Mountaineers top Huskies 81-71

This was a game that I was a little worried about going in, but maybe there wasn't any reason. West Virginia was able to fight through the jersey-grabbing-high-elbow-swinging defense of UConn and secure the victory. And thanks to the announcers for finally saying something nice about John Beilein after the game was decided. Real classy. He doesn't just roll the ball out on the court and expect the athletic ability of his team to take over. He teaches his team the game of basketball. He should get a lot more respect than those that don't take the time.

But f%#$ respect. We won! I think everyone can see what a great player Da'Sean Butler is after his 16 point performance. He has the moves to the basket, and seems to be getting much more comfortable in the offense. Everyone on the team, most especially Rob Summers played a great game today. I'm sure there are still going to be times when West Virginia looses some head scratchers with as young a team as they are. But they didn't look like a young team today. Every time UConn got close, West Virginia was able to pull away.

Frank Young lead the team with 20 points, and Nichols and Alexander both played solid games with 14 and 12 points respectively. UConn is going to be better than what they showed today. They have some fantastic young players. This was their first road trip of the year, and yes that is entirely their fault. You can't play your first 11 games of the year at home and expect to go on the road in a hostile environment and expect to win. Like I said in my last post, UConn is going to be tested a lot over the next couple weeks. It's time for them to regroup, and time for this Mountaineer team to be in the top 25. Woop!

UConn Open Thread

UConn comes in undefeated at 11-0. Like West Virginia, they have a lot of wins, but none against a top 25 team. This should prove to be a good challenge for both teams, or at least a good measuring stick. I'm curious to see if this is the number nine team in the country. I'm sure they are talented, but I don't know much about them because they haven't played anyone. We'll know a little something about them by the middle of January, though.

12/30	at W Virginia	2:00 PM
01/02	S Florida	*7:00 PM
01/06	at #19 LSU	9:00 PM
01/10	#22 Marquette	*7:00 PM
01/13	at St John's	*9:30 PM
01/16	at #11 Pittsburgh	7:00 PM

West Virginia is going to find out a lot about themselves as well. We've faced several uninspiring teams the past couple weeks and came away with big victories. This game will either launch us into the top 25 or send us back with pack of pretenders on the outside looking in. I'm not too concerned with falling back. I know they set high goals for themselves, but as young as this team is this should just be a point in the learning curve. I would much rather have them playing their best ball at the end of the year rather than the beginning.

Feel free to leave your comments.

Update: It's amazing to me that UConn was getting away with every ticky tack foul in the first half, and the announcers were completely cool with that. They called it UConn being agressive, and also had no problem with West Virginia getting fouls called for blocking nothing but ball. And now that West Virginia is up big again in the second half and Jim Calhoun is complaining, the announcers are showing concern with the way the game is being called? Why not just hook up with Calhoun after the game and felate him guys? We don't need to know how much you love him.

How Do You Know You Suck?

A good indicator is being out rebounded by West Virginia 45-21. In an odd turn, the Beilein Scale was not really affected that much. The midgets from Maryland Eastern Shore only turned the ball over 12 times, while WV turned it over 10. The total Beline Scale output for the game was a +26. While we might hit that number again this year, I doubt it will be because of rebounding again.

Joe Alexander is turning into a do-it-all forward for the Mountaineers with 14 points., 11 rebounds, and no turnovers in last nights game. With the 95-49 victory, it's hard to get a feel for anything. The Mountaineers blew out a bad opponent and that's really about it.






Pictures from BlueGoldNews.com

The Mountaineer basketball team has a huge game with UConn this Saturday in Morgantown. This will open the Big East part of the schedule and close the cupcake part of the schedule. The game starts at 2pm and will be televised by ESPN2.

Gator Bowl Countdown

Sweet Jesus it's almost here! The final game of the season for West Virginia and I have been more than a little absent here at the Mountainlair. Not that I haven't been covering this over at the Fanhouse, but shit I need a little something up over here. Just to keep your interest. And no, I am not going to talk about West Virginia bombing Maryland-Eastern Shore tonight in Basketball. If ESPN doesn't keep a running box score during the game, then it's not really what I want to discuss. Although we tip our hat to the team winning 10 of their first 11 games.

OK, back to the Gator Bowl.

-West Virginia has sold out their allotment of tickets to the game and could have somewhere close to 25k fans at the game. Which would more or less make it a home game for the Mountaineers. I'm sure quite a few more GT fans live in the area than WVU fans, but Georgia Tech has not requested any more tickets that what they were originally given. While West Virginia has requested and extra 3,000.

-The Mountaineers are banged up, but getting better.




-Most of the talk has been about Calvin Johnson and the dismissal of two of the Yellow Jackets starters, Reggie Ball and Kenny Scott. But not much has been made of Tashard Choice. I think he is the real threat to the Mountaineers. He lead the ACC in rushing with very little recognition this year. Depending on the health of Slaton, the Jacket defense could pose some real problems as well. Even with a healthy Slaton, Tech finished the season ranked 11th against the run, and should pose some problems. However, they were ranked 62nd against the pass, allowing about 200 yards a game. Play action baby! First play should be the bomb, or something intermediate. West Virginia is going to have to find a way to keep the Tech defense off balance until they can get into a rhythm.

ITB Bowl Pick 'em Contest Update

Discounting anything that has happened today, I'm currently tied for first place in the Bowl Pick 'em over at In the Bleachers. If I can say anything, I can say that I am real good at guessing. Which is basically what I did in the first nine bowls. I had not watched most of those first 18 teams this year. I used an ITB favorite and went with the mascot death matches. Some people like to flip a coin. I like to imagine mascot's in a struggle for life and death.

Marshall vs. Buffalo?

Here's the standings after nine bowls:

Dr Sak 6-3

Mountainlair 6-3

Brian from College Football Resource 6-3

Husker Mike 6-3

Charlie 5-4

Ron 5-4

Mrs Cornnation 5-4

Mr Cornnation 4-5

Otto 3-6

The real draw here is the breakdown of all the bowl games by Dr. Sak. Well, and me in first place!! Woop! Woop!

Mountaineer Bloggers a Little Put Out by Universities Choice to Blog the Gator Bowl

Well, I am anyway. A West Virginia University freshman has been chosen by the University to be the official blogger of the Gator Bowl.

WVU has selected the 18-year-old Shippensburg, Pa., native Lauren Black to be the official student blogger for the Gator Bowl.

She will be the eyes and "eers" for Mountaineer fans looking to get a taste of Jacksonville from the comfort of their computer screens.

"I'll write about the stuff we did that day and what's it like to be part of the whole Gator Bowl experience," Black said. "I'll give people an idea of what it's like be in the stands. I'll just be their eye on Web."

Has there ever been a greater tragedy in sports blogging? Sure she's a student, and performs in the marching band and did some video diary thing that was cool and stuff. But I drink a lot and almost always say the wrong thing at the wrong time! Dammit that has to count for something, doesn't it?

I mean I have whittled my fingers to the bone for this universities sports, not to mention my liver and brain cells! However, I will not stand in the way of someone else grabbing all the glory. I offer my grudging congratulations to you Ms. Black, and hope that if you need any pointers on going two fisted at any keg parties that you won't hesitate to drop me a line.

Fanhouse Baby, Fanhouse

Gee what a surprise! I'm really sorry to those of you that google search for a West Virginia blog and have to hop right over to the Fanhouse without reading anything about the Georgia Tech game. But I'm keeping that site updated pretty regular with stuff about the game. So you should go over there anyway. So for stopping by, I should at least try to humor you. This from the Georgia Sports Blog:



















And from Hey Jenny Slater:

Happy Birthday Jesus

And a Merry Christmas to all. I'm out until after the weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Coach Rod Tries His Hand at Blogging

Yeah, I just had to take the night off last night. Not for shopping or any of that Christmas stuff. I just needed a night off from looking at the computer. Anyhow, Coach Rod has a post up over at Every Game Counts. An official NCAA blog I suppose. I've never visited this site before, so I can't say that I know that much about it. But anyhow, go over and give it a read.

ESPN's Porn Filter is Broken

Either that, or Arkansas needs to be a little more selcetive about the names of the people they recruit and hire.

"Nutt picks Dick to start over Mustain"

"Both of them had great attitudes, both of them worked extremely hard and
both of them deserve to play," Nutt said. "We are going start out with Casey. He
will take the first two series and then Mitch [Mustain] will come in for the
third series and then we will play it from there."

So, it's like a tag team three-way? Great!

Reggie Ball Won't in the Gator Bowl

I could quote this that and the other articles about Reggie Ball not being eligible for the Gator Bowl, but there is a group of bloggers that obviously take more joy in it than I ever will. So, first up is the Georgia Sports Blog.

I'm sorry, but what? You didn't realize that your starting quarterback and
cornerback were struggling to pass only six credit hours worth of classes and
maintain a 2.0? Come again? In 2003, GT announced new
procedures designed to ensure that a repeat of Flunkgate wouldn't
happen.

Kyle from Dawgsports made this bold prediction before he knew that Ball would be ineligible for the game.

One is excited because its coach isn't leaving; the other is dejected because its coach isn't leaving. One is looking to post its second consecutive 11-win season; the other is looking to recapture the lost glory of the 1997 Carquest Bowl. (We are, after all, talking about the Yellow Jackets, whose last six postseason victories have included two wins in competitive games against Stanford.)In short, the Mountaineers are going to win and Georgia Tech is going to lose.

I wonder if this changes things, or makes them that much more obvious? Check back with Kyle later in the day as well.

I've always been a little curious as to why he has never been replaced. I'll take a look at the guy that must be the most popular person on the campus at Georgia Tech later today.

Bowl Predictions with In The Bleachers

I'm sorry I didn't get this out sooner, but if you're a blogger and want to get in on a bowl pick 'em contest, head over to In The Bleachers and let Dr. Sak know you're interested. Be warned that you are going up against a foul mouthed trash talker like me. And I will make you pay for every mistake! Because I am the all knowing, all seeing, Trash Heap....

Nah!

Mountaineers vs. Bulldogs Open Thead

Ya know, this game doesn't exactly inspire excitement. I would have liked to see West Virginia play a couple games that will gear them up for the Dec. 30th meeting with UConn. However, it is what it is. For me, I'm just glad the Citadel mascot name is Bulldog and not some person with a gun. It's the one true advantage West Virginia has over almost everyone else, a sure win in the battle of the mascots. Given that, a Bulldog should not be any problem. No television for this game, but here's a nice pdf with a lot of info about the game tonight, the season, and the players from MSNnet.com. I'll try to make these open threads a little more frequent.

Final Submissions for the Blogpoll Awards Nominations

I need to finish this up tonight so I can move on to other things. So forgive me if it seems a little long winded.

The You Talkin' To Me Award

FOR: The best back and forth between rival blogs the week before a rivalry game.

CRITERIA: Must be bi-directional, and both blogs must score points against each other. A unilateral beat-down will not suffice. Should be more in the spirit of fun than wildly abusive.

Orson and Warren's back and fourth before the Florida-Alabama game was pretty well done.

There was a lot of back and fourth between Bruins Nation and the Southern Cal Collective.

The back and fourth on Auburn and Alabama never really seems to stop, does it?

The I'm Just Like You But I Have a Podcast Award

FOR: The best podcast or podcaster of the year.

CRITERIA: Uh, must be audio. And about college football, you know. Note that this is "podcast" in a really broad sense. Parody songs, incoherent ravings about Tyrone Willingham, and whatever else you've got are nominate-able. One restriction: it has to be self-generated.

I choose to go with the best podcaster part of this.

In the Bleachers-And not just because they have me on there from time to time. The set up of the big stories in college football every week, plus a look at all the biggest games is a good formula to have. And they make it fun to listen to.

House Rock Built- For his Friday Night Lites. Though it did seem to tail off toward the end of the year, it was very enjoyable.

EDSBS- Orson mixed it up quite a bit, talking to MSM types and my favorite was the Dirty South episodes. I think I feel Subcommandante Wayne making a podcast sometime soon. Yes?

Blogger Championship Series

...it's just like that other BCS except completely different. We'll be handing out Best Blog awards for each of the BCS conferences, plus one for mid-major coverage (including all independents other than Notre Dame), and one for more general, national coverage blogs. After long debate we decided to put Notre Dame blogs in with the Big East, as the "non-BCS" category is supposed to be an award for mid-majors, which Notre Dame is certainly not. Since ND shares bowl affiliations with the Big East and plays the rest of their sports there, it seemed the logical choice.

Big East- I'm a big fan of Orange 44 and Card Chronicle. They both are well written and aren't afraid of the humor. I also enjoy House That Rock Built and Blue-Gray Sky. But Chas never seems to take a day off over at the Pitt Blather, and gets my nod for the Big East. Doing what he does on the Fanhouse plus this is really impressive. He must not have a job. Well, besides this.

ACC- I give this one to Eagle in Atlanta. Even though we don't like BC for leaving, we probably wouldn't mind if they came back either. Also of note, Section Six, State Fans Nation, and Ramblin' Racket.

Big Ten- Since this is about football. I give the nod to MGOBlog. But MZone shouldn't feel bad, either.

Big Twelve- Burnt Orange Nation is your winner. We also like Corn Nation, but sadly don't have a link up at the moment. We'll get that fixed directly.

*I'm sorry if it seems like I've started to tail off with the reasons why. But if you look back you will see that I have already given several answers as to why I do. So yeah. I thought I would just throw that out there.

Independant/Mid-Major- We go with the Navy Fanhouse. Maybe it's because I'm checking the Fanhouse stuff more than others, but we like this one the best.

Pac-10- We give the slight edge to Bruins Nation because UCLA won this year and USC refuses to acknowledge it. But we do enjoy all the USC blogs. And yes, I owe the rest of the Pac-10 blogs an apology for not reading them enough. My bad guys.

SEC- Jesus! Most of my favorites reside in the SEC. So I will only mention one because of time, and that is EDSBS. For shear Yeahness. Top to bottom, though. This is my favorite conference of bloggers.

The I Wanna Talk About Me Free for All

The I Wanna Talk About Me Free for All is designed primarily to spread the love in case it doesn't naturally happen some other way and to serve as the season's Round Up of Round Ups. Each blogger, no matter who they are, must identify their three best posts of the year. I'll round `em up, and compile the entire thing. If it kills me. And it might.

Well, this won't take long since I only have three. Hehe.

Number one- "It's Starting Already" The strange story of the spy incident at Marshall's spring practice. The notes the WVU student took should clear up any question of why we would need to spy on Marshall.

2- "Fear and Loathing and the Gold-Blue Game" My Hunter Thompson take on the WVU spring game.

I awoke to find myself stashed conspicuously between two rows of Port-a-Johns, some 20 feet from my tailgating spot. I arrived back at my spot to find that the gypsy's had packed up shop and split, leaving behind only my kit bag. I looked around to make sure no one was watching me, and opened my bag to find 3 small squares of perforated paper with miniature images of Yosemite Sam

3- "Disturbing News Out of Huntington" Football players stripping for the female fans.

Yeah, that's the nominations! woop woop!

On Notice

As I start to get my mind off buying Christmas gifts and on to the Gator Bowl. I think it's time to call some people and things out.



It's no secret that we need to stop Calvin Johnson and the Georgia Tech offense to be successful. But most certainly can not afford to let Reggie Ball look like a Heisman candidate either. For more, head over to the Fanhouse.

Merry Christmas

I'll be back later with the conclusion of the Blogpoll Awards Nominations. But for now, just enjoy some clips from Best in Show.

Don't Spit at me!

I can do this all day long

Recently, a good friend emailed me a joke about WVU believing that I didn't really care much about the universities sports or something. So I found myself motivated to give back a little bit. Julie, for you.

Beilein Gaining Respect

I was talking about us needing to be ready for a blitz on our coaches over the next few years recently. And I was thinking about the chances of West Virginia making it into the tournament this year. I'm not counting my chickens, but the possibility is there. And if it happens, someone is bound to come looking to take away John Beilein. It was impressive that he was able to bring the program so far in such a short time. From 8-20 the year before he arrived to the elite eight in his third year. Include in the sweet sixteen team last year, and the even more incredible job he is doing with a very young team of players that no one really wanted, but fit his system to a T this year. (how's that for a run on sentence?)

He coaches, period. His offense and defense are not easy things for most players to pick up. But he takes the time to teach them fundamentally all the things they will need to be able to do in his system as he is teaching the system. I've never sat in on one of his practices, but Beilein must have a great ability to present a mental picture for his players to grasp on to. Who said communication is overrated? I think it would be fun to compare and contrast his practice style with someone that gets all the five star recruits and more or less rolls the ball out there for practice. That's a shallow thing to say, I know, but I bet I'm right more than not.

In related news/publicity for the company, there is a nice piece on Beilein over at the Basketball Fanhouse by Charles Rich. I'm not doing the basketball thing over there. Frankly, I'm glad. I would never get anything done if I would have gotten involved with that. Plus, it might be a little embarrassing working beside all those blogging giants. They have assembled quite a crew to cover basketball. So check it out and look in the lower right hand corner for the rss feeds if you are into that type of thing. They're there for all four fanhouses.

Blogpoll Awards Nominations Part 1,9384,432,....

So we keep trucking through the nominations. Sorry that it is about all that I am getting done at the moment. Tonight we are doing the best recurring feature and the best photo enhanced blogging.

The Old Faithful Award

FOR: The best recurring feature of the year.

CRITERIA: The feature should be posted weekly and be generally good and stuff.

Hey Jenny Slater- For the Friday Random Top Ten. Mixing college football, social issues, and music into one glob of blogging mastery.

Sunday Morning Quarterback- For his Sunday Morning Quarterback pieces. I think I enjoy peoples descriptions of games and circumstances much more than the prediction. And SMQ captures the essence of the biggest games of the week in fine fashion.

MGOBlog- Unverified Voracity. Completely on top of everything that drives him absolutely fucking crazy.

The That's Not Really Real Award

FOR: The best photoshop or other counterfeit gag of the year.

CRITERIA: Could be a photoshop, a Motivational Poster, an On Notice Board, or something similar, as long as it elicited more than a mere smile.

Look who's back. Hey Jenny Slater for his work with Motivational Posters. A bit risky to nominate this post considering the bad karma it will generate, but, Woop!

MZone- for Most Lethal Idiots poster. Need I say more?












There are a ton of others out there, but hard to find, so I'm just going to stick with these.

And there you have it for tonight. Looks like were are winding this thing down just in time to start talking about the Gator Bowl. Check here and over at the Fanhouse, and probably more so over at the fanhouse for your football fix.

Blogpoll Awards Nominations Part V

Shew, is it the most wonderful time of the year, or just the busiest? I had such big plans this weekend for putting up some content, but sometimes life throws you fork ball that looks to be headed for the middle of the plate, but ends up hitting you right in the Jimmy. So with my face going through every color of the rainbow and my voice several octaves higher, I give you the nominations for the best post and the best contribution to the lingo awards.

The Tyrone Prothro And His Amazing Catch Award

FOR: The finest individual post of the college football year.

CRITERIA: Best post for whatever reason.

Georgia Sports Blog- For Tater Salad post concerning Ian Smith passing out on the shitter. Maybe it's just me, but I though this one was pure gold!

MZone- For their wonderlic test.

And yes, yes EDSBS gets my vote for the final Fulmer Cup post crowning Marshall as the 2006 champs. It should be noted that there are no losers in this category, as there are about a bagillion posts that could win.

The Chris Berman Antimatter Award

FOR: The best contribution to the lingo of our little interniche, be it a nickname, neologism, or catchy phrase used with frequency.

CRITERIA: Spread is important. The ideal candidate has been universally adopted by anyone with cause to use the term.

Be honest, when you see [Name Redacted] you know who coined it, and what it means, right?

Outside of that, I'm at a loss, and open any other nominations to you the reader. Actually, I'm begging here. For the love of all that is holy, say something. Anything.

Mountaineers Blast Savannah St.

I feel a little dirty for saying that, but it never was much of a game for the Mountianeers. They were able to cruise to an easy 76-41 victory Saturday afternoon at the West Virginia Coliseum. The win pushes West Virginia's record to 8-1.

The Mountaineers were lead by Joe Alexander with 18 points and Frank Young with 16. The Mountaineers shot 12-32 from three point range, and scored a +16 on the Beilein scale. Josh Obiajunwa led Savannah St. with 9 points.

My big concern is that we are blowing a lot of bad teams out right now, and the competition is going to go up 10-fold when the Huskies from UConn come to town on December 30th. But I'm finding it harder and harder to not be optimistic about this team. They are doing all the things that made the last two teams successful. Even in their one loss to Arkansas this year, they didn't look bad. They had clean shots at the basket, but just couldn't connect.

It's pretty safe to say that keeping John Beilein was very important. The guy can just flat out coach. No matter what the final record is for this team, West Virginia could be in for another coaching controversy at the end of the year. Hopefully we can handle it a little better this time. I got my lottery ticket, just in case.

Mountainlair at the Mountainlair

A while back, I told you I was playing at the Mountainlair student union. Well, I finally got up the courage to post three of the songs from that night if you're wanting a listen. I'm not really happy with any of them, so I guess I should practice a little more, eh? I know that sounds real negative, but I know I can do them so much better than that. Recording starts the day after the national championship.

And while I have your attention, I thought I would pass along that my good friend and mentor Todd Burge has a couple cool things going on. Todd does a lot to organize songwriter nights for those of us that like to play, but don't like it enough to buy a sound system or count on it for any financial gains. First off, his song "Buffalo Skinned by All the Kings Men" is #65 on Neil Young's top 1000 songs of our time. Not a bad person to get a hat tip from if you're in the songwriting business. Also, in his never ending crusade to bring original music to the Mid-Ohio Valley, Todd will be hosting a TV pilot for a new series of songwriter nights that looks to be pretty interesting.

Bunj Jam Mobile and Precision Productions
will be taping a television pilot in 2007
The show is called, what else?
SONGWRITER NIGHT!
Performances by professional songwriters from all over the world
will perform the second Friday of Jan-April 2007 @ 7:30pm
at the Blennerhassett Hotel Ballroom in Parkersburg WV
Workshops by each artist will be conducted at 12noon the Saturday following each performance at the hotel

Since I really never know how close some of my viewing audience is, I thought this might be something that a few of you would be interested in. All the info is available at Songwriter Night.com.

Blogpoll Awards Nominations Part IV

Just in case your too lazy to page down to the initial nominations post, we remind you that you are asked to participate in these here blogpoll awards, and for instructions, please head over to Rocky Top Talk for the 411.

The LOL, MSM Award

FOR: The blog best keeping tabs on the man and calling out all of the injustices in the college football world.

CRITERIA: Consistently ahead-of-the-curve on controversial issues in college football.

EDSBS- I have this real desire to not nominate Orson, just because I know everyone else is and I want to make sure there's a wide variety to choose from. But, this one has EDSBS written all over it. Rules changes? Arkansas not sucking? Player arrests? Ed Orgeron? You can usually hear it all here first.

Pitt Blather- Constantly on top of what the print media has to say about Pitt and their opponents. I hope I'm interpreting this right. The two stay on top of things in a completely different way, but none the less on top of the man.

Sunday Morning Quarterback- Finger on the pulse for sure. What else would you expect from someone that covers football in general?


The Best Community Interaction Award

FOR: The blog with the best community interaction.

CRITERIA: A regular solicitation of input from readers and utilization of reader-produced content.

Burnt Orange Nation- By their very design, the SBN bloggs are set up for fan interaction. But I think Peter & Co. have the most interaction required posts.

House Rock Built- He needs to be in here just because of the Andy French Cup! Some things don't work out as well as we plan them, but the idea was pure genius! Unfortunately I wasn't near a phone any of the times I was drunk enough to be stupid and not care.

Since Brian at MGOBlog invented community interaction in the college football blogosphere, I don't know if it's right to nominate him or not. But if I have to have three up here, he's on the board.

And if not, MZone get's the bump for the caption contests they put up.

Peter Boyle Dead at 71

I can honestly say that I never watched one episode of "Everyone Loves Raymond." So I guess the title really isn't true. But sadly, Peter Boyle passed away Tuesday evening. What's even more sad is that there is no mention of his greatest role, in my mind anyway. And that is the role of Hunter S. Thompson's lawyer, Carl Lazlo, Esq. in the movie "Where the Buffalo Roam."

A bit of advice. If you go looking for this dvd, make double, triple sure you get it with the original soundtrack. This movie was a sleeper when it was released, and several years afterwards, someone thought it would be a good idea to re-release it with a sound track full of bad music. I guess to get out of paying ASCAP (or whatever the hell it is). Cheap bastards!

Rest In Peace Pete

Blogpoll Awards Nominations Part III

The Brady Quinn Award

FOR: The prettiest blog, the best layout and design.

CRITERIA: An aesthetic appeal, whether from a stylish banner, a pleasing layout, or an eye-catching incorporation of blog technology.

That's right, no foreplay. I'm getting right to the nominations.

Rocky Top Talk- You just have to include Joel for the world famous and groovy cool BCS animation. I think all the Sports Blog Nation pages are all very eye catching, and I have a hard time lifting one above the other outside of Joel's fancy flash work.

We Must Ignite This Couch- I'm a bit biased, but they keep it pretty fresh as far as the look goes. The pre-Sugar Bowl flash stuff was pretty good.

MZone- I just felt like there needed to be a blogspot representative. And while there aren't a ton of gizmo's and all, it's just a super clean look.


The New Blog on the Block Award

FOR: The best new college football blog.

CRITERIA: Must have launched sometime after last year's national championship game. Transitioning to a new blog or affiliating with a network mid-stream doesn't count.

Fire Mark May- Talk about busting on to the scene. One of the most original blogs out there. I'll have what he's having. Unless there are no objections, nominations are closed for this award.

Every Day Should Be Lemsday

Funny has a face, and a name. It is Every Day Should Be Lemsday. It seems that I was correct in choosing The House Rock Built as one of the top three funniest blogs. And oddly enough, choosing Fire Mark May as my backup. The two combined forces to give us EDSBL. We secretly like coach Orgeron. Mostly because he is standing right behind us at the moment. It's the heavy breathing that really gets to us!

It's only made better by the theft of EDSBS's logo. We better not say anymore, coach is getting mad. But stop by EDSBL and let them know what you think. Anga Anga Anga, Bren Shaffah! Foobaw!

BlogPoll Awards Nominations Part II

Once again thanks to Rocky Top Talk and MGOBlog for organizing the 2006 Bolgpoll Awards. Today we are going to make nominations for The Sports Fans Don't Cry and The Keith Jackson Circa 1995 Awards.

The Sports Fans Don't Cry Award

FOR: The blog that has suffered through its chosen team's dismal season with the most dignity.

CRITERIA: Continued engagement in the face of crippling, misery-inducing defeat. A stiff-upper lip and sane reaction to everything crumbling to dust.

Nominee's:

Pitt Blather-Chas is a rock when it comes to posting analytical material. There was no difference in the quantity of his posting between the first half of the year when Pitt looked very good, and the second half when they didn't look so good.

Bruins Nation- While Nestor and Co. did have an unhealthy blood lust for the firing of Karl Dorell, they remained very much engaged all year.

State Fans Nation- Like the two above, Steven has stayed out in the thick of it and embraced the man boobiness. Well, he stuck with his team, anyway.


The Keith Jackson Circa 1995 Award

FOR: The blog with the most consistently expressive and excellent writing.

CRITERIA: Mechanical competency, yes, but the ability to turn a devastatingly funny phrase or write something compelling is probably more important. This isn't an award for copy editing; it's an award for kickin' prose.

EDSBS- Since Orson is an assumed name, I would imagine you can pick up his books in the humor or pop culture section of any good bookstore. I take days off. I know I do, but not this guy. Every day that he can get himself to the keyboard, he cranks out dairy goodness.

Hey Jenny Slater- If he isn't, he should be getting paid for the quality of his writing. Doug keeps his eye on college football for most of the year, but isn't afraid to venture off into other topics, but he remains very strong no matter what the subject.

Burnt Orange Nation- A day without Peter Bean's thoughts on Texas wouldn't be much of a day at all. If it were possible to wear out a link on your blog roll like you would a cassette tape I would be on my third or fourth copy.

Belated Love For The Basketball Team

They most certainly deserve it, but I was out of town this weekend for a friends graduation and just haven't gotten around to it. The Mountaineers played the Dukes of Duquesne last Saturday night and lit it up from three point range on their way to a 85-54 win. The Mountaineers hit17 of 29 three point shots. The also registered a +24 on the Beilein scale, which is the measure of the difference between West Virginia's usual shortcomings in the rebounding department and their kick ass performance in the battle of turnovers. West Virginia lead the battle on the boards 26-16, and had 10 turnovers compared to Duquesne's 24.

The leaders of the team, Frank Young and Darius Nichols, had 18 and 9 points respectively. And combined to go 6-9 from the arc. The assassin in waiting, Alex Ruoff was 6-9 from three's, and had 8 assists with 2 turnovers.

Granted this wasn't a top 25 team, but West Virginia continues to exceed expectations for this season. If they are able to get 10 or more wins outside of the Big East, and go .500 in the Big East they could find themselves at least on the bubble for a bid in the tournament. And that would be an incredible accomplishment. At this time last year, the Mountaineers had already played several top 25 teams. But a lot more was expected of them.

West Virginia starts Big East play after three more games against directional universities. On December 30th UConn comes to Morgantown and we find out where we really are.

Big East Blogger Awards

Yes we are starting small, but the first Big East Blogger Awards are up at the Big East Fanhouse. Thanks to Chas Rich from the Pitt Fanhouse and the Pitt Blather for putting this together. What we lacked in quantity, I think we made up for in quality. With Chas, myself, and Mike from The Card Chronicle. Yes, the unfortunate truth is that the Big East Blogoshpere is not a very large group. I've pointed my taunting finger at Marshall on several occasions for not having a single blog, but I will have to direct it back at myself this time. Or at least the Big East. I have no idea who Chas invited to join in, and it doesn't matter. I'm not bringing this up to call someone out for not participating. We need to see some participation from all the schools in the Big East. And not just for our kick ass awards, either.

We need it to spread the word about the Big East. Sure, it's not the best conference, but it's getting better. I think this season showed it with all the young talent out there. What was once a train wreck in mid-crash, has turned into a decent football conference in a short time. Hopefully the success on the field will spur a few more wrestles fingers for next year. And don't forget to check out the awards and leave your comments.

My Case Against A Playoff System

As we approach the bowl season and the Mythical National Championship game the debate about the evolution to a playoff for D1 college football has already begun. I don't want the evolution to take place, myself. I'm quite happy with the way we crown our champion for the most part. I have an issue with the length of the bowl season, but I'm ok with the games themselves. I think it is a positive way for teams to get extra practice in and exposure.

I think my big problem with a possible playoff is that someone is always going to get left out and some are going to have legitimate gripes for why they should be there. And in our rush to make sure no one feels the bitter sting of injustice, we'll continue to expand the thing to where it goes from a plus one to 16 teams in 5-10 years. Then we'll have a play-in game to the field of sixteen and so on until the regular season doesn't really mean that much. Instead of a big regular season game that will decide someone's chances at a shot at the title, we'll have teams that will just be fighting for position. The really good teams will cruise the last couple weeks, or even worse, fill the end of their schedule with cupcakes. And then we have something that looks a lot like the pro game, but worse.

I'll have to admit that a plus one game does interest me. The law of averages is with you on this, because we rarely see more than three undefeated teams. However if you're going to do that, the bowl season needs to be one week earlier. We're already going into the second weekend of January now. It's just too long for teams to come back after a month and a half off. I feel sorry for Michigan and Ohio St. going into the bowl season. I feel like being off that long works against you. Adrian Peterson probably has something else to say about that, though.

I am in favor of adjusting the bowl season. It needs to start earlier. Is there a game on tonight? The games need to all be done by Jan. 1. So that if we are going to have a plus one, it be the weekend after New Years. To do this, bowls like the Gator Bowl would have to be Dec. 31 or earlier. And I don't have a problem with that, because if you can afford to go to a bowl game, you can afford and weasel the week between Christmas and New Years off. However, something tells me that the networks would have a hard time with it. And as long as we have all these bowls, the networks will tell us when, where, and how.

Playoffs are something designed to make sure we leave no doubt about the champion, or the system that decided it. And sadly, that would take something away from college football for me. Half of the joy of football is the discussion and debate. It's a great time of innovation for ways to insult your most hated MSM commentator for going against your team getting into the championship game. I mean who doesn't want to call Lee Corso a penis? No, I like my football just the way it is. You can wiggle with it, but let's don't get into the playoffs

Blogpoll Awards Nominations Part One

As I told you a couple weeks ago, Brian from MGOBlog and Joel from Rocky Top Talk decided to put together an awards roundup for the college football bloggers. You can view the specifics over at Rocky Top Talk.

The Nomination Process

All right, so here's how the nomination process will work. It's like a Roundtable. Nominate, in a post on your site, whomever you like for whatever you like. One plea: please don't neglect the individual post awards, as nominations in that area are going to be a little thin. You have two weeks, or until Friday, December 22. We plan to announce the nominees on January 2, open the voting for a week, and have an all-day awards presentation on Wednesday, January 10, two days after the National Championship Game. All dates are tentative at this point.

Remember that we're going to do this combo-style. Once we close the nominations, we'll try to pull 3-6 nominees in each category. 2-4 of these we'll pick from the tops of the open vote-getters. Each category will have one or two "editors choice" nominees selected by a panel in an effort to get deserving but less popular blogs in front of the voters.

General nomination rules: You cannot nominate yourself or any of your own posts for any of the awards, except for the I Wanna Talk About Me Free for All, where you MUST select your own posts. Important: As you draft your Roundtable response, don't just nominate somebody, say something nice about why they deserve consideration. Those bloggers posting the best comments will be the "presenters" in the award posts, which is another way the lesser-known blogs can end up with links on award day.

What I'm going to do is to go through the list of awards and list two per post, and give who I think should be nominated for each. And then I want you to throw in you own ideas about who should be nominated in the comments section. And I will recap in one gynormous post before December 22nd. Keep in mind that no matter how much you love an cherish every post I put up, the Mountainlair should not be nominated here, except for the memememememe award that slips my mind at the moment, but I'll let you know when it comes up.

-The Dr. Z Award

FOR: Cogent, interesting analysis.

CRITERIA: Emphasis placed on statistical manipulation, well researched pieces that reveal something new, and/or solid argumentative pieces that function as the authoritative last word on a subject.

Nominee's:

MGOBlog- the master of the widget. Brian puts together outstanding analysis of teams and puts it together in a nice grid for your viewing pleasure. I honestly wonder if he gets out much.

Dawg Sports- Kyle is the reason I will never go to law school for fear I might end up on the opposite side of the courtroom from him. The gift of gab is the gift that he has and he uses it well.

Sunday Morning Quarterback- To be able to speak intelligently about so many different teams is kind of impressive.


The Trev Alberts Quits To Do Construction Award

FOR: comic relief; overall hilarity.

CRITERIA: The funniest college football blog.

Nominee's:

Every Day Should Be Saturday- Orson never fails to make us laugh while using just enough big words to let us know that he knows what he's talking about. Home of the Fulmer Cup for God's sake!

MZone- All the ammo I need to hold the Ohio State fans in my office at bay. And damn if those photoshops don't just kill all.

House Rock Built- Anyone that would do an all-hair team has to get some consideration, right?

Recap of the Rodriguez Story in the Blogosphere

I'm all out of energy to write anything else about the last couple days. So why not take a look around the sphere of bloggers that chimed in on the Rich Rodriguez story. And not so oddly, I start off with two fine Georgia bloggers.

Paul over at the Georgia Sports Blog did a great story on the job Rodriguez has done at West Virginia considering the resources he had.

Doug at Hey Jenny Slater has some suggestions as to where Alabama should look now.

Orson has the before and after.

Jude from We Must Ignite This Couch gives the WVU side.

Mike from the Card Chronicle reminds us that a win for West Virginia is a win for the Big East.

Journalism is for Rockstars uses fuck in a bad way.

Roll Bama Roll asks, what now?

Cool Hand Mike talks with pictures.

In the Bleachers says he's gone, no he's staying.

Fanblogs, College Football Resource, and Mighty MJD strike through to the truth.

Shew, and me? I say Fuck Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Part II

If you can't tell, I'm really fucking happy about West Fuckin' Virginia right now!!! I was at least able to calm myself and write this post over at the Fanhouse. And if you read the whole thing, you can understand why I'm a little pissed off at one "Richard Cranium" right now. And yes I am looking forward to the day he is moved out of the athletic department or fired. We have enough obstacles in our way with the small market we play in. We don't need any stinking rats in the house.

Maybe tomorrow we can go back to talking about football and our opponent in this years Gator Bowl, Georgia Tech.

Fuck Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't know what this means, go here!

Offer On Teh Table For Rodriguez

According to AL.com, there is an offer on the table for Rodriguez to become the next coach at Alabama. No word on when an announcement will be made if at all.

Terms of the contract offer were not made available, but multiple sources familiar with the situation said it is in the neighborhood of the most lucrative in the Southeastern Conference. Auburn's Tommy Tuberville is the highest paid coach in the SEC with an annual salary of $2.2 million. That is double the $1.1 million Rodriguez currently makes per season.

So now we wait again. In my sickly state, I doubt I will post any more about this until an announcement is made one way or the other. The thing about sources is sometimes you get the real deal, and sometimes you get Johnny the Snitch. I'm just saying....

Frank Drebin trusts him, but can you?

Update 2: I have a piece up on the Fanhouse that has Rod going to Alabama tomorrow for a press conference. No verification, though. ht: Newspaper Hack

Update: Pussies

Brrr! It's gonna be freezing!
Arctic air will chill Alabama for the next 24 to 48 hours as strong winds today carry bitter cold across the state. The lows for Birmingham are forecast to be 18 and 17 on Friday and Saturday mornings, said Ken Lorek, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Calera.

The Weather Service has issued a hard freeze warning — a step normally only taken when the low is forecast to be 15 or less — as different areas of the metro region may see different lows. “It’s a regular Arctic blast, bringing the lowest readings of the early winter season,” Lorek said.

The Weather Service warned people to take special care with portable heaters, because of the danger of fires or poisonous fumes. A low of 18 on Friday would be the second-lowest for Dec. 8 seen in Birmingham in 111 years. The record low is 16 on Nov. 8, 1917. A low of 17 on Saturday would tie for the third coldest temperature on that date in 111 years.

Mountaineers Pull Away, Win With Depth?

Yeah, I just said the Mountaineers were able to use their bench to wear a team down. That's not a knock on N C State, it's just that I can't remember the last time I said that. Jarred West days?

At any rate, West Virginia won 71-60 in a less than filled Charleston Civic Center. Four of five West Virginia starters were in double figures. Alex Ruoff was a three point machine hitting all five attempts, and Joe Alexander provided the highlight dunk along with a pretty solid 15 point game. Frank Young lead all Mountaineers with 16 points.

For N C State, they were led by Courtney Fells with 17 points. West Virginia was out rebounded 33-26, but won the turnover war 17-7 for a plus three on on the Beilein scale. West Virginia was also 13-28 from three point range, while the Wolfpack was only 3-16.

I'm not ready to call this team world beaters just yet, but they have made a great deal of progress for such a young team. The true test will come with the Big East part of the schedule, but I'm liking what I see.

Just An FYI About Rodriguez and Alabama

My poor Mountainlair is always getting kicked to the curb by me as far as the big stories go. Almost anything about coach Rod that I do will be over the WVU Fanhouse. I've noticed a lot more traffic from google searches today on the subject, so I thought I would direct you over there. Feel free to comment on anything at the Fanhouse. I'm most curious to see what people think of my latest post and the legalities of why Coach Rod hasn't said no, or more to the point, can't say no.

Big East Blog Awards

Chas over at Pitt Blather is organizing a blogger awards for the Big East. We'll all post our ballots individually and he will recap. I'll make sure to add another link when the awards are posted. I wish I had more time to do this. If I can, I will come back and explain in more depth.

Coaching performance (best to worst)

1. 1. Greg Schiano-Rutgers No explanation needed, right?
2. Mark Dantonio-Cincinnati I thought this team was at least another year away from being bowl eligible. They probably played the toughest schedule in the country and paid a small price for it. By Mark, thanks for playing.
3. Jim Leavitt-South Florida For beating West Virginia in Morgantown and exceeding my expectations beyond winning against WV, you get the bronze.
4. Tie Bobby Petrino and Rich Rodriguez-UL WVU Probably for loosing games that would have made a huge difference in their bowl destinations.
5. Greg Robinson-Syracuse I thought Syracuse was much improved over 2005. They were close to winning a few more games, but the offense and defense just couldn't get on the same page.
6. Dave Wannstedt-Pitt I was expecting much more out of Pitt this year. I was proved correct in the first half of the season, but the second half brought him down.
7. Randy Edsell-UConn Someone had to go down here
   

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Steve Slaton-I'm biased, but he was the most consistent player all year. New West Virginia season rushing record. Despite nagging injuries he was great if not brilliant almost all year long.
2. Brian Brohm- Might be a different story if he was healthy all year, as well as Bush. However, you have to go on what was in front of you.
3. Pat White-Rushed and passed for over 1,000 yards.
4. Ray Rice- Bad year to be you. Next year won't be any better.
5. Tyler Palko- Great touchdown to interception ratio, and not much help in the rushing or offensive line department. Might end up being the most successful in the pro's on this list.
   

Defensive Player of the Year

1. HB Blades- On a bad defense, he was outstanding leading the known universe in tackles.
2. Trae Smith-USF
3. William Gay-Louisville
4. Courtney Green-Rutgers
5. Kelvin Smith-Syracuse

Special Teams Player of the Year

1. Art Carmody-Louisville
2. Joe Radigan-Rutgers
3. Pat McAfee-WVU
   

Rookie of the Year

1. Matt Grothe-USF
2. Anthony Allen-UL
3. Donald Brown-UConn
4. Chris Robinson-USF
5. Oderick Turner-Pitt

Most Overrated/Disapointing Player of the Year

1. Brendan Carney-Syracuse
2. Michael Bush-Louisville
3. Amp Hill-USF

Most Surprising Team: Cincinnati played the hardest schedule in the country, beat Rutgers, and made a bowl.

Most Disappointing Team: Pitt but West Virginia wasn't far behind. And that is based on expectations.

Prediction for 2007

1. Louisville
2. WVU
3. Rutgers
4. South Florida
5. Pitt
6. Syracuse
7. Cincinnati
8. UConn
   

BlogPoll Draft

Ah, is the regular season really over? I don't know about anyone else, but it seemed to get harder as the weeks went by to rank teams instead of easier. But alas, it is done. Barring any suggestions from you the reader. Yes you can make a difference. Feel free to leave a comment if you see something you don't agree with.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	--
2	Michigan	--
3	Florida	1
4	Louisville	1
5	Southern Cal	2
6	LSU	--
7	Auburn	1
8	Wisconsin	1
9	Oklahoma	2
10	West Virginia	6
11	Notre Dame	4
12	Arkansas	2
13	Boise State	2
14	Virginia Tech	2
15	Wake Forest	2
16	Rutgers	2
17	Tennessee	--
18	Texas	--
19	Brigham Young	--
20	Georgia	--
21	California	1
22	Texas A&M	1
23	Oregon State	3
24	South Florida	2
25	Nebraska	4

Dropped Out: Boston College (#24), Georgia Tech (#25).

Games I watched:

WVU-Rutgers
Georgia Tech-Wake Forest
Seems like this list should be longer, but I was busy drinking in preparation for the Mountaineers game.

My reasoning:
-I think Michigan beats Florida on a neutral field. Call me crazy.
-I think the USC game was a flub, a huge fucking one, but a flub none the less. Still a very good team.
-West Virginia sacked up big time with key injuries to Pat White and Owen Schmitt against a solid Rutgers squad.
-I was late in moving South Florida into the mix. Should have happened last week.
-Check out Oregon St.! They pulled it together and had a pretty decent year.
-Despite the undefeated season, I think Boise St. is a little overrated. I don't mean it as a slam, I just don't know what to make of them.

This is funny

I just saw this over at the best named web page in the universe and stuff, We Must Ignite This Couch. Maadman, you are a genius my friend!

3OT's = A bad case of the shakes

I want to thank all that helped me achieve the level of nirvana that I reached last night. I also want to curse you all for the bad case of the shakes that I am experiencing today. Three overtimes at Mountaineer field will do that to you, along with all the extra curriculars. Thanks to Deadspin for posting this picture. I will only refer to West Virginia as "West Fucking Virginia" from now on as well!

While we can't go to a BCS bowl, we are going to the best possible bowl left for the Mountaineers. So cheer, celebrate, or recover, we're going to the Gator Bowl! Hopefully we can help Reggie Ball repeat his last performance!

Deleted

Mr. Rodriguez I am sorry. I have listened to Greg Hunter for years and come to believe he was always on the up and up with the fans. It's beginning to look like he was chasing a story that wasn't there. So I am sorry for the previous post that I have deleted. While not inflammatory I was ashamed to have it up there.

I am updating on the fanhouse.

Making Good Decisions

With all the insanity going on at the WVU and Alabama message boards(sorry if I left anyone out), I though this was an excellent piece by Bill Curry.

"Most of the people making decisions about coaches these days have no football background. They did not play our sport, they did not coach it, and they simply do not understand it. So they work from their sports business school model, often ignoring the most important aspects of the situation: student-athlete welfare and fiscal responsibility."

When stability is dictated by quality leadership, good football players gravitate toward the program, the local chapter of the Fellowship of the Miserable (moaners and complainers) shuts its mouth, student-athletes study, graduate and produce championships and programs prosper.

In the midst of behavior that appears to be insane, the rational alternative is all the more appealing. With The U.S. Congress looking on, it would seem that the millions of rational alumni of our great universities would do well to get involved and force sound hiring practices.

In a worst case scenario for West Virginia it's going to be important to not go after the sexy hire, ie Terry Bowden. I'd rather we do something to lock up coach Rod, but that time might have already passed this past summer during renegotiations of Rod's contract. Who knows, insanity breeds insanity these days.