A few pics from Mountaineers Fan Day...

Diet Dew is for the ladies.

Irrational Exuberance

Thank you Alan Greenspan. Much like my portfolio, Mountaineer hopes for a Heisman award winner are at their losest point since January.

Slaton finished fourth last year behind Troy Smith, Darren McFadden and Brady Quinn. With Smith permanently demorialized by Florida and Quinn off to flex biceps for Male Athlete Monthly, it would seem Slaton's only competition for the upcoming year would be Arkansas's best quarterback, Darren McFadden. Additionally, some folks think Arkansas is going to have a tougher time this year and hamper the 26" rimmed Crown Vic.

Vegas seems to share in this analysis. Odds on Slaton are currently 4.5:1, barely trailing future presidential assassin John David Booty (4:1) and Big East rival Brian Brohm (3.5:1). McFadden comes in at 5:1.

We Bastards are obviously big fans of the Mountaineers and thank the good lord above daily for Coach Fridge discarding Slaton in favor of his 6th rack of ribs. But... I don't think he will win the Heisman this year for the following reasons.

First, the Heisman is awarded based upon votes. And unfortunately, WVU doesn't have a lot of those. Booty, on the other hand, goes to USC. And apparently, USC Heisman votes get a little boost "for being on the west coast" just like the PAC-10's strength of schedule ranking.

Second, WVU has no marketing campaign. Does Slaton even have a web page up? Despite my googility, I was unsuccesful in finding anything other than the Heismaneer - which appears to be a fan created site.

Third, Slaton may not be the most valuable player on his own team. In recent years, the Heisman, at least to this casual observer, has transformed from the "Best Player in College Football Award" to an MVP Award given to the most important member from one of the year's best teams. All one must do is look back to the Georgia Tech game or the Louisville game of the year before to see who the most important player on this Mountaineer team is.

And fourth, speaking of Patrick, he's bound to get a few votes, too, consequently taking away several votes in what is anticipated to be a very close vote.

Perhaps its my appalachian upbringing resulting in a subtle "us vs. them" paranoia, but I don't like mainstream sports media. Over the past few years, as WVU grew from a perenial 20-40, but before we fully arrived, I read and heard various media outlets "liking" us. I take this now as the "lovable loser" admiration. "Ah, the little school that couldn't is trying real hard this year. How cute." (See Corso preseason picks '04.)

But now, suddenly, we're legitimate and that makes us a threat. Suddenly, the attention from ESPN has waned. Slaton didn't even get mentioned on the Heisman preview show. And I expect this be-quiet-and-they'll-go-away approach to continue through the year.

Argh... I should probably leave the conspiracy theories to those more qualified. Paging AngryEER.

Position Report: Running Backs

Ok, so as promised, some position reports. West Virginia is entering the 07 season anticipated to run the ball 123.53% of the time, so I’ll start with the running backs.

At fullback, of course, we have EDSBS’s favorite mancrush, Owen Schmitt. He’s listed at 6’3”-250. He’s big, he’s strong and he’s relatively fast. He has rushed 113 times for 731 yards, 9 touchdowns and several gnarled facemasks over the last two years. RR is alluding to the fact that Schmitt will also see some time at tight end this year. “My wife’s just been overwhelmed with her burgeoning ebay business. She needs more facemasks to keep up with demand, so we’re going to let Owen get a full head of steam coming off the line before engaging linebackers or the occasional poor soul of a DB.”

Prediction:


Starting tailback is easy and I shouldn’t even have to name him. He runs a 4.3 forty while stylishly sporting a fur coat. His wrist is healthy so the biggest question surrounding his upcoming season, according to Hoppy Kirchibel (sp?), is whether he will shave off his mini-fro. Unless he puts up LT @ TCU numbers, I doubt he wins the Heisman; I just don’t see WVU putting forth the requisite PR campaign, but at least expect him to be in New York.

The New Guy, i.e. Noel Devine, will get playing time, but we shall have to see how quickly he learns the system. As we’ve already noted, he is reportedly faster than Slaton and stronger than Schmitt. He also walks on water and has cured cancer. All while getting his J.D. during summer camp. The last time a freshman RB has been this drooled over, said freshman RB developed a relationship with his pre-catwoman tutor who also happened to be the starting RB’s girlfriend.

Prediction: Slaton wears beautiful fur coat on College Game Day finally enticing Herbstreit out from closet. Devine goes on to costar in a hospital based television drama where he is continually confronted with the conflict between being a good doctor and being a good person.

There some other guys who allegedly suit up to play, but for god’s sake, I hope we don’t see them actually carry the ball.

#5

The must read summer preview Athlon has WVU ranked #5 in their preseason poll. Some notes from the preview:

Slaton averaged 7.0 ypc last year while White averaged 7.4 ypc.

White would have finished 9th in passing efficiency had he thrown enough to qualify. He needed one more attempt, he would have made it had he not been injured versus Rutgers.

WVU has led the Big East in rushing in each of the last five years.

Get the magazine when it is released next week for more. In other preseason poll news MSN has a story about the Mountaineers being picked 5th in Athlon and 4th in Lindy's, how WVU has embraced the preseason expectations, and how WVU has faired in the past when highly ranked in the preseason (usually not good). The article even has some Beano Cook stories which are always fun to read about, especially now that Beano is 99% gelatin based.

Steve Slaton in Playboy

Steve Slaton has been named to the preseason 2007 Playboy All-America Team

Previous Mountaineers on the Playboy team include Carl Crennel (1969), Paul Woodside (1983), Brian Jozwiak (1985), Major Harris (1989), Mike Compton (1992), Aaron Beasley (1995) and Dan Mozes (2006). Don Nehlen was the coach of the year for 1989.

This will give some WVU fans a chance to convince their wives/girlfriends to let them buy an issue for the articles. I just get it for the pictures of naked girls. I only found out recently there were even words in there.

Odds and Ends

In what I'm sure will be elaborated on later, it was a bad week for Mexico.

New Mexico is back in the news as he seeks to have his $6.35 million lawsuit dismissed. His accuser is a teenage girl he spent a few years stomping, but not in the leg.

Ron Mexico took it up a notch in showing lil' brother exactly how a Mexico rolls. Vick claimed it was a treatment for his disease. He was later informed he has herpes and not glaucoma.

When asked for comment the two Vicks extended a finger from their shared bedroom window in their parents house.

Before any VT apologists try to bring up Pacman or Henry let me point out that neither of them have a freshman dorm named after them.

In other news WVU thought they had a line coach. Rodriguez hopes to fill the rest of the staff within the next 3 weeks. Still needed are offensive line coach, WR coach, TE coach, butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.

Steve Slaton will miss spring ball while getting his now year needed surgery on his wrist.