Liberty Flames Expect To Have Their Hands Full Against The Mountaineers

Welcome, By-Godders, to the Shotgun/Throwdown, WVU's best place for sports links, information, sophomoric humor and daily distractions.

Football:

Liberty expects to have its hands full vs. WVU | The Exponent Telegram
As the West Virginia football team prepares for Saturday’s second game of the season against Liberty, the Mountaineers have the understanding that the Flames aren’t a usual FCS team.

Joseph's physical style continues to open eyes | The Exponent Telegram
There is this image of Karl Joseph branded into Tony Gibson’s memory that may never go away. And no, we are not talking about it coming out of last Saturday night’s West Virginia season opening victory over Georgia Southern.

Joseph Collects More Honors For Game Performance | WVU Athletics
West Virginia University senior safety Karl Joseph has been named the ECAC Defensive Player of the Week, and the Jim Thorpe Defensive Back of the Week.

WVU secondary showed just what they’re made of on Saturday night | The Daily Athenaeum
They hit hard, run fast and make big plays. And last Saturday night, the West Virginia University defensive backfield showed exactly why everyone’s been talking about them.

Texas-Born Mountaineers Bring ‘Gamer’ Mentality to WVU | WV Illustrated
Remember Dana Holgorsen’s first recruiting class in Morgantown? There were two players in WVU’s 2011 class that stood out amongst the rest, not for a quirky name or a juicy storyline, rather because of where they were from.

Howard sees room for improvement for WVU | The Exponent Telegram
It didn’t take long for Skyler Howard to know what his biggest takeaway was for the West Virginia offense following the Mountaineers’ 44-0 win to open the season last week against Georgia Southern.

D-line stands Tall in Mountaineers’ opening-week performance | WV MetroNews
n the aftermath of West Virginia clocking Georgia Southern 44-0, defensive line coach Bruce Tall watched and graded his guys’ performances. Then came the double-check. It seems he couldn’t fathom grades so high. But the film don’t lie, and in this case it didn’t.

Gross making impact on special teams | The Exponent Telegram
You probably haven’t heard much about Marvin Gross Jr. At least not until recently.

Running game carried the load in opener | Charleston Gazette-Mail
Part of Dana Holgorsen’s problem evaluating his offense in last week’s season-opening win was that West Virginia only snapped the ball 66 times and gained a lot of yardage on many of the plays.

WVU’s Cajuste filling void on blind side | Charleston Gazette-Mail
There’s no way to know for sure if this is true, but consider it good news that West Virginia is giving no clues about what’s going on with its left tackle. It started Tuesday, when the head coach refused to talk about him. Never mind the otherwise encouraging reviews from his first game, when he was supposed to come out and rest regularly but never did until the Mountaineers emptied their bench late.

Jack Linn, offensive lineman on WVU’s 1988 Fiesta Bowl team, killed in crash | WV MetroNews
Former West Virginia lineman Jack Linn, who played on the 1988 team that reached the national championship game, was killed Sunday night in a motorcycle crash along with his passenger.

Don Nehlen remembers Jack Linn | The Dominion Post
Don Nehlen answered the phone early Wednesday afternoon and couldn’t believe the news. One of Nehlen’s former players on the great Mountaineer teams of the late 1980s — including the national runner-up squad from 1988 — died Sunday after being involved in a motorcycle accident.

West Virginia Athletics:

Lyons Announces 2015-16 Wrestling Slate | WVU Athletics
even home events and a pair of rivalry match ups highlight the 2015-16 West Virginia wrestling schedule, as announced by Director of Athletics Shane Lyons on Wednesday.

Rugby moves toward tougher competition | The Daily Athenaeum
There are more than 40 organized club sports at West Virginia University, so it may be hard to keep track of every single one. However, the WVU men’s rugby club is the oldest organized club sport at the university, dating back to 1974. The original team had only 18 members on the roster; currently they expanded to more than 30 on the roster. It is a huge increase for this quietly successful club.

Max Sear adjusts to college life, start of new program at WVU | The Daily Athenaeum
More and more, we see true freshmen come into collegiate athletics ready to make an immediate impact to their respective teams. So when freshman Max Sear qualified for the No. 1 position on the West Virginia University men’s golf team this past weekend for their first tournament at Turning Stone, he was anxious to compete and ready to accept the challenge.

Around The Big 12:

5 ugly truths about Texas HC Charlie Strong's offensive decision-making | Burnt Orange Nation
If Strong's ability to make the right choices offensively doesn't improve, his tenure in Austin will be a failure.

BANG or BUST? Texas Will Go To A Bowl Game | Land Grant Gauntlet
The Longhorns season hasn't gotten off to the best start, but coach Charlie Strong is taking steps to get it turned around. So we're asking, will Texas go to a bowl game this year?

Texas will charge Texas Tech band to play at rivalry game | SI.com
The University of Texas will charge the Texas Tech marching band, known as the Goin’ Band, for the price of admission when the Red Raiders visit the Longhorns on Nov. 26.

Bob Stoops' offseason overhaul at Oklahoma to be put to test | ESPN
After the most disappointing campaign of his tenure, Bob Stoops, the model of consistency in college football over the last 15 years, made wholesale changes at Oklahoma in the offseason.

Kansas State supporters raise more than $12K for marching band | Sporting News
Kansas State supporters raised more than $12,500 in one day for the school's marching band after it was punished for a controversial performance last weekend. The money, which was donated to a Gofundme campaign, will go directly to the band and its scholarship fund.

Kansas State Wildcats' visit to Texas-San Antonio important for Big 12 | ESPN
While all eyes will be on Neyland Stadium as Oklahoma travels to Tennessee on Saturday, it would be wise for Big 12 fans to keep an eye on Kansas State when the Wildcats visit Texas-San Antonio earlier in the day.

“Baby Steps” the Name of the Game for the Kansas Jayhawks | Heartland College Sports
The start of the David Beaty era did not go as planned. The Jayhawks found themselves down 31-14 at halftime and the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State were beating the Jayhawks in nearly every facet of the game.

Mahomes Proves to be "The Man" In West Texas | Heartland College Sports
Throughout spring practice, hot days of summer and the turning of the calendar to the 2015 college football season, Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury kept it to himself on who would start at quarterback for the Red Raiders.

Around The NCAA:

This Week In Schadenfreude, where the Texas Longhorns are FCS now | SBNation
Welcome back to This Week In Schadenfreude, in which your host trawls the depths of the college football Internet for the absolute angriest college football fans. Doesn't that sound fun?

3 pretty easy ways to make college football better | SBNation
College football is very good, and making it better would not be the most challenging thing that anyone has ever done.

Outrageous College Football Predictions for Week 2 | AthlonSports.com
Week 1 of the 2015 college football season came and went without a whole lot of surprises. Don't get me wrong, there was some good football played. Then again, if you're like me, any football is good football.

5 College Football Teams That Quietly Impressed in Week 1 | AthlonSports.com
The first week of every college football season always generates overreaction on both sides of the talking point. If a team lost by a bigger margin than expected or struggled, it’s easy to say that team is worse than anticipated.

The power of not punting: Why a college coach should adopt Kevin Kelley's unconventional philosophy | Campus Rush
Why a college football coach should adopt the no-punt, always-onside-kick philosophy

College Football Week 1 superlatives | Sporting News
From faked injuries to confused frat bros, Sporting News breaks down the superlatives for week 1.

Today's Miss Throwdown is a one of the stars of ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars and that awful Spring Breakers movie with James Franco, but I won't hold that against her. CLICK HERE for Ashley Benson's Instagram. There's some good stuff there.