That is right Eer fans some recognition from the network who hates us. This all bowl team recognized three players that we all knew made an impact. Anyway congrats to them all.
Da Geek
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Roundball thoughts...
My dad is coming home from the beat down of Syracuse. It appears that we are a tail of two teams this year. By that I mean we are hard to overcome at home and we will struggle away. That sounds like the Big East. I think that we will be able to get some good away wins but it is clear it is going to be tough to do so. I am glad that Coach has done something in his first try that Coach B had a tough time doing in his tenure that is defeat the Orange. Anyway, I will have further thoughts on this later.
DaGeek
DaGeek
Monday, January 7, 2008
According to DA Super Steve is staying at WVU
Great news about Super Steve we now just need to get DR to stay and we will have 10 of 11 starteers back next season. I think that this is a good move for WVU and for Steve's NFL prospects. He has one more season to pile up some great stats. What an offense. Now if the coaches would just give me the OC job so that we can rock and roll next year. Even I could not mess that up. It could be as simple as getting out of the talents' way. Anyway here is the article from the DA:
"West Virginia University star running back Steve Slaton is returning for his senior season, a source close to the team told The Daily Athenaeum on Friday morning.Slaton, who exited the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in the first quarter on Wednesday night with a leg injury, is fresh off his least productive year as a Mountaineer and may have unfinished business to settle.In West Virginia’s last two bowl games, Slaton has only carried the ball a combined four times for 9 yards.In the 2007 regular season, the superback from Levittown, Pa., gained a modest 1,053 yards on 210 carries and scored 17 touchdowns.He was replaced Wednesday night by freshman Noel Devine, who went on to gain 108 yards and scored two touchdowns including a 65-yard scamper to seal the Mountaineers’ 48-28 win over No. 4 Oklahoma."--DA 01/07/08
"West Virginia University star running back Steve Slaton is returning for his senior season, a source close to the team told The Daily Athenaeum on Friday morning.Slaton, who exited the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in the first quarter on Wednesday night with a leg injury, is fresh off his least productive year as a Mountaineer and may have unfinished business to settle.In West Virginia’s last two bowl games, Slaton has only carried the ball a combined four times for 9 yards.In the 2007 regular season, the superback from Levittown, Pa., gained a modest 1,053 yards on 210 carries and scored 17 touchdowns.He was replaced Wednesday night by freshman Noel Devine, who went on to gain 108 yards and scored two touchdowns including a 65-yard scamper to seal the Mountaineers’ 48-28 win over No. 4 Oklahoma."--DA 01/07/08
Michigan's coaching raid appears to include CM and Mike Barwis OUCH!!! And some other FB points.
- It looks as if we will retain Jeff Castille but will lose some key components to the staff. I am sorry to see them go. I really hoped we would keep Mike Barwis and CM. Oh well, I guess we will just have to reload.
- Coach Stew is making another run at Josh Jenkins. I don't know if he can be successful but it would be a bit of a recruiting coup if we could bring him back into the mix. I think that our chances would be better if we brought back our surely ole line coach from FSU.
- The best thing we have going for us on many fronts from a coach-recruiting perspective is the fact that they will get to coach a winner next fall. It appears that we will have Pat White back for sure and likely we will have Super Steve and DR. That is a lot of talent and leadership to attract some coaching talent.
- I would ask my usual suspects to post their respective polls to my email address by mid day tomorrow.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Big Win VS. Marquette
After watching the lackadaisical performance against Notre Dame earlier this week, I was worried that our soft early schedule had us ill-prepared for physical Big East play. Notre Dame is highly underrated though and I'm sure they will crack the top 25 this week. Winning games against tough opponents at home is also very important and the ND loss won't hurt if we can win some of the other road games that shouldn't be as difficult. (S. Florida, Providence, Depaul, St. Johns) I'm also hopeful that the 2OT loss to Oklahoma will provide some extra end of game experience that we haven't had to deal up to that point.
Some interesting #'s in this game that show a huge difference in philosophy from previous teams. WVU shot fewer 3 pointers than Marquette and dominated the glass. We also saw a huge edge at the free throw line, but that is somewhat out of proportion due to the 13 made free throws in the final minutes.
Though it is a great win, there are still a lot of areas for improvement. Alexander seems out of sync during stretches and he needs to be much more consistent for us to be successful. Interior defense was very lacking at times even in a zone defense as Marquette completed several passes for easy layups. They weren't plays on drive and dishes either, they were passes from the outside going past standing around defenders. Butler's offense has been spectacular at times, but he continues to be forced to spend time on the bench due to foul trouble. The frustrating part is that many of his fouls are "stupid" fouls and not for being aggressive. Nichols presence on the court seems to be very reassuring to the team as the offense just seems to be much more in sync while he's out there. I would like to see him be a little more aggressive with the ball. Though he still almost never turns the ball over, he could be a little more productive scoring and getting assists. Ruoff continues to play solid, intelligent basketball and has been the anchor for this team. The next stretch will be very telling. WVU has a better record than 4 of the next 5 opponents and if we hope to make the tourney, these would be extremely important wins.
Some interesting #'s in this game that show a huge difference in philosophy from previous teams. WVU shot fewer 3 pointers than Marquette and dominated the glass. We also saw a huge edge at the free throw line, but that is somewhat out of proportion due to the 13 made free throws in the final minutes.
Though it is a great win, there are still a lot of areas for improvement. Alexander seems out of sync during stretches and he needs to be much more consistent for us to be successful. Interior defense was very lacking at times even in a zone defense as Marquette completed several passes for easy layups. They weren't plays on drive and dishes either, they were passes from the outside going past standing around defenders. Butler's offense has been spectacular at times, but he continues to be forced to spend time on the bench due to foul trouble. The frustrating part is that many of his fouls are "stupid" fouls and not for being aggressive. Nichols presence on the court seems to be very reassuring to the team as the offense just seems to be much more in sync while he's out there. I would like to see him be a little more aggressive with the ball. Though he still almost never turns the ball over, he could be a little more productive scoring and getting assists. Ruoff continues to play solid, intelligent basketball and has been the anchor for this team. The next stretch will be very telling. WVU has a better record than 4 of the next 5 opponents and if we hope to make the tourney, these would be extremely important wins.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Weezie's Thoughts
First of all, let me congratulate the Mountaineers on what I believe is their greatest performance. Though they have dominated teams before and won big games, I can't recall them ever dominating a top tier program in this big of a game.
I understand everyone's thoughts on the decision to hire Coach Stewart. I've been impatiently awaiting for them to name someone the coach as timing was getting to be a little worrisome, but I wouldn't be so cynical regarding the administrations process of hiring Stewart. Though it does seem like an emotional response, it wouldn't have been prudent to officially hire him prior to the game if they truly had been considering him all along. After listening to Coach Stew's press conferencet, he will be a welcome breath of fresh air from coaches that do nothing but double speak to the press. I think he would have spoken to the press all night long if they had let him.
Certainly head coaches receive too much blame for a loss and too much credit for a win. Coach Magee was instrumental in the play of the offense last night and enough credit can't be given to Coach Casteel on the job the defense did. After reading the article posted by Geek a while back on Coach Magee becoming a name that would soon be associated with programs searching for a new head coach, it leaves me to wonder, why wasn't he considered for the WVU position? Did he jump ship and sign on with Dick Rod too quickly? When Coach Stoops was asked if WVU had shown anything new offensively that they hadn't seen, his response was not really, maybe a couple slight wrinkles. We all saw the "slight wrinkles" in WVU's offensive game plan the other night and it has been something that most of us have been waiting for for quite some time. That is the true spread offense. One that stretches you all over the field vertically and horizontally. Nobody was ever asking Dick Rod to change his philosophy, but to just use all of the options that a veteran team can utilize in it. Pat White is by far the best player in the country, and it is actually a shame that he only got to showcase his greatness running the ball this year.
On another note, Coach Stoops was terrible in this game. It's often a cliche that officials could call holding on every play, but they really could have against OU. I think that some of the terrible holding penalties that weren't called was because the officials were truly getting tired of calling them and didn't want to be criticized for calling a holding penalty on every play. And most of the pressure that was being applied was not on blitzes but 3 and 4 man rushing schemes. If OU had figured out a way to block a 4 man rush without holding, their passing game would have likely kept the game much more competitive. And as I watched Pat White scramble for several first downs, I kept wondering what kind of idiot continues to blitz Pat White. That ranks up there with Steve Logan going for two at the end of regulation in '96 when we had missed several chip shot field goals.
As for other matters, there were a couple of interesting things during the bowl game. I usually don't enjoy watching the broadcasts on Fox as the announcers don't do any college football all year long and the coverage is usually awkward. However, whoever was doing the play-by-play this year was quite entertaining. The comments made when Berry and Dingle were sitting on the bench had me rolling in laughter. However, he also stated toward the very end of the game that you might be able to smell the couches in Morgantown. For those that don't know tradition, they may think that West Virginian's have smelly furniture. And finally, did anyone notice the Pride of West Virginia's choice for their song at halftime? An old American folk song sung by countless artists (made famous by the Animals): House of the Rising Sun. If your not familiar, it's a song about life gone wrong in New Orleans.
I understand everyone's thoughts on the decision to hire Coach Stewart. I've been impatiently awaiting for them to name someone the coach as timing was getting to be a little worrisome, but I wouldn't be so cynical regarding the administrations process of hiring Stewart. Though it does seem like an emotional response, it wouldn't have been prudent to officially hire him prior to the game if they truly had been considering him all along. After listening to Coach Stew's press conferencet, he will be a welcome breath of fresh air from coaches that do nothing but double speak to the press. I think he would have spoken to the press all night long if they had let him.
Certainly head coaches receive too much blame for a loss and too much credit for a win. Coach Magee was instrumental in the play of the offense last night and enough credit can't be given to Coach Casteel on the job the defense did. After reading the article posted by Geek a while back on Coach Magee becoming a name that would soon be associated with programs searching for a new head coach, it leaves me to wonder, why wasn't he considered for the WVU position? Did he jump ship and sign on with Dick Rod too quickly? When Coach Stoops was asked if WVU had shown anything new offensively that they hadn't seen, his response was not really, maybe a couple slight wrinkles. We all saw the "slight wrinkles" in WVU's offensive game plan the other night and it has been something that most of us have been waiting for for quite some time. That is the true spread offense. One that stretches you all over the field vertically and horizontally. Nobody was ever asking Dick Rod to change his philosophy, but to just use all of the options that a veteran team can utilize in it. Pat White is by far the best player in the country, and it is actually a shame that he only got to showcase his greatness running the ball this year.
On another note, Coach Stoops was terrible in this game. It's often a cliche that officials could call holding on every play, but they really could have against OU. I think that some of the terrible holding penalties that weren't called was because the officials were truly getting tired of calling them and didn't want to be criticized for calling a holding penalty on every play. And most of the pressure that was being applied was not on blitzes but 3 and 4 man rushing schemes. If OU had figured out a way to block a 4 man rush without holding, their passing game would have likely kept the game much more competitive. And as I watched Pat White scramble for several first downs, I kept wondering what kind of idiot continues to blitz Pat White. That ranks up there with Steve Logan going for two at the end of regulation in '96 when we had missed several chip shot field goals.
As for other matters, there were a couple of interesting things during the bowl game. I usually don't enjoy watching the broadcasts on Fox as the announcers don't do any college football all year long and the coverage is usually awkward. However, whoever was doing the play-by-play this year was quite entertaining. The comments made when Berry and Dingle were sitting on the bench had me rolling in laughter. However, he also stated toward the very end of the game that you might be able to smell the couches in Morgantown. For those that don't know tradition, they may think that West Virginian's have smelly furniture. And finally, did anyone notice the Pride of West Virginia's choice for their song at halftime? An old American folk song sung by countless artists (made famous by the Animals): House of the Rising Sun. If your not familiar, it's a song about life gone wrong in New Orleans.
Stewart named HC
Congratulations to the new non-interim-HC. As I told DaGeek last night, I really don't feel like I can give a heartfelt argument against this hire at a time like now, after he executed to perfection what was thought to be a lost cause. But that's what worries me.
This makes me think that the administration was trying to hire an insider for cheap instead of hiring the best qualified candidate in the country all along. It does not raise my confidence level in the administration that they decided to do this in the wake of a big emotional event when all Mountaineer fans would be less resistant for sentimental reasons. If there had been a blowout loss, would they have made the hire? Would they have announced it in the middle of the night? Frankly, if they think Stewart is the man, the results of this one game shouldn't matter too much. The circumstances make it seem like it's the only thing that matters, at the expense (potentially) of recruiting prowess, team management, coordinator hiring ability, offensive and defensive philosophy, etc etc.
The players seems to heavily support him, and he pulled off this game against long odds (albeit with the help of Calvin). I'm not going to pull my hair out about this, and this hire doesn't reduce my expectations for next year. I hope my general skepticism is proven wrong- but is this the hire a top tier program makes? On one for whom life at the top is just a blip?
Think of it this way- this is the Steelers hiring Russ Grimm instead of Mike Tomlin. Maybe it would have been fine. We'll get to find out between now and the first few years of the next decade.
This makes me think that the administration was trying to hire an insider for cheap instead of hiring the best qualified candidate in the country all along. It does not raise my confidence level in the administration that they decided to do this in the wake of a big emotional event when all Mountaineer fans would be less resistant for sentimental reasons. If there had been a blowout loss, would they have made the hire? Would they have announced it in the middle of the night? Frankly, if they think Stewart is the man, the results of this one game shouldn't matter too much. The circumstances make it seem like it's the only thing that matters, at the expense (potentially) of recruiting prowess, team management, coordinator hiring ability, offensive and defensive philosophy, etc etc.
The players seems to heavily support him, and he pulled off this game against long odds (albeit with the help of Calvin). I'm not going to pull my hair out about this, and this hire doesn't reduce my expectations for next year. I hope my general skepticism is proven wrong- but is this the hire a top tier program makes? On one for whom life at the top is just a blip?
Think of it this way- this is the Steelers hiring Russ Grimm instead of Mike Tomlin. Maybe it would have been fine. We'll get to find out between now and the first few years of the next decade.
Wow Just Wow!!! 48-28
Coach Stew and the entire team thanks!!!Images of Coach Stewart, Pat White and Owen Schmitt from CBS Sports.com.Images of DR and Noel on the right is from Yahoo Sports.
Congrats to the Mountaineers
I couldn't imagine a better way to start the year and put the last one to bed. That was an excellent football game.
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