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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3600, member: 289"] Friday October 21st 8PM in the Dome vs. West Virginia TV: ESPN or ESPN 2 The Mountaineers are the closest thing to a national power in the Big East. They are 60-17 since the conference re-organized and were the last Big East champion to win a BCS Bowl game, Cincinnati and Connecticut have been blown out in the last three.) But they are in turmoil. First Rich Rodriguez left his alma mater to coach at Michigan, (where he’s since been fired). His replacement, Bill Stewart, a long time member of the Mountaineer staff who was popular with his players. But when he followed up three straight 11 win seasons with three straight 9-4 seasons, the administration decided to get rid of him. And they decided to do it in a most awkward fashion. They chose as his replacement Dana Holgerson, who had earned a reputation as an offensive genius as the coordinator at Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State. But they didn’t fire Stewart. Instead they appointed Holgerson his offensive co-coordinator and “head coach in waiting”. Stewart responded by asking newspaper friends to “dig up negative information” about Holgerson. When AD Oliver Luck, (Andrew’s Dad),, found out about it, he fired Stewart so Holgerson is no longer “waiting” What Stewart’s players think about this and how well they will fit into Holgerson’s system is unknown. But West Virginia has been established as the heavy favorite to win the conference, in part because of Holgerson’s reputation as an offensive genius. Rodriguez had a similar reputation when he came to Morgantown and lived up to it. The concept seems to be that Stewart was a mental lightweight compared to the geniuses and now that problem ahs been fixed. We’ll see. Holgerson will have a top quarterback to work with in Geno Smith, who overcame two foot operations to have a fine year with 241 completions in 372 attempts, (.648) for 2763 yards 24TDs and 7 interceptions. That, again, is what we are hoping for from Ryan Nassib this year but Smith may move on to a new level himself under Holgerson, whose Oklahoma State offense gained more yards than anybody in the country last season, (yes more than Auburn, Oregon, Boise State, etc.). His quarterback there was 343/511 for 4277 yards, 34TDs and 13 picks. If Smith can stay healthy he may duplicate those numbers because Holgerson describes the West Virginia receiving corps as “probably the best looking group I’ve had”. Yavon Austin is the big threat but highly recruited 6-3 Ivan McCartney could have a break-out year. Bradley Starks is a speedy deep threat and Stedman Bailey caught 24 balls for 317 yard and 4 scores as a freshman. What they don’t have is a major running threat after years of watching Steve Slaton and Noel Devine speed through defenses for long scores. But he may find one: amid all the passing, Okie State had a tailback, (Kendall Hunter), find holes for 1548 yards rushing last year. The holes will likely be there- can Holgerson find the runner to exploit them? Actually the real story in Morgantown since Rodriguez left has been the defenses of coordinator Jeff Casteel, which have been ranked #8, #11, #31 and #3 nationally in scoring defense the last four years. A Holgerson offense combined with a Casteel defense would be a formidable combination. They only have four starters back on defense but one is cornerback Keith Tandy, an All-America candidate. Bruce Irvin was second nationally in sacks with 14 from his defensive end position- and he only played on third downs. Their place kicker, Tyler Bitancourt had a shaky year last year and they are looking for a new punter. They have plenty of fast guys to return kicks. We beat these guys in their place last year and have them in the Dome this year but they appear to be the class of the conference and could turn out to be the best team we play, maybe better than USC. Beating them twice in a row would be a huge accomplishment. Their stats from last year: Offense- rushing 159.7 (50th) passing 213.0 (67th), total 372.7 (67th) scoring 25.2 (78th) Defense- rushing 86.5 (2nd) passing 174.6 (11th) total 261.1 (3rd ) scoring 13.5 (3rd ) Turnover margin: -5 (80th) [/QUOTE]

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