One other thing about the game that I forgot to mention about the game. I had to watch it from home and the camera quality was a little bit better than most of the vintage porns I have had the pleasure of watching. You think we could get something better than that at least.

Game 1: Give me Liberty and Give me death.......

My apologies to Patrick Henry for butchering his quote.

Lets face it folks. Yesterday was ugly, ugly as can be. I was hoping for easy running room coupled with play action bombs, and I all but knew our defense would dominate. Instead we dinked and dunked our way into the red zone until our drives stalled and then settled for field goals. Our defense, despite all the pre season accolades, could not get any pressure, could not cover, and had way too many penalties. I have a great number of things that I want to talk about so here goes.

Passing offense-I thought Jarrett did ok. He kept his head up while scrambling never through a dumb pass, and was pretty accurate. There was a lot of dinking and dunking though and I'm not sure if there were open guys down field or not, but most of my guys that were there say that there were. I guess Arnett was running those routes since he didn't even show up the rest of the day. I thought the post pass to Jock in the second half was a great call and some of the passes to Urban down the seam will definitely keep teams from leaving the deep middle open like they have in the past. I thought Jock caught the ball really well, but Urban had two drops that should have been catches. However, JB definitely got less accurate as the game wore on, and he missed at least two of the third downs that lead to field goals. Thats the difference between blowing this team out and looking so so...or one of them. He checked down too early a couple of times and got Devine totally flattened once. Also, he holds the ball way too loosely when he runs with it and that will cost him with faster defenders knocking it out from behind. Overall I would give JB's performance a B -

Offensive Line- The push was good as it should be...its Liberty and I will discuss this more when I talk about the running game but we sure as hell didn't get any help from number 7. Blitz pickup would be my biggest concern. Seemed like some of the guys were blocking air on the middle blitzes...JB made them miss but I wouldn't expect it to happen all the time. This is a correctable mistake though. Barclay had the most mental errors, but after watching some of the other games this week I think our young Oline did much better than many of the other teams. (Bob Stoops is probably running some of his linemen today for all of their false starts.) At first I thought the left side did a much better job, but I just think that Noel has more confidence on that side and gave them more chances to get their blocks down. We can't be a once sided team though. Capers might have had the best day of all of them. He could very well play on Sundays I think they did well and would give them a B+

Running Game-This was not one of little Daddy's best games. Hist first three plays he bounced outside when there was at least some hole. Sure he got the yardage but you have to press the hole like Rene said. It almost cost us on our first third and short and it did cost us on the last run of the half where he had a hole and bounced it out for a loss. He got much better in the second half and accumulated most of his yards. He really is powerful and hard to bring down and on the TD run he was patient, didnt dance, and exploded through the hole much like his first TD against OU in the Fiesta. Overall grade would be C-

Receivers and TE's- Jock had a great game and was pretty much open all game. The only thing he did wrong was go backwards to get more yards and effectively take the first down away on the second possession in the second half. Urban might have had the worst game missing two catches...one was behind him on third down and would have kept the drive alive before we kicked the long field goal. Its still much better than last season and it shows how good of a coach Galloway is. Overall grade would be B+

Defensive Line-Did Scooter Berry even play? How about Neild? For a unit that gets lots of pre season hype they looked like they were just going through the motions. Julian Miller has a motor and might be our best DE we have had here since Dingle or even before that. Overall grade D

Linebackers-Wow is JT Thomas good. The helmet to helmet collision ting will be a much debated topic in Athens and other towns today and I don't think JT's hit was dirty at all. He was definitely the player of the game on defense. Overall grade A-

DB's-Boogie got out of position at times and totally wiffed on a bubble screen that someone in the press box was calling before the snap. E. Smith played pretty good and had the coverage that led to Sand's interception. Sands played great except for his personal foul...his pick was nice but really that ball was thrown high because Smith had such good coverage on the Mike Brown. Speaking of Mike Brown....I think number 10 on their team could play for our team and contend for PT against Jock. He is that good. Hogan was OK but he got burnt a few times. Overall grade B-

Special Teams-The kickoff team is still terrible. No push, no emotion, no effort. Gillyard would have ran one of those back on us again. Something has to change here and Stew has to swallow his pride and let someone else take care of it. Josh Lider had some terrible kicks too only hurt the situation. Rodgers is our best return man so far. Tavon wanted to Dance more than get up field. (I bet he and Devine are hell at the club). The one bright spot was Tyler. He kicked the ball well for his first game, had good height and distance on all his field goals and of course they were accurate. Overall I would have to give Tyler an A, but the rest of the kicking units get an F-.

Overall I think the defense played without emotion and had no fire. It didn't help that we were not blitzing and such, but I would expect that since they hadn't played in nine months they would want to kick some ass. They let Liberty stay on the field way too long either by penalty or by missed tackle way too many times. The offense failed to produce really any big plays and looked more mechanical than methodical. Noel runs as if he is a band apart at times and I'm not sure if its his desire to make a big run every time or distrust in his line. Lets hope that gets corrected.

I talked about expectations last week and how they really influence your reaction. If we do the same thing against ECU I will be as happy as shit, but we will have to play better than this or WVU will get pounded by the pirates again.

Success is all about expectations and some folks RR should thank

In 2002 WVU came off of a very piss poor year in 2001 and most people were skeptical. We had Miami, Maryland, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin on the schedule and a new QB. By the second week it looked as though we were in line for another losing season after Wisconsin completely dismantled us, but something happened. In the third game, Dolomiteclay, his daddy and two brothers went to a WVU game in Cincinnati. The game was a good one that went to the end with Cincy missing a game tying field goal that would have tied it. The win kept the team from getting a losing record but more importantly was the catalyst for the power spread. The team, behind power running and zone reads finished second in the BE with a 9-4 record. By all accounts, despite being dismantled by UVA in a bowl and Scotty McBrien and Maryland the next week the season was a success. Last year we went to the same bowl, finished tied for second in the same league, and had the same record as 2002, but because we won the Fiesta Bowl the year before we were supposed to keep it rolling and beat everyone by 10, 000 points. Now I know that I'm simplifying things, but you can't deny that your success is almost always determined by the expectations you have on the team.

I don't do season predictions because its too hard to do that, but I will do game week predictions. I don't have much to say about this one. We should beat the shit out of this team. What do I want to see...good question because I want to tell you. We need to dominate this team. Last year against 1AA cupcake we started with we threw it around like we were turning into texas tech or something. I turned to the folks in the stands and asked if we would be like Oregon of 07...ECU man handled us the next week and we looked more like Temple. If you want something to watch for the game I suggest watching the center and right guard. They are the most in experienced linemen we have and if they can dominate these guys it will serve well for their confidence. If not, get ready to see lots of passes and hope our defense is more like 96 than 98. Our defense will dominate until the third and second string comes in and we should win by a score of like 35-10 and JB goes for 300.

RR's sagas lately have been well chronicled and such, and I'm not getting into it. I would rather walk into Bagdhad with a shirt of Alla fellating Uncle Same than discuss this any longer. I will, however, say that I think that life always even things out in everything you do and he is paying now for a few lucky breaks he got while he was here. I know he is not nearly as wealthy as he once was, but if he decides to send out Christmas cards to folks this year here are 5 that he might want to add to his list. I didn't include players, because that is too obvious, instead I'm listing some guys that because of things they did or said or had done, they indirectly lead to Rich's success.

5. Elvis Dummervill-I'm not sure about this one, but I think he was the one that caught Adam Bednarick from behind and twisted his knee and injured him against Louisville in 05'. This led to Pat coming in, the comeback, the dream season, etc. Amazing that until he had to play him, he had him on the fucking bench half the game. Effing Genius.

4. The kicker from Cincinnati that missed that kick mentioned above. We miss that kick and I think the season falls into the shitter. RR gets run and well...that is all.

3. Rick Trickett-By far the best o line coach in the country. This guy could turn me into an offensive lineman.

2. Don Nehlen-Mylan Puskar is his house. He built it, and mad it what it was. Love him or not, but Don is a true mountaineer who recruited Quincy, Big Oak, James Davis, Rasheed, and Avon to WVU....these were guys that RR won with ya know.

1. The ACC-The raid left things open. How many conference titles would have Don won had he not had Miami, BC, and the good VT on his schedule? I'm not sure, but it would have been a few.

The beauty of the thing is its simplicity.......

This was line from my favorite movie The Big Lebowski. For those poor souls who have such busy lives that they can't take the hour and a half to watch the movie, the context of the line is basically summing up a plan to overtake some bandits who have something "The Dude" wants.

I bring this quote up because it reminds me of the offensive line at WVU and how the line used to be and how it is now. Last years much maligned unit was in a transition phase, that was getting used to their third coach in three years and a whole new system. Their lofty pre-season ranking was never lived up to and many consider them to be the biggest disappointment from last year. This was the first time since 2004 that the line was not among the nations elite and the first time that WVU did not zone block almost exclusively. Last year, under new offensive line coach Dave Johnson, WVU tried their hand at a more traditional, Nehlen like approach. Now the simplest thing to do would be to ask why a team that had so much success would go from a scheme that was working to one that wasn't. I agree, since the guys that were on the line last year had only known zone blocking, but for the future.....I think a change was needed. You see the zone blocking spread option was made for guys like Pat, Owen, and Steve. Two speedsters and a battering ram to run through the hole with either the ball or on a mission to absolutely kill the guy in front of him. Either way, you probably don't want to be that guy that met him first. That was great but we only had one piece of that puzzle last year and the offense looked much more like it did in 03 and 04 than o5-07 because of it. The roadgrading blocking with the occassional zone scheme is much more conducive to being a balanced team. Just look at what started to happen in 07....athletic defense like Pitt and South Florida simply ignored the threat of the forward pass and played "sick em" D. These are the growing pains WVU will have to suffer in order to transition. The thing that gets me are the same people who used to sit up in the stands and complain about us never throwing down field are now bitching about how WVU has changed something that worked so well. You can't have both

Something else that gets on my nerves is when people bring up that WVU is the winningest program to never have a national championship. This is nothing to boast about IMO, and its kind of like bragging about winning the shortest pecker contest.

With Benefits

So Coach Stew is currently up on a podium lamenting over his lads and how much they strained today and how good so and so is. Of course I can't listen to it because I live on the prairie now. Before you say, I know that I can listen to it, but I sure as shit don't want to. James McMurtry once stated in one of his live albums that you can turn an good ole boy into an intellectual, but you can't turn an intellectual into a good ole boy. Don't get me wrong, I like Andy Griffith and fried chicken, but not as my football coach. With that being said, I hope he does great here and kicks some ass this season. With the goons we play it really shouldn't be that hard. Now could someone pass the green beans?

Even our ultra conservative, super moral, glass more than half empty but mouth always half opened head coach had to buck his system when it came to Jock Sanders and his troubles. He was able to return to practice today "with benefits". Lets just face it folks, this whole no tolerance system that is in place at about every school in the BCS is totally stupid and flat out coach speak puffery to the highest degree. I know Tim Tebow does nothing but pray, pass, and wipe flys away from the eyes of unfortunate babies in countries that hover around the equator. However, lets pretend for a moment and invision TT out at the bar on a late night teammate intervention when a beer suddenly and miraculously escapes the grasps of a sure handed flanker and finds its way into the mouth of Tim. Lets continue to imagine him getting arrested by an officer that was either an FSU fan or suffering from a severe momentary lapse of reason. After a good month long of press conferences where he would lament about his disbelief and disappointment in the actions of his starting QB, what do you think the NEW ball coach would do? (And for those that don't get it that is a play on Steve Spurrier who is more Matlock than Andy Griffith, but still as corny and All-American as a star-spangled banner playing apple pie on a window sill at farm house in Iowa.) I can tell you what he would do, he would allow him to practice, talk about how much he makes TT run, and then suspend him for the first game of the year against slap dick state or whoever it is they play. Now if Tim wasn't on the two deep roster....well that would be different and yes Howard Schnellenberger at Florida Atlantic has a home for you.

The newspapers are always interviewing players this time of year and it never fails that if there is a young inexperienced unit on the team they will ask them something like this

"How do you (the players) feel about the experts (soon to be unemployed journalists like me) saying you are the weak link on the team and the success of the year depends on your improvement."

Every freaking time the player comes back with something about the unit gelling, inexperienced but talented, and of course, stepping it up. I hate to be critical when I can't offer anything that would be much better to say, but maybe a "wait and see" or a simple "they're wrong" would suffice? Over promise is generally coupled with under-performance and they ride down the mediocrity parkway to losing seasons all the time. (Sorry Charley Weiss keep taking those top 10 recruiting classes to 6-6 seasons.) Josh Jenkins did this about a month ago when he said all the cliches about the Oline and how they will surprise people. I'll believe it when I see it, but I really think they are going to have a tough time making holes big enough for Little Daddy. One good thing this year is that with JB back there we can at least hope that he will lay a few linebackers out when Little Daddy decides to reverse his field. We might even make it back to the line of scrimmage. Then again we are only one block away from having Coley White at QB....lets just hope he is a gamer like his big bro.

I'm out.

Say it out loud and don't blink

I’m going to apologize right now for the long blog, but I have some things I need to talk about.

The biggest thing related to the old gold and blue that is on my mind are the recent recruits that have verballed. Jeremy Johnson, who is the 9^th rated dual threat quarterback signed with us out Texas. We were not finished there, Stew and crew also ventured down into Memphis to nab the 1^st rated dual threat hurler who is named Barry Brunetti. I’m excited and most of the mountaineer nation is excited from what I can tell, but its early. This time last year we had Tajh Boyd and he committed to about every school on the east coast before it was done. This staff really has it together, and WVU has some serious momentum on the recruiting trail. However, I just can’t get all that excited about a kid from Texas and a kid from Memphis coming to WVU. Not that they won’t , but it’s a long season, and folks Morgantown is a whole lot different than Texas or Memphis. Lastly, we now have three premiere QB recruits over the last two years, and Stew has said they will all get their shots after JB is done. QB is a glamour position, and I don’t know any of these kids, but I can imagine their ego’s aren’t small. Two of them will have to prepare for their egos to be bruised and be asked to sit the bench for the first times in the lives.

Colin Cowherd, an ESPN radio network talk show host, and I have a serious love-hate relationship. He really pisses me off sometimes, but he does make some great points. I like his show a lot better in the summer because he’s not polishing Belecheck’s and Charlie Weiss’s helmets and he tends to get a little slightly off topic. A guy called in asking some ridiculous NBA question, and Colin simply told him to say what he was thinking out loud, and if it makes sense once you hear the words come out of your mouth, it is probably safe to say that it will make sense if you try to argue the point to others. A little while later, I started to think about Pat White and WVU and how there could possibly be a snag in getting his number retired. Shit, even god himself, made it snow in Morgantown for his last game just to show us mortals how much even the creator enjoys watching Pat play. I’m not a religious man, but even an agnostic cat like myself can see that act was something even more Devine than No. 7. (Ok, maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but to say Pat’s career at WVU was anything less than storied would be a equivalent to comparing George Bush’s intellect to anything better than stupid). So, apparently you have to either win a national championship, be a unanimous All-American, or blow Ed Pastilong to have that honor. Pat, although deserving of two of three honors, never got to that award. I just want all of the six mountaineer fans that read this blog to step away from the mouse right now, and with all of the blue and gold fervor in their hearts say the following words. “Pat White’s number Five should be honored at Mountaineer Field and never be worn again by another WVU player”. Now doesn’t that make sense once you have said it out loud?

Speaking of Cowherd, a few days ago he was discussing A-Rod and how Alex’s chest was not as full as before. Despite the homoerotic insinuations in this bit, he somehow incorporated his man-crush into an informative and enlightening piece about a book he had just read titled Blink. This novel, about the first little thoughts that come to your head when you first receive a slice of information, and how, more often that not, they are closer to the truth than our well thought out plans. For instance, if you think she’s cheating on you, she probably is. As soon as he said this, my mind didn’t race to all the times I had thought a girl was cheating and chose to ignore it, nor did I revel on all of those times that I was fooled by a well-crafted but skeptical lie. A little while later, I started to think about jocks and DUI’s , the Fulmer Cup, and the way College athletes act and how some folks are very quick to throw the first stone without doing some administrative looking back. Every year during the Summer, ESPN has a special about all of these kids getting in trouble and how certain programs recruit less savory kids than others. (Shocking I know, but Vanderbilt tends to have fewer student athletes with off-season issues than Florida.) I’m not promoting DUI’s, drunk and disorderly conducts, or possessions, but I think we can all remember what we were like in college and what we did. Lets face it…you have good times in college and this why, when you are on your death bed, you tend to look back on those college years as the best and not those years pushing papers behind a desk and trying to dodge a boss you despise. You laugh, you drink, you drive fast, you chase women/men, …its all part of it when you are 20. I was an uptight science major, and I had a good time. I can’t even imagine what the summers are like for the athletes. I’m not saying the media needs to turn a blind eye to bad jocks, but I think that most of them are just doing things that most college kids do. If a kid gets busted with some grass, is it really that big of a deal? How many other kids get busted with grass everyday on Campuses across the country? Hell, a poor kid from FSU the other day, got a felony for removing a tire boot from his car. Now we all know how hard parking is on college campuses, and I’m sure many of us have had car trouble in college as well. Turns out this kid’s motorcycle wouldn’t run and he had to leave it, they booted it, and he removed it. Now he is being treated like he was dealing or something and people made a big deal about on ESPN how Bowden has lost control of his program. No big deal right? Not sure how I was going to relate all of this back to my original point about Blink, but I’m pretty sure that upon hearing my argument, that initial reaction of any person that possess reasonable intelligence will agree with me that the “mother ship” known as ESPN and the media in general (that’s you Mitch Vingle) judge our athletes a little too harshly at times and forget that they are just kids. How about the next time these guys hear about a free safety jay walking they should say it out loud first before they write it , or try not to think about it too much.

A stranger on the Prarie

I live in Oklahoma now, and I have to say that the general public has a different opinion of me than they did 4 years ago. You see 4 years ago, Pat, Owen, Steve, Darius, and Noel etc were not well known. There was no Sugar Bowl and the immaculate comeback against Louisville was much over-shadowed by other nail biting games that took place on that Mid-October night. We Mountaineer fans know pain...and the worst is getting our asses handed to us when we think that a game will be a simple walk in the park. I won't mention the game that shall not be mentioned, but we all (and so does the rest of the country) know the circumstances and the events that took place afterwards. The friends of Tom Joad knew this t00, and they flocked westward down 1-40 and then down I10 to their little party in the desert. However, as quickly as the football gods rained on our parade and left us with that soul-crushing feeling of defeat and loss of our leader we awarded with an unexpected and dominant victory against an opponent that everyone expected to handle us easily.

After work and on the weekends I pretty much only wear T-Shirts that profess my love for WVU or the Theatrical masterpiece known as The Big Lebowski. (And yes if you are wondering this Dude does, always has, and will continue to abide.) The weather here is hot and dry and it is not conducive to someone of Belgian decent like me. In order to combat the heat I thought a white t-shirt would be perfect. I didn't realize, until I made it out on in public, that it was the shirt I bought after the Fiesta Bowl. For the most part Oklahoma Fans and Okies are the nicest people I have ever lived around and every comment was nice. I did get some dirty looks and one lady in a gas station asked if was from WV. She carded me too so it kind of confirmed it and then told me that she has a cousin in Richmond. I quickly responded that I have an uncle in Dallas.

On Saturdays on Pennsylvania Avenue in OKC, folks stand out on the corners with signs and solicit money from people stopped at the lights. I was feeling good and generally humanitarian and decided to give the guy a dollar. He approached slowly and commented on my WVU license plate on the front of my car; he then noticed my shirt told me I was brave for wearing that in OK. What a difference one game makes. The OU fans, who rightfully consider themselves one of college football's elite, once considered us a cute little team who did well every now and then. Now after one game, they look at us as a maybe not an equal but at least a worthy adversary. (Much like the man in the black pajamas...sorry Walter).