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Post by cviller on Sept 24, 2007 10:00:03 GMT -5
Look for Cincinnati to be sold out. Did any of you watch the Marshall Cincinnati game. They had a sellout +. I've been to that Stadium twice and it is a very unique place. The front rows are very low to the field and hard to see over the players on the side lines, so they had them covered. However, during the 1st quarter, the covers were gone and you could hear the announment that they had opened up the seats for the over flow. Their fans were really into the game. It only holds 35,000, but they were really LOUD!!!! Four or five of us are thinking about trying to go to that game.
Also look for Syracuse (now that they have won a big game) to sell out the dome. If you look at are schdeule, it appears all the remaining games will be sell outs!
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Post by cviller on Nov 29, 2007 19:07:17 GMT -5
Insider: WVU can't conceal its naked ambition in title quest By Dennis Dodd CBSSports.com Senior Writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Technically, there's a game here Saturday. But, really, it's more like a coronation.
Party tents are set up outside Milan Puskar Stadium. The town itself is bursting with couch-burning anticipation. How big is it that West Virginia is one walkover victory away from playing for the national championship? Somebody got nude at the team hotel last Friday.
The question is, exactly who?
"I'm not allowed to disclose that," said guard Greg Isdaner.
In their brotherhood of glee, the nation's top-ranked team (coaches' poll) either doesn't know or is keeping silent the identity of the player who sprinted down a hall of the Lakeview Resort, sans even a jockstrap, to celebrate then-No. 1 LSU's loss to Arkansas.
"I don't know who it was," said usually chatty cornerback Vaughn Rivers, "or I might give it up to you."
The Mountaineers were holed up in the team hotel Friday, as per custom before home games, when the LSU-Arkansas game got real interesting.
"Seventy-five percent of the kids were in the hallway," Isdaner said. "It was pandemonium, especially when you go through hell with your teammates. Everybody was tuned into the game."
The Tigers' loss was the last domino that had to fall, allowing West Virginia to be in position to play for it all. Although there are four one-loss teams, the timing of the Mountaineers' only loss (Sept. 28 at South Florida) and their play since then has put them in a fortuitous spot. Unlike Missouri, they don't have to play a conference championship game. Unlike Ohio State, they don't need help from someone else.
There are no worries if they beat Pittsburgh, a 28-point underdog, a program bordering on hapless at the moment.
One game at a time? On Saturday pass the beer, brats and boarding passes. A whole lot of Mountaineers are headed to New Orleans.
"I addressed it honestly," coach Rich Rodriguez said. "Is this beautiful or what? It's a great opportunity. Are you kidding me? We've got a chance if we go out and take care of business. We could play for the big marbles."
Rodriguez chooses to call Saturday's game a semifinal to get to the finals. The truth is, there haven't been much easier BCS title game qualifiers. Utah had to beat its mortal enemy BYU at home in 2004 to get to the Fiesta Bowl. The Utes did, by 31, but the ramp-up to that game was as much nervousness as anticipation. Ohio State was taken to the gun by Michigan last season before winning by three. Florida had to come from behind to beat Arkansas in the SEC title game.
USC did lose its focus, losing to UCLA on the final day of the season allowing the Gators their chance.
"You don't get to the finals," Rodriguez reiterated, "until you win the semis."
But coming off a 66-21 win over Connecticut that clinched at least a share of the Big East and BCS berth, the Backyard Brawl might as well be the pregame show for the postgame celebration. Right?
"Why are you asking me the question?" said quarterback Patrick White when asked about the team's focus.
Because isn't there a possibility this giddy team could lose its mental grip and start the after-party in their minds right now?
"No," snapped White.
The night of Sept. 28, the nation probably wrote off West Virginia as a contender. It played sloppily in a 21-13 loss to South Florida that vaulted the Bulls into the top 10 and the nation's consciousness. After Louisville and Rutgers last year, the Big East had its next big thing. Meanwhile, the Mountaineers dropped from fifth to 13th.
In the locker room, Rodriguez seized on the obvious: "We can still win the Big East." How hollow those words must have sounded to a team that had national championship aspirations.
"It was still pretty bleak," Isdaner said. "There were still three Big 12 teams ahead of us. We knew some things had to happen."
"I might have thought to myself, 'Obviously, there goes our perfect season and some of our goals,'" linebacker Marc Magro said.
"The way they played us, I didn't know if we were going to be able to (do it)," Rivers said of the Bulls. "I didn't think they were going to lose, honestly."
The season of the upset, they found out, was just beginning. Quarterbacks coach Rod Smith, who had just come over from South Florida, pulled Rivers aside and said, "Those boys got another three losses in them," according to the defensive back.
Seven weeks later it was a reality, as the Bulls dropped three consecutive games from Oct. 18 to Nov. 3.
"Damn, you know your old ballclub," Rivers told Smith.
Week by week, West Virginia worked its way back up until Ohio State's loss to Illinois gave the Mountaineers real hope. They moved from sixth to third in the Nov. 18 BCS.
"It motivates our guys every time they say, 'It's this team's turn or that team's turn,'" Rodriguez said. "We're still thinking, 'We're still there, we're still West Virginia.' My wife, Rita, gets more fired up than I do. ... She's like, 'Why aren't they talking about West Virginia?'"
They are now, but as what? The program isn't quite a traditional national title contender on a par with Ohio State. But it has won at least a share of four of the last five Big East titles.
It isn't exactly a newbie on the scale of Boise State or Hawaii, either. Don Nehlen led the team to a shot at the national championship against Notre Dame in 1988. Two years ago Rodriguez's guys beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, a de facto home game for the Dawgs played in Atlanta.
Recently, the Mountaineers tended to tense up in big games that would have helped establish them as a national power. Tailback Steve Slaton had a combined six fumbles in do-or-die games against Louisville last season and South Florida this season.
"A national power means that you're going to compete, you're winning your conference, you're always at least contending for your conference and there's always a preseason chance you're going to contend for the national championship," Magro said.
By that definition the Mountaineers are just about there. We won't find out Saturday, of course. It's going to be too easy to get to the Big Easy. The answer will begin to take shape in New Orleans and in the years to follow. Until then, happenings like Saturday mean clothing is still optional for the Mountaineers.
"I don't blame them," Rodriguez said.
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Post by cviller on Feb 5, 2008 16:46:22 GMT -5
Flip a Coin Posted By John Antonik: February 4, 2008 (9:06 pm) For those of you hopped up on football recruiting, Christmas arrives Wednesday morning when prospects begin signing binding letters-of-intent. For those of you planning on using Rivals.com or Scout.com to formulate your opinions on how well Bill Stewart and his assistants fare this year keep this sobering fact in mind: statistically these guys are about half right and half wrong. Flip a coin. According to Sunday’s Charleston Post, Larry Williams and Travis Haney in their article Grading the Graders examined the recruiting rankings of the nation’s Top 25 teams the last two years. What they found was that Rivals.com had just 11 of last year’s Top 25 football teams averaging a recruiting class of 25th or better from 2003 to 2007. Scout.com also missed on 14 of the Top 25. That’s a combined success rate of 47 percent. Usual top teams like USC, LSU, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Auburn fared well in the recruiting rankings. Others like No. 4 Missouri, whose recruiting classes ranked in the high 30s by Rivals and the low 40s according to Scout, and No. 6 West Virginia, also in the high 30s by Rivals and low 40s by Scout, are crashing the party. Mountaineer fans out there can take pride in knowing that West Virginia joins USC, Ohio State and LSU as the only four schools to have finished ranked in the Top 10 in each of the last three seasons (can you guess which of the four teams is considered the anomaly?). Williams and Haney go on to cite other examples of schools doing well on the football field despite faring poorly in the recruiting rankings. This brings me back to my favorite quote about high school recruiting made by former Michigan recruiting coordinator Fritz Seyforth in the 1986 Sports Illustrated story Call Them the Cub Scouts. Said Seyforth, “We don’t know what we got. How can these guys know?” Flip a coin. By the way, here were the 10 most coveted high school seniors in 1986: 1. Leonard (Eight Ball) Russell, RB, Long Beach, Calif. 2. Emmitt Smith, RB, Pensacola, Fla. 3. Darren Lewis, RB, Dallas 4. Charles Collins, DT, Chicago 5. William Henry, FB, Frederick, Md. 6. David Rocker, DT, Atlanta 7. Greg Skrepenak, OT, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 8. Matt Darby, LB, Virginia Beach, Va. 9. Jeff Ellis, TE, Louisville, Ky. 10. Gus Palma, WR, Bellport, N.Y. How many of them did you recognize? My guess is you probably recognized about half. Signing Day $$$ Posted By John Antonik: February 3, 2008 (8:43 pm) Several schools are now viewing football signing day as a means of making a few extra bucks for the program. According to Washington Post’s Josh Barr, the University of Maryland will charge $20 bucks for fans to listen to Terrapin coach Ralph Friedgen talk about his football recruits. The $20 gets Maryland fans that aren’t part of the booster club admission to the Riggs Alumni Center where Freidgen and his assistant coaches will be available for discussion. Minnesota is charging $10 for the ‘Sota Social which includes refreshments and a silent auction. Georgia Tech is charging $27 for its signing day event that includes a buffet and cash bar. West Virginia isn’t planning any paid social signing day events, but CSTV All-Access subscribers will have the opportunity to watch football coach Bill Stewart announce the newest Mountaineers at 3 pm Wednesday night. Fans can access the live press conference by using this link: all-access.cstv.com/cstv/player/player.html?code=wvir&sport=m-footbl&category=Signing%20Day%20%28MediaType%29&media=58046.
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Post by cviller on Feb 5, 2008 16:33:13 GMT -5
MSNsportsNET.com February 6, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On Wednesday, Feb. 6, MSNsportsNET.com will provide live and up-to-date news about West Virginia University’s newest football recruits. We will be located at the Milan Puskar Center to release each prospect once their letter-of-intent has been received by the coaching staff.
Check the top of the site in the Alerts section for the latest prospect to sign their LOI.
You can log onto MSNsportsNET.com to read biographies, statistics and other information about the newest members of the Mountaineer football program.
Also, at 3 pm be sure to catch Coach Stewart’s live remarks about the Class of 2008 on MSNsportsNET.com. CSTV All-Access registration is required.
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Post by cviller on Sept 28, 2007 7:16:40 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Aug 29, 2007 19:04:14 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Oct 31, 2007 8:29:42 GMT -5
A limited number of tickets returned from Louisville to the Mountaineer Ticket Office are now on sale. Tickets can be purchased by calling 1-800-WVU GAME or in person at the Coliseum Ticket Office.
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Post by cviller on Jan 5, 2008 10:44:25 GMT -5
WVU coach figuring out which staff members will stay on board
By Dave Hickman Staff writer
MORGANTOWN — Bill Stewart spent his first full day as West Virginia’s football coach trying to find out who is with him and who isn’t. If nothing else, he found out he is going to have a lot of work to do in assembling a staff.
Defensively, West Virginia is pretty much set. Defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel agreed on Friday to stay with Stewart and the Mountaineers, and that was a huge save for the newly named head coach. Defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich is also staying on board and Stewart hopes and thinks he can retain safeties coach Bruce Tall, although Tall isn’t expected to give him a definite answer until today. Only secondary coach and recruiting coordinator Tony Gibson has been lost.
Offensively, though, the only coach remaining is first-year wide receivers coach Tony Dews. Offensive coordinator Calvin Magee planned to join former coach Rich Rodriguez at Michigan right from the start, while quarterbacks coach Rod Smith and Greg Frey made their decisions Friday to also join Rodriguez.
The Mountaineers also figure to lose much of the strength and conditioning staff, including strength coach Mike Barwis and skill development coach Chris Allen. They are also expected to inform Stewart of their final decisions today and Stewart fully expects them to be leaving.
As for finding replacements, Stewart said he is going to begin working on defense and then tackle the offensive side of the staff and the strength and conditioning voids.
“The first thing is to get the defense solidified and then tackle everything else,’’ Stewart said. “The offense is going to take a bit longer, but it’s not like there aren’t any great coaches out there. In fact, we’re going to look at a lot of people on every level.’’
The decision by Casteel to stay was huge for Stewart because of how well West Virginia’s defense has played under him. The Mountaineers were among the national leaders in every major defensive category this season — fourth in pass defense, 16th in rush defense, fourth in total defense and seventh in scoring defense.
“He’s the best-kept secret in America,’’ Stewart said of Casteel. “Ask [Oklahoma offensive coordinator] Kevin Wilson. He did a number on them.’’
Oklahoma’s high-scoring offense was held to 28 points in West Virginia’s 48-28 Fiesta Bowl rout of the Sooners Wednesday night.
As for filling the lone hole on the defensive staff, Stewart could hire a secondary coach or hire someone else and shuffle the staff. Don’t be surprised if he goes after someone like Marshall defensive coordinator Steve Dunlap, an old friend and longtime WVU assistant under Don Nehlen, or former West Virginia secondary coach and WVU graduate David Lockwood, who is now at Kentucky.
On offense, the possibilities are wide open, but don’t expect Stewart to try and recruit many former WVU coaches for that side of the ball. He knows that he needs coaches well versed in the spread and able to bring even more fresh ideas,
“We’ll look everywhere, on the I-A level, the I-AA level,’’ Stewart said. “We need to find coaches we can sit down with the rest of the staff and meet with, see what kind of relationships we’re going to be able to build and what kind of ideas they have and go from there. I don’t worry at all about finding a great offensive staff.’’ Stewart’s other big project this week is getting in touch with recruits, although that is difficult given that the NCAA is in a dead period during which only limited contact is allowed. Stewart had reportedly called most of the commitments and prospects West Virginia is interested in by Friday night and was planning to save one his most important calls — to Parkersburg tackle and All-America Josh Jenkins — for today.
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call 348-1734.
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Post by cviller on Feb 11, 2008 11:25:11 GMT -5
RIGHT ON!!!
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Post by cviller on Oct 8, 2007 20:40:30 GMT -5
ESPN Regional To Televise Mississippi State Game; Limited Tickets on Sale
West Virginia University's football game with Mississippi State on Saturday, Oct. 20, at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, originally scheduled for Noon will now kick off at 3:30 p.m.
The game will be televised by ESPN Regional and can be seen around the area on WCHS-TV (Charleston), WVFX (Clarksburg), WOAY (Beckley), WTOV (Wheeling), WPCW (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.).
A very limited amount of returned Mississippi State tickets are on sale at the Mountaineer Ticket Office. Those tickets will go on sale starting at 9 a.m., on Tuesday, Oct. 9, and can be purchased at the Coliseum Ticket Office or by calling 1-800-WVU GAME.
The Mountaineers (5-1, 1-1 BIG EAST) are currently ranked No. 8 by the Associated Press Poll and No. 9 by the USA Today Coaches Poll. WVU is off this week and will face Mississippi State on Oct. 20.
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Post by cviller on Nov 5, 2007 8:20:47 GMT -5
"Hello, BC? This is Earth. Welcome back," writes Ken4LSU. Indeed, second-ranked Boston College saw its unlikely bid for an undefeated season end in a 27-17 loss to Florida State Saturday, as did No. 6 Arizona State, which fell 35-23 in the Pac-10 showdown at No. 4 Oregon. But now isn't the time for sulking, because these one-loss teams are amongst friends. Let's take a quick tour: Meet LSU. The Tigers entered Tuscaloosa, faced old friend Nick Saban and rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Crimson Tide, passing their stiffest test left until a likely appearance in the SEC title game.
Meet Oklahoma. A 42-14 rout of Texas A&M served as another reminder of the Sooners' awesome talent. But they could stumble in the Big 12 title game against still-unbeaten Kansas or fellow one-loss buddy Missouri, says SN's Tom Dienhart.
Meet Oregon. The Sun Devils now have first-hand experience in trying to contain Heisman candidate Dennis Dixon's Ducks, which, as Michigan and Southern Cal have discovered, is a difficult task.
So where do BC and Arizona State fit in this clique? Instead of trying to answer that question, they should adhere to the first (and only) rule of the one-loss club: Don't lose any more freaking games!
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Post by cviller on Jan 9, 2008 17:20:55 GMT -5
Word on another site is that Steve Dunlap the Defensive Coordinator at Marshall and David Lockwood the cornerbacks coach at Kentucky are joining the Mountaineer Staff.
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Post by cviller on Dec 19, 2007 15:21:13 GMT -5
YES! That's a bad thing!
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Post by cviller on Dec 19, 2007 14:02:05 GMT -5
Right on! Now if we could just get a word out of Morgantown on who the new coach is going to be???
The more time that passes since the word about Doc come out, the more I think he might not be the man.
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Post by cviller on Dec 18, 2007 17:37:16 GMT -5
Tony's show will be on at 6pm, if there is anything to it, he'll know and talk about it.
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