I have constructed a scenario through which the Mountaineers will force Oklahoma to go for the win on the final play of the game. Interestingly, the major player in the surprise of the bowl season will be Rich Rodriguez himself. Strange, but it has a good chance of being true.
Those who have watched Coach Rod run the games on the sidelines have seen a man who needs to attend a few anger management seminars. I have heard from reliable sources, i.e. friends and acquaintances who know major boosters, that those boosters have questioned Rich's verbal abuse of his players and called him out on it. It is rumored that one key assistant early in Rod's tenure left the team to take a head coaching position in part because he could no longer listen to the constant badgering and foul language Rod issued during practices and games.
I understand that football at the college level is an abusive sport with few if any standard rules of etiquette. In the sense of toughness, the coaches must prepare the players for all aspects of the game, including steeling themselves from being intimidated. As well, throughout their careers the typical coach has often done little to keep his emotions in check. One prime example is Joe Paterno and his infamous rants. However, he in his fortysome years as the Penn State head man has earned the right to do as he pleases. In comparison, Rich, with regard to his mere fortysome years of life, should possibly quell any urges to act out in an explosive manner.
I believe Coach Rod's sideline antics are counterproductive in the sense that he is tearing down the players who, when times get tough, look to him for guidance and support. Evident to me was the fact that in our two losses this year and in the near major upset against Louisville, the Mountaineers played as if they were deer in the headlights, probably due to the unhealthy fear created by Rich and his 'in your face' tactics. This could be supported by the recent comment of Noel Devine in which he stated that Ol' Coach Rod won't be around to yell at them any more. That statement from someone on the front lines says much more than he said.
Interim head coach Bill Stewart reportedly deals with the players in a much more positive fashion. The veritable pall surrounding the vituperation of Rich Rodriguez has left for Ann Arbor. A weight has been lifted from the shoulders of the players, the ultratalented players who now only have to fight Oklahoma and not the twelfth man ironically in the form of their head coach.
The Mountaineers will be able to freely think and react, and they're going to need to. The word is out on the West Virginia spread. South Florida showed how WVU can be pinched in, taking away its speed by placing the game squarely in the middle of the field. Pittsburgh dictated the West Virginia play calling by shifting their defense around frentically. Oklahoma has seen the tapes of these two losses, and had success of their own with the two victories against Missouri's form of the spread.
Despite these challenges, the overriding factor football pundits are not considering is the maniacal emotional state of the Mountaineers and their ability to sustain it by everyone truly holding the rope, not out of fear of castigation but through genuinely positive reinforcement. I don't' know if we will win, but Oklahoma will be forced to go for it on the final play. I suggest you prepare to stay up after midnight.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
We Didn't Respect The Rivalry
At the risk of sounding as if I'm trying to pull off an after-the-fact Nostradamus, I had a bad feeling about the Pitt game as early as last Sunday when the line came out at 26 points and almost immediately shot up to 28. Now, I know what a line truly is; half the Vegas players looked at the Connecticut game a week before and liked the four touchdown spot. The Vegas players did not care that the game was the 100th edition of the Backyard Brawl. The problem is, too many of us Mountaineer fans also did not care.
Foremost, we should have respected the rivalry. That includes all of us: coaches, players, media, and fans. The collective We. The collective We had a psyche problem. We didn't respect the rivalry, and for that We had our heads handed to Us.
Pitt was merely a rung on the ladder to the Crystal Football, We thought. A rung. How rude can We possibly be? After all the decades of scorn, you'd think The University of Pittsburgh should have earned a spot in the contemptuous side of Our souls, not condemned to the indifference We displayed. True, this wasn't just any game. It was the national championship semi-finals, albeit in a secondary sense. Most importantly, it was a game against our arch enemy Pitt. However, We played to go to New Orleans, without concern as to who was on the other side of the ball.
Among all the French Quarter-bead-laden fans at the game, where were the Pitt Sucks shirts? There weren't many, fewer than the past when the game was just your normal, seismic Backyard Brawl. In a convoluted manner, the absence of Beat Pitt caparison is disrespectful. We treated Pitt as if they were Cincinnati. So, by the end of the third quarter, by the time We had figured out We had better beat Pitt, it was too late. We allowed them to hang around for so long, they thought...no, they knew...they could win. And, the rest is history, leaving Us wondering how this happened.
We didn't respect the rivalry. That's how it happened.
* * * * *
Q: How could the Mountaineers put up 66 on Connecticut and be held to 7 by Pitt?
A: It's Pitt.
* * * * *
Contrary to the opinions of those of us who right now feel frustrated and angry, I think Rich Rodriguez is the man who will someday take us to the championship game. However, he was completely outcoached by Pittsburgh's Dave Wannstadt. Coach Wannstadt, a man whose job may still be in jeopardy, knew his one chance to win was to keep our 66 point offense off the field. He bled the clock every play, breaking our hearts in the third quarter by holding the ball for almost fourteen minutes. That gave the Pitt offensive line an opportunity to believe, to really believe that they could push us back every time. On that strip of turf, three yards wide and six or seven really large men broad, it was a Panther butt-whippin'.
The Pitt offensive momentum spread to its defense. At times with only seven in the box, Pitt plugged up our vaunted, formerly unstoppable running game. Steve Slaton was held to seven carries; Noel Devine, nine. Pat White had no where to go, and Jerrod Brown did only a little better. Where was Owen Schmidt? Blocking. The line couldn't do the job themselves.
Butt-whippin'.
* * * * *
Where was Owen Schmidt? More relevant, where was Steve Slaton? Still more relevant, where has Steve Slaton been this season? He's hailed as a team player by the media with his disregard for personal stats, but what does that truly mean? To me, it means he's not getting the blocking he had in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia when he romped for over two hundred yards, breaking Pitt Panther Tony Dorsett's game rushing record. In a pure straight ahead race, Steve Slaton beats Pat White and Noel Devine. However, whereas White and Devine need but a sliver of a hole to break it, Slaton requires a door, at times a garage door. Steve cannot shake and bake like Pat, and he doesn't have the feet and balance of Noel. Slaton needs a lot of help.
* * * * *
I'm extremely excited about playing number 4 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Pardon me, but in the three years I attended WVU between 1978 and 1980, we won 12 games. I was in my late twenties before I saw us take Penn State down . A Peach Bowl bid used to be the ultimate culmination of a great 8-3 season. So, I dealt with the disappointment of that Pitt game quickly. With one big outing against the Sooners, we can get just about all of it back. This is the only game we have remaining. We have a month to get healthy and to heal our spirits, and Oklahoma has a month to cool off. Drop it, dude. It's not for the Crystal Football, but it's a great opportunity.
* * * * *
In conclusion...raining a team with 'boos' of displeasure and disappointment, a 10-2 team that is bound for a BCS bowl by virtue of winning its conference, a team ranked 9th in the BCS standings and winners of at least 10 games in each of the past three years, raining that team with those 'boos' is inexcusable. We're supposed to be fans with a good deal of football acumen. We shouldn't have our blatant disgust displayed for all to see and hear on national television. That's low class.
Foremost, we should have respected the rivalry. That includes all of us: coaches, players, media, and fans. The collective We. The collective We had a psyche problem. We didn't respect the rivalry, and for that We had our heads handed to Us.
Pitt was merely a rung on the ladder to the Crystal Football, We thought. A rung. How rude can We possibly be? After all the decades of scorn, you'd think The University of Pittsburgh should have earned a spot in the contemptuous side of Our souls, not condemned to the indifference We displayed. True, this wasn't just any game. It was the national championship semi-finals, albeit in a secondary sense. Most importantly, it was a game against our arch enemy Pitt. However, We played to go to New Orleans, without concern as to who was on the other side of the ball.
Among all the French Quarter-bead-laden fans at the game, where were the Pitt Sucks shirts? There weren't many, fewer than the past when the game was just your normal, seismic Backyard Brawl. In a convoluted manner, the absence of Beat Pitt caparison is disrespectful. We treated Pitt as if they were Cincinnati. So, by the end of the third quarter, by the time We had figured out We had better beat Pitt, it was too late. We allowed them to hang around for so long, they thought...no, they knew...they could win. And, the rest is history, leaving Us wondering how this happened.
We didn't respect the rivalry. That's how it happened.
* * * * *
Q: How could the Mountaineers put up 66 on Connecticut and be held to 7 by Pitt?
A: It's Pitt.
* * * * *
Contrary to the opinions of those of us who right now feel frustrated and angry, I think Rich Rodriguez is the man who will someday take us to the championship game. However, he was completely outcoached by Pittsburgh's Dave Wannstadt. Coach Wannstadt, a man whose job may still be in jeopardy, knew his one chance to win was to keep our 66 point offense off the field. He bled the clock every play, breaking our hearts in the third quarter by holding the ball for almost fourteen minutes. That gave the Pitt offensive line an opportunity to believe, to really believe that they could push us back every time. On that strip of turf, three yards wide and six or seven really large men broad, it was a Panther butt-whippin'.
The Pitt offensive momentum spread to its defense. At times with only seven in the box, Pitt plugged up our vaunted, formerly unstoppable running game. Steve Slaton was held to seven carries; Noel Devine, nine. Pat White had no where to go, and Jerrod Brown did only a little better. Where was Owen Schmidt? Blocking. The line couldn't do the job themselves.
Butt-whippin'.
* * * * *
Where was Owen Schmidt? More relevant, where was Steve Slaton? Still more relevant, where has Steve Slaton been this season? He's hailed as a team player by the media with his disregard for personal stats, but what does that truly mean? To me, it means he's not getting the blocking he had in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia when he romped for over two hundred yards, breaking Pitt Panther Tony Dorsett's game rushing record. In a pure straight ahead race, Steve Slaton beats Pat White and Noel Devine. However, whereas White and Devine need but a sliver of a hole to break it, Slaton requires a door, at times a garage door. Steve cannot shake and bake like Pat, and he doesn't have the feet and balance of Noel. Slaton needs a lot of help.
* * * * *
I'm extremely excited about playing number 4 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Pardon me, but in the three years I attended WVU between 1978 and 1980, we won 12 games. I was in my late twenties before I saw us take Penn State down . A Peach Bowl bid used to be the ultimate culmination of a great 8-3 season. So, I dealt with the disappointment of that Pitt game quickly. With one big outing against the Sooners, we can get just about all of it back. This is the only game we have remaining. We have a month to get healthy and to heal our spirits, and Oklahoma has a month to cool off. Drop it, dude. It's not for the Crystal Football, but it's a great opportunity.
* * * * *
In conclusion...raining a team with 'boos' of displeasure and disappointment, a 10-2 team that is bound for a BCS bowl by virtue of winning its conference, a team ranked 9th in the BCS standings and winners of at least 10 games in each of the past three years, raining that team with those 'boos' is inexcusable. We're supposed to be fans with a good deal of football acumen. We shouldn't have our blatant disgust displayed for all to see and hear on national television. That's low class.
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