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

Another TBA

November 3, 2008 by Mike Casazza

If you must finger-gesture upon reading this news, please only do so to scratch one’s head. Tajh Boyd, who was so frustrated with the direction of WVU’s offense he decided to decommit last month, has volunteered his services to Tennessee. Why, you ask?  

The main reason Boyd reneged on his commitment to WVU was that he didn’t feel comfortable with the Mountaineers’ offensive philosophy. But he likes what he sees out of Tennessee.

“Basically, they run about the same offense there that we run here,” he said. “They run a lot of rollouts like we do. And I feel I can come in and play early in that type of offense.”

Well, three underclassmen quarterbacks might disagree, but, sure, who wouldn’t want the key to that offensive juggernaut?

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Talking points

by Mike Casazza

…from the weekend that was. For your use in elevator rides, trips to the water cooler and other awkward  moments on a Monday. 

– Connecticut’s performance generated a lot of questions.

– If only the Orange could play the Cardinals every week.

-Notre Dame: “$%*@“ 

– Here they go again. 

– Rejoice, Rutgers!

Friday Feedback

October 31, 2008 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to a getaway day edition of the Friday Feedback. A flight to Hartford calls and a pivotal game is waiting at high noon tomorrow. Bill Stewart would like for you to set your alarms, too.

It’s an enormous game. I’m not sure the winner wins the Big East, though I am sure the loser is done. The winner takes a big step toward the title, but the league is so even it’s not over three or four games in. Conversely, I just can’t see a loser recovering from this. UConn would have two losses and be, in essence, three games behind WVU. The Mountaineers would continue on their up and down journey and I wonder how many times they can get up in the remaining schedule. Hope that makes sense.

Quick programming note from our friend thacker to assist you out-of-staters tomorrow:

thacker said:

Internet Radio Broadcast of WVU v. UCONN

WTIC Radio in Hartford, CT may be broadcasting the ballgame via live Internet audio feed. Never know about these broadcasts until time of game.

http://www.wtic.com/

Probable direct link broadcast:

http://www.wtic.com/UConn—West-Virginia-Football-Saturday/3200836

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, be careful how you represent yourself.

Birch said:

“Sooner or, more likely, later, we’ll be adding a few things to amp up the blog aspect of this. Promise.”

Pictures of drunken athletes and unfounded rumors? Yes!

I can’t wait either! But seriously, it’ll be worth it. Eventually. Hopefully. Possibly.

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Stewart, Tiger, Player, oh my!

October 30, 2008 by Mike Casazza

I must admit, it was one of the more bizarre Bill Stewart monologues, but it sure makes sense.

“I share this with the team all the time in the preseason, winter conditioning, spring ball, the preseason,” Stewart said. “Do you want to know why Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods? He doesn’t hit the snooze button. Plain and simple. Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods because he doesn’t hit the snooze button.

“Gary Player, one of the greatest golfers who ever lived and a very successful man today in real estate and business and other things, they said to him, ‘How were you so good at golf? Why are you so good in business? Why did your life turn out so well?’ You know what he said? ‘My daddy taught me to get out of bed.'”

Lost? Well, follow along for a moment. WVU is winless on the road — UConn has won 11 in a row at home — and not terribly good early on in games, especially noon games.

“I’m so afraid of what can happen if we’re not ready to go,” he said. “It’s a noon kickoff, but will we set out alarms?”

The Mountaineers (5-2, 2-0 Big East) have scored only 28 points and never more than seven in the first quarter this season. They trailed 10-0 at ECU and 14-0 at Colorado and their last first-quarter score was three games ago against Rutgers.

Fat White Guy speaks

by Mike Casazza

Robb Lunn runs his own blog when he’s not starring as a starting defensive tackle for the UConn Huskies and has a pretty good time as the writer/editor for what started as a school project, but could grow into something much bigger.

On Monday, Lunn had a meeting with New England Sports Network and discussed the possibility of blogging for them when he’s through with football.

“I’ve been getting some interest from a lot of, I guess, major sports networks,” he said. “It’s been weird to have so many people approach me and wanting to pay me to write about sports, but I’m happy to do that and share my thoughts and experiences with people.” 

When we spoke Tuesday, he said he had his WVU game preview coming and, to be honest, I was looking forward to it. He’s pretty candid when talking about games and opponents and, going over some of his previous work, I could sense he has a respect for the Mountaineers.

 Top Three Stadiums to play in (besides the ‘Rent):

1. West Virginia (Morgantown)-There’s nothing like that atomosphere, it’s simply electric. I think it’s half the stadium, and half the fans (and probably half the moonshine). There’s also nothing like getting beer and batteries thrown at you. Don’t ask me why it’s beer and batteries, either (and don’t ask someone from WV to spell batteries). Something I’ll always regret in my career is never coming away with a W there.

Then again, maybe it’s a repulsion?

Top Three Opposing Fans:
1. West Virginia– Ruthless. Simply ruthless. I was doing my pregame routine, praying, when I kneeled by the student section and was promptly instructed to “Keep Praying (expletive), you better (expletive) pray that we don’t (expletive) murder you tonight.” I’m pretty sure that fan is going to hell. But kudos on making the top three.

Irregardless, that sort of stuff makes his blog go and today the blog went with the game preview in which he details and, quite frankly, admires WVU’s offense, defense and special teams.

As a DT, it’s the offense, and in particular Pat White, Noel Devine and Jock Sanders, that has his attention.

 All three of these weapons can slash opposing defenses, add that to an experienced and talented offensive line and it is something truly special. What separates this group from squads past is that their big-play capability is an every-down threat. No other group in the country can make a mundane 3rd and 2 on their own 25 a scoring opportunity. We have a tremendous challenge ahead of us. This week it really comes down to being able to play assignment-perfect football.

Yikes!

by Mike Casazza

If you were perplexed by WVU’s ninth-place position in the Big East coaches’ polll, this will not only explain things, but completely baffle you.

The 16-team league has seven teams ranked in the USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 preseason coaches’ poll — slightly more than a quarter of the rankings.

“The Big East is by far the best conference in the country,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. “You can say they’ll have 10 teams in position to make (NCAA) tournament. That’s a league where you can play very well and still lose.”

In case you were wondering, seven in the preseason top 25 is an all-conferences record — I’m not sure how that was left out of the story — and two better than the previous best. This is nuts. Huggins said he could see 10 or 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament and I’d have no reason to doubt him if not for my suspicion the selection committee will try to do everything in its power to prevent such a scenario.

Then again, it may have no choice.  

Look at the Top 25. The Big East has Nos. 2, 3, 6, 9 — absurd — 17, 18 and 25. Syracuse and WVU were in the thoughts of many and many think Providence (new coach), Cincinnati (great coach), Rutgers and Seton Hall could make a move this season. I’ve never seen or envisioned anything like this. Can this get here soon enough?

What’s that you say?

October 29, 2008 by Mike Casazza

Re-listening to Bill Stewart’s portion of the Big East coaches’ teleconference from Monday, I stumbled across a point he was making about his team’s mental and physical approach to the games. Apparently, Stewart got a little advice from college football’s finest historian before WVU played at Colorado. Jump ahead to 34:15.

“I talked to Coach Holtz and I said, ‘Coach, what am I going to do out there?’ People kept putting this (altitude) in our guys’ heads. We had this chamber built — I didn’t have a chamber built, but we had a chamber — and then there’s this Rocky Mountain thing. I said, ‘Hell, I coached out there for four years. I jogged 20 miles a week for four years and I’m not a big jogger. That was at 7,000 feet, 6,800 at Air Force.’ You know, Boulder and Denver are a mile high (5,280 feet). And Coach Holtz told me, he said ‘Billy, you just have to strain for six seconds. Six seconds of effort.’ And that’s what we’ve been doing. I’ve got to attribute all of that to Coach Holtz. He said, ‘Just six seconds of effort and maximum effort.’ That’s what we did and from that moment on we haven’t looked back.”

Interesting point, don’t you think? Oh, that rapscallion!

Dealer has 21, X-factor has 3

by Mike Casazza

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but college basketball season really doesn’t get going until around Christmas — and I really like and prefer the round ball over the oblong one. It’s just that at that time college football that matters is on a hiatus and you start to see some very good nonconference games and tournaments on the hardwood. The 12-man rotation gives way to the eight- or nine-man rotation and coaches and players start to get a good idea of who they are and who they might be.

As such, I just can’t get excited about preseason stories, though, to be fair, the same goes for football. And, of course, rifle.

I can’t be specific about things now. I’m far more superficial. Why is Alex Ruoff working on a hook shot? Have these NYC freshmen played at Rucker? Is Wellington Smith allergic to bees … and was he stung by a bee recently? Oh, and why is Joe Mazzulla wearing 21?

“Ebanks asked if he could have 3,” Mazzulla said.

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Good win for Marshall …

by Mike Casazza

… bad night for Houston receiver Patrick Edwards.  (You should digest your breakfast first.)

As you might imagine, Houston is not happy with the cart placement in Huntington, W.Va.

Cougars’ coach Kevin Sumlin said that while he had “his opinions” on the subject, he would offer no comment on such a dangerous situation. University of Houston athletics director Dave Maggard said he will pursue the subject with Marshall officials.

“It was duly noted and I think we’ll save the conversation for another day,” Maggard said. “I don’t think there is any question that it is a problem. We all noticed it, and we want to find out why something like that would occur. It was a serious injury, no question about it.”

Finger-gesture at this QB

October 28, 2008 by Mike Casazza

Perhaps you’ve heard this, but Tajh Boyd decommitted from WVU a few weeks ago. Away with his pledge went the future of the quarterback position at WVU.

OK, not really, but he was the only committed quarterback in the recruiting class and, as Bill Stewart said, the one the staff promised would be the guy. It was asked where WVU would go from there and, honestly, it was too soon, too hard to tell.

I’m told Kevin Newsome, who plays at Hargrave Military Academy, a school with which WVU has a very good relationship, is unlikely. Of course, I’ve been lied to wrong before.

It seems as if the Mountaineers are serious with one player and that Eugene Smith’s feelings are mutual.

Smith says he’s eager to take his visit to Morgantown, W.V., to see how the Mountaineer program runs. “I want to meet with the coaches and get to know the players,” he said. “I want to talk with them and see how I’ll be able to fit in there. I think it’s a good situation for me to go in and make an impact.

“It’s hard to judge the new coaches this year because you won’t really know anything until they’ve got their own players,” he said. “That’s when you’ll see if they can do a good job.”

I like that approach, but not as much as I like the idea of covering a quarterback named Eugene.