By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
April 1, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Some news, notes and observations on a rainy Thursday afternoon from the home base of Mountaineer athletics:
A name that keeps coming up during spring football drills is true freshman Antonio Lewis. Lewis, a former DC all-metro quarterback at Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf, Md., sat out last fall as a grayshirt and enrolled for the spring semester. He is currently playing cornerback and may have the athletic ability and moxie to earn some playing time as early as next season.
Pat Liebig was one of the first grayshirts to gain prominent playing time last year before being injured in the Pitt game. He is sitting out this spring while recovering from knee surgery.
Another benign spring observation: West Virginia’s offensive line has a chance of being a very effective unit next year. Not only do the Mountaineers return all five starters from last year, but veteran coach Rick Trickett also has nearly an entire group of backups that have starting experience under their belts. And that doesn’t include injured Tim Brown, who could push this group over the top if he returns healthy and ready to go this fall.
Having that many experienced offensive linemen, coupled with more depth at quarterback, will give Coach Rich Rodriguez the confidence needed to really open up his playbook and put his high-speed, spread offense into overdrive this fall.
Those interested in purchasing season tickets for the 2004 football season should be able to do so by no later than mid-April, according to those working in the Mountaineer Ticket Office. WVU is getting a later start than usual because of the Big East’s delay in releasing the 2004 football slate.
For once an NFL player has a web site that’s not just about him. Former WVU standout John Thornton has created the web site BengalsCentral.com to help promote the Cincinnati Bengals. His most recent entries include a “Where Are They Now” segment on former players (the most recent is about former WVU teammate Charles Fischer), “Things That Make You Go Hmm ...,” wide receiver Kelley Washington “On the Hot Seat” and Bengals “News and Notes.”
In a recent newspaper interview Thornton estimated he’s dropped about $500 getting his web site started. That includes hosting fees, message board fees, domain registration and software to update the site.
“I just want people to have fun,” said Thornton. “I’d be doing a lot of this stuff anyway. Might as well let everybody in on it.”
First Miami President Donna Shalala and Athletic Director Paul Dee blamed the Big East Conference for poor Orange Bowl crowds and a lack of big-time revenue to help support is free-wheeling athletic department. Now they are blaming Coach Perry Clark for the basketball team’s failure to make the Big East tournament in its swan-song-turned-swan-dive of a season.
At some point those two are going to run out of excuses.
Because the recently fired Clark has a substantial buy-out clause, some Sunshine scribes believe it will be impossible for Miami to land a big-name coach. Then again, who really cares? The Hurricanes can drag down the ACC’s power rating next season.
There’s a story in today’s USA Today about George O’Leary’s return to college football at Central Florida. Responsible for handling athletic PR matters at UCF is West Virginia University graduate Jason Baum, a one-time student assistant in the WVU Sports Communications Office. West Virginia faces Central Florida on Saturday, Sept. 11 in Orlando.
How about this NCAA final: Oklahoma State versus Connecticut. Of course we’ll probably get stuck with a Georgia Tech-Duke game and the CBS broadcast will turn into an ACC Infomercial with Billy Packer dutifully serving as host.
Congratulations to former WVU athletic trainer Mark Dougherty, who was recently named to the Ohio Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame. Dougherty, athletic trainer at Newark High School, is a 1983 graduate of the WVU athletic training program.
UConn football has been featured prominently on both ESPN.com and CBS Sportsline.com this week. ESPN Senior writer Ivan Maisel thinks it’s just a matter of time before Connecticut makes its mark in Northeastern football, perhaps at the expense of Boston College.
Rutgers had its path to the NIT championship game greased with home games against Temple, West Virginia and Villanova. However, I’m afraid the Scarlet Knights might have themselves something special in 6-foot-3 freshman guard Quincy Douby, who scored a career-high 35 points in Tuesday night’s semifinal win against Iowa State. Douby is averaging better than 20 points per game in the NIT and joins Ricky Shields and Marquis Webb as starters returning for the 2004-05 campaign.
Two of the four teams in last year’s Big East baseball tournament – West Virginia and Virginia Tech – were swept to open the 2004 Big East campaign. The Hokies dropped three games at home to Pitt and the Mountaineers lost all three to nationally ranked Notre Dame. Rutgers, also a Big East tournament participant last year, dropped two of three on the road at Seton Hall.
West Virginia, now 8-14 after a mid-week loss to Niagara on Tuesday, hopes to turn things around this weekend at Rutgers.
Senior Tara Struyk’s outdoor season got off to a great start when she provisionally qualified for the NCAA championships in the 10,000 meters with a school-record time of 30:14.93 at last week’s Stanford Invitational. Struyk’s clocking is just four seconds shy of automatically qualifying and virtually assures of her making a return trip to nationals in June. Last year Struyk qualified for the 10,000 with a time almost 20 seconds slower than this year’s.
Women’s track coach Jeff Huntoon believes three other Mountaineers also have a legitimate chance of qualifying for NCAAs in Jen Kemp in the 800, Pam Richardson in the intermediate hurdles and Jessica Czaikowski in the 100-meter hurdles.
ESPN.com NFL draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. has moved Pitt’s Larry Fitzgerald up to the top of his draft board. Fitzgerald is one of seven Big East players listed among Kiper’s top 25 draft prospects.
Pro Football Weekly says there are persistent rumors that Pittsburgh and Arizona are interested in restricted free agent quarterback Marc Bulger, though he has yet to take any visits. One way or another Bulger is inching closer toward his big pay day.
Also from Pro Football Weekly: the publication considers former Mountaineer standout Barrett Green one of the NFL’s “rising stars” at weakside linebacker. Green recently inked a free agent deal with the New York Giants after starting his career in Detroit.
Former Mountaineer defensive back Aaron Beasley signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Falcons Wednesday. He was recently released by the New York Jets after starting his career in Jacksonville.
A quick check of major league organizational rosters shows 11 former Mountaineers still active in professional baseball.
Left-handed reliever Steve Kline is pitching for St. Louis while former WVU infielder Scott Seabol and pitcher Jeremy Cummings are assigned to the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate in Memphis. Left-handed pitcher Joe Van Gorder is playing in the Cardinals organization for the Single-A New Jersey Cardinals.
In addition to Seabol and Cummings, also beginning the year in Triple-A are left-handed pitcher David Maust (Edmonton), left-handed pitcher Shane Rhodes (Pawtucket) and right-handed pitcher Chris Enochs (New Orleans).
Enochs was signed to a minor league free agent contract by the Houston Astros last November.
Right-handed pitcher Billy Biggs is with the Single-A Lancaster Jets, outfielder Jarod Rine and infielder Eric Grimm are playing for Single-A Aberdeen, and right-handed pitcher Dustin Nippert is listed on the Single-A South Bend Silver Hawks’ roster, though Nippert spent time with Arizona as a non-roster invitee last month. He will probably pitch at a higher level this season.
Have a great weekend.
The thoughts and opinions expressed here don't neccesarily reflect those of the Mountaineer Sports Network or West Virginia University
