twice in the last four years, was a close second in the poll with 151 points and five first-place votes.

The WVU football contingent merely golfed and socialized yesterday, the day before media day, and yet Oll Stewart couldn’t escape that one topic.

Continue reading…

And your Media Day preview

From the wonderfully named Syracuse blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician:

The interviews, golf outings and clambakes are about to commence.  Sadly, so are the trite articles by journalists and bloggers that were written last year, and the year before that…and the year before that.  The same old questions will be asked and the same old topics will be broached.  You’ll learn very little and the Internet will be clogged further with opinions that have been voices many times before without any solutions.

I think you could make an argument those are the very reasons many media outlets aren’t sending people up there this year. Well, that and it’s “up there this year” when newspapers tend to be a little more selective about their expenses.

Anyhow, to save you from the Media Day laise, the Magician has a seven-point plan to make it less intolerable. No. 6 might grab your attention:

6. I will not make excuses for Bill Stewart.

He seems like a really nice guy.  He really does.  You know who else seemed like a really nice guy?  Greg Robinson.  Nice guys don’t finish first in college football.  Nice guys end up being someone else’s defensive coordinator.  You should be fearing for Bill right now, not propping him up. 

He’s got a tough schedule, no Pat White and…no Pat White.  And did I mention he almost got out-coached by Greg Robinson last season?  YIKES!