The Shotgun/Throwdown: Thursday (8/20/09) Edition

Welcome, once again, By-Godders to the Shotgun/Throwdown brought to you today by Hatuey Beer, Cuba's finest, in honor of today's Miss Throwdown. 

Is it just me or does the the name "Hatuey" sound like hocking a loogie?  I digress.  If I'm interpreting what I saw in some comments yesterday correctly, we're in for a treat later today thanks to Dougity Dog.  Stay tuned.  After making them available to the media this week, expect more and more stories about the heralded Freshmen.  The tipline has been awfully quiet.  Today's links start after the jump:

What you may have missed:

BlueGoldNews.com - Stew's Views: Day 11
The mastermind was back holding the presser.  I guess we're only gonna get limited access to the T-1000.

Basketball News - MSNsportsNET.Com
Butler and Ebanks are on the pre-season Wooden watch list.

Best Case/Worst Case: West Virginia - Big East - ESPN
Bennett hypothesizes the best and worst case possibilities for us this season.

Pitt Blather - Sick of QB Questions
It's nice to have your QB decided on before the season, so that you don't have to go through what Pitt is going through. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of guys, either.

Report: NCAA to strip Memphis of wins in '08 - NCAA Basketball - SI.com
Ouch. Play with Calipari and you tend to get burned, just ask UMass. Kentucky fans prepare yourselves.

News of Note:

Vingle's Notebook - The Charleston Gazette
More on Bigfoot, the #2 offense and the kicking situation.

Personnel shuffle on WVU's O-line - The Charleston Gazette
Mr. Johnson is doing some experimenting with the O-Line personnel.

Confident, not cocky  - The Charleston Gazette
A Geno Smith profile by Hickman.

Casazza's Notebook - Charleston Daily Mail
A couple stories on 2 freshman, a Bigfoot note and a bit more

More on Finau: Hawaii-to-WVU Pipeline? - eersports.com
Anybody know how these guys got affiliated with ESPN?

Family Ties - MSNsportsNET.Com
Another Frosh is profiled.

West Virginia: Defense sends out positive vibes to Stewart - PPG
Actually, I think the big news on this piece (if you look closely) is that we seemed to have finally rid ourselves of a certain Mr. Chuck Finder.

Goofy mo-hawks: The only way to feign solidarity and look good doing it | TheUConnBlog.com
UConn players got mo-hawks in order to try and channel Owen Schmitt. It'll take more than that.

Complete 2009-2010 college hoops preseason tournament schedule - Card Chronicle

NCAA football coaches on the hot seat come in three levels of heat - ESPN
Several of our opponents are listed prominently here.

Mailbag - Stewart Mandel - SI.com
Mandel's usual blather

What's on tap tonight:

XGames 15 replay on ESPN, if you're into that sort of thing

NFL Game Center: Philadelphia Eagles at Indianapolis Colts - 2009 Preseason Week 2
On Fox

NFL Game Center: Cincinnati Bengals at New England Patriots - 2009 Preseason Week 2
Replay on NFL Network at 11pm EDT

Pic of the Day:

This so accurately portrays the game.

via cdn.holytaco.com

Video of (Dis)Interest:

Miss Throwdown:

Today's Miss Throwdown, Aylen Alvarez was born in Cuba but has some Brazilian in her too.  Here's to you Aylen.  The pic is a link to a nice gallery (semi-NSFW).

courtesy Wildamaginations.com via www.gorillamask.net

Hatuey image via lh5.ggpht.com