In case you were wondering where the equally liked/loathed among fans Antonio Lewis was, you needn’t worry. He’s hanging out in D.C. pool halls as a goodwill ambassador of former Mountaineers acting on behalf of the Mountaineers’ former coach (second maize gold box). For the record, I was always on the “liked” side.
I, for one, don’t care how many video boards, ribbon boards, suites and train whistles are added to Mountaineer Field. What surrounds the stands matters much less than who’s in the stands. What does state-of-the-art technology mean if 40,000 people show or a sell-out crowd has 20,000 indifferent fans? Zip.
It’s inevitable, but through the years at WVU and at almost every other school, times change and with them so, too, do the demographics in the stands. It’s new generations and new behaviors. An 18-year-old may not appreciate things the same as a 58-year-old and a 58-year-old doesn’t — or shouldn’t — act the same as an 18-year-old.
Yet what if there was a way to ensure a permanent presence in the stands. What of a loud legacy and a fiery freternity? Would that not solve, or at least help the problem? Oh, there are the Maniacs, but to be honest, I have no idea what they do. I’m sure it’s something, but it’s never been clear.
Once upon a time, though, there was a crazy club known as Fi Batar Cappar.Â
“We were known for pranks,” he said. “Fun-loving, spirited pranks against opposing teams, cheerleaders and fans.”
Fi Batar Cappar was allowed access to the field during football games, but that privilege was taken away when a member, draped in bathrobe and derby hat, followed a drum major onto the turf and interrupted a ceremony.Â
First-year members usually sported the goofy, colorful outfits while the elder members remained in the stands dressed in suits.
A multicolored robe identified you as a member and supporter of WVU athletics, Skaff explained. But the robes were only for new members and part of the initiation process. The neophytes were typically the ones clowning around.
“They were the people that did the crazy antics,” he said.
There have been some moments spent covering WVU’s football team in which serious and not so serious people spent serious time pontificating upon WVU’s kickoff coverage struggles. I actually grabbed a rule book one evening to check on penalties for “accidentally” putting extra people on the field or “accidentally” having players get a head start. Turns out there’s a penalty and a re-kick, so it wouldn’t work. Stew can thank Bret Bielema for that.
True, I was basically going for satire in a later piece, but this problem required weird and extra attention and, if necessary, weird and extra fixes because it couldn’t get any worse.
Or just kick the thing out of bounds. Really. Pat McAfee has kicked off 43 times this season and, including sky kicks and kicks into the wind, averages putting the ball on about the 6-yard line. WVU’s nation’s-worst average on returns allowed is just over 31 yards. That means that if you follow those averages the opponent gets the ball at the 37-yard line.
Kick it out of bounds and they get it at the 40 without all the emotional wreckage.
Insane! Wait … that makes sense.
And so it is I share with you a letter I received from a WVU fan abroad. *
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Once upon a time, and not terribly long ago, Louisville was on fire. A win against USF, which had tormented the Cardinals through the years, was the third in a row and pushed the record to 5-2 and 1-1 in the Big East. There was hope, too, because likable Scott Long had returned after breaking a foot in the preseason to catch five passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns, including the eventual game-winner in the 24-21 victory.
People were pleased.
“It’s very nice everyone’s been telling everybody how good he was. He was a game breaker. He got to go out there and show that today. It’s good to have him back. There are a million things that make him a good player, one is his work ethic off the field, the way he practices. Also he’s a big physical wide receiver who’s very fast and that combination you don’t find everywhere. He’s got great hands. He’s a team guy not a look-at-me kind of guy. I think he provided a spark today that we needed.”
In practice the following week, he tore an ACL and was lost for the season. People were not pleased. In fact, they were so devastated, they decided to put together a touching tribute.
But as the Cardinals practiced yesterday, a player wearing No. 84 — Long’s number — was racing around the field, catching passes and energizing the offense.
It was Long’s friend and teammate, Trent Guy.
Yesterday he wore No. 84. If U of L can work out the details, Guy will wear No. 84 at Syracuse on Saturday night. Next week it will be Doug Beaumont’s turn. He’ll exchange his No. 27 for 84. Then Long’s number will be worn by Josh Chichester or Troy Pascley or another receiver.
Put plainly, Morgantown can be a 5,000-watt culture shock for student-athletes from different parts of the country and the globe. Nowhere is it more prevalent than football, which recruits the far stretches of the U.S. to find the top talent that hasn’t seen, either at all or in abundance, mountains, foliage or school canceled for hunting season.
Then there’s the snow, which arrived for the first time Monday and triggered the always-entertaining reaction.
Sands, the starting true freshman free safety from Opa-Locka, Fla., started a snowball fight with teammates outside their dorm.
“It was so fun,” he said. “It started with one and then all of a sudden everyone started throwing them at each other.”
Included in the battle were Florida natives Jorge Wright, Ja’tavious Miller and Uriah Grant and Mississippi’s D.J. Shaw. Wright, Miler and Grant are freshmen and Shaw is a junior college transfer who was at Copiah-Lincoln (Miss.) Community College the past two years.
Snow is new to all of them.
Sands, who has 23 tackles and has started the past six games, said he’s coping with the temperature drop and the snowfall, but it isn’t easy.
“I don’t have a winter coat. All I have is what they gave me here,” Sands said tugging at his sweat suit.
Huggins: ”I want this to be if not the premier program in the country, at least one of the premier programs in the country. Think of the premier programs – the ones that stay there year in and year out – they have tremendous support. I think we do have tremendous support. It’s great to have a turnout like that this early; it’s great to have the students up there. The students make it fun. We’ve talking about making it fan friendly, and I think we’re working at it.”
It’s worth repeating. Only once before Saturday had WVU drawn more than 10,000 for a November home game. That was in 2005 to play LSU, an eventual Final Four team, on the day WVU retired Jerry West’s number. Slightly different than a home opener against Elon.
A year ago, it was generally agreed upon that no other game would feature as much quarterback talent on the sideline than WVU v. Louisville. In the atrocious gold-on-gold was Jarrett Brown, he of the triple-overtime, Gator Bowl-clinching win against Rutgers. In the red and white was Hunter Cantwell, he of the hold-off-Miami and then hold-it-together performance during Brian Brohm’s absence in 2006.
Well, Brown hasn’t had much of a shot this season and he’ll be judged, perhaps unfairly, for a while by that meager showing against Syracuse. Cantwell has been a turnover machine — 12 interceptions, six turnovers returned for scores and three more to set up touchdowns. His NFL potential remains, though, because Cantwell is a big guy with a big arm and experience in a pro-style offense. There seems to be plenty to build upon in the future.
As for the present, it should be noted he hasn’t had very much help.
Red 1:Ranking — among senior quarterbacks — of University of Louisville’s Hunter Cantwell in a list updated last Wednesday by NFLDraftScout.com. While it hasn’t been the season Cantwell had hoped for, his number of dropped passes unofficially passed the 40 mark in Friday’s loss to Cincinnati. He’s still projected by that site as a third-rounder.
… ’till it’s gone.
Show of hands:Who among you knew of this Jim Lewis character before WVU’s kickoff coverage team deteriorated into something resembling recess at North View Elementary?
Too harsh? OK, how about P.E. at North View Elementary? What’s that? Too harsh for North View? My apologies.
There are myriad reasons the Mountaineers just aren’t very good at a very basic skill, though it should be noted this is a problem for teams at every level of football, including the NFL. Why on Monday night the Cleveland Browns were getting shredded by the Buffalo Bills until the Browns decided to sky kick it. The results were wonderful and Cleveland managed to take a 23-13 lead. Apparently the sky kicks were working too well, so the Browns kicked deep … and gave up a 98-yard touchdown. And no, I have no idea what that shrieking was around 11 p.m. last night.
Point being it’s a problem everywhere. At WVU, the simplest explanation I’ve observed, gathered and confirmed is the players are too slow down the field and too slow getting off blocks. Jimmys and Joes over Xs and Os.
Only the Mountaineers were missing a Jimmy for the past six games, which is precisely when Jim Lewis became a name.
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Louisville is falling, both fast and hard, and the one-time BCS-winning program is stuck in its first three-game losing streak since 1997 as a general sour mood surrounds the place. Louisville has lost five home games these past two seasons after losing one in four years with Bobby Petrino. Saturday’s game against WVU is a big one for the team and its second-year coach and Louisville has a plan.
There will be a lot on the line when the Mountaineers come to town. The U of L athletic department is asking folks to wear black for a “Black Out.”
