The Shotgun/Throwdown: Wednesday (11/9/11) Edition

by WVUIE97 on Nov 9, 2011 9:14 AM EST in Shotgun/Throwdown

Welcome, By-Godders, to the Shotgun/Throwdown, WVU's nationally recognized best place for sports links, information, sophomoric humor and daily distractions. We're being brought to you today by Bell's Hopslam Ale.

The basketball early signing period opens today and although Huggs is set to bring in three, only one LOI is expected today. The other two are still expected later in the week. As football attention is now squarely on Cinci, Coach Holgorsen certainly raised a few eyebrows yesterday when he pulled no punches at the weekly presser. Let's just say that the travel squad going to Cincinnati won't be quite as large as usual.

What You May Have Missed:

Football: Coach Holgorsen News Conference - MSNsportsNET.Com
Transcript

Head Coach Dana Holgorsen - Mountaineer TV
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen talks about Saturday's game at Cincinnati.

Gold And Blue Now: Wednesday - WVMETRONEWS.COM
Dana Holgorsen says the make take less than 60 players to the Cincinnati game, Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones gives his take on the Mountaineers and Chip Fontanazza profiles UC running back Isaiah Pead.

WVU Pros NFL Week 9 Recap - WVU Pros
Caleb's weekly update

Former WVU Star Brandon Hogan Set to Begin NFL Career - WVillustrated
The goal was for Hogan to return in time to play in the 2011 season and he is on track to do that. Hogan is finally practicing with his new team.

Five-sport letterman was a WVU man for all seasons - Register-Herald
Old-timers among West Virginia sports fans will remember Charles Louis “Chuck” Howley.

News of Note:

Basketball

Huggins, team must recover from bad loss - Charleston Gazette
Losing to the Norse, though, doesn't instill much confidence in a Mountaineer basketball team heading into another (and possibly final) brutal season within the Big East.

West Virginia confronts challenge with 7 freshmen - Bluefield Daily Telegraph/AP
“I think they have familiarity with some of the things we want them to do,” he said. “They are not very good at it though. At least they are familiar with it.”

HERTZEL COLUMN: Huggins can see coaching into his 70s - Times West Virginian
Huggins, they noted, is only 58 and possesses 691 victories as he enters this season. He has averaged 25 a year at WVU.

Oral Roberts' Guard Out For WVU Game - WVMETRONEWS.COM
Senior guard Ken Holdman is likely done for the year after tearing his ACL in his right knee.

Football

CFN Preview: West Virginia at Cincinnati - College Football News
Prediction & Game Story

Mountaineers might be traveling light - PPG
"We may go to Cincinnati with 55 guys. But 55 guys are going who are going to want to play together,"

Dana Holgorsen wants more effort - Big East Blog - ESPN
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen is serious about only wanting players who are going to perform on the field.

Holgorsen raises stakes at crucial time - Times West Virginian
Twice during his Tuesday press conference he referred to taking 50 or 55 players on the road with him, a couple of dozen or more fewer than would normally make the trip.

Holgorsen vows to be 'united' - Charleston Gazette
It's simply a matter of attitude.

Mountaineers lacking leadership this season - Register-Herald
“We’ve got to have guys that have invested enough into the program, that have enough to them, that step up and give their absolute best all the time. The leaders pinpoint guys who aren’t buying in, and they slap them around to the point that they get them bought in.”

Holgorsen wants guys who are focused - Charleston Daily Mail
"You take who wants to win, you take who wants to pull for their teammates, you take who wants to be all in on this thing and not guys who pout and mope because they're not playing," Holgorsen said.

Holgorsen doesn’t hold back - Parkersburg News and Sentinel
West Virginia University head coach Dana Holgorsen has become known for his "saying it like it is" approach.

Holgorsen Preaching Effort - WVMETRONEWS.COM
There were so many mistakes during the Louisville game that Dana Holgorsen lost track of them.

Two of Big East’s best QBs face off in Cincinnati Saturday - Daily Athenaeum
When West Virginia and No. 23 Cincinnati take the field Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium, two of the best quarterbacks the Big East Conference has to offer will step between the lines to lead their respective teams into battle.

No. 23 Cincinnati's defense behind team turnaround - Charleston Daily Mail
The last thing Cincinnati wanted to see in 2010 was its defense on the field in the fourth quarter of a close football game. The Bearcats knew that by then, one of the nation's youngest and thinnest units was running on fumes.

VIDEO: Mountaineer Player Interviews - WVMETRONEWS.COM
Madsen, Coaches Casteel, Dunlap and Bedenbaugh, Tavon, Pettaway, Tandy, Julian, Geno, Eain, Rigg, Barclay, Cook and Bruce

WVU Football Player Interviews: Cincinnati Week - WVillustrated
Tavon, Madsen, Rigg, Cook, Tandy, Barclay, Bruce and Geno

Recruiting:

WVU to add muscle with top recruit - Times West Virginian
The signing period opens today, but the paperwork is not expected to be filed with West Virginia until Thursday for shooting guard Terry Henderson of Neuse Baptist Christian School in Raleigh, N.C., and Eron Harris of Lawrence North in Indianapolis.

Mountaineers land Huntington Prep star - Charleston Daily Mail
Macon and WVU agreed to work together toward a future together.

Around the League (and Beyond):

Big East Football Power Rankings Week 11 - The UConn Blog
Tied at 3rd

Atmosphere brightens at No. 23 UC - Cincinnati Enquirer

16 seniors on Louisville football team to say goodbye - Courier-Journal

Tampa native Wilkes eager to face Bulls Friday - Tampa Tribune

Doug Marrone: 'Let’s Get Back To Work' - Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician

Scott McCummings effective for UConn - Big East Blog - ESPN

Rutgers' success on special teams causes mental breakdowns for opponents - Star Ledger

Pitt's Turnley now Mr. Consistency in often-juggled offensive line - PPG

Penn State Scandal: Number Of Alleged Victims Now Close To 20, According To Report - SBNation.com

College Football Power Rankings - Andy Staples - SI.com
It's Muppet week

What's On Tap:

Men's Basketball: Kent State Parking Info - MSNsportsNET.Com
Since it's unusual to have a mid-morning game, officials want fans, students and employees to be aware of the following academic, workplace and parking procedures - for that morning only:

Video of Interest:

Offensive Line Coach, Bill Bedenbaugh

Video of (Dis)Interest:

Warning: Strong Language

Hump Day Video of the Week:

Miss Throwdown:

Today's Miss Throwdown is Argentinian model, Florencia Salvioni. Click on the picture for today's gallery.

via guyism.com

Bell's Hopslam Ale image via twitterbeerclub.files.wordpress.com

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Comments

Bell's Hopslam Ale

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by StickEagle on Nov 9, 2011 10:03 AM EST reply actions

I've had it.

And agree.

www.smokingmusket.com
@CountryRoadsWV

by Country Roads on Nov 9, 2011 10:59 AM EST up reply actions

everyone is understandably pretty upset...

… about this WVU team and Holgorsen, though he sounds pretty doom and gloom in his press conference as well. I think it’s worth remembering that Holgorsen was hired twice: first to be offensive coordinator and then, after the summer of insanity, to be head coach.

Understandably, unless you don’t know football, the offense has improved (though it’s unreasonable to expect them to be the Joe Montana 49ers already). Regarding the “first” hire — the job he had in spring practice and thought he was heading into — I’d give him a B+, with minuses for inconsistency and some red zone conversions. Every time they’ve had issues they’ve responded and improved, whether it is developing outside playmakers, improving the run game, or handling the blitz. Again, a way to go, but a B+.

The second hire was as a head coach. His first job there was just to keep the team and the staff together after the insane summer of Stewart and Luck and realignment and everything. I think he did a fine job of that. The LSU game to an extent and the last couple of weeks have exposed the team as having a number of weaknesses, whether it is on defense (they are terrible on first down, which is why they give up so many long drives) and on special teams, though that’s kind of been a revolving door of issues. Further it’s clear that he’s stressed out and people are pretty down about not having the Big East in the bag, something that was probably unfair to look at as a given but was certainly within reach. So counting all that up I’d give him a C/C+ as a head coach.

The caveat of course is that he was never supposed to be a head coach at this point, but then the counter argument to that is that he always wanted to be. But the upshot is that everyone’s learning. It’s tough to do it on the job, and as I said I give him somewhere in the C range, but some of this “fire Holgorsen” or the program is in the gutter or “Stewart was better” (What did Stewart do, exactly? I was never clear on what he was doing or helping with?) is completely silly.

The Cincinnati coach took over for Brian Kelly and went 4-8 a year after Cincy had been in a BCS game, but now he’s got the program how he wants it. Things take time. I think even Holgorsen might need to be reminded of that.

I was reminded of the below by a friend who is an SEC fan. I’m not comparing Holgorsen to Saban, but Saban went 6-6 during the regular season at Alabama, including a loss — in the second to last game of the year no less — to Louisiana Monroe. I found some old stuff about it and Saban was losing his mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvWx8QaFdDY

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=273210333

Maybe I’m naive but I think Holgorsen will figure it all out. This team has character, leadership, talent, depth and even some coaching issues, but I still think it’s on the right track. Losses to a young but talented Louisville team hurt, but if you think there’s something sincerely that could be better it’s best to say exactly what it is and how you would do it.

by gurandy on Nov 9, 2011 12:26 PM EST reply actions

I hope no one is implying

That Stewart was better than DH…that would be the most ridiculous statement of all statements. I know DH will figure this out. He already has a plan for new assistant coaches and I like the recruits so far. DH will do fine.

by PicktownMountie on Nov 9, 2011 12:40 PM EST up reply actions

Excellent points gurandy

You pretty much summed up the way I feel.

Did we have a shot at the Big East this year? Absolutely. I think we are still the most talented team in the league, but I think we’re also the most inconsistent and have the most growing to do. (Aside from Lville with the growing.) I’m disappointed we lost, but I never realistically expected us to blow through this season. Holgorsen is in an uphill battle learning how to run a whole team. I would give him a C+, maybe a B-.

"that place laid the foundation for who I am. A lot of outsiders make fun of it and say negative things about West Virginia. Fuck them" - Jerry West

by MountaineerAirman on Nov 9, 2011 3:50 PM EST up reply actions