Who is the best Big East Coach and why?

I am standing by Rod in this debate but I would love to entertain your thoughts.

Award winners for last week in Big East

Another award wining week for our beloved Mountaineers. The Big East handed out its weekly nod to no one but two Mountaineers: Pat White and Erik Wicks

"White was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season after he accounted for 328 yards of total offense and scored on a 50-yard touchdown run with 1:36 left in the fourth quarter to break a 31-31 tie and give West Virginia a 38-31 win against Louisville. He rushed for a game-high 147 yards and 24 carries and completed 16 of 25 passes for 181 yards and two TDs.
Wicks was chosen as BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week after he figured in two second-half takeaways in the win against Louisville. He scored a touchdown on a 44-yard fumble return in the third quarter and had a key fourth-quarter interception. Wicks added three tackles and a pass breakup." BigEast.org

DaGeek

Where is the crowd noise?

A post by John Radcliff at the AOL Fanhouse blogs discusses, among other things, the issue of crowd noise at Mountaineer Field. Apparently the decibel levels are down from previous years, and it is reducing the edge that home field gives to WVU. I've now read comments from Louisville and Mississippi State players alike saying that they've been underwhelmed by the noise from the stands.

One thing I noted during the Thursday game was that the stadium only got REALLY loud at one moment... the last minute of the game during which Louisville futilely attempted a last-gasp comeback. Granted, that was a good time to have a lot of crowd noise, but why can't we keep up some of that intensity throughout the rest of the game? I screamed myself hoarse the whole time, and I have pretty good vocal projection, so I think I did my part. But, short of higher supplies of alcohol, what can encourage the fans to scream louder, and more frequently? And what has caused the noise shortage in the first place?

DaGeek's Coaches Ratings by monetary value:

After reading Greg’s post I decided to find out a way to evaluate a coaches relative value versus his pay. I chose 15 coaches from notable BCS programs. I think that this is a telling blog so please read on and enjoy. I have decided to make this post all about the cost in dollars per victory. I acknowledge that it is only one measure of success or failure but I thought that it could be a way to do an evaluation. So here goes:

~ From least bang for the buck to most I will do this evaluation. The relative level of hot under the coaches seat will correspond with the color of the writing. I got the coaches base salary and divided the total base salary by the current number of wins. The salaries are as reported on the website: CoachesHotseat.com

~ Charlie Weis to date has cost Notre Dame 3.5 million dollars per win. With two remaining games left on the schedule at the very best he will cost ND 1.67 million per win.

~ Butch Davis is costing North Carolina is costing the Tarheels $600,000.00 per win. The Heels have some hope to recoup a little value with two remaining games making it possible for the price tag to only be $360,000.00 per win.

~ Nick Saban to date has cost Alabama $583,334.00 per win. With two games remaining he at best will cost the Tide $437,500. per win. (Bama will be going bowling so this number may be reduced again.)

~ Kirk Ferentz to date has cost Iowa $473, 334.00 per win.

~ Dave Wannstedt has only cost the Pittiful Panthers $375,000.oo per win thus far. He has 3 more games remaining on his schedule two of which he needs to win to become bowl eligible and they are Rutgers, South Florida, and WVU. Not necessary to recalculate this figure as it is a finale.

~ Tommy Tubberville will cost Auburn $371,428.57 per win. He has one game remaining against Alabama thus the best Auburn can hope for is 325,000.00 per win. (This team is going bowling thus this number may be reduced again.)

~ Bill Callahan of Nebraska is only costing Big Red a paltry $350,000.00 per win. With a win against Colorado Nebraska would only be out $257,000.00 per win and that would make them bowl eligible.

~ Ralph Friedgen has cost the twerps a disgusting $338,380 per win so far this season. He has two games remaining to become bowl eligible which would under that circumstance make his rate $211,483.oo per win.

~ Dennis Franchione has cost Texas A&M $335,367.00 per win. With one remaining game at the very best he will cost Texas A&M $287,457.15 per win.

~ Tom O’Brien is costing the Wolfpack $300,000.00 per win thus far this season. He has 2 wins to become bowl eligible and with that occurrence he could at best bring this total down to $187,500 per win.

~ Phillup Fulmer is costing the Vols thus far $292,857.15 per win. This team still has 2 remaining home games with a shot at the SEC Finals and a major bowl thus if successful making the best-case scenario cost per win this season $186,364.00 per win.

~ Bobby Bowden is costing the Seminoles $281,983.34 per win to date. The Noles have an additional 2 regular season games and a bowl game to bring that total down to at best $187,988.89 per win.

~ Frank Beamer is costing the Chokies $251,000.00 per win. But as was said about Tennessee that number can drop a large margin if VPI can win its final 2 games the ACC Championship and its BCS bowl game under that scenario the price tag would be a meager $167,333,34 per game.

~ Rich Rodriguez is a very cheap by way of comparison costing $162,500.00 with 4 more games to play this season, which could reduce that number to $108,334.00 per win. With only one other coach in his range of pay and bang for buck being Mark Mangino I think that Hot Rod has done pretty well by us.

~ Mark Mangino is costing Kansas $150,124.10 per win thus far. And with his Cinderella season he has an opportunity to reduce that sum substantially with wins in its final 2 regular season games an appearance in the Big 12 Championship and a BCS Bowl win. Were that to happen the Jayhawks would only be in the till for 107,231.50 per win. This guy looks to be the pound for pound champ.

~ Needless to say these numbers are staggering. How Charlie Weis has a job after this year is beyond me.

Well I hope you enjoyed,

DaGeek

Coaches ratings

Just a thought. Who's doing the best and worst coaching jobs this season. I'll start with my thought on the worst. Despite my complete disdain for Charlie Weis (Jaba the Hut), I would really have to give it to another washed up "pro" coach, Pete Carrol. He's done less with more than any other coach. In fact, they haven't looked like the same offense since Norm Chow left. Blame injuries, blame the weather, blame the schedule, blame the waterboy but USC was supposed to be 9 deep with 5 stars at RB. Their celebrated team speed on defense couldn't keep up with Stanford and frankly, IDAHO moved the ball on them with no problem. They still are likely to make a BCS game, but I'm not picking them to beat any other BCS team (except IF Hawaii makes it). Pete Carrol has done a terrific job recruiting....maybe he should go into sales.

On the other end of the spectrum , if Mark Magino runs the table, he's the coach of the year. Looking a little deeper, Sly Croom is winning games where he shouldn't. Love that in a coach. (Hated that about Nehlen, never won games he wasn't suppose to win...Coach Rod....Georgia!) Good coaches inspire and coach them up! Kudos to the Zooker for this weekend but I'm not convinced he's an X's and O's guy. Just another case of a traditional defense vs. the spread...when will they learn? Don't get me wrong. Tressel is solid and probably the most dignified coach out there, but he hasn't handled the spread very well.

And finally I have to mention Troy Calhoun and Paul Johnson. Not just because AF and Navy beat Notre Dame, but the fact that they get the little guys to play harder than their opponents week in and week out!

W'sWVS Contributing Writer's Poll:

THE FOLLOWING IS THE CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S POLL DATED 11/12/07. THE INDIVIDUAL POLLS WILL BE ATTACHED AS THE FIRST COMMENTS FOR THIS BLOG AS HAS BEEN SAID MANY TIMES BEFORE WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR SCRUTINY.

Rank: School: Votes (1st); Last Week

1. Kansas 122 (3); 4

2. Oregon 121 (2); 1

3. LSU 114; 3

4. WVU 110; 5

5. Oklahoma 108; 5

6. Missouri 99; 7

7. Arizona State 93; 8

8. Ohio State 91; 2

9. Georgia 80; 13

10. VPI 79; 11

11. USC 64; 15

12. Texas 59; 16

13. UVA 58; 25

14. Clemson 53; 20

(Tie) Florida 53; 20

16. Hawaii 49; 14

17. Cincinnati 48; 18

18. Boise State 40; 17

(Tie) Boston College 40; 10

20. Tennessee 28; 22

21. U Conn 20; 9

22. Illinois 18; NR

23. UK 17; NR

24. USF 12; NR

25. Penn State 10; NR

Dropped out of last weeks poll:
Michigan, Auburn, Alabama, California,

Receiving votes:
Wisconsin 6, BYU 5, Michigan 4

Biggest move up:
UVA 12; Clemson and Florida 4
Largest fall: Michigan 15; U Conn 11; OSU 7

Bonus Treat: "WVU vs. UL Highlights"compliments of Dougity Dog:

DaGeek's Weekend Thoughts:

~ First off I want to again say congrats to the Lady Mountaineers. Big time win for program. :)

~ Well the Harris and Coaches Polls like us at 5th but the computers have us at 8th. This means we reside at 6th in the BCS Poll. That is right we fell a spot. I think that part of that is that we have played fewer games, but that is discouraging. It looks like the only way WVU plays for all the cookies is if both Oregon and LSU lose. I say this because it looks as if the Big 12 will be represented in the big game.

~ Hawaii's run this year may be marred by the concussion suffered by Colt. He clearly is their offense. Colt broke all time Touchdown record for QB right before leaving the game (31-7 at the time) with a concussion. Anyway, the Bows are in trouble if he is out this week. I only bring this up as it impacts one more BCS at large spot.

~ WVU's D gave up 31 pts. But to tell you the truth I found them to play very well. U of L was only 3 of 13 on third down conversions. That is a far cry from how that went last year.

~ Survive and advance. Those that are holding onto this montra now are LSU and Kansas. Oregon needs help but is close. Oklahoma, Missouri, and WVU are at mercy of those in front of them losing. As far as the Big East is concerned: WVU is in that mode. If they win at Cincy and defeat UConn at home they will at worst share the Big East Championship. They will be the Big East Rep in the BCS as a result of head to head match-ups. Cincy is still mathematically in it as well if they win out and a WVU wins over UConn. That would assure them a share of Big East title with the BCS bid going to them with tie breaker wins over WVU and UConn. Uconn needs only win out and they will be the Big East Champions. Another slip up and they are outside looking because of tiebreakers. This type of craziness is best settled with a pair of big time wins for WVU against Cincy and UConn. Oh yeah WVU still has the pussy-cats on their schedule at the end of the year. But they goto the BCS with wins in the next 2 weeks regardless of the outcome of that game.

~ I loved the Gold Rush!!! I have never seen such a display of solidarity at Mountaineer field. I loved it live and I loved it when I watched it on TV. The blimp shots really captured the look. I too liked the Gold on Gold Uniforms. Between Oregon and WVU the nation gets a good look at color variations. Anyway, I was quite happy with the Gold Rush.

~ It sounded like the Mountaineer scrimage this weekend demonstrated both a little bit of the old style (aka. Johnny B.) and the new style of Huggy. Sounds like it could be an interesting year for Mountaineer basketball.

~ Chris Henry came back and made an accounting of himself in the Cincy game yesterday. Good to see him back on the field. Good luck to him.

~ D. Reynaud is quietly becoming the single season touchdown reception record holder at WVU. He currently has 10 touchdowns and the record is 12 with 3 games to go. I really hope he stays another year.

~ Frosh report: Well I was very impressed with the play of Brandon Hogan, Joche Saunders, Noel Devine, and our Pat Lazear. These guys certainly give us some things to look forward to in coming years.

~ Thank goodness we picked up Michigan graduate Ryan Mundy. He is a force in and of himself but it doesn't stop there. Because he is holding the fort at free safety. Both Quinton Andrews and Erik Wicks are able to do there thing. I love our secondary this year. It is too bad we will not have him in future years but he will always be a Mountaineer in my heart.

~ Proof again that Owen Schmitt has hardest head in college football (video taken from a YouTube by IronMan2131) :

Have a great week.

DaGeek

WVU Women's Soccer Team is Big East Champion

The lady Eers have done us proud. They defeated ND in double overtime on penalty kicks to take the championship. This is the first every Big East Championship for the team. They are now moving on to the NCAA soccer tournament. Good luck ladies.

We all need more Jarrett Brown in our lives

~DaGeek's Wifey

Weezie's Weekend Notes

* The Cincinnati game now becomes bigger than ever. If WVU were to lose to the Bearcats and finish in a three way tie with them and UConn, then Cincinnati would win the tiebreaker by being 2-0 against WVU and UConn.

* Has anyone seen Utah play this year. I watched a little of their game today against Wyoming and their offense is pretty unbelievable. In the first half they ran a reverse, a screen-and-lateral, a fumblerooskie, and maybe the prettiest fake punt I've seen. If Coach Rod has a version of their fake punt, he should definitely use it. They line up similar to how we do. They spread out and have 3 protectors in front of the punter. The punter receives the snap and the line heads down field as if to cover the punt and the three protectors pretend to block and once the pursuit near them, the punter lobs it over their heads to one of the protectors on a screen pass. When he caught the ball, the guys rushing the punter were behind him and everyone else was 25 yards down the field setting up to block for the return. I didn't watch the whole game, but I guess Utah kept pouring on the trickery in the second half, 'cause when I checked back, the announcers were reporting that the Wyoming head coach had flipped the bird to Utah's coach across the field.

* Wins by Mercer over USC and Gardner Webb over Kentucky in hoops this week are proving once again how useless the preseason polls are. If you compare the preseason poll in football to the current one, you will see that there are only 3 preseason top ten teams (LSU,Oklahoma,WVU) that are in the current top 10. And over 1/3 (9) of the teams in the preseason top 25 are no longer ranked. It hasn't been harmful this year due to the enormous number of upsets, but most years it makes it very difficult for an unheralded team at the beginning of the season to climb into the national championship picture and it still may very well cost Kansas a chance. I suggest that we don't conduct a blog poll next year until after the second full week of games.

* I hear all the speculation this evening that LSU and Oregon will be the new #1 and #2 teams in the country. This makes absolutely no sense. I don't have any problem with voters putting LSU or Oregon ahead of Kansas in general. However, the past few weeks, they have had Ohio State ahead of both those teams and Kansas' accomplishments have been every bit as impressive as the Buckeyes' prior to their loss. So how can a voter justify voting Ohio State #1 last week and not Kansas this week?

* The forced game Joe Manchin brought between Marshall and WVU is continuing to haunt us. Marshall has been pathetic all season and now that they finally decide to play well and win a game, it is over East Carolina. Though the win by Marshall over ECU doesn't seem to hurt WVU's schedule strength, we would have been much better off had ECU won. The Pirates would have clinched a spot in the Conference USA Championship which would look much better than Marshall managing it's measly 2nd win of the season. Now they must hope that UCF loses one of their last two against 1-9 SMU or 4-6 UTEP.

* Congratulations to Coach Weiss at Notre Dame. He has truly taken the program to a level that they have never seen and never could have imagined. It's only too bad that Army couldn't play them this year to complete the trifecta. Be sure to set your TIVO next Saturday at 2:30pm. NBC will be airing what could possibly be the saddest display of college football ever nationally televised that doesn't feature a service academy. (at least they are well coached). Two 1-9 teams will be battling fiercely as Duke travels to South Bend. I'm curious to see what the line is in that game.