Campus Connection: Weekend Notebook
April 16, 2015 08:59 PM | General
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| West Virginia defensive end Julian Miller sacks Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri during the final Backyard Brawl played in 2011 in Morgantown. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Some Pittsburgh and national media outlets have since picked up the story:
WPXI
ESPN.com
Yahoo! Sports
Lyons said the earliest opening on West Virginia’s football schedule is 2022, meaning at least an 11-year interruption for one of the longest running football rivalries in Eastern college football.
The neighboring schools have played 104 times on the gridiron from 1895-2011, with pauses in 1896-97, 1899, 1905, 1911-12, 1914-16, 1918 and 1940-42.
Pitt Chancellor PATRICK GALLAGHER has stated publicly his interest in resuming the series but the Panthers have yet to hire an athletic director to replace STEVE PEDERSON, who was fired last December.
Lyons said he is hopeful Pitt hires an AD with whom he has had a prior working relationship. For the most part, WVU-Pitt relations have been cordial through the years despite the intense rivalry on the playing field.
In the late 1930s, when other schools were dropping Pitt from their grid schedules because the Panthers were accused of running a pro program under Coach Jock Sutherland, West Virginia was one of the schools that stuck by Pitt.
And FRANK CARVER, the school’s publicist at the time and later Pitt’s athletic director in the 1960s, never forgot that. Carver was the Pitt AD who finally agreed to play West Virginia on a home-and-home basis starting in 1963, to the mutual benefit of both athletic programs.
Relations between the two schools continued to remain warm until recent years.
Briefly …
- West Virginia University was one of the first schools out front on beer and wine sales at athletic events and now many other schools are beginning to follow suit. The University of Maryland is the latest institution to consider selling alcoholic beverages at sporting events.
- There is always a fair amount of experimenting that goes on during spring football practice, but this year the impression here is that more starting positions are established, especially on defense.
There is a ton of experience at the three defensive line positions, at linebacker, at safety and corner. The one starting position on defense that is still unsettled is Will linebacker where seniors Shaq Petteway and Edward Muldrow are battling it out.
On the other side of the ball, running back is in good hands, three of the five offensive line spots look to be solid, quarterback is in good shape with either Skyler Howard or William Crest, and probably two of the four receivers positions are pretty much determined.
That leaves left tackle, right guard and the two outside receiver spots that need to be fortified before the season opener against Georgia Southern on September 5.
And those likely won’t be settled until sometime this fall.
- I asked coach DANA HOLGORSEN if he thought this was the most athletic group of quarterbacks he’s had.
He thinks it is.
“We are trying to recruit more athletic guys,” he said. “I’m not going to sacrifice passing ability, but I will sacrifice probably some height and arm strength for the athleticism. That’s what we started recruiting.”
- Based on what I’ve seen of practice so far Howard appears to be the most comfortable out there under center. It’s amazing what game experience can do for a player.
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| Pat White |
I remember when PAT WHITE was here, thinking the offense was in dire straights because the coaches always blew their whistles whenever a defender approached him. Then, in games when it was full go, White was able to show what he could really do so you can’t always trust what you are seeing during practice.
- West Virginia’s third public practice will take place this Saturday at The Greenbrier. The team will also have a closed workout on Friday at The Greenbrier’s new AdvoCare performance facility that Mountaineer Athletic Club members will be permitted to observe.
Concessions will be available on The Greenbrier grounds from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. during Saturday’s practice, which is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.
- On Monday, April 20, the Big 12 Conference will have its third “State of College Athletics” forum with this one taking place in Washington, D.C. A star-studded panel, which includes JAY BILAS, DOUG GOTTLIEB, CHARLES DAVIS, LISA SALTERS and former Maryland men’s basketball coach GARY WILLIAMS, will offer opinions on where collegiate athletics is headed in the near future.
A live stream of the forum will be available on Big12sports.com beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
- The departure of forward BillyDee Williams has opened up another scholarship opportunity for Coach BOB HUGGINS to use to address any immediate roster needs. However, with 74 percent of his scoring returning from a team that won 25 games and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 this past season, I’m not sure there is anything really pressing that Huggins has to address.
On Thursday, Huggins added high-scoring junior college guard Teyvon Myers to give the Mountaineers another shooter out on the perimeter.
Huggins can use his final scholarship on the best player still available or he can hang on to it and see what happens as we enter “transfer season” in college basketball.
I recall JOHN BEILEIN always wanting to have a scholarship in his hip pocket to use at this time of the year just in case a good player such as MIKE GANSEY or D’OR FISCHER became available.
Those two guys worked out exceptionally well for West Virginia, by the way.
- The new Monongalia County Ballpark is certainly a game changer for WVU baseball, and the Mountaineers are already realizing its impact at the turnstiles.
Nearly 7,000 fans showed up for West Virginia’s three-game series against Butler last weekend, and similar turnouts are expected for upcoming Big 12 series against Oklahoma, Kansas, TCU, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
This weekend’s three games with Oklahoma may not top last weekend’s total attendance because Sunday’s start time has been moved to 11 a.m. to accommodate OU’s travel plans, but weekend games coming up against nationally ranked TCU and Oklahoma State should exceed the record 6,968 spectators who observed West Virginia’s three-game sweep of Butler.
By the way, I am told concession sales for last weekend’s games against Butler were the equivalent to about a couple years worth of concession sales at Hawley Field.
That’s good stuff.
- This one slipped right past me just like a Blake Smith fastball. If you notice, the street address for the new Monongalia County Ballpark is 2040 Gyorko Drive, named in honor of San Diego Padre second baseman and Morgantown native JEDD GYORKO.
That is certainly a fitting tribute to the current face of WVU baseball.
As for Gyorko, he is off to a slow start with a .125 batting average in seven games so far this season.
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| Kay Murray |
I don’t know Kay that well, but I did have an opportunity to sit in with her and co-host JIM STALLINGS during one particular Friday morning show as part of their weekend football coverage.
Back in the late 1990s sports information director SHELLY POE was a regular on Kay’s Football Friday shows during the season, but for a reason that now escapes me, Shelly was unable to participate, so I was brought in out of the bullpen to fill in.
My appearance followed West Virginia’s 1998 season-opening loss to Ohio State in a matchup of two top-10 teams (Ohio State was preseason No. 1) that received considerable coverage throughout the country that summer.
Among the invited guests for the opener that night was Hall of Fame linebacker SAM HUFF, who agreed to take part in the opening coin toss ceremony with Ohio State legend ARCHIE GRIFFIN.
As was sometimes the case with Sam, he arrived late to the stadium and was forced to park his Cadillac on the apron next to the Puskar Center, which was then referred to as the Facilities Building. Because Sam’s car was blocking the front of the building – and because the person in charge of parking at the time didn’t realize that the car was owned by Huff – his vehicle was immediately towed, causing a small firestorm in the department the following week.
At any rate, just minutes into my spiel about the game matchup (I believe the opponent was Maryland that weekend) the phone lines began lighting up.
Kay patiently waited until I finished blabbering about the Terps to suggest that we take some calls.
I can remember like it was yesterday the first question that came in … “Hey buddy, do you realize that somebody from YOUR athletic department towed the car of an NFL hall of famer during the Ohio State game?”
A crooked smile formed on her face as she sat back in her chair to see how this wet-behind-the-ears PR guy was going to handle this one. The look she gave me said “this one is all yours, pal.”
I’m pretty sure Kay took about 10 or 15 calls just like that one that week, plus thousands more throughout her outstanding radio career.
What a real pro she was behind a microphone.
Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Kay.
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| Jerry Mahoney |
The Shenandoah Junction native played two seasons on the baseball diamond for the Catamounts in 1974-75, earning junior college All-America honors in 1975. Following his two years at Potomac State, Mahoney transferred to WVU and played two seasons for the late Dale Ramsburg in 1976-77.
- Speaking of hall of famers, former West Virginia University baseball standout ABE BARKER, a member of the 1996 NCAA Tournament team, is part of this year’s class of inductees into the Armstrong County Hall of Fame.
Barker was the starting first baseman on one of the strongest WVU teams in school history, the Mountaineers catching fire late in the season to win the Big East Tournament championship and coming within two games of reaching the College World Series.
He was a .305 hitter with 181 hits and 94 RBI in 190 career games for the Mountaineers. Barker, who currently resides in Sarvor, Pennsylvania, was a baseball and basketball standout at Ford City High in Ford City, Pennsylvania.
- And finally, for this generation of Mountaineer football fans the date that will live infamy is December 1, 2007. That, of course, is when 28 ½-point-underdog Pitt upset No. 1-ranked West Virginia, 13-9, at Milan Puskar Stadium to knock the Mountaineers out of the BCS national championship picture.
Well, for WVU football fans of another generation, the date that lived in infamy was November 29, 1923. It was on that day that West Virginia’s No. 1 rival at the time, Washington & Jefferson, came down to Morgantown and upset the undefeated Mountaineers, 7-2, to knock them out of the Rose Bowl.
Rather than choosing 7-1-1 West Virginia, the Rose Bowl picked a 5-1-3 Navy team to face Washington instead.
The similarities between the two losses in 2007 and 1923 are eerie – both WVU teams were coming off impressive victories, the 1923 Mountaineers routing Colgate, 34-2, at home the week prior and the 2007 Mountaineers blowing out Connecticut, 66-21, at Milan Puskar Stadium in their prior game.
In both instances, the Mountaineers were upset by anemic, one-dimensional offensive attacks. The Presidents made just two first downs and generated 50 yards of offense in their 1923 victory while the Panthers managed only 12 first downs and 183 total yards in their 2007 upset win.
Plus, the defeats came to bitter Western Pennsylvania rivals and both altered the trajectory of the WVU grid programs.
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| Rodriguez | Spears |
But Spears, who also coached at Oregon, Wisconsin, Toledo and Maryland, was never able to duplicate the great success that his West Virginia University teams enjoyed from 1922-24 when they won 25 of 29 games with two ties.
RICH RODRIGUEZ, of course, matched Spears’s impressive success in the mid-2000s at WVU with a three-year run that saw his teams win 32 of 37 games before his departure to Michigan prior to West Virginia’s Fiesta Bowl game against Oklahoma.
After three turbulent seasons at Michigan (another Big Ten school), Rodriguez has since revived Arizona’s football fortunes by leading the Wildcats to the 2014 Fiesta Bowl.
Both coaches relied on cutting edge offensive attacks predicated on speed and precision. The “Spears Shift” was copied by many coaches of his era just as versions of Rodriguez’s no-huddle, spread attack are being used by just about everyone today.
Furthermore, the two native sons who followed them – WVU athletic legend IRA ERRETT RODGERS and BILL STEWART (both hailing from the state’s Northern Panhandle) – were likable guys who could never quite measure up to their predecessors in the eyes of the fans.
Indeed, the similarities are eerie.
Who was it who said history always repeats itself?
Have a great weekend!
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Friday, April 03
Geimere Latimer | April 2
Friday, April 03
Coach Deke Adams | April 2
Friday, April 03
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 2
Friday, April 03
