West Virginia football adds strong group of enrollees headlined by Brendan Ferns and Steven Smothers

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

Football:

Dana Holgorsen continues to welcome new student-athletes for the 2016 season as a fresh crop of football players enrolled in classes at West Virginia University on Monday. Among the new enrollees were four-star linebacker Brendan Ferns and wide receiver Steven Smothers.

The Mountaineers have a strong core of deep-threat wideouts returning, but an inexperienced secondary could be a weak link for West Virginia's defense.

Basketball:

Just as the second game of the NBA Finals was tipping off Sunday night, Bob Huggins tweeted a picture of two West Virginia University graduates on the court at Oracle Arena in Oakland. But these Mountaineers weren't suiting up to play in the game. They were suited up, quite literally, as part of the staff for each of the conference champions.

West Virginia Athletics:

West Virginia golfer Jon Ransone wasn't the only Mountaineer on the links yesterday. Alan Cooke is tied for third place after one round at the West Virginia Amateur. The Parkersburg native birdied a pair of holes on the front nine, then added another on the back nine to finish with a score of 72 for even par. Cooke will tee off on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. in the second of four rounds. The full tournament consists of 72 holes across four rounds and runs from Monday through Thursday, though players must make the cut to compete in the final two rounds.

Around The Big XII:

With the Oklahoma president David Boren declaring the ship has sailed on a traditional Big 12 Conference network, conference leaders can narrow their focus on Big 12 expansion.

Around The NCAA:

Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn has agreed to a contract extension through the 2020 season, the school announced Monday. The updated amendment to his contract will pay him $4.725 million per year through Dec. 31, 2020.

The University of Virginia upgraded by bringing on a coach who had better teams than the Cavaliers did, and he did it without being in a power conference. But the ACC is upgrading all over the place.

Football coaches are a confident sort, but Erik Raeburn seems more optimistic than most. He accepted the Savannah State head coaching job in March, agreeing to take on one of the hardest jobs in college football, in a completely new area of the country for him. But he sees potential and he feels he's uniquely qualified.

Today's Miss Throwdown is a stunner from Down Under. CLICK HERE for Rosanna Arkle's Instagram.