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

Stop me if you’ve heard this…

Just yesterday a friend of mine was showing me an e-mail a friend of his had forward along. Knowing the way the Internet and e-mail works, I wondered how I hadn’t seen that yet. True, I get many messages a day and I’ll admit I tend to ignore or delete ones simultaneously forwarded to me and a list of others. Yet I was sure I hadn’t seen this one, which was upsetting because it really did make me laugh.

Well, I opened the e-mail about 20 minutes ago and there it was, forwarded to me and about a zillion other people, but no less amusing…

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Coincidence? I think not

I find it highly intriguing that on the day of one of the least-anticipated national championship games in many, many, many years, we discover major conference commissioners are open to some form of a playoff in college football.

Each commissioner also stated that the SEC, ACC, Big East and Big 12 are open to discussing the “plus-one” format. The Big Ten and Pac-10 have been opposed to it.

Swofford, who is the incoming BCS chair, said the nature of the 2007 season and its weekly upheaval has motivated his presidents and athletic directors to reconsider a plus-one model.

“A lot of people look at it and say … maybe it would be better if more than two teams had the opportunity to play for the national championship,” Swofford said.

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Clearly, no ordinary Joe

If ever there were a method to the madness, it was on display Sunday as Joe Mazzulla willed West Virginia to a victory against No. 10 Marquette. He may look it and act it as he plays, but It would be unfair to say Mazzulla is crazy.

Then again …

“You don’t know the half of it,” teammate Joe Alexander.

The half we know of says Mazzulla is an energetic, tireless competitor, a champion track star who lives life just as fast and takes things an hour at a time. He shares an apartment with teammates Da’Sean Butler, Jonnie West and Cam Thoroughman and they’ll to do random things, like steel cage matches or buy Mazzulla a parrot for his birthday over the summer.

“I was ecstatic,” he said.

That other half? I’m told we wouldn’t believe it, but that it needs investigated.

“You should do a documentary on him. That’s a story. A documentary on Joe Mazzulla’s life,” Alexander said.

I’m in.

Green gone

Jacob Green is transferring.

Unplugged

I did something pretty neat last night. I believe it was called sleep. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Anyhow, nothing to see here today, but I really feel I can’t add anything to what you all have done here the past few days. I suggest going through some of the comments in the prior two posts. I believe Philip said it, and of course I agree, but they’re very rational and informative and I think that helps as everyone tries to get a grasp on exactly what is happening right now. I’ll admit, I’ve been impressed and altered by what some of you have had to said. Keep up the good work.

About Stew…

Well, I can finally say I have something in common with those who play football at West Virginia — none of us slept last night.

Their nocturnal nature obviously had different roots, though. They were celebrating the Fiesta Bowl and I was feverishly writing (in some cases, rewriting), pursuing rumor to turn it into fact and rearranging my travel plans so I might cover the press conference this morning that introduced Bill Stewart as head football coach.

So now I’m in the Phoenix airort for another three hours and firing through some e-mails, voicemails, text messages, blog comments and early reports on the reaction to Stewart’s hiring.

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Closure

WVU will name Bill Stewart head coach at a 9 a.m. MST press conference at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, a person close to the team confirmed early Thursday morning.

Sidebars from Scottsdale

Wow, this game is finally here and here’s hoping it’s better than the preceding BCS games.

Anyhow, I’m silly like this, but I get hyped by a good national anthem. Truthfully, I believe it gets no better than Whitney Houston in 1991. I’m not sure who is singing tonight, but I can tell you who isn’t singing.

Dennis Hastert
Frank Drebin
Caroline Mercil
Carl Lewis
This guy

Sidebars from Scottsdale (aka A.D. for a Day II)

As a follow up to the moderately popular A.D. for a Day, I’m going a step further today. You get to be both A.D. Eddie Pastilong and reporter Mickey Furfari.

Pastilong hires the football coach — no, he really does…the governor runs the state. Honest! — and Mickey gets the first question whenever the media gets together. So here we are at the press conference, where the new coach is introduced and Mickey asks a question. Tell us how it goes. Here are a few examples to follow…

Question: Coach, how do you feel about abandoning the BCS and instituting a playoff in college football?
Answer: (click here)

Or…

Question: Coach, it’s been a while since you played the game, but I talked to your high school coach earlier. He said he thought you missed the game, that you missed the little things. Things like practice. I’m wondering if —
Answer: (click here)

Or…

Question: Coach, what’s great about sports?
Answer: (click here)

Fire away!

Sidebars from Scottsdale

Probably no one cares about this, but I’m going to push the envelope. The hospitality for the media here has been really genuine and gratifying.

You have to understand, we’re people who are used to leaving messages that are not returned, being told a university won’t comment on a coaching search and then discovering the president did an interview with the university-affiliated radio network in which he commented on the coaching search, being called unimaginable/unoriginal names and being treated as general nuisances. So when we’re coddled, it’s easy for us to not only embrace it, but to hang on for dear life.

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