Posted August 19, 2008 (11:18 am)
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Megan Metcalfe |
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Former West Virginia University national champion Megan Metcalfe will be running on the big stage Friday night in the women’s 5,000-meter run at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Metcalfe qualified for the finals by running a personal-best time of 15:11.23. Her race takes place Friday, Aug. 22, at 8:40 am ET and she will be running in lane 12.
Metcalfe presently lives and works in Morgantown as a physical therapist at Ruby Memorial Hospital.
Greg Van Zant’s top pitching recruit J.J. Hoover signed with the Atlanta Braves four hours before the signing deadline last Friday. Hoover, a 10th round pick out of Calhoun (Ala.) Community College, signed with the Braves for $400,000, or $250,000 more than is slotted for a 10th rounder.
Hoover was a potential weekend starter for the Mountaineers.
Mountaineer basketball coach Bob Huggins announced Monday that forward Roscoe Davis will not join the WVU program this fall and will instead attend prep school. The 6-foot-10-inch Davis averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds per game last year at Hargrave Military Academy.
West Virginia will have four newcomers this season: forwards Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones, guard Darryl Bryant and center Dee Proby.
For those of you concerned about West Virginia’s wide receiver depth consider this: Virginia Tech is now planning on going into its season opener at East Carolina with a true freshman at wide receiver following the suspension of Zach Luckett. Tech, the No. 17-rated team in the country, has just one wide receiver on its roster that has caught a pass in a college game – converted quarterback Ike Whitaker.
Except for a small handful of teams, everyone in college football is concerned about depth somewhere on their roster at this time of year.
It’s been 18 years since the last time West Virginia, Penn State and Pitt started the year ranked in the AP poll. All three are in this year's AP preseason poll. Back in 1990, Pitt was rated 18th, Penn State was 21st and West Virginia was 25th in the preseason. When it was all said and done on Jan. 2, 1991, only Penn State remained in the rankings at No. 11. Both Pitt and West Virginia had losing records that year. Ugh.
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Mike Carey |
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WVU women’s basketball coach Mike Carey just can’t seem to catch a break. Top freshman recruit Jessica Capers will miss the 2008-09 season after suffering a knee injury while playing in a high school all-star game. It is the seventh time in eight seasons at West Virginia that Carey has had a player sidelined with an ACL injury.
The Charleston Daily Mail’s Mike Casazza writes today that the team entrance for home football games will remain the same, which apparently comes as a great relief to many of the message board scavengers. The rest of us are more concerned about what happens after the team runs onto the field.
By the way, it’s great to see former Daily Mail editor Bill Smith back on the front page of the paper with a guest column. Smith, now 79, is still full of vim and vinegar.
Smith, Shorty Hardman, Bill Van Horne, Doug Huff, Mickey Furfari and Tony Constantine were part of the “old guard” of reporters still covering the Mountaineers when I was just getting into the business 20-some years ago.
Speaking of old-guard reporters, Doug Huff recently told me that he has joined ESPN as a high school editor for ESPNRISE.com. He will coordinate its high school polls and serve on the editorial board.
As Dizzy Dean once said, “It ain’t braggin if you done it.”
Congratulations Doug.
Huff's new employer ESPN is reporting that ex-Mountaineer wide receiver Chris Henry is about to get another chance with the Cincinnati Bengals. A source told ESPN.com that Henry is expected to sign a deal with the Bengals as early as today.
Henry’s career has been marred by off-the-field problems that have kept him from being one of the elite receivers in the NFL. In parts of three seasons with the Bengals Henry shows 88 career catches for 1,370 yards and 17 touchdowns. Last year, Cincinnati was 5-3 with Henry in the lineup and just 2-6 while Henry was serving his eight-game suspension.
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Steve Slaton |
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Former Mountaineer running back Steve Slaton scored his first professional touchdown of the exhibition season for the Houston Texans last weekend against New Orleans. He finished the game rushing 13 times for 57 yards. Houston coach Gary Kubiak is rewarding Slaton for his fine work by giving him some reps with the first until during Friday night’s nationally televised preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.
“He played pretty darn well,” Kubiak told the Houston Chronicle. “He’s getting better every time we go out. He’s a much better player this week than he was last week. He was better in protections.”
Friday’s game will be televised on CBS. Mountaineer fans can also tune in to see how former West Virginia player Adam Jones is doing with the Cowboys. Jones recently sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell asking for reinstatement for the upcoming season. Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 campaign for his involvement in a melee that occurred at a Las Vegas strip club in February, 2007 while Jones was a member of the Tennessee Titans.
It is looking more like a certainty that Owen Schmitt is going to be one of the five running backs the Seattle Seahawks keep on their opening day roster. Schmitt has continually drawn praise from Seattle coach Mike Holmgren for making plays.
Darius Reynaud left West Virginia a year early for the pursuit of an NFL career and he is presently in a battle with sixth-round draft pick Jaymar Johnson for the sixth and final wide receiver spot with the Minnesota Vikings, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Reynaud has added value as a kickoff returner.
Former Mountaineer Dan Mozes is also battling for a roster spot with the Vikings at offensive guard.
The first roster cuts will be Aug. 26, three days after Minnesota’s third preseason game against the Steelers. The final cut to 53 players will be Aug. 30.
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Kay-Jay Harris |
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The news does not sound good for former running back Kay-Jay Harris, who is trying to make the roster of the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Harris left the Giants’ preseason game with Cleveland Monday night with an ankle injury and did not return. During his post-game press conference Giants coach Tom Coughlin was not sure of the extent of Harris’ injury.
A feature story on Harris’ quest to make the Giants roster ran in the New York Post Monday morning.
Speaking of the battered and the bruised, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz brought up a sobering statistic concerning former WVU quarterback Marc Bulger. According to Miklasz, Bulger has been sacked 190 times since the start of the 2003 season, easily the most of any quarterback in the NFL.
Bulger’s passing numbers during the preseason have not been impressive and Miklasz lists several reasons. At the top of the list is Miklasz’s concerned that the punishment Bulger has absorbed the last few years may be starting to take its toll, much as it did to the careers of Jim Everett, Neil Lomax and Danny White.
Hopefully for Bulger’s sake the Rams’ offensive line can get its act together.
