July 13-18 Blog
July 14, 2008 10:17 AM | General
Weekend Roundup
Posted By John Antonik: July 18, 2008 (11:19 am)
Final round match ups for the 2008 Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Invitational have been released with West Virginia taking on Iowa in one game and Kentucky facing Kansas State in another. Also taking part in the two-day event are Oakland, Delaware State, Southeast Missouri and Longwood. The tournament takes place Nov. 28-29 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The championship game will air on ESPN2.
In eight seasons with the Raiders Porter caught 284 passes for 3,939 yards and 30 touchdowns. Porter’s best season in Oakland came in 2005 when he caught 76 passes for 942 yards and five touchdowns.
For a coach used to getting what he wants, I wonder how Schiano will react if the school is forced to follow through on the cuts?
Leftovers
Posted By John Antonik: July 16, 2008 (2:50 pm)
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| Doc Holliday |
More leftovers from my research on the 1988 football season …
A couple of email exchanges with Orlando Sentinel sportswriter Bill Buchalter on Florida football recruiting revealed some interesting nuggets:
Yes, West Virginia was one of the first major outside players in Florida recruiting in the early 1980s when former coach Don Nehlen chose to send Doc Holliday into South Florida.
According to Buchalter, Florida recruiting really took off when Florida and Florida State became fixtures on national television. He said the advent of the Florida high school playoffs expanding seasons to as many as 15 games helped, as well the development of spring football which enabled college coaches to evaluate hundreds of outstanding prospects within a short driving distance.
Holliday said it was West Virginia’s success with Florida players during the 1988 season that led to other schools like Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, Boston College and Virginia Tech establishing a Florida presence.
“Other schools saw what happened with those Florida kids,” Holiday explained. “They were all starters and they all played for a national championship at a place nobody thought it could be done.
“From then on it kind of snowballed with the good and the bad,” he added. “The bad thing was we got a lot of publicity from it after the national championship game and then you started seeing everybody else going down there.”
When Holliday started recruiting South Florida in the early 1980s the only other northern schools spending a lot of time down there were Michigan and Iowa State.
What has made Holliday such a strong factor in Florida recruiting is the long list of former WVU players he recruited that are now working in Florida high schools.
“It just goes on and on with what those kids have done,” Holliday said.
It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Instead of recreating the season, I chose to explore some of the factors that led to the school’s first undefeated, untied campaign in school history. You might be surprised with what some of those players had to say - I know I was.
I was able to track down more than 15 key players from the 1989 Fiesta Bowl team to catch up with them on what they’re doing today and to stir their memories.
What is most pleasing is how many of those guys are doing well for themselves in their careers today.
Malone played two years at West Virginia in 1996-97 before leaving school a year early as a second-round pick in the NBA draft. Malone never played in the NBA.
“I was supposed to go in the first round, so it was surprising when I dropped," Malone told the New York Post. “It was stunning because I didn't leave school to go in the second round.
“Of course I wish I would've never come out that year, but I can't do anything about that now. I say to all kids now that are coming out that they should stay in school.”
Milwaukee faces Denver tomorrow night.
Director of Sports Marketing Matt Wells said this year’s season ticket renewal rate was better than 90 percent – which is fantastic.
Our Steve Stone is working on something about Megan for early next week.
Catching up with the Maj
Posted By John Antonik: July 14, 2008 (10:19 am)
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| Pat White |
I was talking to former West Virginia quarterback Major Harris last Friday for a program piece we are planning to run this fall commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1988 season. Toward the end of our conversation we veered off into other areas with Harris offering some interesting viewpoints …
“I think I was more physical as a quarterback. When you’re running the option and you take it up in there you’re basically a running back. I think he is more finesse,” Harris said, adding that White is much, much faster.
“He’s way faster than me. To be honest, I was not that fast. I was probably more quick than fast,” Harris said.
“If I was a running back it would have been a different story if I went up in the hole and tried to take on somebody. As a quarterback it’s easier on you than as a running back if you’re quick. A quarterback can get away with that.”
“The way you call plays a player can tell what type of confidence you’ve got in him,” Harris explained. “That’s one thing I don’t think a lot of coaches realize. Even if you are backed up in your own end zone - if you’re throwing it then the quarterback says, dang, this guy really trusts me. You’ve got to do that because that’s where the confidence comes in. He’s not stupid. He knows if we’re not throwing there it means they don’t trust me.”
“One thing about the spread, to be honest, I was more comfortable up under center because when you’re back in the shotgun as a quarterback you are out on an island,” he said. “When you are in the shotgun everything is right in your face. For a quarterback to be consistent in a spread offense he’s doing a heck of a job because you are going to have one or two games where things don’t go right.”
Harris’ views on the spread are somewhat ironic considering the roots of the system date back to the single-wing when coaches used to take their best athlete and put him at quarterback to run, throw or kick the ball. What West Virginia did with Major Harris in the late 1980s was essentially an updated version of the single wing and an early version of the spread that is being used so prominently today.
“You take New England in the Super Bowl,” Harris said. “All year they played out of the shotgun but then they ran into a team with a heck of a pass rush and you get no play action. When you are up under center you’ve got the threat of play action to freeze people. If you run up against a good front seven you’re going to have problems with the spread. Even though Tim Tebow won a Heisman and put up great numbers they lost, what, three games or something like that?”
Harris likened it to the days when he played and teams began preparing for the quarterback draw.
“It was almost like when (Don) Nehlen kept calling quarterback draws for me,” Harris said. “That defense is going to catch up with it.
“My thing was, even when I scrambled I was always looking to throw because when I threw it the defense couldn’t prepare for that. Even when I went out of the pocket I was still looking to throw so now they’ve got to freeze,” Harris continued. “Once they froze up I knew I had them.”
Briefly:
Milwaukee returns to action tonight against Detroit.
Montreal is presently in first place in the East division standings with a 2-1 record. Montreal faces Saskatchewan next Saturday, July 19, at 7 pm.
Cobourne is not the only Mountaineer playing in the CFL. Lance Frazier is a defensive back for Saskatchewan and Mike Vanderjagt is kicking for Toronto.
For those of you interested, West Virginia’s team preview was written by Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Chuck Finder.
Landry’s father Kevin Jones was not amused with the hoax and he said that he may take legal action.
My question is which is more damaging, a dumb fan that doesn’t know any better or trained journalists jumping to conclusions and not making the appropriate follow-up calls before using the story?
This has happened on other occasions, including a couple of instances a lot closer to home.
Those taking the biggest hit will be RV users. They could spend as much as $300 or $400 on gas alone traveling to Morgantown.
The guess here is that some rabid Mountaineer fans may eliminate a road trip or two if gas prices remain more than $4 a gallon.
Here is where the Big East schools rank in all-time football wins:
14. Syracuse, 670
15. West Virginia, 664
22. Pitt, 645
39. Rutgers, 591
58. Cincinnati, 524
88. Connecticut, 456
96. Louisville, 433
117. USF, 79
Michigan remains the all-time leader in victories with 869, but Oklahoma is the NCAA leader in points scored with 29,772. West Virginia is 19th in all-time points scored with 23,269.
Northwestern is the all-time NCAA leader in points allowed, giving up 22,452 points in 1,113 games for an average of 20.2 points per game.
And Rutgers has played the most games with 1,217 heading into this season.
Brown was a member of Gale Catlett’s WVU staff in the late 1980s.
Brown said that West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins got three outstanding New York City prospects in Devin Ebanks, Kevin Jones and Truck Bryant.
