I’m not agreeing with them about the big game of the year, I think it’s more Auburn and PITT but a writer at the Pittsburgh rag finally got it right.
A look at the Big East in projected order of finish:
1. West Virginia
Coach: Bill Stewart, 1st season, 1-0;
2007 record: 11-2 (5-2 in Big East, co-champs)
Key players: QB Pat White; TB Noel Devine; C Mike Dent; LB Mortty Ivy; K Pat McAfee
Big game: Dec. 6 vs. South Florida.
The skinny: The Mountaineers are again the pick to win the Big East and they are loaded on offense. White and Devine are both a threat to take it to the end zone every time they touch the ball. The big challenge for first-year coach Bill Stewart is to rebuild the defense, which lost seven starters. However, given the strength of the offense, the Mountaineers will repeat as conference champions if the defense just plays reasonably well.
Steve Slaton came off the bench in Houston’s third exhibition and ran for 44 yards on 10 carries. He played behind only Chris Taylor with Chris Brown out.
Slaton played with the starting offensive line and excelled on outside runs. Behind fellow rookie LT Duane Brown, Slaton busted a 20-yard gain in the second quarter and stiff armed Roy Williams on a 13-yard rush in the third. He will likely be no lower than second on the depth chart in Week 1.
I usually don’t follow NFL that much but seeing Slaton get the ball and tear it up this year will be fun.
THE NEXT OWEN SCHMITT?
Has West Virginia found another Owen Schmitt? Ricky Kovatch, who like Schmitt was unrecruited, has found a home at the Mountaineers’ fullback/tight end hybrid position, Dave Hickman says in The Charleston Gazette.
Another day, Another Poll, Another #8 Ranking. The Washington Post’s poll is doing a countdown to kickoff poll release and today was WVU’s day. Check it out here.
One thing that is really getting old is the notion that losing Dick Fraud and some other coaches is going to change the outcome of this season. We might have lost the “star” coach but we gained a real coach and a shit load of excellent assistant coaches. The WP says:
The staff is a question mark, too. Only two coaches remained with Stewart. For a team that has won 11 games in three consecutive seasons, that disruption might become costly.
Don’t forget Mr. Sport Analyst from DC, “the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.” I feel this season WVU football will come to personify this famous statement. LETS GOOO MOUNTAINEERS!]
Friends of mine ran into WVU running back legend Quincy Wilson the other day and took this cool pic of my main man Cooper and Quincy.
Hearing Wilsons name took me back to a time when WVU was on the cusp of greatness and Quincy can proudly say that he helped move WVU into the position its in now. This run by Wilson vs. Miami is a classic and in many people’s opinion, the tipping point for the success of the current WVU football program. Although we ended up losing that game, it is a classic run and will be used in College football highlight films for years. Quincy just plows that Miami punk.
By the way, Quincy is a free agent looking to get picked up by anyone (EAGLES WAKE UP!!!!), he’s living in Weirton, WV and training at WVU and Cooper is a 5 star recruit coming out of Elkins, WV.
Back in 2004 when WanStache took the head coaching job at sPITT Mark May said:
“Dave Wannstedt is the right guy for the right job at absolutely the right time. Pitt is on the cusp of becoming a perennial Top 10 team. All the needed state-of-the-art facilities are in place, and Dave is the element that will take the program to another level.”
Now that was 2004, and one would think that after 3 consecutive losing seasons for sPITT Mr. May would rethink his previous prediction, but in true JagOff fashion he hasn’t. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported today:
he [May] still stands by his original thoughts.
“I think it is very clear this program is on the rise and Dave has it headed in the right direction,” May said. “I am very happy the administration stuck by him and has shown some patience because more often than not, that isn’t the case. Coaches who come in usually have a mess to clean up and by the time they are done straightening it out, they’ve had a few losing seasons and they are fired.
“But if you look at this situation, Dave has recruited extremely well, he’s built a great base of talent, that talent is starting to mature and, more importantly, he is bringing in the right kinds of players. Kids that work hard, are good students and don’t embarrass the university. This thing is being built for the long haul.”
“I thought for sure they’d be in everybody’s top 25 but, unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case,” May said. “But I do think as the season goes forward they will be because I look at the talent they have coming back, the talent they’ve added and the teams on their schedule — almost all of their tough games are at home — and it I think that it isn’t unrealistic to expect them to win the Big East and get to a BCS bowl.“
Should the analysts on ESPN really be this biased? Maybe May is taking his queues from Kirk Herbstreit?
I have decided to create a new recurring article called Stewisms (like Bushisms except they are totally friggin’ awesome and not idiotic blabbering).
Coach Stew seems to have a never ending array of colorful quotes, quips and crazy analogies that fall out of his mouth at an alarming rate, I can now tell why and how it could have gotten him in trouble in the past.
So I’m coining the term Stewisms now because I have a feeling we are are going to have a lot of these to post during the upcoming season.
Stewisms: 1st Edition - Training Camp:
“You don’t get better if you don’t go out there and get after people’s fannies.”
“At the end of the day we did some down-ups and some up-downs; we bonded as brothers and everyone clapped hands and everyone left and was mad at Mister Rogers.”
Coach Stew calls pads. “He’s working in shells and a helmet, and he’s getting back to football.”
“He was flying around out there and gnawing on people.”
Stay tuned for more I’m sure and if you have some Stewisms feel free to share via the comments, I know there are a ton that happened before training camp!
A few days ago I got an email from a fan that lives in “That Other” Virginia asking if I knew how to get an autograph from a player or from Coach Stew.
Do you have any suggestions as to how to get something signed by a member of the
team or coach for my sons PeeWee football coach? We live in Roanoke, VA which
is big VA Tech land but his coach loves the Mountaineers so much that the PeeWee
team has that name which is not very popular around here. Any help would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks, LB
The Fan Day activities, sponsored by RazeWV.com, will begin at 2 p.m. in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility. Gates will open at 1:45 p.m.
Coach Bill Stewart, assistant coaches and WVU players will be signing autographs and visiting with fans until 4 p.m.
Are there are any readers of WVMS.com that would be interested in helping out LB? If so email me at MountaineerBob@gmail.com and we’ll figure out how to get this fan who lives in enemy territory an autograph!
Looks like Mountie tickets are going to be hard to come by this year. Big surprise huh? Yeah, we all knew this was going to happen so quit cryin’ ya big babies and get your tailgate on instead! There are plenty of tickets to go around you just have to get your ass up to Mo-Town to get ‘em.
Here is what MSN has to say about it:
The West Virginia University Ticket Office has announced that all single game tickets for the Villanova game on August 30, 2008, at 3:30 p.m., have been sold.
Tickets are available for WVU’s road games versus Colorado, Connecticut and Louisville with a limit of four per customer. No tickets are available for road dates against East Carolina and Pitt.
Fans must be previous customers of the Mountaineer Ticket Office to purchase available single-game away tickets. Tickets may only be purchased by calling 1-800-WVU GAME or in person at the Coliseum ticket office; they will not be available online.
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