Life in the Top Ten
December 29, 2009 05:13 PM | General
(5:14 pm)
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| Coaqch Bob Huggins has had the Mountaineers in the Top 10 for seven straight weeks now.
AP photo |
Ah, life is good in the Top 10. Coach Bob Huggins Mountaineers have now been ranked in the Top 10 for seven straight weeks - the most consecutive weeks in the Top 10 for West Virginia since the 1959 season when the Mountaineers spent 12 consecutive weeks near the top of the polls.
West Virginia has obstacles ahead to remain in the Top 10, beginning with tonight’s game against 9-3 Marquette. After that, West Virginia travels to fourth-ranked Purdue to take on the Boilermakers Friday afternoon in a game to be televised nationally on ESPN.
Many are calling Saturday’s West Virginia-Purdue matchup college basketball’s game of the week.
When the football team was down in Jacksonville for the 2005 Gator Bowl, Coach John Beilein’s Mountaineers drew 13,956 for their game against 20th-ranked George Washington on Dec. 29, 2005.
The Mountaineers had 12,380 for their game against Oklahoma on Dec. 29, 2007 at the Charleston Civic Center during Bob Huggins’ first season, and nearly 12,000 showed up for the UConn game at the Coliseum on Dec. 30, 2006.
Tickets remain for only the Rutgers game on Jan. 6 and the Georgetown game on March 1.
And a few bounces of the ball could have turned a .500 season into a much better one for the Seminoles.
“If you could take one play out of about four games, in other words, don’t let them have this play here or give us this play then we’d be 10-2,” said Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. “We were that close. It’s not like people wore us out. Florida wore us out but nobody else wore us out. We were in the ballgame up to the end.”
For those interested, Sagarin had West Virginia’s schedule rated the 40th toughest in the nation.
All 1,496 bowl game starters were analyzed and it was discovered that only 8.4% of them were Top 100 recruits.
The most Top 100 recruits were signed by USC (13). The Trojans beat Boston College in last Saturday’s Emerald Bowl.
BCS bowl participants Oregon, TCU and Boise State do not have a single Top-100 recruit in their starting lineups.
Along those lines, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden said many of the top Florida prospects can’t all go to Florida, Florida State and Miami.
“Let’s say there are 150 boys out of this state that are going to sign major college I-A scholarships,” Bowden said. “We can’t sign but 20. Florida can’t sign but 20. Miami can’t sign but 20. Gosh, where are those 70-some guys going to go? They are going to go to West Virginia. They are going to go to Notre Dame or Penn State.
“Everybody has got Florida kids.”
“I think Don Nehlen put West Virginia on the modern map,” said Bowden. “Sam Huff, Bruce Bosley and Freddy Wyant and all of those guys that played in the early-to-mid-fifties, they put West Virginia on the map also. But then it seemed like Don Nehlen put the modern West Virginia on the map. It has changed so much from then to now. I think West Virginia is right up there with all of them.”
According to Bowden, the biggest difference between West Virginia when he coached there and the Mountaineers of today is the recruiting philosophies used by the coaching staffs.
“When I was head coach at West Virginia I said, ‘We’re a state university and I’m going to try and sign as many state players as I can.’ I told our coaches, ‘If we can sign 25 players I want half of them to be from West Virginia.’ That’s not wise.
“If you watch what Don Nehlen has done and what Coach Stewart – they went into Ohio and Pennsylvania to recruit more of their players. The West Virginia players were good but there were not enough of them.”
By the end of Bowden’s coaching tenure at WVU in 1975, even his coaches were beginning to change their recruiting approach.
“I think my last year there I think we started 11 Pennsylvanians and six from Ohio,” Bowden said. “Then there were some from New Jersey and Virginia. To coach at West Virginia you’ve got to go out of state because there are not enough kids there and that’s because of population.”
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| Jeff Casteel |
Casteel said what Fisher runs is close to what he saw when Rich Rodriguez was running the WVU program from 2001-2007.
“I think they’re a little bit similar, especially now with an athletic quarterback,” Casteel said before Monday’s practice at the University of North Florida. “They’re going to count you in the box. It’s the read-zone, some option off of it and I think they have the ability to throw the ball a little bit more because their kid is an accurate thrower.”
Florida State coach Bobby Bowden has former players and coaches on Bill Stewart’s staff, while some of Florida State’s coaches have West Virginia ties such as offensive line coach Rick Trickett.
For Casteel, it’s the same-old same-old for him when watching Trickett’s Florida State O-line.
“Those kids are athletic and they know who to block and do a good job,” said Casteel. “They look like tough kids and the typical linemen that Coach Trick produces.”
“The UConn game we give up an 80-yard ball right after we get the opportunity to ice the game,” said Casteel. “We intercept the ball and how many times do you see a kid fumble off an interception? I’ve never seen it in 20-some years of coaching. Some things happen that you really can’t predict and you just keep playing – that’s all you can do.”
Here are the yardage totals West Virginia’s defense has allowed in bowl games since 2002:
2002 Virginia (391 total yards)
2004 Maryland (522 total yards)
2005 Florida State (458 total yards)
2006 Georgia (501 total yards)
2007 Georgia Tech (486 total yards)
2008 Oklahoma (419 total yards)
2008 North Carolina (370 total yards)
“It always hurts when you lose a brother but we’ll be OK,” said Stewart. “We just have to play a little longer and a little tougher.”
Jacksonville native Boogie Allen is likely to step in for Sowers, while Josh Taylor will probably get the nod for Berry at defensive tackle. Stewart said that will be determined this week in practice.
Bill Stewart hopes it is not the team that won at BYU because he knows how difficult it is to win in Provo.
“I’ve been to Provo and I’ve never won there,” Stewart said. “It’s a tough, tough place to win and they went out there and totally dismantled a very good BYU team. If that Florida State team shows up on the 1st then we are going to be hanging by our coattails.”
The writers, on the other hand, still need some convincing. West Virginia earned 38 poll points in the AP poll, leaving it 17 votes short of 25th-ranked James Madison.
West Virginia has a non-conference game coming up Wednesday night against Santa Clara at the Coliseum before beginning league play on the road at St. John’s this Saturday.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
