Your questions about retiring jerseys/numbers are now answered. As I read and interpret this, Dan Mozes may have his jersey and number retired. Pat White cannot. Nor can Steve Slaton. Let the outrage begin!
It’s “just” a clean break of the left fibula.
The redshirt sophomore from Cranberry, Pa., has no damage to his knee or ankle. Doctors say he does not need surgery and will be out six to eight weeks. He should resume football activity in the middle of the summer.
Yeah, I said “just” a clean break. Considering what could have happened, this is a pretty good prognosis. He was surely saved additional damage because of the knee braces all linemen now wear at WVU. Josh Jenkins was not wearing a brace when he dislocated his kneecap and ended his season last year.
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… from the weekend that was. For your use in elevator rides, trips to the water cooler and other awkward moments on a Monday. Sponsored by awesome reunions.
– That’s not going to be good for the RPI.
– Chelsea Carrier gives the folks something to talk about at the Strawberry Festival.
– Dorrell Jalloh got out just in time.
– Gold hammers Blue, 35-7.
– Jarrett Brown goes 21-for-28, awards self B-minus.
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is swollen with an extraordinary week of news and opinion and didn’t need to sit around this morning wondering if WVU is trying to have more kickers/punters on scholarship than running backs/slot receivers. I guess it really is an area of concern for Oll Stewart.
And that’s your bookend this week, one in which we learned about coaching salaries, Stew’s slightly-thinner contract, a difference of opinion about a practice facility, a new and somewhat proven kicker, no WVU-Florida basketball game, the JUCO player of the year coming to the basketball program, intriguing negotiations for the Coal Bowl and no WVU-Florida basketball game. To think, I fled the country a year ago and all I missed was Larry Aschebrook getting thrown under a bus.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, please be mindful of what others might think.
Jeff in Akron said:
Okay, Mike, you’ve piqued my interest in WVU baseball. I gave up on the product the MLB is marketing a long, long time ago. This is WVU, not MLB, so I’ll do my best to keep up.
Just completed a search of Hawley Field to find out why it was called Hawley Field. As you, and probably everbody else here, know the field was named for Roy “Legs” Hawley. However, did you know that the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year award is still named after non other than, Roy M. “Legs” Hawley?
So, a WVU team is winning on a field named after a truly great West Virginian. Where the heck have I been?
It’s a tradition full of fun facts. And I’m glad I piqued your interest. If it takes a village to raise a child, does it take a child to raise a village?
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Another weekend, another big series for WVU baseball, which is quite quietly No. 26 in the College Baseball Newspaper poll.
The Mountainers travel to Notre Dame for a weekend series against the Irish and will try to once again — and maybe once and for all — answer this question: Are these guys any good?
“I don’t know,” said Baseball America’s John Manuel Wednesday morning. “Their best win is against Tennessee, yet Tennessee is having its worst year in a long time. The Kentucky win is another good one but Kentucky is just above Tennessee at the bottom of the SEC East. Winning three at UConn is probably the best thing for West Virginia because UConn can hit.
“Really, all we have to go on is the best teams they have played and they haven’t beaten them – Coastal Carolina, Minnesota and Illinois – that’s all we really have to go off of and that’s really why we are in a wait-and-see mode with them.”
Believe it or not, I still work at the Daily Mail. Jack Bogaczyk — who is not to be confused with another West Virginia legend — is merely putting the WVU coverage on his back this week. Following news of coaching salaries, Oll Stewart’s contract and the practice facility, there is deep in another story another nugget worth exhuming.
With four signees, Huggins’ roster now has 15 grant-in-aid players.
The maximum is 13. Asked how that would be rectified, the WVU coach said, smiling “You never have too many players … It’s been taken care of.”
Huggins would not name the players that will be exiting, although media speculation has centered on guard Will Thomas and big man Dee Proby. Huggins wouldn’t bite.
“We’re trying to get everybody through (the semester) and on the right page.
That’s the most important thing now.”
Will there be an announcement on personnel moves after the semester ends?
“Probably,” Huggins said.
Certainly, it’s more than $5 million, which is what WVU — or is it Bob Huggins? — has raised toward the practice facility. Seems like a good place to start, right.
Not at all.
Ed Pastilong would prefer a little more cash in hand, Huggins begs to differ and now we can begin to understand the delay.
“We’ve done all of the engineering, have the designs and cost estimates,” Pastilong said. “We’ve got some money in hand, but just not enough to initiate the project now.
“Our Mountaineer Athletic Club fundraisers and Coach Huggins have been working hard to get us to a sufficient amount of dollars in hand that would allow us to begin, but on a $26 million project we have less than one-fifth of that in hand.
“In order for us to be comfortable and also responsible, we need to have 75-80 percent cash in hand before we begin construction.”
Huggins disagreed with the AD, calling the 75-80 percent cash threshold “unrealistic.”
Using an example of $1 million, Huggins said that if a donor is going to give that amount, “it would be something like $250 (thousand) over four years, or over some period of time … All of the renovations we’ve done here (in the coliseum) and in football have gone that way. It’s not feasible to have $25 million in hand before we start.”
Casey Mitchell carries a pretty heavy title with him to Morgantown.
Chipola sophomore guard Casey Mitchell was named the NJCAA player of the year on Tuesday.
Mitchell, who committed to West Virginia, averaged 20 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists this season, despite missing six games as the Indians went 34-2 and finished third in the country.
Mitchell has indeed committed to West Virginia, but that’s about to change. He said yesterday he’s signing and sending a National Letter-of-Intent to Bob Huggins today. Mitchell was considering Huggins and Cincinnati when he was in high school several years ago and was delighted to pick WVU over Kansas, Florida, Oklahoma State and Tennessee.
“He’s had a lot of success with junior college players,” Mitchell said. “Some people say the attitude of a coach determines whether or not you’ll have a good team. I know his attitude is going to be good for me and for the team.”
Mitchell based a lot of that off discussions he’s had with Huggins.
“He said he wouldn’t sign me if he didn’t need me right away,” he said. “He said he wouldn’t sign me to sit on the bench. He didn’t want to hurt my career like that because he knows I only have two years to play.”
WVU is paying its head football coach and nine assistants in excess of $3 million.
Times are tight … but obviously not as tight as an offensive linemen’s jersey.
Now, thanks to 7.4 percent raises for most assistants during last season, a contracted hike in Stewart’s pay and $8,500 Meineke Car Care Bowl bonuses for each assistant, WVU has passed another notable threshold in football coaching salaries.
That’s $3 million.
The nine assistants are getting a combined $2,172,857.
“I haven’t seen the latest surveys, but I would think it has to put us right up there (in assistant coaches’ pay),” WVU Deputy Athletic Director Mike Parsons said Monday. “I’m sure it has to be the (highest staff salary) in the Big East Conference.
Breakdown follows the jump …
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Josh Lider, formerly of Western Washington University, is transfering to WVU.
Lider was a second-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference selection and league all-academic honoree last season. He saw action in 11 games and scored 63 points, hitting 10-of-15 field goals and 33-of-37. He punted 39 times for 1,409 yards, an average of 36.1 yards per punt with a long of 51 yards and placed 10 inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
The Vikings dropped football — they were 6-5 and had a pretty good offense last year — so Lider was looking for a home. WVU is looking for a kicker and Lider looks like, at the very least, he’ll be in line to get the job right away. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
Trivia buffs might remember WWU for an old ESPY. Looks like you can have it if you want it.
