The Mountaineer football coaches have been busy tracking down high school players in advance of February's national signing day, but they are not the only ones busy over at the Puskar Center.

Long-time athletic trainer Dave Kerns has been pretty busy himself getting guys patched up before drills begin later this spring.

Of course No. 1 on that list is quarterback Geno Smith, who last week had planned corrective surgery on his left foot. According to Kerns, Geno presently is not permitted to walk on his foot but the rehabilitation process has already begun with therapy to minimize leg-strength loss in his quad, hamstring and hip muscles.

Geno is also undergoing straight leg raises, theraband exercises and biking for conditioning, although no pressure is being placed on his left foot. He is also on a throwing program in which he rests his left knee on a stool to allow him to throw with his foot off the ground.

"We are doing these things now so when Geno can put weight on his foot he is in less of a hole that he has to dig out of to fully participate (for spring drills)," explained Kerns.

Smith will visit the doctor again on Jan. 31 and following that meeting Kerns said he will have a better idea of when Smith can begin putting weight on his foot.

Smith is not the only player Kerns is attending to. Don Barclay and Jeff Braun had off-season shoulder surgery and will be out for the next six months, while safety Eain Smith will have the same procedure done this Friday and his time table is similar.

Also, linebacker Donovan Miles is two months into his rehabilitation after undergoing ankle surgery on Nov. 19 and Kerns estimates it is still three months before he will be cleared to resume work.

Others rehabbing injuries include defensive lineman Donovan Pearson and linebacker Hunter Bittner.

Wednesday's Notes …

- Later this week, we will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the WVU Coliseum with a series of stories highlighting the great players, coaches and memorable moments in the 40-year history of the building. Be sure to stop back on Thursday to check out the first installment of this four-part series.

- Veteran WVU athletic equipment manager Bubba Schmidt says the new Nike uniforms are in and are ready to be worn for the remainder of the season. According to Schmidt, if the team does not wear black on Sunday against USF they will unveil the brand new white uniforms against the Bulls.

Click the photo link at the top of the page to get a look at the new unis.

- Da'Sean Butler was in town this week rehabbing his knee. Butler, a second-round pick by the Miami Heat during last year's NBA draft, is hopeful of hooking up with an NBA team next season once his surgically repaired knee is back to 100 percent.

Butler will be in Charleston on Wednesday signing autographs at the Charleston Town Center before taking in the WVU-Marshall basketball games.

- Levi Phillips, a Charleston native and a teammate of Bob Huggins when the two played at West Virginia, says the Mountaineers are 28-0 in basketball games he has attended since his departure from the WVU program in 1974. Pointing this out to Huggins, Phillips said he received a text the other day from Huggs asking him to get up to Morgantown for the Purdue game.

- Former West Virginia All-American Karly Hamric will be competing for Team USA at the Five Nation's Match in Glasgow, Scotland, on Jan. 29. Hamric placed fifth in the 1,500 last year at outdoor nationals as a senior.

Hamric is working in Clarksburg and training in Morgantown.

- Bakeer Ganes, who spent the last five years as an assistant coach at West Virginia, has been named head women's volleyball coach at Temple. Ganes is taking over an Owl program that won just four of 28 matches in 2010.

- Yesterday former West Virginia University offensive lineman Garin Justice was officially introduced as Concord's new head football coach. Justice, 28, spent the last two years as Concord's offensive line coach and strength and conditioning coordinator. He also had graduate assistant stints at West Virginia and Florida State.

Justice played on the Mountaineers' Sugar Bowl championship team in 2006.

- More members of Rich Rodriguez's staff have found jobs. Rod Smith, who coached the Mountaineer quarterbacks in 2007, has landed at Indiana where he will become co-offensive coordinator and coach the Hoosier quarterbacks while Greg Frey has also been hired by Indiana to coach the offensive line. Frey had a similar role at West Virginia for the '07 season.

- ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi believes there is a possibility of the Big East getting as many as 11 teams into this year's NCAA tournament.

The Big East presently has nine teams in this week's AP top 25: Syracuse, Pitt, Villanova, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Louisville, West Virginia, Georgetown and Cincinnati while St. John's and Marquette are receiving votes.

The women are nearly as strong with Connecticut, West Virginia, Notre Dame, DePaul and Georgetown in this week's poll with Marquette, St. John's and Syracuse earning votes.

- Can you believe Gene Chizik is the owner of a national championship? Two years ago when he was hired at Auburn, Chizik was heckled at the airport when he arrived for his introductory press conference after posting a lowly 5-19 record in two seasons at Iowa State.

Auburn AD Jay Jacobs obviously knew something the rest of us didn't when he named Chizik to replace Tommy Tuberville.

- Women's tennis opens its spring season this weekend with matches in Louisville, Ky. against Bowling Green on Saturday and Louisville on Sunday. This is Tina Samara's first spring season coaching the Mountaineers after taking over in September, 2010.

- According to Matt Wells, director of sports marketing, the WVU-USF game on Sunday is close to being a sellout with a very limited number of tickets remaining. You can call the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME to see what's left.

Wells also revealed that Chesapeake Energy will continue its sponsorship of the Capital Classic for five additional years from 2012-16. The announcement was made at the WVU alumni luncheon in Charleston earlier today.

- Joe Alexander continues to play well for the Texas Ranchers of the NBA Development League, scoring 25 in a seven-point loss at Reno on Sunday to boost his season average to 20.4 points per game.

Devin Ebanks, meanwhile, is back with the Lakers after spending some time in the D-League. In 13 appearances with the Lakers so far this year, Ebanks is averaging 3.2 points and 1.5 rebounds per game.

- The West Virginia women extended its home court winning streak to 29 games with Saturday's 70-61 victory over Syracuse. The Mountaineers drew 3,086 fans against the Orange, the 19th-largest crowd in school history. Fifteen of the school's 20 most-attended games have occurred in the last five years, with seven of those coming in the last two seasons.

- Here is why Texas turned down offers from the Pac-10 and Big Ten to remain in the Big 12 … http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/highereducation/entries/2011/01/19/ut_espn_reach_20year_300_milli.html

The Longhorns are expected to make roughly $12 million per year off of their newly created 24-hour television network that will launch sometime this fall.

How will the Longhorns fill 24 hours of programming per day? About three hours each day will be devoted to non-athletic programming such as plays, musicals and documentaries, according to the Austin Statesman.

The guess here is that those will not be airing in prime time.

Have a great week!