Mid-Week Notes

Posted by John Antonik on Wednesday, June 17, 2009
(11:42 a.m.)


	Alric Arnett

Alric Arnett figures the best way to get more passes thrown his way is to get closer to the starting quarterback. Arnett and Jarrett Brown have been roommates for the last two years now.

"We talk about football all of the time," Arnett said recently. "We pretty much know what we're thinking about at all times."

Arnett's 35 catches were the second most catches on the team last year, including his breakout performance in the Meineke Car Care Bowl when caught seven passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns against North Carolina.

Arnett is part of an improved WVU receiver corps that includes Bradley Starks and Wes Lyons. Also, Jock Sanders, suspended from the team during spring ball, has been allowed back in the Puskar Center to go through summer conditioning drills. Coach Bill Stewart has not made a decision on when Sanders will make a full return to the team.

As for Brown, Arnett and Lyons both say he is becoming much more of a vocal leader this summer.

"I've seen him become more of a leader and a vocal person," said Lyons. "He's taking a leadership role with everything. He wants us to work as a team, and he's more motivated when he gets out there and he seems like he's having more fun."


	Robert Sands

They say West Virginia runs a 3-3 stack defense with five players in the secondary. In reality, WVU's extra safety is really like a fourth linebacker. Consider this, all eight players on the Mountaineers' depth chart at the three safety spots weigh more than 200 pounds, including 6-foot-5-inch sophomore free safety Robert Sands who is now up to 212. Sands said last week that he would like to play this season at 215.

That looks like linebacker size to me.

A lot is expected of West Virginia's defense this year with eight starters returning from last year's team. However, to a man everyone says the straw that stirs the drink is senior middle linebacker Reed Williams.

Robert Sands explains.

"Reed is basically the quarterback of our defense," Sands said. "He calls all the plays and we do whatever he calls.

"Everything is a lot easier with Reed in the middle - not that it wasn't easy before, but everything is a lot smoother when he is in there. I think he is going to be a real difference maker this year on our defense."

More notes …

Our good buddy Canute Curtis was in town earlier this week working Bill Stewart's football camp. The former consensus All-America linebacker is now coaching at Towson, where he got to know incoming WVU president James Clements. Curtis says he is a big fan of Clements.

Paden City High School will recognize defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel on Saturday, July 4, as its 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. A reception for Casteel will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the lower hall of Paden City High School.


	Tyler Kuhn

Kannapolis leftfielder Tyler Kuhn was recently selected to play in the South Atlantic League All-Star Game taking place later this month at Appalachian Power Park. Kuhn is hitting .288 in 57 games so far this year.

This week, Kuhn is making his Mountain State return in Charleston facing the West Virginia Power in a three-game series.

He was a 15th round draft pick by the Chicago White Sox last June.

Seattle Seahawks and ex-Mountaineer fullback Owen Schmitt was in Charleston at Appalachian Power Park to sign autographs and throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Tuesday night.

Schmitt can still attract a crowd. More than 3,500 showed up to get Owen's autograph and to watch the 25-40 Power beat Kannapolis 6-0.

West Virginia women's soccer NLI signee Bri Rodriguez was recently named to the 2009 Parade Magazine All-America Team.

Factoring in underclassmen that chose to return to school, ESPN's Andy Katz yesterday came up with his preseason Top 25 college basketball teams and he has West Virginia rated ninth.

Wrote Katz: "Da'Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks have the potential to be studs for the Mountaineers and in the Big East. Bob Huggins has a serious squad that should prove to be in step with Villanova for the Big East title. Watch this team develop and take on Huggs' personality throughout the season."

Here is the short list of Big East players who chose to pull out of the NBA draft and return to school for the 09-10 season:

Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
Mac Koshwal, DePaul
Ater Majok, Connecticut
Scottie Reynolds, Villanova

Although he doesn't have a television network to help promote his work, Fox Sports.com's Jeff Goodman is one of the best-connected college basketball writers in the business. Each year with the help of the readers of his Good & Plenty blog, Goodman comes up with a list of transfer players. By my count there are more than 270 players moving on.

BCS conference schools taking transfer players this year include South Florida (Ron Anderson), Arizona State (Kal Bay), Virginia Tech (Allan Chaney), Duke (Seth Curry), Kansas (C.J. Henry), Georgia (Gerald Robinson and Connor Nolte), Arkansas (Jeff Peterson), Louisville (Chris Smith), LSU (Malcolm White) and Mississippi (Nick Williams).

In the past women's basketball coach Mike Carey has had great success with transfer players. Carey is continuing that trend with the recent additions of two ex-SEC players from LSU and South Carolina. They will join Minnesota transfer Korinne Campbell, who will be available to play this year.

Speaking of Big East women's basketball, Rutgers star Epiphanny Prince has decided to skip her senior season to play professionally in Europe. Prince becomes the first American women's player to do so.

Pitt recently turned down an opportunity to face Boston College in this year's Jimmy V Classic. According to Pitt AD Steve Pederson, he is looking for more of a national game, but admitted the two schools will likely inevitably play.

Since Boston College left the Big East, the Eagles have played Providence and St. John's in basketball. According to Andy Katz, BC athletic director Gene DeFillipo said BC is in discussions with Villanova about a potential basketball game, and he has also talked to Rutgers and Syracuse about playing in football.

If you recall, Rutgers was one of the Big East schools adamant about not playing Boston College in any sport following BC's acrimonious split from the league.

Apparently time does heal all wounds.

Printed media guides have become a hot topic this summer. Since the Michigan-Ohio State joint announcement that they will no longer print media guides in an effort to reduce costs, other schools have followed suit, including South Florida of the Big East.

Earlier this week, USF announced that it will save $185,000 by no longer printing media guides. The school said media guides will only be made available online. The Bulls also plan to bus to Tallahassee for their football game against Florida State, saving about $50,000.

A national conference call among college sports information directors was held last week to address the issue of media guides. According those surveyed on the call, roughly 50 schools will no longer print media guides this year.

West Virginia University is making cutbacks in the quantity of guides printed in all sports and is continuing to evaluate the situation.

Be sure to stop back later this week to read about one of the great forgotten football teams in Mountaineer history.

I have to offer my condolences to Football SID Mike Montoro, whose boys from Southern Mississippi were eliminated from the College World Series yesterday by North Carolina. Montoro spent seven years promoting Southern Mississippi athletics before returning to West Virginia University in 2007.

Have a great week!

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