Mar 31-April 5 Blog
March 31, 2008 10:17 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 ...
Ready to Go
Posted By John Antonik: April 4, 2008 (2:45 pm)
Although unintentional, I must admit we sometimes live in a cocoon. I came to that realization this morning while taking a field trip to the Milan Puskar Center with my daughter Sydney’s Cheat Lake Middle School second grade class.
It was truly impressive seeing all those kids dressed up in their Patrick White, Steve Slaton and Owen Schmitt jerseys. They had an opportunity to take a brief tour of the Donald J. Brohard Hall of Traditions and watch the team’s recruiting video in the team room, the kids appropriately reacting to the touchdowns and the big hits. The loudest applause came when Coach Bill Stewart was carried off the field after the Mountaineers’ 48-28 victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Watching those kids – and their parents – walking around with such pride and joy on their faces was truly a sight to behold.
As a special treat, the kids got a short pep talk from Coach Stew, who took time out from his morning coaches’ clinic to come over and greet the kids. Stewart talked about the importance of going to school, hugging your mommies, daddies, teachers, custodians and principals, not bullying your classmates, and working hard to realize your dreams.
He told them that they can one day grow up and be just like Marc Magro, who was once just like them years ago at Cheat Lake Middle School.
I’ve listened to Stewart talk to the team, I’ve watched him talk in public and now I’ve had a chance to see him work his magic on a bunch of second graders. I am convinced that old Stew could go out to the local cemetery, whistle in the wind, and get 11 dead guys out of their graves to play hard for the Mountaineers.
He proved that this morning when he had a bunch of second graders - as well as their mommies and daddies - ready to go.
Wednesday Practice Observations
Posted By John Antonik: April 3, 2008 (9:57 am)
I have been watching college football practices for more than 20 years and I saw two interesting things at yesterday’s practice that I had never seen before.
One, the defensive backs were all wearing a strip of white tape around the top of their helmets. And two, both the first team offense and the first team defense did up-downs or hit-its before lining up for goal line drills.
First the white tape.
Jim Laise of West Virginia Sports.com explained in a story yesterday that the white tape was placed on the defensive backs’ helmets as a way for DB coaches David Lockwood and Steve Dunlap to be able to determine on film which guys had their eyes in the backfield.
Anyone who has ever played defensive back on any level can tell you that having your eyes in the backfield is the absolute worst thing a DB can do. As soon as a defensive back takes his eyes off the receiver he is beaten. A constant in the six practices so far this spring has been Lockwood yelling at his DBs to keep their eyes out of the backfield.
The second interesting thing I noticed during Wednesday’s practice was the offensive and defensive units doing up-downs before scrimmaging goal line plays. The up-downs weren’t being done as punishment but rather as a way to get the players tired before they scrimmaged. The West Virginia coaches wanted to see how well their units performed when pushed to the limit.
That’s pretty interesting stuff.
Bill Stewart talked about it before the Fiesta Bowl, he mentioned it during his introductory press conference and he is living up to his words so far this spring: the defense is a major part of the West Virginia football program.
Sometimes cast in a secondary role in the past, the defense has been front and center this spring with Bill Stewart. The coach works both sides of the field, spending equal time on the offensive and defensive sides.
Stewart encourages the defense to make stops against the offense, one time yelling out for defensive end Zac Cooper and linebacker JT Thomas to “bring it” against the offense.
"We like it when Coach Stew comes down and talks to the defense and brings a little noise to us and kind of gets us rattled up to face the offense," said linebacker JT Thomas. "Sometimes it feels like he's pulling for us a little more than the offense."
Moments later he offers encouragement to the offense, patting quarterback Patrick White on the back for a good decision he made or complimenting Noel Devine on a great cut before getting up field.
Bill Stewart was given the green light to go out and hire the best coaching staff he could assemble, he did that, and now he is letting them coach their players.
This spring, good practices are not solely being measured by how many touchdowns the offense scores.
One other note about spring practices. Yelling has been replaced by teaching. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen coaches with their arms around a player’s shoulder pads explaining a technique, a pass coverage or pass route.
The coaches still get after the players but it is done in a much more positive environment. And you can tell the players appreciate that.
Two More for the Patient One
Posted By John Antonik: April 2, 2008 (10:13 am)
Yesterday West Virginia announced the signing of 5-foot-9-inch, 185-pound running back Mark Rodgers of Lawndale, Calif., and Benji Kemoeatu, a 6-3, 315-pound offensive lineman from Kahuku, Hawaii.
Today you can learn a little more about them.
Rodgers was a two-time conference player of the year who earned third team all-state honors as a senior before signing with Portland State.
Rodgers never enrolled at Portland State and chose to sit out last year looking for an opportunity to play at a BCS school. Even though Rodgers rushed for more than 2,000 yards during both his junior and senior seasons at Leuzinger High School including back-to-back 300-yard games against Hawthorne and Schurr High School, he was not considered among California’s top running back prospects because of his size.
An impressive performance in the California High School state track meet changed Rodgers’ status, and Rodgers changed his mind about Portland State. He posted times of 10.83 in the 100-meter dash and 22.09 in the 200-meter dash, making him among the fastest players in the state.
It wasn’t until recently that Portland State granted West Virginia his release and Rodgers signed the letter of intent. He will be just like a normal freshman when he arrives this summer, having the full five years to play four.
As irony would have it, a couple of other pretty productive West Virginia backs committed well after the signing date in Amos Zereoue in 1996 and Noel Devine in 2007.
Kemoeatu has an equally interesting story. The top offensive lineman in Hawaii and the No. 25-rated player in the Farwest by SuperPrep Magazine, Kemoeatu was a one-time recruiting target of Utah until he changed his mind on signing day and announced that he was going to West Virginia.
Nearly two months later he finally signed his letter of intent, giving West Virginia another dominant road grader up front to go with Parkersburg’s Josh Jenkins.
Kemoeatu’s older brother Chris plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers and another brother Maake plays for the Carolina Panthers.
ESPN Scouts, Inc. rates Kemoeatu the No. 13-rated center in the country.
Thus, West Virginia has two outstanding Farwest prospects who took some extra time before making up their minds. Chalk up two more for the patient one, Bill Stewart.
And now you know the rest of the story.
Mr. Basketball
Posted By John Antonik: April 1, 2008 (9:52 pm)
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| Kevin Jones |
West Virginia basketball signee Kevin Jones was recently named Mr. Basketball of the Lower Hudson Valley as voted by the Tri-County Coaches Association.
Jones edged out Syracuse recruit Mookie Jones for the prestigious award. Kevin Jones, a 6-foot-8-inch, 210-pound forward from Mount Vernon (NY) High School, averaged 22.4 points and 12.1 rebounds per game in helping the Knights to a 23-4 record and the school’s eighth sectional title in the last nine years.
Jones finished the season with 22 double-doubles and was named MVP of the Section 1 tournament.
Jones was the No. 77-rated player in the country by Rivals and the No. 12-rated power forward in the country by Scout.com.
Team Speed
Posted By John Antonik: April 1, 2008 (9:52 am)
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| JT Thomas |
Ask Bill Stewart what he likes most about Jeff Casteel’s defense and it doesn’t take long for him to warm up his wind pipes.
“We’re fast,” Stewart said. “I don’t know any other way to say it. Our linebackers are really fast. Have you seen number 30 (J.T. Thomas) out there run? Wow.”
Thomas isn’t any faster than he was last year when he played as a freshman - he’s simply got a year’s worth of experience under his belt.
“He’s just playing with so much more confidence and he knows where to go when the ball is snapped and he just reacts,” Stewart said.
When regular inside linebacker Reed Williams returns to the lineup this fall after successfully recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, Stewart believes West Virginia will have one of the fastest linebacker corps in the Big East.
“Our linebackers are really fast,” Stewart said. “Mortty Ivy did a great job over the break and I saw old 44 just flying around out there and our defense needs to have that happen.”
More speed comes up front in the form of converted linebacker Zac Cooper, now lining up at defensive end.
“When (Ryan) Stanchek left the field to go to class we didn’t have anybody that could block Zac Cooper,” Stewart said. “Zac was just like a bullet off that edge and we just couldn’t block him.”
Jeff Casteel is going to get a better read on his young defense on Wednesday when the team goes in full pads. On Saturday the team will conduct their first officiated scrimmage of the spring.
Donohue Does It
Posted By John Antonik: March 31, 2008 (10:20 am)
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| Kevin Donohue |
Congratulations to WVU swimmer Kevin Donohue for placing fifth in the 100 breaststroke at the 2008 NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships held at King County Aquatic Club in Federal Way, Wash., last weekend.
Donohue’s finish was the best ever by a Mountaineer swimmer at nationals, topping Kreg Lewis’ ninth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly at the 1986 NCAA championships in Indianapolis.
Donohue’s winning time of 53:17 was eight-tenths of a second off his school-record-best time of 53.07. Donohue’s 14 team points gave West Virginia a 33rd place finish at nationals. It was the second consecutive year the men’s program earned points at nationals, placing 20th last year.
Of the 20 wins the West Virginia baseball team has compiled so far this year, the Mountaineers’ 8-7 victory at Rutgers in 10 innings on Sunday may be the one the team points to as the turning point of its season.
West Virginia had lost 14 straight games to Rutgers in Piscataway dating back to April 5, 1997 – an 11-year stretch. The Mountaineers lost the first two games of this year’s series by a combined score of 16-6. After a three-game sweep of Pitt to begin Big East play, getting swept on the road at Rutgers would have completely wiped out West Virginia’s strong conference start.
Now WVU is 4-2 in league play heading into this week’s games at home against Maryland-Eastern Shore on Tuesday and then a three-game series with South Florida this weekend.
West Virginia is 14-1 at home this year.
West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant is now just two victories shy of reaching 400 for his career. Van Zant heads into Tuesday’s doubleheader with Maryland-Eastern Shore with a 398-329-1 career record. The late Dale Ramsburg is baseball's leader in career wins with 540 compiled during 26 seasons from 1968-94.
Final details are being completed to have West Virginia’s 3 pm Saturday game against South Florida aired on XM Satellite Radio through the Big East Conference. MSN’s Kyle Wiggs will handle the play-by-play duties.
