Posts Tagged ‘Rich Rodriguez’
WVU coaches, players share the blame
As my post-game analysis, I respectfully submit my column in today’s DA, written after wrapping up this blog and after that disaster of a football game. Apparently nothing can go right lately, so that link cuts off the last few paragraphs of the column, so I’ll present it here so the thing actually makes sense.
While everyone will look to one person or one reason to point a clear finger at for these early struggles, it just isn’t that simple.
Part of the problem is the new coaching staff.
Part of it is the loss of last year’s key players.
And another part falls on this year’s players and an inability to execute the fundamentals at critical times.
As former coach Rich Rodriguez often reminded us, the children’s movie “The Lion King” teaches us that what’s in the past no longer matters.
That’s one lesson this year’s team would be well-served to learn if it hopes to find its stride quickly enough to even be competitive in a weak Big East Conference.
Tags: Auburn, Big East, Bill Stewart, Colorado, Marshall, Rich Rodriguez, Syracuse, WVU
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Sep 19th, 2008
LIVE BLOG: WVU-East Carolina
7:25 p.m. – Mercifully, it has ended. 24-3 in favor of the Pirates.
It will be interesting, to say the least, to hear what Stewart and the players have to say to explain this one away. West Virginia didn’t even look like it belonged on the same field as East Carolina today.
I’ll have post-game commentary tomorrow as we try to make sense of this fiasco and put a brave face towards the rest of the season, which admittedly has a different feel to it entirely now.
Tags: East Carolina, Rich Rodriguez, WVU
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Sep 6th, 2008
LIVE BLOG: September 6 NCAA Football
1:28 p.m. — As the noon kickoffs reach halftime, there are surely some raised eyebrows among college football fans around the country.
Ohio U. takes that 7-6 lead over Ohio State into the locker room in Columbus.
Wisconsin scores a late touchdown to take a 17-14 lead over Marshall into the locker room. It’s been 17 unanswered for the Badgers to end the half after the Herd jumped out to a two touchdown lead.
Auburn is only up 7-0 on Southern Miss around halfway through the second quarter.
It appears a lot of these “big name” teams have come into their games today a little listless. Tough tasks remain for any team hoping to pull a big early-season upset, however.
An update on the defending Big East co-champions: Mighty Temple has a 6-0 lead on Connecticut at the half.
Tags: Big East, Big Ten, Chris "Beanie" Wells, Chubb Small, Darius Marshall, East Carolina, ESPN, Kirk Herbstreit, Lawrence Wilson, live blog, Marshall, Michigan, Ohio, Ohio State, Pat White, Rich Rodriguez, Steven Threet, Temple, Terrelle Pryor, Todd Boeckman, UConn, Wisconsin, WVU
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Sep 6th, 2008
Wannstedt’s Failure is My Happiness
To give you my long-awaited answer to the question I posed here (and on a thread on BlueGoldNews.com): As a West Virginia fan, which “enemy” defeat this weekend was most satisfying to you, and why?
1. Pittsburgh (lost 27-17 at home to Bowling Green):
After hearing derisive “13-9″ chants and having to deal with losing to the Panthers in devastating fashion in seemingly every sport (men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and even wrestling) during the past year, it was nice to see Dave Wannstedt fall flat on his mustachioed face in his team’s home opener.
Pitt’s season-ending upset of West Virginia this past December gave Wannstedt’s program a lot of mileage. Recruiting was successful (although, according to the major online scouting services, he’s had solid classes for several years and been able to do nothing with them), and Pitt was even a “sexy” pick to win the Big East this year. The team even filled the final slot in the preseason AP Top 25 poll.
Perhaps no team since, well, WVU, has received so much positive press out of one game (the Mountaineers’ win over Georgia in the ‘06 Sugar Bowl gave a similar bounce). The only other likely candidate would be Boise State after its upset of Oklahoma in the ‘07 Fiesta Bowl.
One would have to think much of that progress was utterly and completely undone with a two-possession loss to a mediocre team from the Mid-American Conference. Let those who argue that a Pitt loss was bad for the Big East fret over such things — I’ll enjoy watching that program receive as much bad publicity as it possibly can.
Tags: ACC, BCS, Big East, Boise State, Bowling Green, Chris Beatty, Dave Wannstedt, Dominik Davenport, East Carolina, Fiesta Bowl, Frank Beamer, Georgia, John Beilein, Logan Heastie, Michigan, Mid-American Conference, Oklahoma, Pitt, Rich Rodriguez, Shawne Alston, Sugar Bowl, Tajh Boyd, Top 25, Utah, Virginia Tech, WVU
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Sep 2nd, 2008
A Day of Rest
After the fun and excitement of yesterday, this writer is taking a break for today from any posts of great substance. Check back tomorrow though for content to wrap up the WVU-Villanova game and begin the process of looking towards East Carolina.
For those reading, however, I have to ask a question that has compelled me since yesterday. Which of this weekend’s losses by a Mountaineer rival was the most personally satisfying to you, and why?
Leave your answers in the comments section of this post, and I’ll post some of the best responses and give my own selection in a post tomorrow.
Tags: Bowling Green, East Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Pitt, Rich Rodriguez, Utah, Villanova, Virginia Tech, WVU
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Aug 31st, 2008
Prediction: WVU-Villanova
On top of the typical final score prediction, I’ll give a few nuggets I expect to happen during the game.
- Expect the WVU defense to look stronger than you imagined.
This unit performed well beyond expectations in fall camp and beyond. Most expected the loss of several veterans in the secondary and a pair of stalwarts on the defensive line (Johnny Dingle and Keilen Dykes) to cause some serious problems. By all accounts though, the transition has gone more smoothly than anyone could have hoped for.
IF (and this is still a significant “if”) the secondary can play well as a unit, this defense should come closer to resembling the 2007 unit than their 2006 counterparts.
Tags: Jeff Mullen, Johnny Dingle, Keilen Dykes, Rich Rodriguez, Tyler Urban, Will Johnson, WVU
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Aug 30th, 2008
Keys to the Game: WVU-Villanova
“Keys to the Game” typically are used to describe what needs to happen for each team to win. While the outcome of this game shouldn’t be in doubt, West Virginia will have a few secondary goals beyond winning the game. Villanova will be looking to make the game as competitive as possible for as long as possible.
West Virginia:
Put the game out of reach early.
This is of particular importance to the Mountaineers in this game on multiple fronts. Of course, they want to squash any hope Villanova has of actually trying to win the game. But more importantly, the team needs a solid early performance on both sides of the ball just for confidence’s sake.
The team has struggled on offense this fall, and the young players on defense have been hearing about their inexperience for the better part of a month now. Jumping out on the Wildcats with a few early scores and quick defensive stops would do wonders for a team that will need to carve out its own identity under the new coaching staff.
From a schematic standpoint, this will be important for different reasons. If WVU pulls away early, they can put in the backups and let them get some valuable experience in a game. Furthermore, offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen could go to a very “vanilla” playbook to avoid showing East Carolina any more of the modified offense than they have to.
Tags: Bill Stewart, East Carolina, Jarrett Brown, Jeff Mullen, Mark Rodgers, Noel Devine, Pat White, Rich Rodriguez, Terence Kerns, Villanova, WVU, Zach Hulce
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Aug 30th, 2008
West Virginia happy to have Stewart
This article from Rivals.com has to be, without a doubt, the most insightful article I’ve read on the coaching change in the eight months since Rich Rodriguez left Morgantown.
As someone who has interviewed several of the players quoted in this story, I have no clue how the writer (Jason King of Yahoo! Sports) got some of these players to be so unbelievably open. You expect Pat McAfee to be real and honest, but Pat White is normally a brick wall in interviews. Yet Mr. King somehow got this nugget out him:
A few weeks before Coach Rodriguez left, Coach Stewart and one of the former assistants (who ended up leaving for Michigan) got into (it) at practice.
He and the other coach were really going at it. The main thing I remember is that all of the players gathered around Coach Stew. We had his back and not the other coach.
That said a lot about what this team thinks of him.
Wow.
Tags: Bill Stewart, Jason King, Pat McAfee, Pat White, Rich Rodriguez, WVU
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Aug 29th, 2008
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