OT: West Virginia rumors running rampant
Lots of talk on Twitter about some huge news about to break out of WVU. Blog post from this morning cites the usual disarray in the coaching staff (Holgorsen/Stewart/Casteel, etc). But the people on twitter saying they know and will go public with confirmation suggest its better.
Some choice quotes:
RT @SmokingMusket: WVU football: shit, meet fan.
RT @SmokingMusket: The next week will define WVU football for the next five years.
RT @SmartFootball: Just got a taste of the WVU and I hate to say it but my reaction is that it's really goddamn hilarious (but to WVU fans, I'm really sorry)
RT @romulus9 about the WVU news that's buzzing all over Twitter and elsewhere... if it's what I'm hearing, it's not bad. It's disastrous.
Anyone hearing anything?
How could WVU have thought bringing in Bill Stewart's replacement without asking him could have gone wrong? Add to it that Capt Holgo and Stewart seem to be as different as they get. Seemed like a great idea to me.
Reportedly (so who knows) Stewart helped interview candidates. As to Shoe's copy/paste job...wow. It does not surprise me that WVU fans are blaming the whistle-blower (Stewart) instead of the offender.
Also, I am so happy that Holgorsen did not end up at Pitt.
I just figure since ole Bill likes to wear sweatervests himself WVU figured they might as well get rid of him now before something comes down the pike. If your a sweatervest wearer it's going downhill for you.
At first I thought it was about the beer but it appears to be more than that.
Wonder what it is.
I think Bill Stewart is over playing his hand here. He was an emotional hire after RR left them and he really isn't head coach material. Holgerson can bang a hooker on top of a Budweiser truck while wearing a beer hat and he is still going to be the head coach at WVU. Does anyone really think WVU is worried about some bad PR?
He said "West By God Virginia." That was seemingly his top qualification. Such an idiotic culture there.
Well of course it's okay if it's a truck for an (ostensibly) amurrican beer.
There are also some rumblings that Jeff Casteel wants out.
Why in the name of all that is holy didn't he reach this decision 3.5 years ago?
AMDCHG (Angry Michigan DC-Hating God)
RR to WVU? Just kidding!
In December.
Would it have mattered? A more competent 3-3-5 is still a 3-3-5 when most of your opponents are power running teams.
For as wrong as I thought the people were that said the spread can't work in the Big Ten, I think the people who said the 3-3-5 can't work were correct.
You obviously didn't watch the Backyard Brawl the last few years. My irate reaction to Casteel's 3-3-5 and it's defense of Dion Lewis and Ray Graham should be evidence that a 3-3-5 can be terribly effective against a power running team.
2009:
Dion Lewis- 26 carries/ 155 yards 0TD (less than 10 yards above average)
2010:
Dion Lewis- 11 carries/34 yards 0TD
Ray Graham- 10 carries/ 21 yards 0TD
As painful as that is for me to write, it happened, and those aren't two scrubs either.
Dion Lewis was also not nearly the back in 2010 that he was in 2009, due to injuries and his line not jelling as well. (2009: 325 carries, 1799 yards, 5.5 YPC; 2010: 219 carries, 1061 yards, 4.8 YPC)
I just think that in a mid-major conference where spread offenses is the norm, a 335 makes far more sense than in a league like the Big Ten where it's usually only the less talented squads that utilize it. I believe Hoke recognized that as well, and would have preferred not to take Rocky Long to Michigan even if he was not offered the HC job at SDSU.
I'll disagree with one or two reasons on Lewis, but the Lewis/Graham tandem was almost as effective (yards wise) in 2010 as Lewis was in 2009 (2354 vs 2154).
Also, I don't get the difference between the BE and the B1G: Casteel takes BE players and shuts down BE offenses with BE talent, shouldn't a B1G coach be able to do the same thing, given the equivalent talent upgrade?
I think the bigger problem with the 3-3-5 is not necessarily inherent in the scheme. Rather, it's the fact that, because no one in the NFL uses it, it become more difficult to attract blue-chip athletes for the front seven. Even when concerns related to 'fit' are overblown, I imagine it'd be easy to plant in a high schooler's head that if you go and play for Coordinator X's 3-3-5, he ain't gonna have you ready for the League.
In a sense, it's a bit like recruiting for Rodriguez's spread offense that way.
This is probably the best explination I've seen; honest question, how much are 4-2-5 alignments used in the NFL? I know TCU is famous for shutting people down with it, but I never hear of a Texas/ USC/ FSU type team using it.
Also, it kicks ass in NCAA 11.
Rich would have had a DC that he trusted, and would fully delegate coaching decisions to, and listen to when topics like "instead of that extra slot receiver, can we offer another DB?" came up.
It is my understanding, and I could be incorrect here, that Casteel did not come to AA because of exactly what you are proposing here...he was not delegated to. RR controlled those decisions. In fact, Rick Trickett, at a Glazier convention in Tampa in February, went as far to say that RR would even take credit for his (Trickett's) decisions (he threw it out flippantly).
Requires a lot of instinctive coverage. I believe Casteel could have raised the defense's ball iq - Robinson couldn't
...who said, during his introductory press conference, "Sure it can," when asked if a 3-3-5 would work in the B1G.
The last three years would have been very different.
And I think this year would be pretty damned fun to watch.
Why in the name of all that is holy didn't he reach this decision 3.5 years ago?
It's not clear that Casteel has even reached this decision at all. The author of that WVU post said in the very next sentence: "I don't believe that one for a minute."
What the hell was WVU thinking with this set up? Just fire Stewart. The Luck family makes very curious decisions.
Are crazy. They honestly think Morgantown is the center of the Football universe. I have a god friend who went there. Smart guy,rational, but when it comes to Mounty football he/they are totally irrational. First he rationalized loosing RR. Then retaining Stewart then this dual coaching thing was"pure genius". I said this was a bad idea in November. Obviously. That place is messed up.
Sounds like somebody is going to get Tressel'd.
for a Rodriguez, Casteel, Stewart reunion in Columbus?
Telling Stewart he's fired but not for another year and then hiring his replacement to work under him has got to be the most epically stupid decision in the entire history of coaching decisions.
Maybe I'm wrong but this seems more like the blogosphere making a (sorry) mountain out of a molehill.
Michigan better hope they don't play WVU then.
I wish Michigan played them. They could call it the Rich Rod Bowl. I wouldn't be suprised about drama in Morgantown town.
Lame duck coach being replaced by hotshot coaching phenom, just sounded disastrous from jump street.
A little random, but has anyone have thought about how Oliver Luck couldn't even get his own son to come to West Virginia?
Andrew Luck really screwed that up last year, didn't he? :)
Can somebody please put idown in bullet points exactly WTF is going on in Morgantown for those of us with ADD?
The post at hailwv.com doesn't make any sense.
Thanks.
- Holgorsen has a serious problem with alcohol.
- Bill Stewarts wife told on him.
(Stewart was quasi-fired at the end of last season and Holgorsen is WVU's head coach in waiting.)
Buckeye tears are tasty. that is all.
...don't forget Casteel wants out.
I understand an institution of higher learning doesn't want its employees hanging out at casinos at 3:30am, bombed off thier ass. But with some intervention, this problem could easily be remidied. ( and I mean easily in the sense that it's easy to address, not cure alcoholism).
If this is someone's "9 out 10" story, I'd be extremely suspicious of the "investigative" journalist's motives. The dude obviously has a drinking problem. Help him get some help WVa.
There was talk about all the big stories months ago, and the Holgorsen alcohol stuff all came up in the last two weeks. I'm thinking this is just something new.
I think alot of comments here are made by people who don't understand West Virginia (and Western PA) culture. I'm not from there and not going to proclaim its greatness. But I have had occassion over the past 15 years to be out there many, many times, and I have come to understand the region -- and why they are so insane about their college football team.
Here's what you need to know about the people in WV. They are an insular, self-supporting group who knows the rest of the country looks down on them, but who believe in each other and think no one appreciates how good of a people they are. They have had, historically, two of the most dangerous industries of all: coal mining and steel mills. These are jobs requiring hearty men and very high accident/death rates. Many people in WV and WPa never leave the small town where they grew up in. They also tend to be very religious people.
But they are also, typically, not nearly as affluent as other parts of the country. Their education system sucks. People don't move into WV, except when relocated there (e.g. FBI has a big operation in Morgantown).
So, WV people yearn for something on which to feel good about themselves, compared to other parts of the country. Same issue Alabama has, I think. So when their football team was doing very well, it was not merely a source of pride or diversion -- it was reaffirming of their culture, their hard work, of the nature of the people who lived there. (Same kind of attitude Pittsburgers have about the Steelers.)
I think, IMHO, that's why they were so hard on RR when he left. He was one of THEM, he grew up there, he played there, he came back there to lead them. He made them feel good about themselves. Then, he left... for a "better job," one of the glamour jobs. It just reminded WV people, hey, this is just WV after all. It opened up that thing you don't talk about there -- how, when WV people get successful, they LEAVE.
It's not a place used to being under the spotlight. This is just the latest chapter of what happens in small, islanded, parochial regions that are trying to be what they are not.
When is this whole thing going to be officially released?
A slightly-wasted looking Matthew McConaughey is the perfect choice for the lead.
in "Ballad of Bill Stewart" article linked on main page....
He waits until the end of the season and then he goes after him. He burns his couches, he burns his mattresses, he even burns the couches Stewart used to own and he burns the couches he lost change in. And like that he was gone. Underground. Nobody has ever seen him since. He becomes a myth, a spook story that old ball coaches tell their kids at night. “Rat on your team, and Dana Holgorsen will get you.” And no-one ever really believes.
...Keyser Soze.
just told me Stewart is out at WV.