Setting the Record Straight
December 20, 2002 01:44 PM | General
December 20, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez wants to set the record straight. He went 3-1 in bowl games as a Mountaineer player -- not the 2-1 mark that has been circulating out there.
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| Rich Rodriguez takes a beat on a Boston College player in this 1984 photo. (WVU Sports Communications photo) |
“They keep missing that one my freshman year here,” he noted after Thursday’s practice. “Maybe it was because I didn’t play – I just stood there and got wet.”
Rodriguez was a redshirt freshman on Don Nehlen’s Peach Bowl team that upset Florida 26-6 in 1981. He got stitches to prove it.
“I got my chin cut open on the first day of practice down there in Atlanta,” he remembered. “We were doing a one-on-one drill with the receivers and Billy Evans got me.”
From that point on, Rodriguez made up his mind that he was going to be the one getting the first shot in.
“I always got the cheap shots in after that,” the coach joked. “(The coaches) always accused me of picking the fights. I only did that so I could get noticed.”
Rodriguez was a former walk-on and his defensive backfield coach Bill McConnell spent the first couple months thinking his name was Gonzalez.
“He’d say Gonzalez get in there!” said Rich. “I’d say ‘who’s Gonzalez? I’m Rodriguez.’ ‘Oh Hell get in there, it’s all the same!’”
West Virginia assistant head coach Rick Trickett is known as a tough task master on the practice field, but Rodriguez says he pales in comparison to McConnell.
“Not only did you hate practice but you also hated the first five minutes of warm-ups -- that’s how bad it was,” Rodriguez said. “If you think Trickett is hard, he’s a choir boy compared to Bill. But it was one of those things where you appreciated it later.”
News and notes
* Rich Rodriguez has been pleased with his team’s focus and effort so far, and plans to have a two-hour workout Friday and a brief practice Saturday before leaving for Charlotte.
Saturday’s practice will conclude with a freshman scrimmage Rodriguez is calling the first-ever “Pup Bowl.”
“We’ll let those guys get after it a little bit,” he said.
So now we can add the “Pup Bowl” to the coach’s growing list of events that also includes the preseason “Beanie Bowl.”
You gotta love it.
* Mark DeVault, who works on the WVU football and basketball stat crews, points out that freshman center Kevin Pittsnogle could produce a rarity if he can maintain his 11.7 points-per-game average.
Provided you consider 6-foot-10 Gordon Malone a forward and not a center, Pittsnogle has the possibility of becoming West Virginia’s first center to average double figures in a season since 6-11 Junius Lewis scored 10.5 points per game for the 1978-79 season.
A Richmond, Va., native, Lewis currently works and lives in Morgantown.
* Dan Dakich may have had his reasons for returning to Bowling Green, but we now know that one of them wasn’t the prospect of coaching a team on probation. That excuse was eliminated by the NCAA Thursday.
The coach spent eight days in Morgantown, uncovered some potential violations in the basketball program and like the Lone Ranger, took the high road right out of town when nobody was looking. Nine months later, the NCAA deemed West Virginia’s self investigation sufficient, termed the school’s violations secondary in nature, and considered the matter closed.
West Virginia has since recovered nicely under John Beilein, who has the Mountaineers 6-1 entering Saturday’s game against Tennessee.
“When I took the job back on April 18, that was obviously one of the things that was on my mind,” said Beilein. “From the very beginning, our administrators here were very honest with me and said that there was nothing new coming up that they could see. I sensed at the time that they had things under control. After spending a few months here, I was convinced that this athletic department runs a tight ship and that there were going to be just those few secondary violations.”
And Dan Dakich and the Bowling Green Falcons?
As Tony Caridi pointed out in his Gold & Blue Report Friday, they presented Michigan with its first victory a couple of weeks ago and will put their 3-4 record on the line against Urbana on Saturday.
For those of you wondering, Urbana is not a Division I school.
* In the latest CollegeRPI.com rankings released on Monday, West Virginia’s 5-1 record was good enough for an RPI ranking of 63. I know it’s not a sprint, but you have to be amazed at the job John Beilein has done so far this season.
* This has nothing to do with sports, but I just saw the scariest picture ever taken in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. Inside was a snap shot of Liza Minnelli’s wedding portrait with producer David Gest. Also in the photo were Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.
Absolutely frightening!
* Again nothing to do with sports, but as I was reading Rolling Stone I began to wonder what ever happened to all of the good radio stations we used to listen to? I can remember as a kid growing up that you could hear Stevie Wonder, the Starland Vocal Band, Eddie Rabbit, Parliament, Joni Mitchell, C.W. McCall and Black Sabbath all on the same station. You may not have liked any of it, but at least it wasn’t the same song done 15 different ways.
* For those of you who don’t remember C.W. McCall, he was the guy who had that ridiculous C.B. song called “Convoy.”
Perhaps sensing that his voice was out of hits, C.W. left the recording industry and became the mayor of Ouray, Colo., according to the official “Truck Driving Music” web site.
The fact that I can remember C.W. McCall, or that I took the time to look up what he’s doing now, is very disturbing in itself.
* Back to the task at hand. I applaud Rutgers for extending football coach Greg Schiano’s contract until the 2007 season. Having coaching stability is the most important facet of any program.
In that same light, I also applaud Schiano for his ability to convince Rutgers’ athletic administration that his team has made enough improvement to deserve an extension. When his coaching career is finished, that may turn out to be his biggest achievement.
* Did you realize that the West Virginia University women’s basketball team is leading the nation in three-point field goal percentage with a shooting mark of 48.8 percent? The Mountaineers are also ranked 11th in the country in scoring with an average of 82.3 points per game.
West Virginia’s 8-0 start is its best in school history and the Mountaineers received votes in the AP Top 25 poll for the first time since 1992. West Virginia puts its unbeaten record on the line Saturday against a good Duquesne team that is currently 6-1. Last year West Virginia needed overtime to defeat the Dukes.
* Boo to Michigan State for the way it handled the hiring of John L. Smith. What would it have hurt to wait just one more day?
* With the holiday season upon us, here’s hoping that Florida State coach Bobby Bowden can overcome his most serious crisis since taking over the Tallahassee-based program in 1976.
* According to WTAE.com, Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson will be named Nebraska’s new AD later this afternoon. That is a huge blow to the Panther athletic program.
After Pederson’s halftime performance on Nov. 30 when he acknowledge the University of West Virginia on the big screen at Heinz Field , I’ll throw some love right back at him and wish him all the best at Nebraska University!
* Even though the Continental Tire Bowl is a sellout, few other bowl games are expected to draw as well. Aside from the four BCS bowls and the Gator Bowl, the remaining bowl games have had trouble selling tickets. Nebraska fans, historically terrific travelers, have bought less than 3,000 tickets for its Independence Bowl game against Mississippi.
Wisconsin, another strong traveling team, is sending 7,000 tickets back to the Alamo Bowl to disperse to local charities.
And Maryland, a team not known for traveling but bought 2,500 extra tickets in order to land a spot in the Peach Bowl, had coach Ralph Friedgen email its fans imploring them to buy tickets so as not to hinder future bowl considerations.
In passing, the portly coach also mentioned that contributors can write off some of their expenses on their 2002 tax returns.
Ralph I know you’re a mighty fine football coach, and you’re never late for dinner, but taxes, too?
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
