August 20-25 Blog
August 20, 2007 10:04 AM | General
We’re changing things up a little bit. For the past four years Campus Connection has kind of been like a weekly blog full of tidbits, notes, commentary, quasi-opinion and weak stabs at humor that have sometimes hit the mark and at other times completely missed. Well, to keep up with the Jones', we’ve decided to turn Campus Connection into a daily blog. If we miss a day then you know we’re struggling.
Hope you enjoy it …
College Football's Newest Rock Stars
Posted By John Antonik: August 25, 2007 (6:01 pm)
The days of playing in half-empty stadiums on the road are over for Mountaineer football. The No. 3-rated team in college football is selling out stadiums this summer faster than Keith Urban, Jimmy Buffet and The Police.
Down at Marshall a record 19,500 season tickets have been sold at 38,000-seat Joan Edwards Stadium primarily due to West Virginia’s first appearance in Huntington since Woodrow Wilson was president.
Marshall has announced that it will not sell single-game tickets this year and a ticket for the Sept. 8 game against the Mountaineers is going for anywhere between $125 and $470 each on Stub Hub.
South Florida has opened the upper deck of Raymond James Stadium for the WVU game on Friday, Sept. 28, and the Bulls are anticipating a record crowd for the game.
Maryland announced its Thursday night game against West Virginia on Sept. 13 is already sold out. Rutgers has sold out its entire season and presently has a 6,000-person waiting list for tickets.
Two weeks ago the Mountaineer Ticket Office put a limited number of single-game tickets on sale and the line at 9 am extended well outside the Coliseum. All remaining single-game tickets for West Virginia home games have since been sold.
“I’m tickled to death,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “Our fans have been great the last couple of years buying all the tickets.”
Rodriguez has seen first-hand what a rabid fan following can do for a football program when he was Clemson’s offensive coordinator.
“I’ve been to places where the games are sold out and there are 5 or 6,000 people outside waiting to get in,” Rodriguez said. “We sold out our stadium and we’ve helped sell out another one. Our people are excited about college football and it’s our job to deliver a product that’s exciting to see.”
The West Virginia Mountaineers – college football’s newest rock stars – begin their 2007 tour this Saturday, Sept. 1 against Western Michigan.
Linebacker Depth
Posted By John Antonik: August 24, 2007 (2:35 pm)
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| Marc Magro |
One of the things Rich Rodriguez likes about this year’s defense is the flexibility it has at linebacker. Senior Marc Magro and junior Reed Williams are both intelligent enough to play any of the three spots.
“Reed and Marc are the keys because they can play several positions,” Rodriguez said.
Junior Mortty Ivy is fully recovered from a right knee injury sustained during the spring of 2006 and has regained the No. 1 spot at will linebacker. “I think he’s gotten to the point where he doesn’t even think about (the knee injury) anymore,” Rodriguez said. “It reflects in his play because he’s played pretty well in camp.”
Magro is No. 1 at sam linebacker and Williams will start the season in the middle.
Behind them are several capable backups. Senior Bobby Hathaway has starting experience but has been slowed with a broken hand which Rodriguez says he will play with a soft cast. John Holmes also has game experience.
Zac Cooper has had his best fall camp and youngsters Anthony Leonard and Pat Lazear are coming along nicely.
“Pat Lazear has done a good job as a true freshman and he’s in the mix. Anthony Leonard can play mike linebacker,” Rodriguez said. “Zac Cooper is the other guy that’s had a pretty good camp and can play both linebacker positions. We’ve got a lot of guys that have gotten a lot of reps since the first day of camp.”
The only question mark is the health of sophomore Ovid Goulbourne, possibly the team’s fastest linebacker.
“Ovid has missed a lot,” Rodriguez said.
Time Heals all Wounds
Posted By John Antonik: August 23, 2007 (9:05 pm)
Most of the players injured during fall camp are either back on the field practicing or should be ready to go by Monday when the team begins full preparation for the season opener against Western Michigan.
On Wednesday, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez ran down the lengthy list of walking wounded.
“(Alric) Arnett has practiced the last two days; (Ovid) Goulbourne hasn’t which is a concern because Ovid has missed a lot,” Rodriguez said. “Arnett is not 100 percent but he did more today than he has in the last two weeks which was encouraging.
“Nate Sowers (hand) was out (Wednesday),” Rodriguez said. “We X-rayed his hand but it was not broken so I think he will be back on (Thursday). Wes Lyons did not practice. He’s had a chronic knee. The MRI did not show any significant tears or anything like that. It’s just sore so he’s way behind everyone else.”
Senior linebacker Bobby Hathaway suffered a broken hand earlier this week but Rodriguez says he will play with a soft cast on it. Cornerback Antonio Lewis’ sprained shoulder is progressing to the point that he should be available starting next week.
“An injury we thought might keep him out a couple of weeks has been moved up,” Rodriguez said. “Antonio wants to play so bad and he’s a pretty tough guy. We’re hoping he’ll be back maybe Monday.”
Right guard Eric Rodemoyer has been out with a sprained ankle but he’s getting closer to 100 percent.
“He did more (Wednesday) than he’s done the last week and I think every day he’s getting a little bit better,” Rodriguez said.
Linebacker Marc Magro, who missed most of fall camp with mono, is also back on the field getting ready for the opener.
Rodriguez also said redshirt freshman safety Greg Davis was excused from last weekend’s scrimmage and practice early this week to attend a funeral.
The coach said the team is finished scrimmaging.
“We’ll do a little banging good on good each day,” he said. “We’ll practice Friday and have our Beanie Bowl. He will have a light practice on Saturday and give them Sunday off. Then it’s a normal game week beginning on Monday.”
There are no tickets left for the Western Michigan game, which will kick off at 3:30 pm and will be televised by ESPN Regional.
Dealing with Distractions
Posted By John Antonik: August 23, 2007 (8:11 am)
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| Rich Rodriguez |
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is getting used to dealing with distractions. Be it job offers, high national rankings or other circumstances, his football teams have usually taken a tunnel-vision approach to game preparation.
That’s why he simply shrugs off the latest set of distractions that took place last weekend.
“It’s the old Lion King approach. When the monkey hits the lion over the head and he says what did you do that for? The monkey said it doesn’t matter, it’s in the past. You know about it and you deal with it,” Rodriguez said Wednesday evening.
The seventh-year coach pointed out that his team has had to deal with far greater distractions in the past.
“We had distractions before our last game (against Rutgers). Everybody had me going to Alabama and all that kind of stuff and we went out and won the game with our second quarterback,” he said.
Rodriguez says his players are a resilient group.
“Kids are focused on what they’re doing and getting ready to play a game,” Rodriguez said. “That’s not an issue.”
What is particularly helpful, says Rodriguez, is the fact that the season-opening game is nearing.
“The opening game you don’t worry too much because the players will be excited to play,” he said. “The thing that I’ll have to hammer to them is Western Michigan is a team that is picked to win the MAC, they beat Virginia last year and this is not some team that you can just show up, mess around and win.
“When they see the scores and they read about them it will get our guy’s attention.”
Rodriguez said the coaching staff has already been deep into Western Michigan.
“When we’re meeting as coaches it is all Western Michigan,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll have a full scouting report ready (for the players) by Saturday.”
Ratings Game
Posted By John Antonik: August 21, 2007 (1:34 am)
Ratings for college football games on national TV from the 2006 season were recently released and several West Virginia games had high ratings, according to the web site Sports Media Watch.
The highest, of course, was the Mountaineers’ Thursday night loss at Louisville on Nov. 2, which drew a 4.4 rating and was the highest rated Thursday night telecast in network history. West Virginia’s Gator Bowl appearance against Georgia Tech drew a 3.9 rating.
The Thursday, Nov. 16, Backyard Brawl had a 2.5 rating while West Virginia’s Saturday, Dec. 2, telecast of the Rutgers game had a 2.4 rating. WVU’s Thursday, Sept. 14, game against Maryland drew a 2.1 rating.
The lowest rated of West Virginia’s five games that appeared on ESPN/ESPN2 was the Friday, Oct. 20, game at Connecticut that drew a 1.7 share.
The WVU-UConn game still managed to beat many other network contests including:
Interestingly, some of the weakest performing games on ESPN/ESPN2 involved Big Ten teams which could be a precursor to the eventual popularity of the Big Ten Network that launches later this month.
Ratings measure the amount of households watching out of the amount of households with access to the cable channel or larger.
West Virginia’s two highest-rated football games were the 1989 Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame that drew a 17.0 rating and the 1982 Gator Bowl game against Florida State that had a 13.8 rating. Those are the only two occasions when West Virginia drew double-digit ratings.
History in the Making
Posted By John Antonik: August 20, 2007 (10:44 am)
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| Devon McTavish |
Just like Al Downing and Mike Bacsik before him, Devon McTavish has carved his name into sports history. The former West Virginia University standout was responsible for setting up Major League Soccer sensation David Beckham’s first MLS goal on Aug. 15.
McTavish, a defender for D.C. United, committed a foul against the L.A. Galaxy 25 yards out from the goal. Beckham was then able to angle the free kick past D.C. United goal keeper Troy Perkins. Beckham has made a name for himself scoring on free kicks from that location.
Beckham eventually set up another goal in helping the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 2-0 victory over D.C. United in front of 17,223 fans at The Home Depot Center.
McTavish has started 11 of 12 matches at midfield this season – his second professionally. In 2006, McTavish made his MLS debut and had three starts before being sidelined with a knee injury.
At West Virginia University, McTavish earned third-team NSCAA All-America honors in 2005 and he finished third in career matches played with 75. He was taken in the fourth round (43rd overall) of the 2006 MLS Supplemental Draft on Jan. 25, 2006.
