Round of Reubens

WVU is Big East Champion in at least one sport this fall as the women's soccer team beat down Notre Dame like a service academy would during penalty kicks to win the Big East championship Sunday afternoon. The win vaults WVU to 16-4-2 and a home game in the NCAA tournament. Notre Dame had won 9 of the last 13 Big East tournament championships. The win is the first championship for the WVU women.

The men fared worse in penalty kicks during their tournament as they lost to Louisville 3-1 in penalty kicks in the Big East semifinals. The men finished the season 13-5-2 on the season and will await word on NCAA tournament status until next Monday.

Speaking of post season it appears that Pitt will be home for the holidays again this season, even if they again are eligible. Last season Pitt had 6 wins but no bowl wanted the income generated by their 15 fans enough to invite the Panthers. A likely scenario that will be repeated this year. Pitt has 4 wins with games remaining against Rutgers, USF, and WVU. Even if Pitt somehow managed 2 wins to become eligible in those games the Post-Gazette is reporting that the Big East has 6 automatic bowls and Pitt would likely be the 7th team and on the outside should Louisville become eligible with another win.

For those of us at the Louisville game here are some of the things we missed on tv.

Pat White and the spitting incident:



Owen Schmidt headbutting his helmet:



I haven't found any video of Pat White showing the medical staff his awareness by somersaulting yet and have only heard of it. If anyone has a link please leave it in the comments.

Eight teams currently have some claim, no matter how small, to the BCS Championship Game. 3 of the top 6 are in the Big 12 even though the conference on a whole is rated third behind the SEC and Big East according to Realtime RPI. The following is a list of Strength of Schedule and win/loss record for the top 8 although the W/L may be somewhat skewered because if OSU plays Youngstown State and they are 5-3 on the season it isn't quite the same as a 5-3 Tennessee team.

LSU--SOS is 2nd in the nation, opponents are 59-42.

Oregon--SOS is 3rd in the nation, opponents 53-38. Anyone arguing for someone other than these two in the top two right now should read those sentences 100 times before speaking.

Kansas--SOS is 66th in the nation, opponents are 41-61 and have played 2 teams with winning records (Central Michigan and Texas A&M which has a losing conference record). Anyone that argues for them should never complain about scheduling cupcakes again as the non-conference schedule was CMU, SE Louisiana, Toledo, and Florida International.

Oklahoma--SOS is 39th in the nation, opponents are 48-43, however, they lose all complaining ability when the non-conference schedule is 13-26.

Missouri--SOS is 24th in the nation, opponents are 53-58.

WVU--SOS is 37th in the nation, opponents are 42-49. Marshall, ECU, Maryland, Western Michigan, and Mississippi State non-conference hasn't impressed the computers. Syracuse, WMU, and Marshall are all above 120 in the rankings.

Ohio State--SOS is 8th in the nation, opponents are 60-55. Might be overvalued due to having already played 11 games. The schedule includes games versus rankings of 127, 107, 149, and 113. In fact the best non-conference game was against the 93rd best team in the country (Washington).

Arizona State--SOS is 29th in the nation, opponents are 48-51. Must make a statement versus USC on the 22nd to have a claim and need an Oregon loss.

Finally a story that proves that student athletes don't have enough spare scratch. Through some friends I met a girl this weekend that has "hooked up" with a WVU football player and still stays in touch. Unfortunately due to some sketchy excuses they couldn't go to his house for their night of passion and since she isn't from WVU she didn't have a place. So they had to find a nice place in order to become better acquainted. The football player went all out and got the girl a nice night at the Best Western. Because nothing says class it's too cold to do it behind a dumpster like the Best Western. If you ever took one of those black light things in there your eyes would explode. Don't bother asking because I'm not going to reveal the name of the player or the lovely lady, but you can take guesses in the comments and anything I say in response will be 100% joke.

Mountaineers Down Mountain State

The debut of the Huggy-Bear Mounties last night was special for me in several ways. I had the pleasure of attending the game with several friends from home. Home for us is also home to the visitors to the Coliseum- the Mountain State University Cougars (formerly the College of West Virginia Cougars, and formerly the Beckley College... was there a mascot then?) Anyway, I digress. The game featured basketball legend Dave Barksdale playing second fiddle to former protege' Bob Bolen. Dave gained his mythological stature by winning seemingly countless West Virginia High School State Championships at BSR's Alma Mater, Woodrow Wilson High School. Eight Championship games in a decade is a pretty stellar run. Even if you only win five. Jesus... let me tell you about George Pope.



Alright, as for the Mountianeers. I personally think we could use more than a single exhibition game to get the team fine tuned for the season. Shooting 46% from the floor in the game, we looked a little sloppy- but not horrible. The striped shirts weren't helping- blowing the whistle ad nauseum 21 personal fouls on WVU, and a grand total of 40 for both teams.

We still like to rain three pointers, 12 of 29 for 41% on the night. We could still use a donimant inside presence. Smalligan was nearly knocked out by MSU's Jason McGriff early in the first half. I don't expect anyone to take a blindsided shoulderblock to the face and smile- but we could use some force on the blocks.

Darris Nichols led the way with 21 and looked sharp. Joe Alexander managed to put up 19 despite having to deal with gigantic new biceps. He must work out. Da'Sean Butler led the efforts on the boards with 8, one more than Alex Ruoff's 7. The two had 16 and 14 points respectively. Starting center Jamie Smalligan chipped in with 2 pts and 0 rebounds in 12 minutes. I dunno there.

Overall, I have no complaints about an 88-65 win over one of the top teams in the NAIA (2004 National Champions NAIA) and I guess the large number of three point shots is to be expected. This is really a Beilein team with a Huggy-Bear coach. Huggins was rocking some slick snakeskin/gator/komodo dragon slippers. He IS pretty cool. BSR must admit. Season tickets were mailed out late last week. I don't plan on missing any games, and promise to keep you posted on all the goings on you may not be able to read about on MSN.

First tidbit- the large dancing man (you know... YMCA) he's back. He also has a lady helper who got the student section primed and ready. Also, the Mountaineer himself made it atop a moving man pyramid. OS would have worn his white shoes and loved it.

Around the Conference Week 10

As the Big East gets ready to bow down to the Huskie overlords...remember way back to last year when the everyone was making fun of the ACC (not that this hasn't happened again this year) and their "champions" Wake Forest. The commentators had to make excuses such as the team being gritty or senior laden and hard fighting. But everyone that watched them knew that they were just a good football team that got some really good breaks in an average football conference and not by any means a great team. Welcome to the discussion UConn 2007. A single WVU loss in the next two weeks would basically wrap up a BCS birth before the November 24th game in Morgantown. On to the rest of the Big East this week.

Rutgers vs. Army--Friday night lights in West Point, NY as Rutgers has made a Notre Dame like jaunt through the service academies this year. All they were missing was Air Force, the Coast Guard, and the merchant marines. Rutgers has fallen to 5-4 after getting blown out in the first quarter against WVU and then losing to UConn by 19 last week. Rutgers had 511 total yards in that game and ran 51 plays in the first half compared to 19 for UConn and still trailed 25-16 at the break. Army is 3-6 with wins over Rhode Island, Temple, and Tulane. The Black Knights are 117th in total offense and 115th in scoring offense. Defensively Army ranks 81st in total defense with the rushing defense being the main culprit giving up 213 yards per game on the ground. Ray Rice may run the ball 50 times in the first half.

UConn vs. Cincy--The last chance for the Huskies to lose before Morgantown is this weekend. UConn has Cincy, Syracuse, and WVU in the way of a BCS bowl game after three straight wins over Louisville, USF, and Rutgers. How many people would have bet that at the beginning of the year? Last week against Rutgers the Huskies rushed for 256 yards with Donald Brown leading the way. However, the Huskies have relied on two aspects of the game all year; turnover margin and defense. UConn has the 4th best turnover margin in the country at +1.44 per game. Defensively the Huskies are 4th in the nation in scoring defense allowing only 13.7 points per game. Cincy has been up and down the last few weeks. The Bearcats beat Rutgers then lost to Louisville and Pitt before beating USF last week. Cincy is actually better in the turnover department than UConn and is a +1.67 which is good for 3rd best in the nation. The Scoring defense allows 17.9 points per game. Offensively the Bearcats are a little better than UConn, but these teams are extremely close in both talent and style of play. However, UConn has gotten some breaks where Cincy hasn't, at least thus far.

Syracuse vs. USF--USF is in the predictable setting (this year at least for Big East teams) of having a season on the brink and Syracuse on the schedule. So far WVU, Louisville, and Rutgers have all played this game with only Louisville failing. USF is officially in a tailspin at this point in the season with 3 straight losses in conference. In those three games the Bulls have given up 90 points after holding all opponents under 24 for the first 6 games of the season. Syracuse is still bad. 114th in total offense. 108th in total defense. 2 wins.

WVU-Louisville Q&A

In preparation for the Louisville game, I'm doing a Q&A with Louisville Courier-Journal blogger Tom Heiser over at his blog, The Cardinal Fan, and he's been kind enough to join us for a couple electronic drinks to discuss Louisville football and the game.

1. Might as well get the elephant in the corner out of the way. Talk about the defense. No one I know of saw this coming. When was your first inkling of things to come?

TH-When the Cards pummeled Murray State 70-7 in the opener, there were some early signs that the defense was out of sync. This was a freshmen-laden Div. I-AA school that moved the ball fairly easily. But the next week's 58-42 win over Middle Tennessee State left no doubt. MTSU ripped off massive chunks of yards and turned what should have been an easy win into a struggle late into the fourth quarter. The run and pass defense were utterly exposed.

2. Seems to me that you have a pretty decent stable of backs, yet your ranked 68th in the country in rushing. As opposed to last year where you were ranked 12th in yards per game. Is it as simple as having to play from behind, or has the rushing game been deemphasized this year?

I'd say that playing from behind has been the main culprit. Double-digit deficits to Syracuse and Utah left the Cards no choice to to air it out in order to get back in the game. That doesn't explain the loss to Kentucky and, most recently, UConn, where the Cards were firmly in the lead and couldn't run clock because of the running game. There have been a bunch of injuries (Brock Bolen, Anthony Allen, Sergio Spencer) and disciplinary setbacks (JaJuan Spillman, George Stripling). Consistency has really been lacking.

3. If you were going on stats alone, Brian Brohm would still be in the mix for the Heisman. Any indication from him that coming back wasn't such a good idea? Or did he feel like he had something to prove as far as making it through a season without injuries, shot at the title, etc.?

He's been a real trooper through this very difficult season. I'm sure his ultimate goal was to get the Cards into the title game. Now, while I don't think this was ever a reality (margin for error was too narrow), I think he felt that with the returning offensive starters getting back to the BCS or beyond was within reach.

4. What do you see from West Virginia this year that you didn't see last year that worries you? Flip the coin over and tell me what you see from West Virginia that makes you think you've got a good shot Thursday night?

I've seen the Mountaineers four times this year; to be honest, I can't say that I've seen anything unexpected. The addition of Noel Devine is certainly terrifying for all Cardinal fans. Thursday night doesn't look propitious for the Cards. U of L's defense has been porous; the offense has been sluggish. Those two factors don't give me too much reason for optimism. That said, if Coach Kragthorpe is as good a coach as athletics director Tom Jurich says he is, I can only hope that they've pored over all the available film and have come up with some tricks that will reopen the suddenly stagnate offense.

5. Let's talk a little Big East now. Who is this UConn team, and what did they do with the team I was expecting to see this year? Obviously Dixon at running back has been a big surprise, and Lorenzen has proven himself. But I was not impressed with their defense or offensive line last year. What the heck is going on around here? (Feel free to "cough, cough, fair catch, cough cough")

Look, I think they're a good team -- one that has been underestimated. But the Cards had them down (even with the bad call on the punt return; the lead was 10 with under 10 minutes to play) and couldn't stop them on their final two drives. They've had the good fortune to have played key games at home (So. Florida, Louisville and Cincinnati). My guess is that they will come crashing back to earth when they go to Morgantown.

6. Likewise, South Florida. Wins against Auburn and WVU, and then they just fall off the face of the Earth. Does USF have an identity crisis or what? Is it a matter of depth?

I thought that they were a very good team, but Matt Grothe was suspect. In the WVU game, the Bulls' defense was impressive, but the offense was just marginal. They took advantage of WVU mistakes and Pat White's injury. Their running game has also been underwhelming. With U of L facing the prospect of not going to a bowl game unless they win two of the next three games (WVU, South Florida and Rutgers), I have been more optimistic about winning in Tampa and at home against Rutgers.






-Clock rules changing back. Happy or ecstatic?
Seems right. I'm more worried about U of L moving the ball with some semblance of urgency.

-Big East coach of the year?
Randy Edsall. Hands down.

-Coach on the hottest hot seat?
Look no further than my own backyard. Can it get any hotter under Steve Kragthorpe?

-If you could have one WVU player on UL, who would it be and why?
Steve Slaton. Not only is he a great runner, he's a potential game-breaker each time he carries it. A back with his speed has the same effect as a long Brohm-Douglas pass.

-If you could have one UL player come over to WVU, who and why?
Any of the U of L secondary. I'd feel better about Thursday night.

-Prediction?
I'd love to see a 45-44 thriller that the Cards pull out in overtime. (Wouldn't that be ironic!) But I can't see how a 42-21 Mountaineer win isn't staring me in the face.

Cheers to Tom for coming over and talking with us!

Game Week--Louisville

It will have been 12 days since the last game when WVU takes the field Thursday night and 19 days since the last home game. Much has changed over that time, especially the weather with the temperature expected in the high 30's for gametime this week. Wondering what to wear? Maybe Rich Rodriguez can help out the uninitiated.

Rodriguez challenged West Virginia fans to take up a Gold Rush fashion to the stadium Thursday: "I would like to see everybody wearing a gold shirt, a gold sweatshirt, waving a gold towel, a gold pom-pom. Wear gold shoes, even. We don't sell beer, so we can't sell gold beer. But I hope we have all gold. It looks good.

Looks like I finally have an excuse to break out those gold pants I've been dying to wear, or maybe I'll just dress up as a banana. However, OS will never wear anything but white shoes, unless Wes Ours has some gold ones laying around in his trunk he wants to get rid of. BTW if you are one of those people who gets mad when someone comes to this game wearing blue or white do the rest of us a favor and die. I mean it. If you are going to get upset and yell at people b/c they didn't listen to "Coach" then you are just wasting my oxygen.

On to the game. Louisville has been a trainwreck disappointment so far this season, but remains one of the best one dimensional teams in the country. Even in the four losses this year Louisville has outgained their opponents. However, key defensive breakdowns, special teams missteps, and poorly timed turnovers have cost the Cardinals. Louisville's biggest loss points wise was only 9 and in that game Utah scored with 1:13 left to push the lead from 6 and Louisville didn't have time to answer. The average loss has been by 5.5 points.

The Offense is 6th in the nation at 510 yards a game and the passing offense is 4th. The offense is averaging 37 points a game, but has actually struggled in the last three games against Cincy, UConn, and Pitt averaging just 23 points a game over that stretch. Brian Brohm is 4th in the nation in total offense and 5th in passing efficiency. He has thrown the ball 368 times so far this season and has completed 68.2% of those attempts. Many of those have gone to Harry Douglas who is 7th in the nation in receptions per game at 7.86. Anthony Allen and Brock Bolen have combined for almost 1000 yards rushing and Allen is averaging 5 yards a carry.

There was the good news for Louisville. Now on to the bad. The defense is putrid. Louisville is 79th in total defense and 67th in scoring defense this season. The Cardinals have been bad against both the run (61st) and the pass (96th). One of the reasons is the loss of DT Omobi Okoye in the draft or maybe the fact Willie Williams isn't living up to all of his expectations. Williams, the former Hurricane recruit/player, was booted from Miami before moving his game to Louisville and has only lived up to half of his true potential. His on field performance never matched his commitment to getting arrested.

Linebacker Willie Williams, with 11 arrests before matriculating at Miami, was dismissed five weeks ago at Louisville after a drug arrest in which police reportedly found him eating marijuana, hence an additional felony charge of tampering with physical evidence (he pleaded guilty to the lesser drug charge last month).

It's a long way from the famous diary in which Williams ordered enough surf and turf dinners on the Florida State dime to feed a small army.

Louisville has 5 wins and games remaining at WVU, at USF, and hosting Rutgers in order to get bowl eligible. This has been a precipitous fall for a team ranked in the top 10 to start the season. However, if the defense can play at all for Louisville they remain a dangerous team. That just hasn't happened much this year. Just ask Syracuse (only other win Buffalo).

Week 10 Blogpoll Ballot is Distracted

It just seems to get harder and harder to put what I think is a sold top 25 together without letting silly things like prejudice get in the way. I really want to think that OSU isn't the best team in the country, but every knock on their schedule would make it just as hard to justify WVU's rank.

As soon as you think you know who someone is, they fall off the face of the Earth. I'm looking at you South Florida and South Carolina. It's team like you that force me to put a team like UConn up a notch every week despite the fact that I know in my heart they are not that good.

At any rate, I tried to not look at last weeks ballot and to try to just go off the top of my head as to who I thought belonged where. There are some teams that took some big falls despite winning like Hawaii, Auburn, and Texas that I felt were just too high. A place I've never been, but hope to get there soon.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	--
2	Oregon	1
3	LSU	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	Kansas	3
6	West Virginia	--
7	Missouri	2
8	Boston College	6
9	Georgia	1
10	Arizona State	3
11	Michigan	2
12	Virginia Tech	8
13	Connecticut	2
14	Southern Cal	5
15	Florida	2
16	Hawaii	5
17	Boise State	1
18	Auburn	6
19	Texas	5
20	Kentucky	3
21	Virginia	5
22	Clemson	2
23	Alabama	5
24	Cincinnati	2
25	Florida State	1

Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#21), Wake Forest (#22), South Carolina (#25).

With a month to go

The BCS polls came out and the top 10 have some work left to do. So lets take a look at the top ten and the remaining games on the schedule.

Ohio State--The Buckeyes have two remaining games on the schedule. The first is Illinois at home next week and then at Michigan to close the season on November 17th. Once again Ohio State will finish the season a month before anyone else. Also of note is that Michigan could end up the only ranked team OSU has played when bowl season begins.

LSU--The Tigers are the anti-Ohio State having played 5 out of their last 6 games against ranked teams and will probably have at least 6 opponents ranked going into bowl season. LSU closes with the easiest part of their schedule. La Tech and Arkansas at home sandwiched between Ole Miss on the road. The Tigers would currently be playing Georgia in the SEC Championship Game with Tennessee and Florida also potential opponents.

Oregon--The Ducks have rolled to victories over USC and Arizona State in the last two weeks and have no ranked teams left in front of them. The schedule includes Arizona and UCLA on the road before returning home to face Oregon State in the Civil War. Oregon State and UCLA are both 5-4 and Arizona is 4-6.

Kansas--The Jayhawks are the surprise remaining team having benefit ted from a Big12 schedule without Texas or Oklahoma and a non-conference schedule of Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo, and Florida International. Kansas has Oklahoma State on the road and then finished with Iowa State and Missouri at home. Should Kansas win out or Missouri lose again the Jayhawks would likely face Oklahoma or possibly Texas in the Big12 Championship Game.

Oklahoma--Oklahoma has a remaining schedule of Baylor, Texas Tech, and Bedlam with Oklahoma State. The Texas Tech game is a roadie, but all the rest are at home. A rematch with Missouri or a matchup with Kansas likely would await Oklahoma in the Big12 Championship Game.

Missouri--The Tigers are a second surprise in the the top 10 of the BCS standings. Missouri closes with Texas A&M at home then road games versus Kansas State and Kansas. All remaining opponents of the Tigers have winning records currently. The Tigers would likely play Oklahoma or Texas in a Big12 Championship Game.

WVU--The Mountaineers have four games left beginning this Thursday. WVU Plays Louisville at home, Cincy on the road, UConn at home, and Pitt at home to finish the season on December 1st. Cincy is currently 7-2 and UConn 8-1 while Pitt has manhandled their opponents to a 4-5 record.

BC--Boston College lost to FSU last week and still has some tough games remaining. The Eagles travel to Maryland on Saturday then play at Clemson and host Miami. Maryland has struggled recently and fallen to 4-5 overall while Clemson is 7-2 and Miami is 5-4. Should BC win out a likely rematch with Virginia Tech or game versus Virginia would follow in the ACC Championship. BC v. Virginia in the ACC Championship would be a license to print money only the exact opposite. So it would be a prohibition on printing money.

Arizona State--The Sundevils also tasted defeat for the first time last week. The remaining schedule is at UCLA and then hosting USC and Arizona. USC is 7-2 and UCLA is 5-4.

Georgia--The Bulldogs have won three in a row, but have a tough closing stretch. Georgia hosts Aburn this coming week and then plays host to Kentucky before going to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech. A potential SEC Championship Game still awaits the Bulldogs with LSU the likely opponent.

So there you have the top ten teams and the remaining schedules for each. Feel free to spend the next few hours drawing up scenarios to see your favorite team in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame. Remember they only need two wins to qualify for an automatic BCS birth. Three wins and they get to the BCS Championship game and 4 and they automatically get a piece of the national championship.

Reader Submitted Content - Yah!

To make up for our slack-ass-ness, one of our three loyal readers, Eric, sent us this little clip a "friend" of his put together regarding the tailgating experience at WVU. To the dismay at everyone over at Losers With Socks, there are no clips of a c-0-... c-0-... r... you going to the mall later? That's what I was asking, "Are you going to the mall later?" ... c-o-u-c-h being burnt. (I am the smartest man alive!)

The dude's dad and uncle remind me a lot of me and tummysticks on gameday, except we're fighting through the crowd with our walkers and bitching about our wives and the damned kids these days.

KP is a first round pick

Kevin Pittsnogle was picked by the Austin Toros in the first round of the NDA D-League draft for 2007. The other WVU grads taken in the most prestigous league owned by the NBA that isn't the NBA: Rob Summers (1st pick, 4th Round by the Iowa Energy).

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but I've been out of town at a conference all week and will be off again this evening, although everything should resume on Monday as normal. One good note from the conference. There was an open bar for 1.5 hours on Tuesday evening and in that time Chutta and myself each put down as much alcohol as humanly possible and ended up at an Indian Casino that evening playing Craps with no dice (weird) with Chutta doing his best to get thrown out including cussing like a sailor at old people and walking into the pit.

Surfing the Big East Blogosphere

Ummmm! Surfing! Yeah, as the cold is creeping it's way into the northeast, I can see myself taking a vacation to somewhere that has......dear God I have to get out of this town! Sigh....

One of the better reads I've seen out of the Big East blogosphere lately is up at TroyNunes, where Marius and Chas from the Pitt Blather get into a talk about the less than impressive seasons for both teams. I'm not bringing this up to pile on. I just thought it was one of the better Q&A type things I've seen.

Matt Glaude over at Orange 44 is going to Pittsburgh. On a side note, I'm glad to see him writing, since his disappearance from the FanHouse left me wondering what happened. Also over at Orange 44, Brian and Marius talk up the Orange. And as I noted in the comments, it's something we in the WFVU sphere should be doing.

Card Chronicle is talking a lot of basketball. Something I'm not ready to start thinking about just yet. But I did snap a few shots of the team and Huggy Bear making their way around the tailgates during the Miss. St. game. I'll try to get those out sometime.


Mountaineerbob over at Mountaineer Sports reminds you to wear gold to the Louisville game. I wonder if any Louisville fans will bring a t-shirt that says "Fags Wear Gold".

Bye Week Silliness: Chad Vader

Yeah, it's a bye week. It's like a miniature off season or something. Just like the team needs to recharge for the stretch run, I'm running on empty and need to energize the system. Because we have Louisville next week, and we need to be focused guys and gals. Our performance as fans was a little off at the Mississippi St. game. And I was the leader of that poor performance. So I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just saying. Don't go for broke on the beer bongs until you are sure you are going to be able to make if for the long haul. M'kay?

Anyhow, this is the game we were pointing to at the beginning of the year. And even if no one else thinks so, I don't think Louisville is going to come in here and roll over. They win this game, they make their season. I'll be taking a closer look at the Cardinals next week in a Q&A with Tom Heiser of the Louisville Courier-Journal. So until then, check with him and Mike over at the Card Chronicle for all things Louisville.

Week Nine Blogpoll Ballot

The Blogpoll is run by Brian over at MGOblog. Click here to see the whole thingy. I have to make any changes by 10am Wed., so throw your thoughts in the comments if you see something that needs changed.

I couldn't really think of a good picture to go along with this post, so I googled "the coolest picture in the world", and this came up. Sure it ain't all that, but it seems right somehow.

We finally have some stability at the top. But still, the lazy-eyed prospect of having to again move UConn up is a little disturbing. We'll get to that in a bit.

1. Ohio State- Ummm, I can't tell you how bad I wanted to do a song about them yesterday. Oh well, it'll have to wait. That was a pretty dominating performance by the Buckeye's. At Penn St., at night. Yup, 37-22 in the time of posession, 453-263 yards. Hard to argue this week.

2. BC-I only saw the last two minutes, so I don't know of what you speak about the first 58. Probably, if Va. Tech had any offense it would have been a blowout. But wining at Tech at night is a big deal, no matter how much I hate to admit it.

3. Oregon-Hey, quality win like that should move you up. I'm really impressed with their offense. It's like WVU with a down field passing attack.

4. LSU-Bye

5. Oklahoma-Bye

6. West Virginia- Honestly, it felt like the first time I was truly impressed with West Virginia this year. The chances to play a good team are few and far between on this schedule. So getting this win told us a little something about West Virginia that we didn't see against USF.

7. Arizona St-I'm a little more impressed with their win over Cal than the Kansas win over Texas A&M.

8. Kansas-

9. Missouri-Can't say that I've seen more than one game of theirs, but they looked good and won big this week. Is this what people out west say about West Virginia?

10. Georgia-Quality wins over Florida, and Alabama. And if that team shows up every week the rest of the year, I will have no problem with ranking them this high.

11. Hawaii- What are you gonna do, ya know? They keep winning.

12. Auburn- Maybe not a sexy win over Miss, but it seems like everyone not named Nutt has had a hard time beating the Rebels. Only one quality win, over Florida, and one impressive loss against LSU.

13. Michigan- Anyone kicking themselves for not playing this well at the beginning of the year?

14. Texas-Mmmmm, we're getting into that part of the poll where a come from behind win at Nebraska doesn't look so bad.

15. Connecticut- No, really! Undefeated in the Big East after taking down Louisville and USF in consecutive weeks. If I said that before the season started, you would be asking why they weren't higher. But I still feel that they have at least two more losses in front of them. So enjoy it while it lasts.

16. Boise St.- At Hawaii Nov. 23rd can't get here soon enough.

17. Florida-

18. Alabama-Still thinking about that win over Tennessee.

19. Southern Cal-

20. Va. Tech-If they had an offense.

21. Wisconsin- Take that Indiana! Woot! Woot!

22. Wake Forest- Wins over UNC, Fla. St., and Maryland. But oh that loss to Nebraska. Still, six straight wins after starting out 0-2.

23. Kentucky-

24. Clemson-Sure

25. South Carolina- Dammit, we were going to do a repeat on Fulmer 'til SC had to fuck it up!

They are still horrible.

Before Schilling turns into Chuck Norris and begins his off season, I just wanted to congratulate every other team in the league on laying down and letting these fuckers sweep the world series. Fuck the Red Sox.

Weekend Watching

I find the mystery genre disgusting. I hate being titillated. Dunder Mifflin. Limitless paper in a paperless world. The weekend is off to a decent start as BC won, but VT lost last night. It was a win-win or a lose-lose or addition by addition? So number 2 holds on after playing like a hot circle of crap for the first 46 minutes of the game. There are plenty of other good games this weekend with major bowl implications.

USC vs. Oregon--Oregon is ranked fifth with only a loss to California to blot the resume. Remaining schedule after this gets much easier as Arizona State is the only other ranked team the Ducks will play. Dennis Dixon is has 1728 yards passing and another 416 rushing to go with 23 total touchdowns. Oregon runs a vertical version of the offense run by WVU. Leading receiver Jaison Williams averages 16.3 yards per catch for the Ducks (over 4 more yards per catch than Reynaud). USC is beginning the stretch run of their season and still have Cal and Arizona State upcoming in November before ending with UCLA. It appears as though Mark Sanchez may start despite being worse than JD Booty in every statistical category. Completion percentage, yards per attempt, and quarterback rating are all worse for Sanchez, but he didn't lose to Stanford. Staforn Johnson is the second leading runner for USC with 425 yards behind the 426 yards of Chauncey Washington so you could say the Trojans use a running back by committee approach.

Florida vs. Georgia--The party of cocktails that is very large considering other similar party's held in this world kicks off this weekend as well. Florida is back into SEC championship contention as the East now has every team except Vanderbilt with 2 losses. Georgia is one of the three teams, including Florida, sitting at 3-2 in conference. Georgia has losses to South Carolina and Tennessee thus far in the season. The Bulldog offense is currently 80th in the country while the defense is 25th. Georgia is only averaging about 40 more yards per game than they give up. The Bulldogs also use a running back by committee with Knowshon Moreno and Thomas Brown. Mathew Stafford has thrown for over 1300 yards and 10 touchdowns, but is only completing 55% of his passes.

Ohio State vs. Penn State--This game shows the generational divide of Mountaineer fans. Penn State has never really been a rival during the last 20 years, but for older WVU fans Penn State still ranks up there with VT. Either way this game is probably similar to BC/VT in that it's really hard to ROOT for either if these teams. Ohio State dominated Michigan State in their last game for 3.5 quarters then held on at the end for the victory. The remaining Buckeye schedule is PSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. 4 victories means another birth in the BCS championship for OSU and no one wants that. Penn State is 6-2 with losses to Michigan and Illinois. The Nittany Lions are 49th in total offense relying almost equally on the pass and the run and 7th in total defense. All signs point to a typical Big 10 game of keeping it close to win in the fourth quarter for one of these teams. Hooray.

Cal vs. Arizona State--Did you know that Arizona State is 4th in the nation? Well things could change quickly for the Sun Devils in the next 4 games as they take on 3 ranked teams in Cal, Oregon, and USC. The Sun Devils are led by the 27th ranked offense in the country and the 14th ranked defense. Offensively Rudy Carpenter has thrown 1730 yards and Ryan Torain and Keeqan Herring have combined for over 1000 yards rushing. Cal is coming off back to back loses to Oregon State and UCLA. Against UCLA Cal was held under 300 total yards and had 4 turnovers. The Golden Bears averaged only 2.2 yards per rush in that game. In the Oregon State game Cal had 478 yards, but had three turnovers. Cal will need to establish a running game and protect the ball to knock Arizona State out of the top 5.

WVU-Rutgers Q&A

Game eight of the season finds the Mountaineers traveling to Piscataway, NJ for a conference showdown with Rutgers this Saturday at Noon. So I thought it would be a good idea to reach out to a Rutgers blog and get their take on the game and other stuff. Thanks to TBL of the Rutgers blog Beat Visitor for stopping by to answer some questions about the game.

Conventional wisdom got thrown out the window real early with the quick and unexpected demise of Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers suffering early losses, and USF and Cincinnati shocking the Big East. (Did I forget UConn? Yup!) What has been the biggest shock to you this year in the Big East? Anything you're secretly smiling about?

The biggest shock is the implosion of Louisville. They may have been robbed with the "fair catch" at Connecticut last week, but last year the score wouldn't have been close enough for the dogs from Storrs to take advantage of one gift touchdown (and losing to Syracuse???).
-Maybe it's not so secret, but how can the 2007 antics of the prancing leprechauns of South Bend NOT put a smile on every college football fan's face.

What does it feel like to have your coach come out publicly declare his intention to stay at your school as soon as the rumors start up?


I don't think you can overstate the importance of Schiano's loyalty to Rutgers and vice versa. While the national press had him packing his bags for Thug U last December, I don't think there were any RU fans surprised by his decision to stay. I think it's been clear for awhile that his greatest ambition is to be the Joe Paterno or Knute Rockne of Rutgers and, by extension, the New York metropolitan area. If you're a high school recruit, I think you can have lot of faith that he's not going to pull a Petrino and abandon you for the chance to work with Michael Vick (ooops).

How has Rutgers adjusted to the loss of Brian Leonard and Clark Harris? More one back sets, or just less handing off to the fullback? Do their replacements show you glimpses of the talent that those two had?

Brian Leonard was probably the most special player I've ever seen play and I think you see his influence on Ray Rice's toughness and work ethic; they were like brothers for two years. Neither Corcoran or Beljour are going to replace him, but putting Beljour into the Syracuse and USF games seemed to help the run blocking and pass protection. The running game has also suffered from the injury to Kordell Young; he would've had a lot of carries, and taken a lot of passes out of the backfield. We may still see more of freshman Mason Robinson this year.
The tight end position, which has always been an important one at Rutgers, and especially with Harris, has been invisible this season until Brock's touchdown receptions against Syracuse and USF. It's too soon to say if we're going to see more production from that position.

Tiquan Underwood is having a monster year. He already has more yards (789) and receptions (39) than last years leader, Clark Harris. And Kenny Britt isn't too far behind. How much of the jump in passing yards is Mike Teel's maturation as a quarterback, and how much of that is the play calling? Do you think Schiano is letting Teel loose in situations that he would have held him back in last year?

I think part of Teel's maturation comes from the fact that Brian Leonard is gone. He's now the leader of the team, which is what a quarterback should be. That being said, I don't think he's as good a passer as his predecessor, Ryan Hart, but he has better receivers. Britt and Underwood have both caught a lot of overthrown balls this year, and Underwood's yards after the catch are helping Mike's numbers.

The defense is ranked 17th in total defense in the country this year as opposed to last years squad that finished fourth. That certainly isn't a big drop off, but how do you compare the two? Anyone you wish you had back for one more year?

I think in the last two games -- especially the 2nd half of the USF game -- you've seen that 2006 defense rearing its head again. Freshman Joe Lefeged has been a great surprise, though Ron Girault's injury has hurt us. From last season, I would've loved to see Ramel Meekins come back to wear scarlet for one more year.


Favorite memory from this series, and worst memory?



There are so many bad memories from this series I wouldn't know where to start, but losing the close games hurts more than losing the blowouts.



Does the winner of this game go on to win the Big East?

If RU wins they definitely continue and win the Big East, because Cincy already has two losses. If the Mountaineers win, they need a little help; someone else needs to beat the Bulls.

Did you see Jim Leavitt's lips when he was getting mad last week?

No, I couldn't see Leavitt's lips from section 123. Did he seem unhappy?

Pitt wins and Dave Wannstedt not on the sidelines, coincidence?

I just hope the Wannstache's ankle is better when they visit Rutgers in November. I'll send him a get well card.

Big East coach of the year?

It's Leavitt if they finish with ten wins.

Big East coach on the hottest hot seat?

Robinson should be done in Syracuse. Ask any Orange fan. If they want to inspire the team, they'll fire him BEFORE the season ends.

Game prediction?

38-24 Knights, because no top-ten team can win in R House (not even the Knights when they were ranked #10 against the Terps).

Thanks again to TBL for stopping by to chat with us.

Around the Conference Week 9

There are only three games in the Big East this week as Cincy and Syracuse have the week off. Cincy plans to regroup after losing to Pitt last week and possibly saving Wannstedt's job. Syracuse plans on helping Greg Robinson put together a nice resume. Robinson has bought the glue and the sparkles, but hasn't put the resume together quite yet.

Pittsburgh vs. Louisville--Vegas doesn't believe in Pittsburgh despite Louisville continuing to gag week after week. Louisville is an 11 point favorite in this game. Pitt is coming off of their first conference win in a decade this season and has jumped to 3-4. The Panthers still have Syracuse, Rutgers, USF, and WVU so a win here is vital for any bowl chances. LeSean McCoy has proven to be as advertised so far with 805 yards and 9 touchdowns on the season. Pat Bostick has thrown for 769 yards and 4 touchdowns to go with 7 interceptions for Pitt. In the win last week Pitt had McCoy and Stephens-Howling rush for 100 yards and forced three turnovers. Pitt is currently ranked 89th in total offense and 80th in scoring offense. The defense is 20th in the country and number 6 against the pass. Louisville can throw the ball considerably better than anyone Pitt has played. The Cardinal are 3rd in passing offense at 377 yards per game behind only Texas Tech and Hawaii. Louisville is also 5th in total offense and 11th in scoring offense. The defense continues to struggle. Louisville is 89th in total defense and as bad as Louisville has been against the run (68th) they have been worse against the pass (103rd). Louisville lost last week to UConn and Brohm had his worse game of the season passing for only 228 yards on 41 attempts. The Cardinal could also only manage 105 total rushing yards as a team.

USF vs. UConn--The final conference game is a matchup of two ranked teams and the conference leader versus one of the teams chasing them. I just wanted to see that in print. Yes, UConn is the current leader in the Big East after beating Louisville last week to remain undefeated in conference. Can you name one player on the UConn team? I couldn't and I've watched them play twice. The Huskies were outgained by Louisville and trailed 17-7 in the fourth quarter before rallying for the victory. Connecticut is winning on defense. The Huskies have the 3rd best scoring defense in the country and 6th overall total defense. The turnover margin is also impressive at +1.57 per game (2nd in the country). These stats overcome the 79th ranked offense in the country. USF is looking to bounce back from the first loss of the season vs. Rutgers. The defense held the Rutgers passing game in check. Mike teel threw for only 179 yards and completed less than half of his throws. However, Ray Rice ran for 181 yards on 39 punishing carries. Matt Grothe almost matched Rice play for play in throwing for 247 yards and running for another 58. A Bulls victory would potentially put the league into a bottleneck at the top as 4 teams could potentially have one conference loss after Saturday.

BSR and his next-to-last MLB post

Well friends, we've been busy. Worky, weddings and a couple days of actual vacation have prevented me from finalizing my MLB prediction reveiws. Now the only thing preventing this is a combination of my own laziness and embarassment. That- and I don't roll on shabbas.

I will not thoroughly review my NL predictions. 1.) You don't care. 2.) They were not that good.
Here is what I am not ashamed to share.

1. I picked the Mets to finish 2nd. They did. I had the Phillies in third and the Bravos winning the NL East. Those two were flipped.

2. I had the Pirates in the cellar. They were. I had the Brewers winning the Cenral- which not too many people saw coming. They fell apart late and ended in 2nd. The Cubbies won it- I was way off on them. Sweet Lou was a miracle worker.

3. In the West, I had the Padres winning and followed by the D'backs and the Rockies in third. Move the Padres third and I got it right.

I don't remember who I had where in the postseason. I also am not up to checking on that. So the hell with it. I just hope the Rockies beat the shit out of Boston. Fuck the Red Sox.

Game Week--Rutgers

Saturday at high noon WVU will face the State University of New Jersey named after a guy that promised, but never really delivered, said University a bunch of cash. However, he did give the college a $200 bell and a bond for $5,000. If West Virginia named everything after people who got money for the state then everything in the state would have the name of Byrd on it. Oh, nevermind.

Rutgers comes into the game riding high on the tails of a 30-27 win over USF and to a lesser extent a win over Syracuse the Saturday preceding. The wins ended a two game losing streak for the Scarlet Knights at the hands of Maryland and Cincy. In those two loses there was one common theme; stop Ray Rice. Rice managed 94 yards rushing against Cincy, but on 34 carries (a 2.8 ypc average) and against Maryland had 97 yards on 21 carries. The 21 carries represents a normal half of work for Rice. Rutgers comes into the game with the 13th ranked total offense in the country and 21st scoring offense (Rice is 4th in individual rushing, Teel 8th in passing efficiency). The receivers are led by Tiquan Underwood with 39 catches for 789 yards and 6 touchdowns. Underwood had 114 yards vs. USF. Kenny Britt has added 29 catches for 667 yards and 4 touchdowns to the mix at WR while the tight end has been used sparingly with Kevin Brock only making 8 catches on the year. The game plan for Rutgers on offense is pretty simple, yet effective. Pound Ray Rice until the defense brings everyone up and then hit the wide receivers in man coverage with no safety help. The snag in the gameplan this season has been turnovers as the Scarlet Knights are 83rd in the country in turnover margin and have been forced into 14 turnovers so far this season.

The defense for Rutgers is 17th in the nation in total defense at 306 ypg. The rush defense allows 136 yards per game which is 44th while the pass defense is 7th in the county allowing only 170 yards per game. The defense will bring pressure on any passing down and Rutgers is currently 9th in the nation with 3.3 sacks per game. The leading tackler for Rutgers is DB Courtney Greene followed by linebackers Kevin Malast and Brandon Renkart. Jamal Westerman has added 6 sacks to the pass rush to rank 17th in the nation. The seven Rutgers interceptions have all been by different players. USF threw the ball for 247 yards in a loss and had no rusher other than Grothe over 50 yards for the game. Cincy threw for 257 yards and managed 150 yards rushing on 40 carries while Maryland threw for 219 yards and rushed for 239 yards on 59 carries. Keon Lattimore and Lance Ball combined for 233 yards on 46 carries in that game.

West Virginia is currently 12th in total offense with a break down of second in rushing offense at 304 ypg and 103rd in passing offense at 177 ypg. WVU is averaging 42 points per game which is 7th in the nation. Steve Slaton is 27th in the nation in rushing at 107 yards per game and Pat White is averaging 71.4 yards on the ground. White is also 6th in the nation in passing efficiency. Defensively the Mountaineers are now up to 4th in total defense at 255 ypg with the pass defense ranking 5th and the run defense ranking 12th. WVU is allowing 16.5 points per game which is 10th in the country. Johnny dingle is currently 17th in the nation in sacks per game and has 6 so far this year and is 13th in tackles for loss at 1.5 per game. The linebackers are leading the team in total tackles with Reed Williams setting the pace and Mortty Ivy and Marc Magro (tobacco free) following. In the secondary Ryan Mundy and Eric Wicks each have a pair of interceptions.