NOTES — Wide receivers Logan Heastie and Deon Long were not with the team for the first practice and apparently are not going to play. Coach Bill Stewart said he would welcome them back but they better be ready to push a 45-pound weight and run the stadium steps all spring … Three players — fullback Ryan Clark, cornerback Brandon Hogan and defensive back Brantwon Bowser — spent the entire two-hour practice running the stadium steps, Stewart saying they had not met his physical conditioning requirements. Hogan and Clarke are starters … Starting defensive tackle Scooter Berry is not practicing as he recovers from surgery while wide receiver Brad Starks is practicing but slowed by an ankle sprain while playing basketball.

"He called it,'' said Cincinnati's Lance Stephenson who was defending Butler. "He said, 'Bank.' I said, 'What?' I turned around and saw it go in. Oh man.''

"It’s a great honor to say the least (because) of the great players that have played here and the tradition we have," Bryant said of becoming the Lakers’ career leading scorer. "(West) taught me so much when I was 17 years old. He showed me a lot about the game, the jump shot and spin moves and all the others.

Last night Kobe Bryant passed Jerry West as the Lakers all-time leading scorer.

Jarrett Brown, QB, West Virginia

A three-year backup and just a one-year starter at West Virginia, Brown has a lot to gain this week in Mobile, and he got off to a promising start on Monday. The 6-foot-3, 219-pound signal caller displayed poise in the pocket, good footwork and recognition skills and delivered a catchable ball to receivers. Brown is still a work in progress and is considered to be a developmental quarterback at best. But on Monday, he was the most consistent quarterback on the South Team.

Cincinnati will always be in a state of flux. They looked inept in the Sugar Bowl. In my opinion, West Virginia has the best porgram in the Big East - by far. If you look at the facilities and support, it's not ever close. Nobody has what we have. We'll dominate for a long time. Basketball is a different story. There are a lot of (Big East) teams with the same facilities and support. But nobody compares in football. I think we should dominate - and I think we will."

"You go into different schools, people say things and they call. It’s amazing how many people know about me other than me. I know what jacket I’m wearing. It’s really kind of funny to me. People try and put two and two together and it doesn’t always equal four. I’m here until somebody tells me different. I hope that means I’m doing a good job. It’s like I tell the players, ‘The day I stop yelling at you is the day you need to start being worried.’ When people mention your name, you take it as, ‘hey I must be doing something right.’"

"We're not going to go play in a game if 10 guys want to play and 70 guys don't. The only way we're going to do it is if we're full force ahead. We're going to talk to the team this week and decide."

"I remember some of the coaches talking about Pitt, especially Doc Holliday. The way he was talking about them … I can’t even say some of the things he was saying but you could see the passion and emotion he had and how much this game means to him," Capers said.

It's Great To Be A Mountaineer!

17 points??? We may be bad, but West Virginia is in the big east. No big east team should ever be favored in any football game. Do we not get any respect for beating them last year? Lines like that just make me hurt.

"What I tell our young players is, if you can't take my wrath, of getting on you when you don't do it right, you're not ready to play because you're going to get the ball thrown over your head some day in front of 93,000 people. That's going to happen. It happens to everyone who ever plays back there.

"If you can take that and go play the next play, you ought to certainly be able to take whatever I'm giving you. So when it doesn't bother you anymore, I'll probably quit doing it. I know that's probably hillbilly psychology 101 from West Virginia, but that's just the way I believe it to be."