Being that I finally joined the rest of the world and got a smartphone (Palm Pre – Highly recommended) I was prompted to develop a way for you guys and gals to be able to get to the site fast and get to everything relatively easy.

Here are some examples of what you’ll see if you visit the site from your mobile device:

The Home Page, A post, and The 09 Schedule Page:

Enjoy the Holiday weekend!

Submitted photo: via MSN

The Mountaineers will take on the Auburn Tigers this season on September 19. Kick off has been set to 6:45pm (Auburn time), 7:45pm (Mountaineer Time). Either ESPN or ESPN2 will broadcast the game. The network will decide which after the previous weekend.

This will be the second meeting between the Tigers and the ‘Eers. The ESPN Thursday Night 35-17 win last year kicked off a 5 game winning streak for Pat White and the Mountaineers. Hopefully Brown will be able to take the boys down to a very rowdy Auburn homegame and bring back our 3rd win!

Onto the article:

I Found this article via @Kim_Webster on Twitter. THANKS KIM!

Check out this Pat White profile on the Dolphins website. [LINK] Here is how the article starts.

Those who know Pat White best can attest to the fact that the person who straps on the helmet, runs the huddle and barks out the signals at the line of scrimmage from the quarterback position is quite different from the person without the pads on answering questions from a reporter or simply having a conversation.

Make you you watch the video too. [VIDEO]

It’s great to read about Pat and his progress in the pros. Two words come to mind after reading this article. CLASS ACT! He is consistently proven to be a great role model.. even to some of these pro’s!

Case in point:

“I was raised by two wonderful people, two smart, loving and caring parents who I’m very fortunate to have,” says White, who became the first Big East starting quarterback ever to win four bowl games and the first in conference history to compile over 10,000 yards of total offense (10,529). “So I just try to carry on what they taught me. I try to associate myself with good people.”

The article goes on to talk about how Pat will help with the “wildcat” formation the Dolphins has success with last year. I don’t know about you but I can’t friggin’ wait to watch him play in the Pro’s. It should be something special and I think everyone is underestimating him (much like Slaton last year).

Now where can I find a #6 White Jersey?

But apparently Eddie Griffin over at Bleacher Report thinks WVU would make a decent fit (a darkhorse) into the Big 10’s recent hyped up expansion talk. 

Here is what he had to say about WVU:

There could be a dark horse candidate in West Virginia. West Virginia isn’t the worst fit geographically, and if they can continue their recent success on the gridiron, they offer up a name that’s known on a national level. West Virginia’s basketball program is also a consistent winner, and they have a nationally-known coach in Bob Huggins. It’s not exactly a sexy choice, but it’s one worth considering.

and then under the “Darkhorses” list:

1. West Virginia: From a competitive standpoint, they’d as great of a fit as can be on the gridiron and on the basketball court. As for travel, they’re pretty reasonable as well. But how big of a draw would they be?

Personally, I’m glad this idiot put this out there. We need them talking us down. The worst thing WVU could do would be to defect into the Big 10. Also, why are fans of the Big 10 teams so presumputous that just any team of their chosing would happily accept the invitation to join them? I think they might find it harder than they think. It’s a stuck up conference with a bunch of asshole fans… not very friendly either. 

In football we are Top Dog in the Big East and have been for years now.  We have the BCS bid, which for now gives us a serious opportunity to make a Major Bowl. Why would we want to go into a conference that only really cares about Ohio St. and Meeechigan?

On the Basketball side we are in THE ELITE conference. The conference play alone makes our RPI so high getting into the tourney every year should be easy if we win 20 games.

I would never want to be associated with that crap conference and their obnoxious fans. Man, it makes me nauseous just thinking about it. ewwww.

So what do you guys think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Part of the “fun” before the series started was the notion that West Virginia was afraid to play Marshall. Like most of you, I found this laughable. We were, and are, a program that at the very least expects to be in the top 25 and playing for Big East titles. We had our sites set on playing big out of conference games against the likes of Auburn, Colorado, Florida State, etc. Not glorified MAC teams, unless it suited our needs. Afraid is the last word that came to mind.

Ok, now I’m afraid.

I guess the thing that really bothers me about the series is that if it continues, sooner or later the law of averages is going to catch up with Marshall and they’ll win a fluke game. That, of course, will then be used as justification as to why this series should continue.

Negotiations are ongoing to continue the series. And no one should be surprised that Marshall wants a one for one series going forward while WVU is willing to continue the two for one deal. Personally myself, I think Marshall should have to win a game before they get another home game. Or at the very least, prove they can draw a crowd when West Virginia isn’t on their home schedule. For a stadium that holds 38,000, Marshall averaged around 30,000 per game in 2007 and 27,000 in 2008.

Perhaps, given those numbers, the best thing for Marshall to do would be to go back to 1-AA. It would be a hard pill to swallow, but at least they could go back to “winning championships” as they used to be so proud of saying. Because the whole 1-A experiment hasn’t exactly worked out for them in any of the revenue sports. They just need to realize that there’s nothing wrong with being someone’s little brother if that’s all your potential will allow. So far, that seems to be the case.

In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I have not been a Mountaineer fan all my life, in fact, I cheered when Clemson beat WVU in the 1989 Gator Bowl and before you crucify me know that my dad went to Clemson and I was 12.  I am no longer 12 and I no longer cheer when WVU loses, in fact, it normally ruins my day.

My first game day was the 4 overtime Backyard Brawl in like 1997 or 1998, when we let Pitt convert a 4th and 25 in overtime and lost.  It was that day that I became a Mountaineer fan for life.

Speaking of game day…I used to get up off my friends couch or floor or blow up mattress early so I could get to the stadium and tailgate…like many of you I have been there before the sun and stayed longer than I should have.  That was before I moved to Oregon.  Now if I want to watch a football game, if the game isn’t on ESPN, I have to get up and drive to the next town, Bend, OR (about 20 miles), to get to the closest sports bar with ESPN GamePlan.  The bar that I have come to love, Sidelines Sports Bar, opens at 9 AM and has a HUGE $5 breakfast (that is quite tasty for the price).  Now that they know me there they will put one of the good TVs on the game (the almost changed the channel in the 4th quarter of the WVU last year because the damned Oregon Ducks were about to come on and the natives were getting restless) and let me sit in peace, which as a Mountaineer fan normally means smacking the bar, walking around, cussing under my breath, and trying not to disturb the 3 other patrons who look like they had much later nights than I.

Did I mention the time difference? Noon game= 9 AM kickoff for me.  That sucks!

Now all of that is just for football season, if I want to watch basketball it’s a whole other logistical nightmare.  While I work in Bend, my wife works in Redmond (she comes with me to the bar for football and BTW our first trip together was to a Mountaineer game in Morgantown. “I said to her, if you still like me after this weekend, I’ll marry you!” I am a man of my word, she’s from Oregon) and I actually like hanging out with her and unless the game is on ESPN or CBS, I don’t get to watch it.  Don’t get me started on PAC 10 basketball preempting the CBS game of the week. (makes we want to throw something!)

So as you can see, just watching a game can be an ordeal.  What if I want to find out injury reports, or who stole what, or who’s in the doghouse?  That is why I love the internet!  I read WV Mountianeer Sports, I check out the MSN Sports website, I basically devote a good portion of my time to tracking down info.  I know that’s not a lot different than most people, except I have no chance of them talking about the Spring Game on local TV (which isn’t always bad, if I hear Keith Morehouse talk about Marshall like Jesus went there, I’ll throw up).

The great thing I have found about being a Mountaineer fan on the west coast is there are a lot of us out here.  My two best friends from WV now live on the west coast, every time I where my WV gear some says “Go Mounties!”  All in all it’s really not that bad, but it will probably be a while before I can get back to ole Milan Puskar Stadium at Mountaineer Field (or whatever the hell we are calling it today).  So until then…

LET’S GO……

ESPN’s Bruce Feldman put together a “10 breakout players from spring practices”

Here is what he says about Wes Lyons:

It’s always fun to see which players show that they are ready to blossom in the spring, and every year we see a bunch of new guys emerge. Here are the Top 10 revelation guys who will make the biggest impact in the fall.

No. 6: Wes Lyons, WVU, WR: The 6-8, 220-pound senior hasn’t been much of a factor in the WVU offense in his career, catching just 22 passes and zero TDs. However, after sliding the towering receiver into the slot, Lyons — 100 percent injury-free for really the first time in his career — responded with a huge spring, catching eight TDs passes.

CollegeFootballNews.com, probably one of the best college football sites out there for years, has released their WVU preview. This is one of the more comprehensive previews you’ll be able to find and they break down both sides of the ball. Here is the opening:

West Virginia has gotten to the point where 9-4 isn’t good enough, but this year’s team is good enough to get back to the BCS if Jarrett Brown can be an adequate fill-in for Pat White. Check out the CFN Preview for another strong West Virginia Mountaineer team.

CFN also put out a “Way To Early BCS Bowl Prediction” and guess who lands in the Sugar Bowl this year? Check it out:

Allstate Sugar Bowl
Jan. 1 New Orleans, La. FOX
*BCS vs. BCS (SEC Champion, if available)
Way Too Early Projection: Ole Miss vs. West Virginia
Top 5 Others Considered: 1) LSU, 2) Georgia, 3) Florida, 4) Alabama, 5) Boise State

Assuming the SEC champion is No. 1 and off to the national championship, the Sugar Bowl will get the first choice of teams and it’ll most certainly take the second best SEC team. Ole Miss, Alabama, LSU, Georgia or even Florida; throw a dart and you might have the right SEC representative. Boise State might be the call if the Fiesta doesn’t have an interest, but geographically is makes more sense for the Broncos to go to Glendale and the Big East champion, possibly West Virginia, to go to New Orleans. The Mountaineers stunned Georgia the last time they were in the Sugar, played in Atlanta in 2006.