The Magazine Cover That Never Was
July 16, 2025 02:01 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – That unforgettable image of Stedman Bailey, Geno Smith and Tavon Austin wearing aviator glasses and bomber jackets popped up again on my X timeline the other day, and I figured it was high time to tell the story of how it came to be.
That's because what was posted - and what has been circulating since the summer of 2012 - was never supposed to have seen the light of day!
Then-West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen shot it down before it ever got off the ground.
Back in his Phil Steele days, our Jed Drenning used to produce a preseason college football magazine focusing on West Virginia and the teams associated with the Mountaineers.
When he started it in 2010, West Virginia was still a member of the Big East Conference, so naturally it centered on WVU and the teams in the Big East.
The writing, reporting and research were outstanding, and it really gave Mountaineer fans some great insight leading into the season.
One year, Jed and his collaborator, Will Gregory, came up with the idea of having defensive end Bruce Irvin on the cover holding burlap sacks over each shoulder as West Virginia's Sack Man.
In 2012, when WVU switched conferences to the Big 12, Jed wanted to make a big splash with his magazine while maintaining the consistency of a cover theme. Holgorsen operated an Air Raid offense, the Mountaineers had three terrific returning players, and it only seemed natural to have them on the cover representing Holgorsen's exciting Air Raid attack.
Jed takes it from here.
"I had a sense of, 'Okay, what are we going to do for the first cover for the start of the Big 12?' We had all those guys coming back and once I figured out the theme with the Air Raid, the bomber jackets and all that, then I had to go out and get the props," he recalled.
So, Jed being Jed, he just happened to know the owner of the Illusive Skull Costume Castle in nearby Fairmont. One phone call was all it took for him to get three bomber jackets and some aviator glasses for the photo shoot.
Football communications director Mike Montoro got the jerseys from football equipment manager Danny Nehlen, Jed hired local photographer Dale Sparks, and they arranged to do the picture of the players inside the stadium. From there, the plan was for Jed to have his graphic designer, Kayla Kurczak, come up with the Air Raid concept for the cover of the magazine.
"We had to figure out which color combinations would jump out," Drenning explained. "Geno, Stedman and Tavon loved it. They were having a blast. I had a really good graphics artist, and we were going to run with it. She was going to window dress the image with a bunch of bomber-themed World War II stuff."
That is until Holgorsen saw the picture of his three best players in bomber jackets and sunglasses and nearly spit out his Starbucks coffee.
"He didn't like football players dressed up in costumes, and I remember Monty calling me and saying, 'Ehem, Jed, we can't do that,'" Drenning laughed.
"It was sort of like the Chandler Bing thing on Friends when Chandler always got spooked out whenever animals were dressed up like humans," he continued. "That's what I immediately thought when Monty told me what Dana had said to him about the picture."
Consequently, Jed and Will had to quickly come up with a plan B, which they didn't have.
In the meantime, one of the raw images from the photo shoot had gotten out on the Internet and somebody proficient in photoshop recreated the players standing in front of a World War II-era bomber with a Flying WV logo on its side.
To this day, Drenning remains puzzled how that happened.
"I don't remember what we did with the picture or how it got out, but it ended up getting out and before our graphic people even had a chance to do anything with it, somebody else did that with them standing in front of the bomber," he said.
"They did the same types of things that we were going to do on the cover, and they just posted it on the Internet. The original photo was just those three guys dressed up and standing inside the stadium. Whoever did that, they did a helluva job!"
What Drenning and Gregory eventually settled on for the cover was a much tamer "Wild West" concept consisting of a collage of action photos. It was a nice cover, for sure, but it paled in comparison to the original idea.
Who knows how many copies of that magazine Jed would have sold with those three guys dressed in aviator glasses and bomber jackets on its cover? It might have been enough to sustain the enterprise longer than its eight-year existence. By the time Drenning shut things down in 2017, it was just becoming too costly.
"It was costing me a small SUV to print these things," he sighed. "Now I was still making money, but it was like a full-time job doing the advertising sales and creating all the content.
"It was just becoming too much."
Too much - just like that photo of Stedman, Geno and Tavon decked out in bomber gear, at least in the eyes of their football coach.
How ever it made its way to the Internet, I'm glad that it did. The Internet, the IRS and the FBI are still undefeated in my book!
That's because what was posted - and what has been circulating since the summer of 2012 - was never supposed to have seen the light of day!
Then-West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen shot it down before it ever got off the ground.Back in his Phil Steele days, our Jed Drenning used to produce a preseason college football magazine focusing on West Virginia and the teams associated with the Mountaineers.
When he started it in 2010, West Virginia was still a member of the Big East Conference, so naturally it centered on WVU and the teams in the Big East.
The writing, reporting and research were outstanding, and it really gave Mountaineer fans some great insight leading into the season.
One year, Jed and his collaborator, Will Gregory, came up with the idea of having defensive end Bruce Irvin on the cover holding burlap sacks over each shoulder as West Virginia's Sack Man.
In 2012, when WVU switched conferences to the Big 12, Jed wanted to make a big splash with his magazine while maintaining the consistency of a cover theme. Holgorsen operated an Air Raid offense, the Mountaineers had three terrific returning players, and it only seemed natural to have them on the cover representing Holgorsen's exciting Air Raid attack.
Jed takes it from here.
"I had a sense of, 'Okay, what are we going to do for the first cover for the start of the Big 12?' We had all those guys coming back and once I figured out the theme with the Air Raid, the bomber jackets and all that, then I had to go out and get the props," he recalled.
So, Jed being Jed, he just happened to know the owner of the Illusive Skull Costume Castle in nearby Fairmont. One phone call was all it took for him to get three bomber jackets and some aviator glasses for the photo shoot.
Football communications director Mike Montoro got the jerseys from football equipment manager Danny Nehlen, Jed hired local photographer Dale Sparks, and they arranged to do the picture of the players inside the stadium. From there, the plan was for Jed to have his graphic designer, Kayla Kurczak, come up with the Air Raid concept for the cover of the magazine.
"We had to figure out which color combinations would jump out," Drenning explained. "Geno, Stedman and Tavon loved it. They were having a blast. I had a really good graphics artist, and we were going to run with it. She was going to window dress the image with a bunch of bomber-themed World War II stuff."
That is until Holgorsen saw the picture of his three best players in bomber jackets and sunglasses and nearly spit out his Starbucks coffee.
"He didn't like football players dressed up in costumes, and I remember Monty calling me and saying, 'Ehem, Jed, we can't do that,'" Drenning laughed.
"It was sort of like the Chandler Bing thing on Friends when Chandler always got spooked out whenever animals were dressed up like humans," he continued. "That's what I immediately thought when Monty told me what Dana had said to him about the picture."
Consequently, Jed and Will had to quickly come up with a plan B, which they didn't have.
In the meantime, one of the raw images from the photo shoot had gotten out on the Internet and somebody proficient in photoshop recreated the players standing in front of a World War II-era bomber with a Flying WV logo on its side.
To this day, Drenning remains puzzled how that happened."I don't remember what we did with the picture or how it got out, but it ended up getting out and before our graphic people even had a chance to do anything with it, somebody else did that with them standing in front of the bomber," he said.
"They did the same types of things that we were going to do on the cover, and they just posted it on the Internet. The original photo was just those three guys dressed up and standing inside the stadium. Whoever did that, they did a helluva job!"
What Drenning and Gregory eventually settled on for the cover was a much tamer "Wild West" concept consisting of a collage of action photos. It was a nice cover, for sure, but it paled in comparison to the original idea.
Who knows how many copies of that magazine Jed would have sold with those three guys dressed in aviator glasses and bomber jackets on its cover? It might have been enough to sustain the enterprise longer than its eight-year existence. By the time Drenning shut things down in 2017, it was just becoming too costly.
"It was costing me a small SUV to print these things," he sighed. "Now I was still making money, but it was like a full-time job doing the advertising sales and creating all the content.
"It was just becoming too much."
Too much - just like that photo of Stedman, Geno and Tavon decked out in bomber gear, at least in the eyes of their football coach.
How ever it made its way to the Internet, I'm glad that it did. The Internet, the IRS and the FBI are still undefeated in my book!
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