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Post by cviller on Nov 30, 2007 16:46:58 GMT -5
Wow, yesterday when I signed there was less than 400.
It was on the local news at noon again today.
So the word is getting out. I hope they do can him.
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Post by cviller on Nov 30, 2007 13:07:10 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Jan 14, 2008 14:42:51 GMT -5
Not likely April 15th, that's a Tuesday.
Maybe the 12th or 19th???
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Post by cviller on Jan 13, 2008 13:34:52 GMT -5
You got it MJ!
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Post by cviller on Apr 11, 2008 7:46:13 GMT -5
Remember that BIG hit Nate put on someone in the Gator Bowl!!!! ;D
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Post by cviller on Nov 17, 2007 10:56:51 GMT -5
Tony Caridi Cincinnati, Ohio
Technically the Big East Conference does not have a championship game like its BCS brethren in the ACC, SEC and Big 12.
However, for the record, the Big East will hold its championship game Saturday night in Cincinnati. The winner between the Mountaineers and Bearcats will win the conference title and a birth in to the BCS. That’s it plain and simple.
Yes, West Virginia will still have two games remaining after its date at Nippert Stadium, and Cincinnati will still have a game against Syracuse. Quite honestly those games will be more coronations than contests.
The fact is that West Virginia’s visit to Cincinnati should be for the conference championship, because the Mountaineers and Bearcats are the two best teams in the Big East. The one-time contenders have been exposed. Rutgers, South Florida and Connecticut are all solid but not of championship caliber this season.
That leaves us with West Virginia and Cincinnati who are kissing cousins in most Big East categories.
In scoring offense, West Virginia is the leader and Cincinnati is second. Cincinnati is number one in turnover margin, West Virginia is second. When it comes to scoring defense, UC is first and WVU is third. I could go on with more examples, but you get the point. The cream has risen to the top in the Big East and now its time to find out who’s the creamiest.
Personally, I can’t wait for Saturday night. The stadium will be sold-out and raucous. There will be a palpable buzz of excitement with each snap of the ball. This is exactly how a conference championship should be decided. You’ve got the preseason favorite in West Virginia playing in a hostile environment against the surprise team of the conference. Both schools love to play fast and physical, both schools have quarterbacks who are allergic to losing.
In a word it’s perfect. No team will back into the Big East title this season. It will be won facemask to facemask and punch for punch, a team from a blue-collar city against a team from a blue-collar state.
Don’t get tight this week, rather embrace the hype and enjoy the ride. West Virginia is playing for the championship of the Big East and that’s a very good thing.
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Post by cviller on Nov 28, 2007 10:22:16 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Aug 31, 2007 15:52:41 GMT -5
By Jack Bogaczyk Daily Mail Sports Editor
MORGANTOWN -- I like Bill Cubit's attitude. He understands that to be somebody, you have to beat somebody.
"We're not a team that's going to shy away," Cubit, the Western Michigan football coach, told his local newspaper in Kalamazoo the other day. "(West Virginia) is a great team. They really are.
"They're one of the top three teams in the country ... We're not like some teams and go play a bunch of nobodies and get the record up there. I'd rather go play those types of teams."
Understand this as Cubit's Broncos visit Mountaineer Field on a season opener Saturday:
There's no way WVU would be ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press preseason poll had the Mountaineers not beaten Georgia for a first Bowl Championship Series victory after the 2005 season. That's when the profile of Coach Rich Rodriguez's program changed.
Going 11-2 last season, finishing second in an improved Big East Conference, winning a Gator Bowl over unranked Georgia Tech, and having Steve Slaton and Patrick White returning wouldn't have gotten WVU into a preseason neighborhood.
Remember, WVU started at No. 5 a year ago -- because it was coming off 11-1 and had stunned the Southeastern Conference champion Bulldogs in their Atlanta backyard in a Katrina-transplanted Sugar Bowl.
(As an aside, do you think Alabama would have come within a "Beat Auburn" bumper sticker's width of hiring Rodriguez away from home last December had he not gotten the SEC's attention in its bowl game 11 months earlier?)
Cubit's team may be about a four-touchdown underdog, but it's not one of your father's Mid-American Conference middling programs that visited here often during the Coach Don Nehlen era.
Western may be 0-18 all-time against ranked teams, but when the Broncos won before nearly 60,000 at Virginia last September, people paid attention. Rodriguez understands how that works.
A lot of times, you have to beat a Top 25 team before you can be a Top 25 team. You have to be a Top 25 team before you can be a Top 25 program.
That's what Rodriguez wanted to eventually achieve back in 2002, when the Mountaineers went a surprising 9-4 -- a five-game reversal from his 3-8 debut -- and finished 25th in the final poll.
He's been on a track as fast as his no-huddle spread offense since.
When did it turn for the Mountaineers?
Well, following a 41-7 Gator bowl pasting by recent nemesis Maryland to end 2003, it appeared WVU had things figured out the next September when it upended the No. 21 Terrapins in overtime at Mountaineer Field.
However, the 2004 season-ending banana-peelers by Boston College, Pitt and Florida State followed. Then came October 2005, and the unranked Mountaineers rallied from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to win at home over No. 19 Louisville in three OTs.
The rest is almost heavenly history for WVU.
In Rodriguez's first nine games against ranked teams, WVU was 2-7. It's 6-5 against poll-sitters since. That's happened because as WVU has gotten better talent, the Mountaineers also have learned how not to beat themselves.
Mostly in 114 football autumns, West Virginia has come from nowhere when it has had success. Nine times, the Mountaineers finished in the polls after not appearing in the preseason top 25.
On five occasions, WVU has started in the rankings, but has finished on the outside. Only five times has WVU opened and finished in the poll in a season (1953, '55, '88, '89, 2006). In 2007, it will be trying to make it five top 10 poll finishes in the last two decades.
WVU's schedule might be the most difficult in a softened non-conference year in the Big East. The Mountaineers go to USF (better than people think) and Rutgers (six home games and a trip to sickly Syracuse before WVU visits). Louisville comes to Rodriguezville.
As it opens against the Broncos, WVU obviously has the horses. There should be only one reason the Mountaineers shouldn't finish at least as high as they start in the polls.
With those great expectations on their shoulder pads like never before, the toughest team the Mountaineers will face is in the mirror.
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Post by cviller on Dec 18, 2007 8:40:30 GMT -5
By Dave Poe, Sports Editor
PARKERSBURG — It’s time to move on.
The Rich Rodriguez era ended ugly, but it has ended.
It’s time for West Virginia University to move on and hire his replacement.
Naturally, several familiar names immediately surfaced.
Let’s look at those names and whether they are right for West Virginia.
? Terry Bowden: He’s charismatic and enthusiastic, but he carries a lot of personal baggage.
He’s been out of the coaching business since 1998, meaning most of the young men he would be recruiting were nine years old when he last roamed the sidelines.
Bowden wants the job —he’s lobbying for it — but he almost wants it too much.
WVU can do better.
• Jimbo Fisher: The Clarksburg native and Florida State offensive coordinator already has been named Bobby Bowden’s successor when Bowden retires, which reportedly will be following the 2008 season.
Even if Fisher is interested, he has no head coaching experience and there’s a major difference from being a coordinator to being in charge of 100 young men, the media, recruiting, and all the other duties that go with being a head coach.
WVU doesn’t need anyone getting on-the-job training.
• Doc Holliday: Florida’s associate head coach, a West Virginia native and a former Mountaineer assistant for 21 seasons. Just like Fisher, he’s never been a head college coach.
• Todd Graham: A former Rodriguez assistant who has done well at both Rice and Tulsa running the spread offense.
But alarm bells go off with the words “former Rodriguez assistant.’’
The last thing WVU needs to do to itself is hire anyone who has ties to Rodriguez.
• Butch Jones: Another former Rodriguez assistant who is doing well in the coaching ranks as he led Central Michigan to the Mid American Conference championship.
Again the operative words are “former Rodriguez assistant.’’
By now you get the idea. I reject all the tried and true names that are being bandied about.
Why? Not because they aren’t good men and good coaches, but because WVU needs to start anew.
It needs a fresh face. Someone who won’t come in having been associated with any past Mountaineer coach.
With the amount of money WVU can and likely will pay, it may well witness a high-profile coach who is ready to move on fall into its lap the way Rodriguez became available for Michigan.
If that happens, then the Mountaineers may quickly have their man. If it doesn’t, there’s still no need to panic.
There’s a lot of young coaches out there who might well like the chance to win a national title at West Virginia. Take, for example, Boise State coach Chris Peterson who is 23-2 with a Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma.
He’s making $850,000, less than half of what WVU was paying Rodriguez.
No, he’s not my candidate. I don’t have one.
I’m just saying WVU shouldn’t limit itself and should conduct a nationwide search in hopes of landing the best available coach.
The timing of Rodriguez’s departure may hasten the hiring process, but this one is too important to fumble.
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com
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Post by cviller on Mar 31, 2008 17:07:11 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Jan 31, 2008 10:59:27 GMT -5
WVU lawyers begin negotiating for payback of buyout
By Mike Casazza Daily Mail sportswriter
MORGANTOWN - Lawyers for West Virginia University and former football Coach Rich Rodriguez have begun negotiations regarding the buyout in Rodriguez's final contract.
The discussions, which began Monday, do not involve the amount of money Rodriguez is to pay WVU, but how and when the sum is to be paid, according to WVU co-counsel Jeff Wakefield, of the Charleston firm Flaherty, Sensabaugh & Bonasso.
"The only discussions that have occurred were with Mr. Rodriguez's attorneys and we indicated we may be willing to discuss with them the method and manner in which he pays the $4 million," Wakefield said. "Any resolution to that matter would include Mr. Rodriguez paying $4 million."
Sean McGinley, the Rodriguez attorney with whom WVU has spoken, did not return a message.
WVU is suing Rodriguez for the buyout amount and claims he breached the contract by failing to pay one-third of the total within 30 days of his resignation. Rodriguez challenged the buyout and questioned the validity of the contract. He said he was pressured into signing and that he was promised by WVU President Mike Garrison the buyout would be reduced or removed.
However, Rodriguez filed a $1.5 million letter of credit Monday saying he was willing to pay that sum. His agent, Mike Brown, called it a "good faith effort to move the process and communication lines forward so all parties can concentrate on their future endeavors."
That process for WVU includes no plans to reduce the buyout and just considerations to work with Rodriguez to allow him to pay the money in a matter more to his liking.
"We maintain Mr. Rodriguez owes West Virginia $4 million," Wakefield said. "We'd certainly be open to discussions with Mr. Rodriguez and his representatives about the method of payment or a schedule of payment, but any discussion with them would have to center around the payment of the $4 million."
Last April, former men's basketball Coach John Beilein reached an agreement with WVU regarding his buyout. He and his lawyer, Wheeling's Bob Fitzsimmons, who is working for WVU in its case against Rodriguez, shaved $1 million off the original $2.5 million. Beilein will make the first of five $300,000 payments to the WVU Foundation in April.
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JORGE WRIGHT, a defensive lineman from Miami's Dr. Michael Krop High School, gave a verbal commitment to WVU football Coach Bill Stewart Sunday. The 6-foot-3, 260-pound end is the 17th signed or verbal commitment to the Mountaineers' recruiting class.
Wright was on campus last weekend for an official visit. He had 18 sacks as a senior and is the seventh defensive lineman prospect to join the recruiting class. Wright chose WVU over Central Florida, Auburn and Tennessee.
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Post by cviller on Nov 23, 2007 10:30:55 GMT -5
No problem MJ, hope to see you soon on my way to the NC game.
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Post by cviller on Nov 23, 2007 10:10:06 GMT -5
SORRY! There is a problem, I've emailed MetroNews direct to see what's going on. Will let you know when I hear anything.
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Post by cviller on Nov 23, 2007 0:11:07 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Jan 5, 2008 19:35:38 GMT -5
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