Pitt Redshirt Diaries : Rich Rodriguez

Irony or coincidence with WVU?

Chuck Finder — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:29:00 GMT

For the one-year anniversary of the date the plaintiff filed the infamous West Virginia University v. Richard Rodriguez lawsuit, the Mountaineers will spend Dec. 27 playing in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

It's the very bowl, then known as the Continental Tire Bowl, that the Mountaineers inaugurated in 2002 while beginning their program's unprecedented seven-year post-season run -- all starting with this Charlotte, N.C., game under the aforementioned then-second-year coach.

Also interesting to note: These Mountaineers, favorites in each and every one of their 12 games this season, have been installed as a Pick-'Em against North Carolina.

12/11 update: That's changed already, with North Carolina moving to a 1-point favorite.

'Thoughts from a fat white guy'

Chuck Finder — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:55:00 GMT

No, not this fat white guy, but this one:

Fellow blogger and starting Connecticut defensive tackle Rob Lunn, whose injured shoulder apparently hampers neither his typing nor his wit, posted about West Virginia tonight just a few hours before aligning against them Saturday in a game that will help to shape the Big East title race.

In the above referenced blog, Lunn raved about Mountaineers quarterback Patrick White and tailback Noel Devine. But he instantly will earn the affection of many Mountaineers followers with this reference: "Don't expect WVU dominance in the Big East to stop any time soon (take that". . . um, insert vulgar variation of ex-West Virginia coach's name here. Check out his earlier posts about WVU, including one where he labels fans "Slack-Jawed Yokells(sic)."

We'll see how well Lunn plays Saturday, but, man, ya gotta like his sarcastic writing style, if not his spelling and sweeping generalizations.

Muntaineers have played 3rd-easiest schedule, and mre ffensive discussin

Chuck Finder — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:26:00 GMT

(Get it? No O, as discussed in today's story.)

West Virginia crafted its 4-2 record against the third-easiest schedule in the BCS.

Don't take my word for it, check out the NCAA's computations.

Waaaaay down there . . . keep going. . . you'll find the Muntaineers' first-half schedule ranks 117th of 119 teams with a 5-16 overall record, ahead of only 6-0 Tulsa (coached against 6-20 foes by former WVU co-defensive coordinator Todd Graham) and 3-3 Louisiana-Lafayette (which benefited little from a 4-23 cupcake schedule).True, the NCAA's abacus ciphers differently, because my Big Eight-trained calculations arrive at an 11-19 combined record excluding the best-of-lot 4-1 belonging to Division I-AA Villanova. The governing body, however, discounts all games involving D-I-AA competition, which means in its eyes West Virginia has played at least two winless teams already -- Rutgers and Syracuse beat only Morgan State and Northeastern. Furthermore, it removes from the equation anything outside the major-conference realm of the BCS, which means Marshall's three victories, Colorado's non-WVU victories and the last game East Carolina won (against C-USA rival Tulane waaaaay back on Sept. 13 before it lost three in a row) never show on the NCAA's books.

Heck, remove the Colorado and East Carolina triumphs over West Virginia, and the only victories that matter on this NCAA ledger are an East Carolina upset of Virginia Tech and, uh. . . nothing else. That's right, the Muntaineers' six foes to date have combined to beat only one BCS opponent in 15 other games.

One more time, with feeling: West Virginia's six foes to date have a combined BCS record, excluding games against the Muntaineers, of 1-14.

Then again, Penn State had the 25th-easiest road so far, by this accounting, at 11-17.

And guess what? It only gets more vexing for West Virginia from here: The Muntaineers have the eighth-toughest schedule remaining, at a collective 26-9.

Four of the six opponents left are formerly or currently ranked: 4-3 Auburn (20th last week and once as high as 9th), 5-1 Connecticut (once 24th), 5-1 Cincinnati (which received a vote this week and, remember, lost only to fourth-ranked Oklahoma), 3-2 Louisville, No. 23 and 4-1 Pitt, No. 19 and 5-1 South Florida (as high as 10th before losing to Pitt). Although, by the NCAA's mad math, those upcoming foes are only a combined 24-7. Still, it's the toughest road belonging to any major-college team outside the Big XII, Southeastern Conference and (at least this will make for Wild Wonderful smiles) Rich Rodriguez's employer.

* Auburn announced its 2009 schedule, and the rematch with West Virginia is set for Sept. 19 at Jordan(pronounced Jurr-din)-Hare Stadium. If the Muntaineers are lucky, maybe the Tigers will overlook them for the big tilt that next week against currently undefeated and nationally ranked Ball State.

Wow, who'da thunk come mid-October those phrases would appear in front of David Letterman's alma mater and not Rodriguez's?

Speaking of Auburn, the Tigers are so desperately searching for offense in this down week before next Thursday at Muntaineer Field that they've basically reopened their quarterback derby and included in that race a hotshot freshman heretofore headed for a redshirt, as Charles Goldberg reports.

* More schedule stuff: Jack Bogaczyk reports that LSU may well pop onto West Virginia's slate in 2010 and 2011, what with Michigan State pushing back five years and creating an opening. East Carolina also appears set for a six-year renewal, and Virginia -- as mentioned in Red Di back in August -- remains in play.

Finally, one last stat about the oh-ffensive woes befalling West Virginia. This 2008 unit is the first since the last of the Frank Cignetti teams, 1979, to play this far into a season without once scoring 30-plus points against a major-college opponent. By contrast at this juncture in the intervening 28 West Virginia seasons, seven teams had done it once, eight teams twice, six teams thrice, four teams four times and three teams five times -- including last fall's Mountaineers, who rang up 30 or more points in five of their season-opening six games (and 13 in the other, the loss at South Florida).

He was Marshall

Chuck Finder — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:18:00 GMT

West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, who coached at the Mountain State's other Division I-A program way back when Jimmy Carter was in office in 1980, steadfastly refused to hear any such talk. Earlier this week, when the notion was raised about assistant head coach/safeties coach Steve Dunlap offering some insider-trading insight on the Marshall where he worked as defensive coordinator last season, Stewart immediately tossed it aside. Won't happen.

But offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen was willing to listen.

"It's like if we were playing Wake Forest," he teased of his former employer, "I'd throw 'em all under the bus."

Seriously, he said he planned to pick Dunlap's brain about personnel, but there is no great information to be gleaned about systems or signals because the Thundering Herd has two new coordinators. Mullen even downplayed that type of scouting report, too: "Once the ball is kicked and the first punch is thrown, none of it matters. I mean, you've got to perform."

About this governor-mandated series: Truth be told, Rich Rodriguez wasn't crazy about it. He felt the game did little to enhance the Mountaineers' strength of schedule and program overall -- if they played poorly or, as on Dec. 1, went full-monty rotten, it would only hurt them come the polls and bowls. But Stewart the successor embraces this baby as if it were a long, lost relation. Said Stew: "I can't imagine growing up in this great Mountain State and not having any kind of interest in this game. It's great for college football. Should be very, very emotional. I can't wait to whip 'em. I can't wait to punch them right in the nose. That's the way it is in a family."

Now, a celluloid moment in honor of Marshall gameday:

Williams, Wes Lyons and widdle Devine to see first/more Mountaineer time

Chuck Finder — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:10:00 GMT

Colorado should expect to see Thursday in its own Folsom Field: middle linebacker Reed Williams and receiver Wes Lyons of Woodland Hills High for the first times this season, and more of tailback Noel Devine.

Hey, Coach Bill Stewart claims he tells his Mountaineers nothing but the truth, so help him, so why would he deceive the stinking media?

Stewart today, approaching his first game as the official, signed, sealed and contract-delivered head coach of West Virginia, pronounced a few new wrinkles for the Buffaloes:

* "Reed Williams will play," Stewart said of the 2007 team-leading tackler and Fiesta Bowl defensive MVP, who had offseason surgery on both shoulders. "We had a talk yesterday, Reed, myself and the medical people. Reed Williams is going to let it go. We couldn't block him [Sunday in practice]. And I was, like, 'Wow.' He's ready to go. Brings another level of excitement to our team. Moxie, swagger. . . what's a good buzzword? He brings a presence to us.

"He's just one guy, but he's one special guy. I left it up to him. I left it up to our medical people. He felt like he should go. Be good to have old Reed out there." Williams' return also means Gateway's Mortty Ivy can return to strong-side linebacker from the middle.

* "We'll play Wes Lyons more at receiver 'cause he's earned it," Stewart continued of the junior receiver slow to recover from August arthroscopic knee surgery. "I told him that when you show me you could go two hard weeks, then we'll get you in there and we'll play you. Wes Lyons will get in there this week. He'll help us."

* The diminutive dynamo Dynamo (with Jock Sanders what Stewart calls his Mighty Mites), after 15 touches in each of the opening two games, will get the ball a lot more often somehow, someway, the coach added. (You think the Buffs read these enemy-territory blogs/sites or listen to those internet-archived news conferences? Nahhhh.) "Dagnabit," said Stewart, who last week vowed more belly-option runs. "I wish you hadn't brought that up. He needs to get the ball more. You can't just have 54 plays a game, that's first and foremost. If he can tough it 18 to 22 times out of the backfield, five to seven times on screens and that. . . . We've got to get him in the rhythm, get him in the flow. We will really try to get the ball in the little guys' hands more, yes we will."

Stewart also said that he expected to play one or more backup offensive lineman -- most likely Seneca Valley's Don Barclay, moved from left tackle and currently listed as right tackle Selvish Capers' backup. Another depth-chart change was the switch of Pat Liebig to starting defensive end, ahead of Weirton's Zac Cooper and Larry Ford, with end Julian Miller moving to backup nose tackle -- Liebig's previous spot -- behind Chris Neild.

Speaking of Stewart's new contract, announced late last week in the wake of that East Carolina loss, it should be noted that the man without an agent needed roughly eight months and nine days to formally complete the deal -- a scant 10 days shorter than the purported Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, Rich Rodriguez's team. And the new guy didn't even have one of those wieldy buyout clauses, making him the second of the past three newly signed Mountaineers coaches to go without one. Women's basketball coach Mike Carey was the other, last February, just days after lawyers representing the university filed the lawsuit against Rodriguez over that doodad.