Official Big East Thread

[crques]

I realize that with 2 games remaining in the season it's a little late to be asking for this now, but can WVU's offense and their horrible coordinator, Jeff Mullen, please find an identity? How do you run Pat White 20+ times for over 200 yards one week and then turn around the next week and run him less than 10 (because at least 4 or 5 of his runs came when he was forced to by the Pitt defense)? This offense has struggled to find an identity and any consistency all season long and I put that squarely on the shoulders of Jeff Mullen. He's somehow managed to take a Ferrari and turn it into a station wagon.

He had an all Big East QB, all offensive linemen, and a pretty good running back returning from an offense that has been nothing short of explosive over the past few seasons and he's turned them into a joke with no rhyme or reason. Anytime you have a 3rd and goal from inside the 5 and you're having to line your QB up in the slot and have him take a handoff and then try to throw a TD to the corner of the endzone, there's obviously something wrong with things. Who in the hell runs trick plays like that in goal situations, especially on 3rd down?

I almost feel as if Mullens is drawing plays out of a hat at times because they seem so random. I really feel sorry for Pat White this season. He deserved better than to have his career end the way it has this season and to be the guinea pig for this joke of a coordinator that has never even called plays before this year. The guy has no clue what he's doing and he should have left well enough alone and went with what has worked over the past few seasons with White back there. This team had potential to be explosive yet once again on offense and at least win 10 games, especially with the way the defense has played. To have losses in which the offense has managed 3, 14, and 15 points is unacceptable.

Ok.....got that rant out of my system now. Sorry for those that had to endure it but the frustration from this atrocious offense is unsettling, and disturbing and it really has me worried about the future of this program under it's current offensive coordinator and the head coach that hired him.

[justamush]

Quote: Originally Posted by crques

I realize that with 2 games remaining in the season it's a little late to be asking for this now, but can WVU's offense and their horrible coordinator, Jeff Mullen, please find an identity? How do you run Pat White 20+ times for over 200 yards one week and then turn around the next week and run him less than 10 (because at least 4 or 5 of his runs came when he was forced to by the Pitt defense)? This offense has struggled to find an identity and any consistency all season long and I put that squarely on the shoulders of Jeff Mullen. He's somehow managed to take a Ferrari and turn it into a station wagon. He had an all Big East QB, all offensive linemen, and a pretty good running back returning from an offense that has been nothing short of explosive over the past few seasons and he's turned them into a joke with no rhyme or reason. Anytime you have a 3rd and goal from inside the 5 and you're having to line your QB up in the slot and have him take a handoff and then try to throw a TD to the corner of the endzone, there's obviously something wrong with things. Who in the hell runs trick plays like that in goal situations, especially on 3rd down? I almost feel as if Mullens is drawing plays out of a hat at times because they seem so random. I really feel sorry for Pat White this season. He deserved better than to have his career end the way it has this season and to be the guinea pig for this joke of a coordinator that has never even called plays before this year. The guy has no clue what he's doing and he should have left well enough alone and went with what has worked over the past few seasons with White back there. This team had potential to be explosive yet once again on offense and at least win 10 games, especially with the way the defense has played. To have losses in which the offense has managed 3, 14, and 15 points is unacceptable. Ok.....got that rant out of my system now. Sorry for those that had to endure it but the frustration from this atrocious offense is unsettling, and disturbing and it really has me worried about the future of this program under it's current offensive coordinator and the head coach that hired him.

I am a Pitt fan, and I was at the game Friday. My friends and I had no idea why WVU refused to run with White. He is by far WVU's best player, and it is not for his passing ability. You basically take away White's best weapon when you drop him back to pass all the time; despite his numbers, he is not that accurate of a passer, because a lot of his completions are swing passes and screens. They should be running that read option play at least 15 times a game. That is the play that made WVU so explosive these past few years.

But as a Pitt fan, I must say....Thanks Jeff Mullen and Bill Stewart!!!!

[crques]

Quote: Originally Posted by justamush

I am a Pitt fan, and I was at the game Friday. My friends and I had no idea why WVU refused to run with White. He is by far WVU's best player, and it is not for his passing ability. You basically take away White's best weapon when you drop him back to pass all the time; despite his numbers, he is not that accurate of a passer, because a lot of his completions are swing passes and screens. They should be running that read option play at least 15 times a game. That is the play that made WVU so explosive these past few years. But as a Pitt fan, I must say....Thanks Jeff Mullen and Bill Stewart!!!!

I'm sure you were pleased with that ingenius gameplan. LOL I don't get it either. I just wish Lyons would have chose to get out of bounds rather than trying to stretch for a 1st down with 12 seconds left. White was hot on that last drive and I just have a feeling that had he not had to rush that last play, something good just might have happened for us.

Anyway back to the topic, I've scratched my head all season long. It's almost like he'll run the ball a lot one game and have success with it, and then he'll change the gameplan to pass the next game thinking he's going to catch somebody off guard or something. It's ridiculous. When McGee was the coordinator and "Dick" Rod was coach, teams knew we were going to run and they still couldn't do anything about it (excluding your damn Panthers last season ). That's what this team and personnel does best. It's been a frustrating season and I'm thankful that it's finally going to end soon. I can't take much more of this crap. I just wish he would have let White run more this season. I'm sure our record would look a little better.

[crques]

Ok, so I have another gripe about WVU football this year and it really doesn't have to do with football itself, but rather with Coach Stewart's excessive use of the word "tremendous." It's gotten old and very annoying, althought I'm sure I could tolerate it much more if we weren't sitting at 7-4 right now with a trip to the Sun Bowl or Meineke Car Care Bowl staring us right in the face. Anyway, every day when I pick up the newspaper or go online to read anything about WVU football, or listen to any WVU football talk on the radio, I see or hear Coach Stewart's "tremendous" quotes. Even though I don't drink, you could use it to play one of those drinking games. LOL

The following were all taken from the same article in today's paper. This is just one example, trust me when I say there are a hell of a lot more.

Jim Leavitt and his guys just did a tremendous job against us. We really have our work cut out for us. This is the last home game for our seniors, and I hope and pray we can send them out on a big win."

"It all starts with the quarterback (Matt Grothe). He looks like a great leader. Matt does a tremendous job leading the troops. They have two tremendous ends. They beat us up on defense last year. We'll have our hands full Saturday night, without a doubt."

In reply to a question, Stewart paid the highest-possible tribute to WVU senior quarterback Patrick White. "I think he is the greatest winner in the game today," he declared. "He really is. "In my era, he's become something special And he's an even better human being. He's taken his team on his back time after time after time. He's a tremendous role model, even more popular for us than the governor. He's been a Godsend."

[superjames1992]

Yeah, Stew does have some words he seems to use constantly like tremendous. I can deal with it when we're winning games, but it is annoying when we're 7-4.

http://www.thelotd.com/ctrent/blog/2...ys_hes_staying

So, unless Brian Kelly is lying through his teeth, he's going to remain at the University of Cincinnati, which is a good thing for the entire conference IMO as we don't need to lose any more quality coaches (Rodriguez, Petrino, Dantonio, ect.).

[crques]

Kudos to Coach Jim Leavitt and the staff at USF. At the request of Coach Stewart, they have agreed to allow the Mountaineers to wear their road white uniforms at home Saturday to honor Pat White and the 17 other seniors who will be playing their last game in Morgantown in what's being called a "White Out." I thought this was a classy move on the part of Leavitt and one that he could have refused if he wanted to.

[superjames1992]

Quote: Originally Posted by crques

Kudos to Coach Jim Leavitt and the staff at USF. At the request of Coach Stewart, they have agreed to allow the Mountaineers to wear their road white uniforms at home Saturday to honor Pat White and the 17 other seniors who will be playing their last game in Morgantown in what's being called a "White Out." I thought this was a classy move on the part of Leavitt and one that he could have refused if he wanted to.

That was a classy move on his part. He seemed to have a stark distaste for Rodriguez when he was at WVU, but he seems to like Stewart.

I'm kind of mixed on the whole "White-out" idea and I kind of wish the Mountaineers were donning the old gold and blue in their final home game (of course they went with the all yellow uniforms on senior day last year I guess), but I guess it's fine. I think the white uniforms look awesome at night (see the Colorado game). Hopefully, the fans participate enough in the "White-out." It could really be awesome if executed correctly.

The game is on Saturday night on ESPN2 at 8:30 PM! That was the same time last year's Pitt game was, though, so let's hope we don't have the Saturday night in December curse.

We have a very important game tomorrow in the Louisville/Rutgers game. Rutgers better win that to ensure six seven win teams in the conference. Then we have Pitt/UConn at 12:00 PM on ESPN in a game which could have bowl implications for both WVU and the Panthers. Then the Cincinnati/Hawaii game is broadcast on ESPN (Maybe ESPN2?), I believe, at 11:30 PM. All four Big East games are actually on TV this week, which has a lot to do with most conferences playing their championship games this week.

I'm sad to see the season end, but hopefully it can end with a bang!

EDIT: Judging by the weather forecast for the Saturday night, it looks as if the weather might just be complying with the "White-out" as well as it is supposed to snow. We'll see how much it snows, but that would be kind of cool to have a snowy WVU game. I can't recall the last time we saw one. Unfortunately, it could hurt our offense, but I think it could hurt USF and their spread attack just as much.

[buckeyefan78]

The Cincy-Hawaii game is on at 11:30 PM on ESPN2.

I never liked the idea of BCS teams going out there at the conclusion of conference play for the extra money. Don't get me wrong, I'm rootin' for Cincy, but Hawaii has generally played everyone tough who comes out there at the end like this.