Goodbye Cruel World Part 2

Yup, I'm moving on. Like I said back in January, it's no good trying to do too much if everything turns out half assed, and this blog has been very half assed this year. I gave it another shot, but there just isn't time in the day to do this justice.

I'm not going away completely, though. I've got an offer to write over at the Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks. Hopefully look for a couple three posts a week over there from me. And I'll still be at the FanHouse. For any blogpollers, I'm still going to be doing that, so if you would put a link up to the Bastards site that would be swell.

Also, look for me over at In The Bleachers from time to time.

Thanks again for all the support and comments,

Johnny

Update: I'll be opening for Todd Burge and Rob Szabo on October 5th at the Blennerhassett in Parkersburg. Pretty sure it's free to get in. Come up and say hi. I'm the bald one.



Here's a video from Rob's last album (Like a Metaphor) called Breaking Even




and here's a video from Rob's last time in Parkersburg called Good Son

Mountaineer Vidoe #142,980

Yeah, I'm a little late to the party with this, but thought you would like it if you haven't seen it yet.

The Bulls Perspective

I'm totally spent, and all the reasons I thought about giving this blog up in the off season keep creeping back. So if this post seems half-hearted, sue me.

Ben Moffitt is a real man on and off the field- Yeah nice, me complaining more or less about how I never have time to make this blog as good as I know it could be and this guy goes to school, married, two kids, and plays D1 football. I'm going to go crawl in a hole.

Brett McMurphy's blog is a lot of quick hitters, which I like.

It's a Sellout- Friday nights game will be the first sellout for the Bulls.

So who wins the battle of the Mascots? A bull is a bull. You know horns, big. So big that it doesn't really need the horns. Or is it the Mountaineer. He's got a gun, but it's a muzzle loader. So he's one and done if his aim isn't true. Well, he's got a knife. But that's really not much use against a bull unless it's already dead.

Something I found troubling was that North Carolina was averaging nearly 300 yards passing until they played USF. They had something like 85 yards against the Bulls. Ouch! Also, that Selvie kid is giving me nightmares.

I can't say that I am all that impressed with the South Florida offense. That's probably because they are not a quick strike offense. They do just enough to keep the chains moving and the ball out of your offenses hands. Should we just call them impressively unimpressive? That was the case last year. 21 First downs compared to 13 for West Virginia. While only having the ball for five more minutes and only 50 more yards of offense. Just enough to win.

You know what? If you don't like the Reverend, Fuck You!




Just sayin'

South Florida Preview

Hmmmm, I ran this picture last year and ended up eating a lot of crow and flashing my wood working skillz because of it. Hopefully things will turn out a little different this year.

South Florida is entering their 10th year of football. That includes 1-A and 1-AA. I believe that I heard on the radio on the way to the ECU game that they are the quickest team to go from no team to ranked. Yeah, 10 years is pretty f'ing good. The Bulls are returning 16 starters from last years team. Nine on offense and seven on defense.

They are led on offense by sophomore quarterback Matt Grothe. Grothe started as a true freshman last year completing nearly 64% of his passes with 15 td's and 14 int's and 2,576 yards. He also lead the team in rushing with 622 yards and nine td's. This year he has completed 60% of his passes with four td's and no int's and 652 yards through three games. He also has 88 yards rushing and one td. He's also a hell of a bartender.

Freshman Mike Ford is leading the team in rushing with 170 yards on 33 carries and four touchdowns. Man, can that be right? A second look shows that Grothe has 38 carries this year, and Ben Williams has 30 carries for 117 yards. It hasn't been an overly impressive offense to this point. But good enough to be 3-0 I guess. As a whole, USF only has 464 yards rushing. And behind an experienced offensive line.

South Florida doesn't have any receivers that jump out at you on paper, but Grothe has completed passes to 14 different receivers. The three leading receivers for the Bulls are Taurus Johnson (13, 150, 0), Amarii Jackson (10, 128, 2), and Jessie Hester ( 10, 107, 1).

Defensively, the Bulls are lead by senior linebacker Ben Moffitt, sophomore DE George Selvie, and cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams. Jenkins and Williams are considered to be the best corner combo in the country. Moffitt has had a slow start statistically this year with 22 tackles, three tackles for a loss, and one interception. Well, I don't guess it's that slow. But Moffitt had 85 tackles, 9 for a loss, and 3 sacks last year. The guy you really want to keep you eye on this year is #95 George Selvie. He already has 21 tackles, 15 for a loss, and eight qb sacks. Yeah, let's get someone to block that guy!

Like West Virginia, USF is all about speed at every position. They run a ball control offense that usually doesn't turn the ball over, and they are very aggressive on defense. I'm not making any excuses about last years game, but I would have liked to have seen a little more misdirection out of the Mountaineers on offense. It seemed all day that the Bulls were sending everyone to the point of attack as soon as the ball was snapped, and West Virginia seemed more than happy to keep running right into the heart of the defense. And the one time West Virginia did do a little misdirection, it worked like a charm. But just that once.




Let's hope we try a little more of that this year.

Week Four Blogpoll Ballot

Oh I don't know, I would have thought that the polls would have started to make a little sense by now, but several teams that I had ranked lost some head scratchers. And there are a few teams like Miami that I refuse to put in the poll barring a miracle. So looking down at the bottom, you'll see a couple new teams and a couple old teams moving back in. And no, I am not kissing up to Brian! I still think Michigan is worthy of a top 25 ranking.

I don't think a whole lot needs explained here, but you are welcome to add your comments to change my mind before the Wednesday cutoff at 10am.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	--
2	Southern Cal	--
3	Oklahoma	--
4	Florida	--
5	Ohio State	5
6	California	1
7	West Virginia	--
8	Oregon	2
9	Boston College	1
10	Texas	2
11	Rutgers	--
12	South Florida	2
13	Georgia	3
14	Kentucky	4
15	Wisconsin	2
16	Penn State	7
17	Clemson	3
18	Cincinnati	7
19	Hawaii	5
20	South Carolina	5
21	Nebraska	--
22	Missouri	4
23	Purdue	3
24	Michigan	2
25	Virginia Tech	1

Dropped Out: Texas A&M (#17), Louisville (#19), Georgia Tech (#22), Alabama (#23).

Mixed Emotions: Internet Up, Mottram Gone

So which do you want first the good news or the bad?

Since the good news won't take long, we'll start there. My internet is back up. And hey, just in time for me to post something over at FanHouse and start getting my drink on for the 12pm kickoff between WVU and East Carolina.

And just because it fits the mood, here's a song by the Rolling Uglies. Mixed Emotions.



And the sad news we find out this morning that our boss and mentor of sorts, Jamie Mottram is leaving FanHouse to run Yahoo! Sports. A little over a year ago I got an email from Jamie asking me if I would be interested in blogging for cash over at AOL. At first I thought it was a joke, and to be honest I didn't really know that much about Jamie. I quickly found out about Jamie. He had me on Sports Bloggers Live very shortly after that email. And I saw the type of big names he was drawing into his podcast. From that day forward, I was sold. He has an incredible vision for the future of sports media/blogging/everything.

I'm still not quite sure what it was or is about me that drew Jamie to me. Or how I made the cut from 50 some college football bloggers down to the 12-15 we have now. But I will always be thankful for the opportunity he gave me and the mentoring that I most definitely needed along the way. It's been a great run Jamie. Cheers to you!



Not really sure what the idea behind this video was, but it's the best audio of the song so I went with it. It just seemed to fit.

Internet Down Makes Me Angry

I'm having my roof replaced, and the guys apparently dropped multiple pieces of slate on the cable running to my house. So that's why you haven't seen anymore Pirate girls this week. And since posting from work probably isn't too good an idea, I'll keep this short. Keep an eye on my posts at the FanHouse on the top right. I'm doing a thing called the College Football Songbook every Sunday/Monday of what I think is the funniest story in college football. Below is an example from last weeks Auburn-Mississippi St. game. Special hat tip to fellow FanHouser Pete Holiday, who is putting the videos together.



And until I can get my internet back up at home, keep an eye on the Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks since they cover WVU and had the same idea that I had as far as hot Pirate chicks for the ECU game notes.

Arrrrrgh!

Blogpoll Roundtable 3.2

We were thinking that just about everyone we know has dressed up like a Pirate at one point or another. So we thought that maybe we didn't actually have to show them dressed up like a Pirate to work them into Pirate Week. I mean really, is anyone going to argue that the lovely Janet, here on the left wouldn't look smashing in a Pirate outfit? Yeah, we though so too!

OK, now that you have stopped cursing the day the scarf was invented we can move on to the Blogpoll Roundtable brought to us by Peter over at Burnt Orange Nation. In this roundtable we'll look at some of the stories that are starting to develop around the college football world.


1. Handicap your team's chances to win your conference championship. If your team is not the favorite, who is?

With Louisville's loss to Kentucky, I say we have a great chance to take the Big East. Not that that counts toward their conference record, but the Cardinal defense has been offensive the first three weeks against two lesser opponents and KY. And if they don't fix it soon, I think USF and Rutgers have a good chance of beating Louisville. South Florida has won, but the offense has not been what I was expecting so far. I think the game at South Florida will be a big test, but I also think West Virginia will be at full strength this time around. I have no idea what to think of Rutgers until they play someone, but they haven't beaten WVU since I was in high school, so I like our chances. And Cincinnati is making some people take notice this year. Will they still be as strong at the end of the year?

The Big East is a young conference, so I can do a little math without digging too deep. West Virginia is 1-1 against USF and UL, and 13-2 against Cincinnati and 28-4-2 against Rutgers. Soooooo, (.5+.5+.86+.82)/4= 67% chance we win.


2. Outline the (realistic) best case and worst case scenarios for your team.

Best case scenario for West Virginia would be that they would be the only undefeated team in the country at the end of the year. Otherwise, I do believe a one loss SEC/Pac 10 team would get the nod in a championship game. And yeah, the defense would miraculously turn it around and become a strength.

Worst Case would be that we lose to Rutgers, South Florida, and Louisville and play Western Michigan in a bowl game. Seriously, if Slaton or White were to get injured, I think we have the backups to keep the offense moving. But if we have a bunch of injuries on the defensive line, we are screwed.

3. We're only three games in to the season, but teams and storylines are starting to take shape. Compare your team to a character or theme from a fable or children's tale.

Hmmmm, Fables of the Reconstruction by REM comes to mind. Sorry, but I can't help it. The defense has been under construction for two years now. I liken it to the San Diego Charger teams of the 80's that had all the firepower on offense and no defense. It was only good enough to get them to the AFC championship game, but never the Super Bowl (I know the Chargers went in 94, I'm just talking about the 80's). And that is where WVU is going to be until they become a complete team with a formidable defense.

4. Imagine you're the coach of your team. Give three specific changes you'd implement immediately which you think would have the biggest impact on improving the team.

I'm purposely not going to talk about the defense here.

1) Option off of Owen Schmitt on first down. Everyone is so keyed in on Slaton that it almost hurts to see him get bottled up on first downs that go for nothing.

2) Crossing paterns! I know they exist, I see other teams use them against us. NO MORE WR SCREENS. Well, I'll limit the wr screens to two per game, but that's it!

3) No more directional kicking on kickoffs. I think WV leads the nation in kicking off out of bounds. Kick it to one of the up backs and be done with it.

5. USC, LSU/Florida, and Oklahoma have established themselves as the frontrunners in the early going. Which other team or teams are you eyeballing as potential BCS party crashers?

I like Oregon or Cal from the Pac 10. Maybe Ohio St. Possibly BC. WVU and Rutgers as well. A lot of strange things would have to happen for any of the above, but this is college football we are talking about.

Week Three Blogpoll Ballot

If you go around and look at other Blogpoll ballots you will probably see some mention that the first few weeks are hard to flesh out just because everyone is playing mostly patsy games. And I just want to join the group that is having trouble deciding who is good and who isn't. Here's the link to all the voters if you wish to check out what everyone else thinks. It helps when teams like UCLA get beat as bad as they did, but hurts because there really isn't too much to replace them with. But I'm starting to like this Brian Kelly guy and his Cincinnati Bearcats. So problem solved at least for this week.

Leave comments if you think I need to make some changes to my poll. I have until 10am Wednesday to make changes. My rational for the rest of the poll below.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	--
2	Southern Cal	--
3	Oklahoma	--
4	Florida	--
5	California	4
6	Oregon	2
7	West Virginia	4
8	Boston College	6
9	Penn State	3
10	Ohio State	8
11	Rutgers	1
12	Texas	7
13	Wisconsin	--
14	South Florida	1
15	South Carolina	6
16	Georgia	6
17	Texas A&M	9
18	Kentucky	8
19	Louisville	9
20	Clemson	--
21	Nebraska	4
22	Georgia Tech	15
23	Alabama	3
24	Hawaii	1
25	Cincinnati	1

Dropped Out: UCLA (#16), Arkansas (#19), Tennessee (#23), TCU (#24).

1-4 I think I could make just as good an argument for any of these teams to be number one. So I'm keeping them in the same order I had them last week.

5-10 Cal gets a boost just because they have a true balanced attack and I don't think anyone below them could beat them on a neutral field. Oregon is still looking good in my eyes from the Michigan game. I don't care if Michigan is good or not, you don't go into the Big House and do that. West Virginia, I give. I know someone is going to give them fits in both halves of a game this year. But for now I can't help but move them up. BC has been pretty impressive in all their wins this year. They'll make me look stupid for putting them this high in the poll within a week or two, though. Mark my words. Penn St. did not impress me at all in their win over Buffalo. I didn't watch the game. I just can't imagine that Buffalo could score on anyone or keep anyone from scoring. Ohio State figured out how to play offense in the second half of the game against Washington, and will probably win the Big 10 now and I'll have to hear it from tOSU fans for another year. Thanks a lot Big Ten.

11-15 We're coming up on the fringes of the sublime now. Rutgers ahead of Texas? Dogs and Cats living together? Yup. Rutgers has played no one, and Texas should have steamrolled Central Florida, so I flipped a coin. For some reason beyond my comprehension Wisconsin is still ranked, but at least in my heart I know I have them lower than the AP or Coaches polls so I can sleep at night. South Florida and South Carolina at least have quality wins. Well, South Carolina does. But that defense for South Florida is impressive enough to keep them up there until the offense comes around.

16-20 Georgia and Texas A&M beat their cupcakes in fine fasion, blah blah blah. Kentucky did the impossible in my mind. I knew they would score on Louisville, but I didn't think they would outscore them. So hats off to you Kentucky. Clemson can be summed up in one word, meh. A win is a win this far down in the poll.

21-25 is pretty self explanatory.

Games I watched:
Pitt-Michigan St.
Southern Cal-Nebraska
Florida-Tennessee
WVU-Maryland
BC-Ga. Tech
OSU-Washington
Texas-UCF
Alabama-Arkansas

East Carolina Week

Aye, since we'll be goin' up against the Pirates o' East Carolina this weekend, we'll be changin' the look around har just a bit. Because if thar's anythin' we like in this world, tis' hot women dressed up like pirates. Well dressed down like Pirates is pretty good too.

And don't forget that September 19th is international talk like a pirate day. Aye, me parrot concurs.

And oh yeah, these guys are pretty good this year.

Holy Fuckity Fuck, Noel Devine Has Some Moves!

Orson has referred to West Virginia's offense as the Whiskeybone. And pictured at left is the man that is drinking to that. Better make that a four finger shot after seeing Noel Devine last night. Those lateral moves gave game programers something new to shoot for.

Looking at the game through whiskey soaked eyes myself, I had warm feelings rushing all through my body with the hope that Noel will still be around when WVU and Maryland re-start the series in 2010.

Friedgen started off his post game press conference with a short statement: "Fuck!"

And that pretty much wraps it up.

Halftime Thoughts WVU-Maryland

Unckle Ray Ray needs to be on the sideline for every college football game! I'd much rather hear him talk than Erin Andrews. Maybe they could show pictures of her while he talks? Gold Jerry, Gold!

WVU defense needs to stiffen up in the middle. It's bad when you can't stop the run or the pass. But hey, Maryland only had seven points, so I guess we shouldn't complain. Maryland is clearly looking to shut down Slaton at all costs. But he has 103 yards at the half.

The Mountaineer offense needs to exicute and make plays. I'm just telling you what Rodriguez is going to say coming out of halftime. And Erin Andrews is going to look like she gives a fuck, and everyone is happy. Woop!

We'll see if West Virginia can come out and take the game over in the second half. More importantly, Maryland had the ball and kept WV's defense on the field for a long time. So we'll have to see if the defense is tired toward the end of the game. That's why Maryland just wants to stay close.

Post game thoughts if I don't pass out....







Did Dorrell Jallho used to be the lead singer for Fishbone? Just curious.

SMQB Reporting on Maryland Trying to Have the Spread Option Ruled Illegal

Me have no time to blog today at least until after the game tonight. But thankfully, Sunday Morning Quarterback does.

Marland's Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Sept. 2006 injunction favoring Maryland's defense, which had filed a lawsuit against West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez, accusing him of violating the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment by unleashing the formation for 340 yards rushing in WVU's 45-24 rout in Morgantown.

In a decision issued by a three-judge panel, the court ruled that "the preliminary injunction ... burdens more expression than necessary to protect Maryland's strategic interest and was an unlawful prior restraint upon Pat White and Steve Slaton's right to humiliate an overpursuing defense on national television."

Thank you SMQB! We needed a laugh on such a day!



And for one more laugh....

Picture from Florida Scout.com site I believe

Maryland Preview

God I hate short weeks. I haven't fully digested the embarrassing first half against Marshall yet, and I have to start thinking about Maryland. Well, I don't guess I really have to, but I guess I should. So, away we go.

Maryland is 2-0 and has played a weaker schedule than WVU, as if that was possible. But they beat Villanova 31-14 and Florida International 26-10. Woop! Woop! Not exactly impressive competition or final scores. I don't know what is more laughable, that Maryland only had 135 yards rushing and 135 yards passing against Fla. Int. or that Fla. Int. had 81 yards passing and 82 yards rushing. I'm all for a balanced attack, but you can't really call either of those attacks can you? It's more like balanced passive-aggressiveness. And Maryland had 207 yards passing and 211 rushing against Villanova. So we should expect equal amounts of passing and rushing from this years Terrapin team. Although when you are behind, you tend to pass a lot more, so we'll see.

Now on to the links:

Heather Dinich covers Maryland Football for the Baltimore Sun. Hey, she's kind of cute, and has a sense of humor. So the Mountainlair likes her despite her having to cover Maryland.

I saw Isaiah Williams catch two balls -- a sign of improvement.

She didn't say who's balls he caught, but hey, it's a blog.

Time of Possession has been Terp's ally.-"it’s hard to score when you don’t have the ball." Rich Rodriguez. Gotta love the coach speak.

Maryland Preview- From someone that is used to doing a systematic preview of games.


End of an Era for WVU-Maryland- Yeah, so many great games and players in my lifetime. This is too good a game to not get back on the schedule! There was a time when Maryland was putting every quarterback into the NFL in the 80's. Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich, Neil O'Donnell. And while less popular outside of West Virginia, we had Oliver Luck and Jeff Hostetler. Ah youth.....

Week 2 Blogpoll is Feeling Confused

Wow, I have never looked at this and felt less confused about who's good and who's bad. I thought Louisville and West Virginia would make quick work of last weeks opponents, but going into half time of both games I felt a song coming on. And not a pretty song! I thought Wisconsin would be able to handle UNLV. To be honest, I feel pretty good about 1-3. After that, it's a crap shoot.

Florida might be pretty good. Texas showed something against TCU, but didn't dominate quite the way you would think. Penn St. gets a boost just because they looked impressive at home. But really, isn't everyone impressive at home against teams they should beat? Ga. Tech moves up for the same reason. Now I'll say this, Oregon looked good and probably should be that high. I should be that high too. Cal didn't impress, but who else you going to put there? At least I was right about South Florida.



Anyway, if you think you can do a better job, leave your comments below. I have until Wednesday at noon to make any changes.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	3
2	Southern Cal	1
3	Oklahoma	--
4	Florida	2
5	Texas	--
6	Penn State	7
7	Georgia Tech	3
8	Oregon	18
9	California	2
10	Louisville	3
11	West Virginia	3
12	Rutgers	2
13	Wisconsin	11
14	Boston College	7
15	South Florida	11
16	UCLA	--
17	Nebraska	2
18	Ohio State	1
19	Arkansas	1
20	Clemson	2
21	South Carolina	5
22	Georgia	10
23	Tennessee	--
24	TCU	--
25	Hawaii	--

Dropped Out: Virginia Tech (#9), Auburn (#19), Michigan (#20).

Games I watched:
WVU-MU
Georgia-South Carolina
LSU-Va. Tech
South Florida-Auburn
Boston College-NC State
Penn St.-Notre Dame
Oregon-Michigan