Nov 20 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 10:12 a.m. Friday 
Interesting stuff from Andy Staples in today's CNN/SI Inside College Football column, including this:
"Surprisingly, fans in most conferences seemed torn as to whether schools should sell alcoholic beverages at games. ...
The largest margin came in the Big East where 65.9 percent of respondents wanted the right to crack a bottle in the stadium."
Nice.
READ THE ENTIRE COLUMN HERE
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http://community.post-gazette.com/CreateUser.aspx
Nov 19 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 5:14 p.m. Thursday
With your help, we discussed West Virginia University football today.
Here is the transcript: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014789-144.stm
Nov 18 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 5:20 p.m. Wednesday
The West Virginia/Rutgers football game on Saturday, Dec. 5, at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, N.J., will be played at noon and televised by either ESPN or ESPN2.
This presents a problem for those wanting to watch what will, in essence, be the Big East Title Game between Pitt and Cincinnati at Heinz Field.
It was also announced today that game is set for Noon and will be nationally televised on ABC.
Nov 18 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 2 p.m. Wednesday
A reminder, there will be a live WVU football chat tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. It will be coming to you live from 34 Boulevard of the Allies, the Post-Gazette's world headquarters, as I will actually be in there to have a meeting with boss Jerry Micco and Pitt football writer Paul Zeise as to how we will handle our Backyard Brawl coverage next week.
Anyhow, logging into the chat is tremendously easy and can be done here: http://www.post-gazette.com/chat/
Also, remember, if you can't be there at 2, you can drop your question(s) into the chat room beginning at 6 a.m. Thursday and, when I log on to fetch the questions at 2 p.m., I will see them and be able to answer them.
Nov 17 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 3 p.m. Tuesday
With the off week (it is a not a "bye" week, a "bye" is when your team advances in a tournament without having to play) upon us, just a warning, it will be a slow couple of days for the 'Eers to the Ground blog.
Also, I have some vacation days that I need to eat up, and am doing so today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday).
With that said, we will be back into the swing of things, full-go, with the 2 p.m. live chat on Thursday and that will be the kickoff for a week of heavy, heavy coverage as we roll into the Backyard Brawl next Friday night at 7 p.m. in Morgantown.
So, with that warning, I wanted to leave you with a photo. It is of the 1908 Backyard Brawl.
Nov 17 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 1:08 a.m. Tuesday 
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Spent the day at one of coach Bill Stewart's most anticipated press conferences of the season, as many in the media went to the Puskar Center today thinking the coach would:
1. Be baited into saying something stirring about the officials in regard to the controversial touchdown Isaiah Pead scored for Cincinnati on Friday night.
2. Be baited into slamming the Big East Conference about the officials who officiated Friday's game.
3. Perhaps, although far less likely, offer Pitt some bulletin board material for the Backyard Brawl which is the next game on both team's schedule,
Well, Stewart disappointed the media members who love controversy -- he didn't do any of the above.
And, for the record, this media member thinks he went about things the right way -- on all three accounts.
> CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY
Nov 16 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 2:22 p.m. Monday
> CLICK HERE FOR FULL AUDIO
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Coming off a loss to Cincinnati, I thought Bill Stewart was very good in his press conference today. He largely eschewed the questions about the questionable call on the goal line which, after further review, took a forced fumble and subsequent recovery away from the Mountaineers and gave the Bearcats a touchdown in the second quarter.
Instead, Stewart shifted the focus to Pitt, which, in my estimation, he should have. When pressed by reporters, though, he answered, in a diplomatic fashion, the questions about the Cincy game.
Some quick notes from the gathering:
- Pitt has better talent than they had five years ago.
- The Panthers' tandem of running back Dion Lewis and receiver John Baldwin has Stewart worried...very much so. Then again, it has just about every team on the Panthers' schedule worried.
- There was a fabulous moment, a very funny moment but one in which Stewart got his point across about the Isaiah Pead touchdown run on Friday night. Dave Hickman, the tremendous beat writer from the Charleston Gazette, asked Stewart a question that began with, "A lot of times, when a player is on the goal line, [the officials] won't make a call because they afraid to make the wrong one ..." Stewart then cut Hickman off and offered a great moment in the press conference saying, "I thought they made a great call. The guys on the field. Great call." It was just enough of a jab at the officiating for Stewart to get his point across, without coming out and screaming, ranting and raving about the call on the goal line.
Nov 16 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 2 p.m. Monday
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The annual "Backyard Brawl" football game between No. 8 Pitt and West Virginia will kick off at 7 p.m. Nov. 27 from Mountaineer Field in Morgantown.
The game will be televised on ESPN2.
Nov 16 2009
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To submit a question, click here: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/wvu/questions/qaform.asp
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By Colin Dunlap | 12:25 a.m. Monday
QUESTION: What is your take on the talent on the WVU football team? WVU fans keep saying that Coach Stewart is messing up a BCS team but I just don't see the talent. There are no Heisman candidates or All Americans on this team. Noel Devine lost his opportunity with his poor showing against South Florida. And as for Big East honors only Noel and Sanders on offense and Neild on defense will earn All Big East honors. Arnett may earn second team honors and Williams as well on reputation only, injuries have slowed him, but that's it. Brown is an above average athlete but is just an average QB. Three All Big East members earns you an 8-4 record in my opinion. In fact, it has appeared to me that both Cincinnati and Pitt have done a better job recruiting talent than WVU in the past four years and perhaps Rutgers as well. That is why WVU has dropped in the Big East pecking order. The coaching change has certainly contributed, which affected recruiting for a time, and it is still unclear if Stewart can do the job, but it appears to me that WVU's supposed talent is more a myth than reality. What is your take??
David L. Worthington; Winchester, VA
DUNLAP: Very good question.
My take on this one is simple: Other than the quarterback - who everyone needs to remember is a first year starter - and Noel Devine and Jock Sanders, almost all of the players who have the potential to make a real difference on the roster, or who have made a real difference on this roster, are young guys.
The offensive line? The best talent right now is Barclay, who is a sophomore, with the two guys who have the most potential being Jenkins and Madsen, both redshirt freshmen. Also, Urban at tight end, is also a sophomore.
Then, you look at what can be with the skill guys on offense - Tavon Austin, Logan Heastie, Mark Rodgers, Shawne Alston, Ryan Clarke, Geno Smith, JD Woods,and Steadman Bailey, and it is very obvious that this group can be special, and none of them is in their third year in Morgantown yet.
On the other side of the ball, up front is Josh Taylor, Julian Miller and Jorge Wright, with the back end having two guys who can be superstars - Pat Miller and Broderick Jenkins.
All of them are young.
So, David, I think you hit on something here. Maybe this version of the Mountaineers, and by "this version" I mean this year's team, is what it is. Maybe they are an 8-win team that goes to a nice bowl and finishes third in the league.
But, with that said, I don't think they have dropped off at all in the pecking order, rather, they are a program in a bit of a two-year down cycle, which all programs not named Florida or Texas seem to go through. Heck, I mean look at USC right now, even the mighty Trojans are going through a down cycle, but no one seems to want Pete Carroll fired, and they probably have more young talent than anyone in the country, it just takes time, no matter how great of a high school player you are, to grow accustomed to the college game.
I believe WVU has some of the top young talent, on both sides of the ball, in the conference and will fight for a conference title the next three seasons because of all those guys I mentioned above.
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QUESTION: Isaiah Pead is stretching for goal line, ball rolling in his grip,WVU defenders punch it loose and Chris Neild recovers. WVU GETS THE BALL! But wait! The replay official apparently sees something different than everyone else involved in the telecast and watching the television. Isn't this ineptitude from replay officials around the country getting really old really fast? I have an idea. Perhaps, they should have a central replay station with live feeds of all the games, like the NHL. They are the only sports organization that seems to get the replays right a majority of the time. What do you think?
Robert Fisher, Pittsburgh, Pa.
DUNLAP: In theory, this sounds like a cure-all, but from a logistical standpoint, it never could happen. There are in the neighborhood of 120 Division I-A football teams, and they are governed by different conferences, in which the games are officiated by crews from those conferences. Also, it would take an agreement, a vote of sorts, from everyone involved, and we all know how college football is with everyone getting on board for something --- it hardly ever happens and, if it does, it takes about 100 year for it to be implemented. I agree with you on the NHL model, and how it has made "getting it right" in that sport almost a certainty, but with college football, there are just far too many logistical hurdles to clear for it to ever become a situation where there is a war room somewhere and all the games are analyzed.
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QUESTION: While I am not a WVU fan, I have to say that WVU got hosed on the review when UC fumbled in the endzone. In listening to the halftime report on ESPN, Lou Holtz was reluctant to express any strong opinion about the review results. These bogus reviews are happening a lot this season. Why are reporters/game analysts afraid to criticize the officials who are supposed to be fair and impartial, but obviously are not?
Jody; Hutchinson, Pa.
DUNLAP: I saw the same report when I made it back to Pittsburgh the next day and watched the game, which I had recorded on my DVR. It was puzzling to hear Holtz, as he was critical, but only to a degree, stopping short as if he was a coach who was going to get fined or something if he had gone any further. Not to have ESPN's back, but I think Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore, the guys who called the game from the booth, more than voiced their disagreement with the call.
Also, I can speak to our columnist, Ron Cook, who sat next to me at the game and wrote a column highly critical of the officials. It can be seen here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09318/1013519-87.stm
So, while Holtz stopped short of really taking the replay official to task, Cook, Tessitore and Gilmore definitely did not.
Nov 15 2009
By Colin Dunlap | 12:30 a.m. Sunday
Many times, when you write a follow-up story about a game, it focuses on a broad, wide topic, a big issue that either came to light during that game or continued to be a trend in that contest.
Not too often, as a sportswriter, is the follow-up story so narrow in its topic that it is simply a dissection of two back-to-back snaps in a football game that had almost 130 plays. This time was different.
The focus of my follow-up story in Sunday's Post-Gazette (which you can read HERE) is about the West Virginia offensive coaching staff's decision, with just under 6 minutes remaining, to run an inside handoff to Jock Sanders on a third-and-9 from the Cincinnati 25 trailing by a 21-14 score. That led to a 1-yard gain, a subsequent fourth down incompletion and a crucial turnover on downs.
There has been some yammering from the West Virginia faithful about how, in that situation, the staff should have kicked a field goal. Coach Bill Stewart is on record as saying he was against a field goal, "playing to win" and was "going to go for 2" had his team scored in that situation.
So, for those reasons -- and because the field goal attempt of more than 40 yards is no chip shot -- I agree with Stewart and am also against kicking in that situation.
But, this situation is multi-faceted and there is a portion of it where I am against what happened ... very much so.
If a field goal was out of the question, and West Virginia was playing to win, it was obviously four down territory. That said, my problem comes not with the third down play call, but with the personnel on the field for that play. Running that play was fine, but in my opinion, the coaches just handed it to the wrong fellow.
Fullback Ryan Clarke averaged 12 yards per carry in the game against Cincinnati. Jock Sanders is a slot receiver who was filling in a bit at tailback because Noel Devine had a gimpy ankle. Also, Sanders had four carries for 6 yards on the drive before that play, including two for losses.
Simply put, Sanders wasn't blowing holes through the Bearcats' front.
Clarke was.
Think back to when Clarke scored that 37-yard touchdown earlier in the game. On that play, West Virginia had a gargantuan package on the field with three fullbacks -- Clarke, who carried the ball for the score and Ricky Kovatch and Will Johnson, who both blocked on that play.
Those three fullback represent a collective 699 pounds.
On a third-and-9, when you have made it known it is four down territory, wouldn't that personnel package be a better option than running it inside with a smaller slot receiver who is filling in at tailback?
Again, many people are on the coaches about not kicking the field goal. I am not.
Many are questioning the inside run. I am not.
From my perspective, the only thing curious on that play was that Ryan Clarke wasn't a part of it.
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