Sept. 16-23 Blog
September 16, 2007 12:21 PM | 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 ...
Perfectionist
Posted By John Antonik: September 21, 2007 (10:28 am)
Sometimes press conference topics can border on the ridiculous. Such was the case earlier this week when Rich Rodriguez was asked if he ever contemplated replacing quarterback Patrick White during West Virginia’s 31-14 Thursday night victory at Maryland.
White dropped two direct snaps and misfired on a couple of passes that could have been big gainers against the Terps. He finished the game 8 of 13 passing for 95 yards and had 22 yards rushing on 11 carries – admittedly pedestrian numbers by White’s enormous standards. After the game, the perfectionist in Rodriguez caused him to voice his displeasure with the boo-boos. The coach was just simply letting off some steam.
“I think Pat was just pressing a little bit,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. “We talked a little bit about it and I think he was maybe trying to do too much. I think that’s natural for a guy like Pat who has made a lot of big plays. In a big game under the big lights sometimes you press and try to go outside the framework of the offense.”
I remember Steve Newberry once telling me a story about Rodriguez when he was Clemson’s offensive coordinator. Newberry had bumped into his former WVU teammate heading into the locker room at halftime of a game the Tigers were leading. A young Coach Rod was beside himself with anger. His quarterback had missed several reads that could have been easy touchdowns, Rodriguez told Newberry. He had to get to the locker room right away and get it corrected.
The point is this: where most coaches see first downs Rodriguez sees touchdowns.
Patrick White in just two and a half seasons has already accomplished more than any quarterback to ever play at West Virginia. He owns Sugar and Gator Bowl championship rings - which happen to be the two biggest bowl victories in school history. He’s 18-2 as a starting quarterback and West Virginia is 25-3 since his redshirt freshman season in 2005.
By the way, the Mountaineers also happened to beat a pretty good Maryland team by 17 points at their place.
Honorary Captains
Posted By John Antonik: September 20, 2007 (10:35 am)
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| Rich Braham | Jerry Holmes | Undra Johnson |
Rich Rodriguez is doing it on the football field -- his team’s 25-3 record over the last 28 games is a testament to the type of football program he’s building at West Virginia University.
Along with that great on-field success are the hidden things that he has also been steadily implementing at his alma mater such as the beautiful Donald J. Brohard Hall of Traditions, the Reynolds Family Academic Performance Center and the new team locker room expansion set to begin after this season.
Rodriguez has embraced West Virginia University’s rich history and has been using Mountaineer football’s tradition to benefit the present. Earlier this week, the veteran coach announced at his Tuesday afternoon news conference that he is dipping into the past once again by having honorary team captains at each home game.
This week’s honorary captains are Rich Braham, Jerry Holmes and Undra Johnson.
“I actually got the idea from another school when we played on the road last year of having honorary captains for each of the home games,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve never done that and I simply hadn’t thought about it. We wanted to start that tradition ourselves starting with the East Carolina game.”
Braham and Holmes are returning to Morgantown this week as members of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame class of 2007 induction ceremonies. Undra Johnson, a four-year letterman and a teammate of Rodriguez’s, is a successful businessman living in Clarksburg.
“All three kind of played in different eras and obviously had outstanding careers here,” Rodriguez said. “They were leaders while they were here and have gone on to be successful whether in the professional ranks or in their personal lives.
“I wish we had more games so we can honor more guys because there are hundreds that are certainly deserving (of the recognition) - and hopefully I’ll be the coach here long enough to get everybody honored,” Rodriguez said.
For those coming to the game on Saturday be sure to give these three great Mountaineers a loud ovation for the contributions they have made to West Virginia University. Be sure, too, to salute Rich Rodriguez for having the vision to recognize them.
Super Sleuthing
Posted By John Antonik: September 19, 2007 (10:05 am)
Our super sleuths have pointed out to me that South Florida is auctioning off Matt Grothe’s game-worn jersey from the Bulls’ upset victory at Auburn two weeks ago. What caught their attention wasn’t the fact that USF was auctioning off his jersey but instead the way they are promoting it, referring to Grothe “the best quarterback in the Big East.”
I believe folks in Louisville, Morgantown and perhaps even Piscataway might find that more than just a little interesting.
By the way, there have been four bids on the jersey and you can jump into the bidding for $500 right now.
... WVU assistant sports publications director and women’s soccer SID Tim Goodenow passed along an interesting note. This week West Virginia is one of six schools in the country to have both its men’s and women’s soccer programs nationally ranked by Soccer America.
The WVU men have jumped to seventh after a pair of road wins at Maryland and Duke. The West Virginia women are holding steady at 18th after its 5-1 victory over Xavier last Sunday.
Other programs with dual men’s/women’s teams ranked include: Santa Clara, Virginia, UCLA, Boston College and Notre Dame.
The Big East men have three teams ranked in the Top 10 in No. 2 Connecticut, No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 7 West Virginia. The Big East women don’t have a Top 10 team yet, but four are ranked in the Top 25 including No. 14 Notre Dame.
Yoda Says ...
Posted By John Antonik: September 18, 2007 (9:45 am)
Having grown up in Tennessee in a small town outside of Knoxville, WVU sports marketing director Matt Wells was raised on SEC football. Having seen the ebbs and flows and the ups and downs of a long football season, Wells will be the first to tell you that in the SEC you don’t make any plans until all of the games are played.
He made that point once again yesterday at lunch as we munched on our Chick-fil-A sandwiches. “Don’t worry about the rankings because it’s only September,” he told our small group between bites. “Just go back and look who Tennessee played in 1998 for the national championship game?”
Our department Yoda is wise beyond his years.
Tennessee faced Florida State that year for the first BCS national championship game. Tennessee was ranked fourth after the third week of the season and Florida State was only 10th.
Both managed to navigate the hazards of a long season to make hard charges at the end.
West Virginia slipping from No. 3 to No. 5 in the polls is not that big a deal. Just chalk it up as a simple market correction. USC, LSU, Florida and Oklahoma have all been impressive so far this year. But keep in mind that LSU and Florida still have to play each other, Oklahoma has to face Texas and there is always an Oregon State lurking on USC’s schedule.
All West Virginia can do is simply take care of business and let the chips fall where they may.
As a point to note, only three times since the Bowl Championship Series was created in 1998 has the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the final regular season poll gone on to play each other in the national championship game.
No. 1 USC played No. 2 Texas in 2005, No. 1 Ohio State faced No. 2 Miami in 2002 and No. 1 Florida State squared off against No. 2 Virginia Tech in 1999. Except for Texas, the one common trait among all of them is that those schools didn’t have to play a conference championship game.
Last year, Ohio State was No. 1 in the polls on Nov. 26 and wound up making it to the national championship game. No. 2 USC and No 3 Michigan slipped on banana peels, making room for No. 4 Florida to get into the national championship picture.
In 2004, Oklahoma was ranked third on Nov. 28 but was able to get past undefeated Auburn with the help of the BCS computers.
In 2003, the top-ranked team on Nov. 30 didn’t even make it to the title game. That is the year we had the split national champion with LSU beating Oklahoma in the BCS title game and USC sharing the title with the Tigers.
In 2001, Nebraska was fifth in the rankings on Dec. 2 and was able to leap past Tennessee, Oregon and Colorado to meet Miami in the national title game. The same scenario took place in 2000 with No. 5 Florida State jumping Miami, Washington and Oregon State to meet Oklahoma for the big game.
Just listen to our department Yoda and don’t worry about the rankings on Sept. 16. Let’s wait and see how all of the games play out. The only ranking that really counts is the one at the end of the year.
Offensive Evolution
Posted By John Antonik: September 17, 2007 (3:23 pm)
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| Rich Rodriguez |
It's difficult to flip through the channels on Saturdays and not see at least one team using some form of the spread offense made popular by West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez. What was once utilized as a means of competing against teams with far greater talent has now become the norm in college football.
“The defenses have become so much more athletic really in the last eight to 10 years. You’re seeing so much more team speed at every position defensively that it forces the offense to be a little more creative,” Rodriguez said.
The spread, like any other offensive system, must be able to adapt to what the defense is trying to take away, according to Rodriguez.
“You can still run a traditional offense. I’ve always said that you’ve got to have a system whether it’s an I-back, West Coast, spread -- whatever you’re system -- you’ve got to have some built-in answers. If they do this, this is how you answer it,” Rodriguez said. “If you have a system and you have players that can adjust to all that speed on defense at least it gives you a shot.”
The best offenses always have one thing in common: good football players.
“It’s always the players first,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody will tell you it’s the Jimmies and Joes before the Xs and Os. But I also think the system plays a part from the standpoint of putting them into a position to make plays or at least them knowing where to go.
“That to me is the coach’s responsibility,” Rodriguez said. “If they do something to stop you what is your next counter to that? That chess match obviously more involves the coaches than the players but if you can get your players to understand that as well it’s easier to adjust.”
Random Thoughts
Posted By John Antonik: September 16, 2007 (10:40 am)
Some random thoughts after spending Saturday afternoon on the couch with the remote …
LSU blanked a Middle Tennessee team that scored 42 points against Louisville, Oklahoma has scored 79, 51 and 54 points in three season-opening wins against North Texas, Miami and Utah State, and USC was in complete control of Nebraska in Norman on Saturday night.
In the second half McCoy was taking direct snaps from the center because of the problems redshirt freshman quarterback Kevan Smith was having moving the Panther offense. The long-term solution for Pitt is to use true freshman Pat Bostick but Wannstedt has been reluctant so far to burn Bostick’s redshirt.
Pitt also looks to have an active defense holding a Spartan team that scored 83 points in wins over Alabama-Birmingham and Bowling Green to only 17 points and 327 total yards.
If Pitt can sort through its quarterback situation the Panthers are going to give some teams problems this year. They look to have enough athletes despite enduring some critical season-ending injuries to key players.
In reality, the Cardinals don’t have a championship-caliber defense this year having given up 42 and 40 points in consecutive games to Middle Tennessee and Kentucky, but the Cardinal offense is as good as ever. Brian Brohm has completed 69 of 103 passes for 1,142 yards and 11 touchdowns and Harry Douglas is as reliable as any receiver in the country catching 26 passes for 474 yards and four touchdowns. Louisville can score on anyone at any time.
Plus, Cincinnati could be 5-0 with games coming up against Marshall and San Diego State before its big showdown with No. 13 Rutgers on Oct. 6.
We are going to get a better read on Rutgers in two weeks when the Scarlet Knights take on Maryland on Saturday, Sept. 29. Rutgers has scheduled its first five games at home before traveling to Syracuse on Oct. 13.
Connecticut and Pitt square off at Heinz Field next Saturday to christen the conference portion of their schedules.
New Hampshire has done this before, knocking off Rutgers in 2004 and beating Northwestern last year.
Notre Dame has only started the season 0-3 one other time in its well-chronicled history and that came in 2001 under Bob Davie. Even Tyrone Willingham and Gerry Faust were able to avoid 0-3 starts.
Notre Dame looks to snap its five-game losing streak that spans two seasons at home next Saturday against 3-0 Michigan State.
I heard that Charlie had trouble getting into his house last night. Apparently a disgruntled Notre Dame fan painted a goal line outside his front door.
