The Mountaineers play Cincy tonight at their place. The way the two teams have been playing, it doesn't look good West Virginia. It could be ugly. The Bearcats appear to be a legit top 5 team while the Mountaineers seem to be posers on the skirts of the top 25. There are a few reasons to look forward to the game. First of all, the Mountaineers have nothing to lose. If it the Bearcats thump the Mounties tonight it will only prove what we already thought. Secondly, many teams play to the level of the competition. That hasn't been the case for Cincy as they have crushed plenty of teams, but maybe it's the case for West Virginia. Sure, Louisville played West Virginia even last week and just couldn't get out of there own way or they may have had a shot to win the game, but that doesn't mean West Virginia will play badly tonight. The only team that really handled West Virginia was USF who seems to have the Mountaineers' number. Perhaps the Mountaineers will rise to the occasion. Thirdly, Pike is healthy enough to play again and there is quarterback controversy which is never good for a team. Pike is supposedly going to get some snaps tonight. Perhaps neither quarterback will get comfortable under the unusual circumstances. Fourth, the pressure on Cincinnati and a possible undefeated season and trip to the national championship game has to be building. That pressure can cause poor play (we wish we could forget the Pitt game that kept WV from a title game). Sixth, UConn ripped up the Bearcats defense that had previously been pretty good. Maybe the Huskies exposed something there.
So, do I expect an upset? No, but it wouldn't be the craziest thing to happen this year. From what I've seen the Mountaineers have played two tough road games and when things started to go against them, Jarrett Brown and the Mountaineers started to crumble under the pressure. West Virginia must start well or it could escalate fast. I don't think the Mountaineers have the coaching, the discipline, or the players to get it done if Cincinnati plays well. However, should they pull off an upset it would put them in the middle of the Big East championship race and make the next couple of weeks interesting. A loss will make me a Bearcat fan the rest of the year for the sake of the Big East.
Looking ahead, I think West Virginia loses its final three games and finishes 7-5. These three combined with USF are the toughest of the year. That would put the Mounties at 3-4 in the Big East. Not an awful season, but not a good one either. WV has a chance at Rutgers in the home finale, but I've said before that the Knights usually improve as the year goes on and it appears that is holding true this year. One win in the final three games would give the Mountaineers a winning record in conference and enough to consider it a decent season.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Politics - VA not feeling blue any longer
The gubernatorial results were as good as Republicans could have hoped. McDonnell won handily, a staggering 27 point change from when Virginia voted for Obama. Blue state New Jersey voted out an incumbent Democrat who outspent his opponent 5 to 1 and had Obama coming to campaign with him in the final week. The New York district race went to the Democrat, which will allow some room for the Democrats to spin, but they do so at the risk of looking foolish as Tim Kaine did this morning on CNN. He basically chalked Virginia and New Jersey up as flukes and focused on the tiny race with many unusual circumstances. One message that he had is certainly true. Hard core conservatives are not satisfied with the party and could cause the party trouble. He made more of this than it is, but it is true. To his point, though, it's not social conservatives that are fed up with Republicans, it's fiscal conservatives, such as myself, that find the party to be disingenuous and disappointing. Still, this race did not have a primary and was filled with bizarre circumstances that led to a Democrat being elected. This may happen here and there where a fiscally conservative Republican runs as a third party and allows a Democrat to be elected, but it's unlikely it will happen in large scale as Kaine implied. If a conservative loses in the primary, he will likely end it there. In this case, there was no primary and people were upset with the choice that was made for them. I wouldn't extrapolate too many problems for the Republican party from this one election result. The governor's races, however, do tell a story.
In Virginia, it appears the state has buyer's remorse. The change was overwhelming. More importantly, it wasn't that McDonnell was a good candidate and Deeds was a poor one. There were three major races in Virginia and the Republican won by about the same margin in each. This was a case of the state preferring Republicans heavily over Democrats. Virginia is a fiscally responsible state and seems to have grown weary quickly of Obama's lose spending. Also, while Warner was very much liked and respected as governor and paved the way for Kaine to succeed him as another Democratic governor, I think Virginia is not quite as happy with Kaine. Warner stayed out of national politics for the most part and was not a talking head for the DNC. Kaine is just the opposite. He is closely tied to Obama and the national party (he's the DNC chair after all) and I don't think Virginia liked that too much. We are okay with a moderate Democrat, but you can't be the DNC chair and be a moderate Democrat. I think many believe that he betrayed some of his more moderate positions for power within the party. That did not help the Democrats in this election either.
I know a lot less about New Jersey. However, a Republican heavily outspent and working against Obama campaigning for his opponent winning by 5 points in a blue state seems to tell a lot about the mood of the country. Coupled with the Virginia results, I think and hope that it is going to make it tough for moderate Democrats to help the liberals shove through universal health care by the process of reconciliation, particularly ones facing re-election in 2010. After all, they'd like to keep their jobs.
In Virginia, it appears the state has buyer's remorse. The change was overwhelming. More importantly, it wasn't that McDonnell was a good candidate and Deeds was a poor one. There were three major races in Virginia and the Republican won by about the same margin in each. This was a case of the state preferring Republicans heavily over Democrats. Virginia is a fiscally responsible state and seems to have grown weary quickly of Obama's lose spending. Also, while Warner was very much liked and respected as governor and paved the way for Kaine to succeed him as another Democratic governor, I think Virginia is not quite as happy with Kaine. Warner stayed out of national politics for the most part and was not a talking head for the DNC. Kaine is just the opposite. He is closely tied to Obama and the national party (he's the DNC chair after all) and I don't think Virginia liked that too much. We are okay with a moderate Democrat, but you can't be the DNC chair and be a moderate Democrat. I think many believe that he betrayed some of his more moderate positions for power within the party. That did not help the Democrats in this election either.
I know a lot less about New Jersey. However, a Republican heavily outspent and working against Obama campaigning for his opponent winning by 5 points in a blue state seems to tell a lot about the mood of the country. Coupled with the Virginia results, I think and hope that it is going to make it tough for moderate Democrats to help the liberals shove through universal health care by the process of reconciliation, particularly ones facing re-election in 2010. After all, they'd like to keep their jobs.
Sports - White vs Harris by Spud DeHaven
OK here is a brief summary of what took me 15min. to type the other night. I voted for White who I think is probably the best player ever at WVU. Here is how I would compare them. First if I needed one yard I am taking the Major. No QB at WVU has been better at getting that one tough yard than him. If I need a big play (over twenty yards) I go with White.
He was just more explosive in my mind . Passing I would take White. Also he was more accurate but I think Major had a stronger arm. I do think Major was a more fierce competitor. He would will the team to win, not sure Pat ever got that. He tried to win it himself. All said I have to take White but if the Major had played his whole career it might have been very interesting. Now for this years Mountie team. One thing I will say is that we have to remember this is WVU and we will not be a top 10 team every year. This team has one of the worst O-Lines I have seen at WVU in a long time they are getting beat bad at the point of attack. I think we do have some talent at the skill positions but you need more than that. In fact I think ND runs harder than Slaton did. He has to do most of it himself. Now for the hot topic the coaching. I as you know am not a fan of Dick Rod and the more I see of Michigan and think about his time at WVU I think the guy got extremely lucky to get two guys at the same time that NO ONE ELSE wanted in White and Slaton. Those guys carried the Mounties along with big Owen. Hear is where my Blue Hair comes in with RR. I am not sure you guys are old enough or not but when WVU and Penn ST and more recently VA Tech played and Pitt and many others before RR came WVU was known as one of the hardest hitting teams in the country. Win or lose the other team was taking to the wood shed and busted in the mouth. I personally like that. I think in the last 5 or so years our defense has really became soft and this year has put a lot of extra pressure on the offense. I personally think this started with ole Dick Rod wanting WVU to become more of a offensive team. Oh well have a lot more to say but tired of typing.
He was just more explosive in my mind . Passing I would take White. Also he was more accurate but I think Major had a stronger arm. I do think Major was a more fierce competitor. He would will the team to win, not sure Pat ever got that. He tried to win it himself. All said I have to take White but if the Major had played his whole career it might have been very interesting. Now for this years Mountie team. One thing I will say is that we have to remember this is WVU and we will not be a top 10 team every year. This team has one of the worst O-Lines I have seen at WVU in a long time they are getting beat bad at the point of attack. I think we do have some talent at the skill positions but you need more than that. In fact I think ND runs harder than Slaton did. He has to do most of it himself. Now for the hot topic the coaching. I as you know am not a fan of Dick Rod and the more I see of Michigan and think about his time at WVU I think the guy got extremely lucky to get two guys at the same time that NO ONE ELSE wanted in White and Slaton. Those guys carried the Mounties along with big Owen. Hear is where my Blue Hair comes in with RR. I am not sure you guys are old enough or not but when WVU and Penn ST and more recently VA Tech played and Pitt and many others before RR came WVU was known as one of the hardest hitting teams in the country. Win or lose the other team was taking to the wood shed and busted in the mouth. I personally like that. I think in the last 5 or so years our defense has really became soft and this year has put a lot of extra pressure on the offense. I personally think this started with ole Dick Rod wanting WVU to become more of a offensive team. Oh well have a lot more to say but tired of typing.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Politics - VA Election Day
Yesterday I sampled three of my co-workers as a group and asked them what was special about today. They had no idea. Granted, they are not all that interested in politics, but they are educated people. I would expect that much of the state is unaware that a few of their neighbors are going to the poll today. I consider that somewhat sad. In any event, I will disclose that I did something today that I have proclaimed to loathe throughout my political voting career. I voted straight ticket without much research or thought. I would have given an independent or Libertarian serious consideration and probably a vote, especially if he were the latter, but there were none to choose from. It would be extremely difficult for me to vote for a Democrat at this point, so why bother with research, right?
This is certainly a change of course from my past. Nationally I have leaned Republican, but locally I've been pretty split. I voted for Warner (D) and thought that the former business was fairly fiscally responsible (in part due to Republican controlled Congress) and did a nice job. I do not regret the vote. I voted for Kaine (D) in the next election. I was not as pleased with his performance, but still not a disaster. So how do we come to the next VA election cycle and I won't consider Democrats? First of all, propelled by recent party success the Democratic party has boldly moved further left. I say have not done much research, but that is not entirely true. I know enough about McDonnell (R) and Deeds (D) to know that Deeds in the most liberal choice for governor the state has seen in some time. I don't particularly like Bolling (R), but again I could not bring myself to consider Wagner (D) for Lt Governor. I truly know nothing about the candidates for Attorney General, but again went with the Republican, assuming that the Democrat is following the liberal charge. Is it unfair to make that assumption? Perhaps, but it brings me to my second reason to go straight ticket, national political issues.
On the surface, it would seem national politics should have little impact on my decisions for local government, and that is usually true. However, local politics can impact national politics and currently the stakes are high at the national level. During the presidential primaries, it was clear to me that I would support pretty much any Republican over any Democrat because of nationalized health care. I oppose most any proposal for nationalized anything. The Federal government is generally incompetent and inefficient in anything it runs. The costs are always rampant. Obama himself talked about the U.S. not being able to sustain the level of spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and health care costs on their current trend. Now, we are to add nationalized health care. I would love everyone to have health care, a 2,000+ sq. ft. home, two new cars, and a steak and potato for every dinner. However, there is a disconnect today in what we expect from our government. Just because something is nice and humanitarian doesn't mean it can or should be given. Things must be earned through production, somebody must pay for any service another person receives, and pay through their labor. Right now we are piling up massive debt because we are living beyond our means, the government is paying out more services than the production it takes from its citizens (taxes). The gap is extremely wide. This proposes to further that gap. As I stated before, a service like this once enacted is almost impossible to undo. If we go to nationalized health care, it will be almost impossible to go back to private health care until the U.S. is bankrupt and is faced with the fact that it cannot pay for all these services. That will be a dark day for the country and the world as the much of the rest of the world depends on our spending for their economic success.
The public has turned against nationalized health care, which is interesting since it voted all these Democrats into office, including Obama, who promised to give it to us. So, it appeared we might get a watered down bill that did not go to nationalized health care. However, the liberals would not accept such a failure, and Reid produced the public option which is a door to nationalized health care. There will likely not be 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, but the Democrats may use the process of reconciliation to jam the legislation through with only a majority. What does all this have to do with my vote? The more the public pressures Washington to get rid of the public option, the less likely reconciliation will be used. Currently, the best way to apply pressure would be to send a message by way of resounding Republican victories in Virginia and a Republican victory in the governor's race in New Jersey. I hope that's what we see.
This is certainly a change of course from my past. Nationally I have leaned Republican, but locally I've been pretty split. I voted for Warner (D) and thought that the former business was fairly fiscally responsible (in part due to Republican controlled Congress) and did a nice job. I do not regret the vote. I voted for Kaine (D) in the next election. I was not as pleased with his performance, but still not a disaster. So how do we come to the next VA election cycle and I won't consider Democrats? First of all, propelled by recent party success the Democratic party has boldly moved further left. I say have not done much research, but that is not entirely true. I know enough about McDonnell (R) and Deeds (D) to know that Deeds in the most liberal choice for governor the state has seen in some time. I don't particularly like Bolling (R), but again I could not bring myself to consider Wagner (D) for Lt Governor. I truly know nothing about the candidates for Attorney General, but again went with the Republican, assuming that the Democrat is following the liberal charge. Is it unfair to make that assumption? Perhaps, but it brings me to my second reason to go straight ticket, national political issues.
On the surface, it would seem national politics should have little impact on my decisions for local government, and that is usually true. However, local politics can impact national politics and currently the stakes are high at the national level. During the presidential primaries, it was clear to me that I would support pretty much any Republican over any Democrat because of nationalized health care. I oppose most any proposal for nationalized anything. The Federal government is generally incompetent and inefficient in anything it runs. The costs are always rampant. Obama himself talked about the U.S. not being able to sustain the level of spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and health care costs on their current trend. Now, we are to add nationalized health care. I would love everyone to have health care, a 2,000+ sq. ft. home, two new cars, and a steak and potato for every dinner. However, there is a disconnect today in what we expect from our government. Just because something is nice and humanitarian doesn't mean it can or should be given. Things must be earned through production, somebody must pay for any service another person receives, and pay through their labor. Right now we are piling up massive debt because we are living beyond our means, the government is paying out more services than the production it takes from its citizens (taxes). The gap is extremely wide. This proposes to further that gap. As I stated before, a service like this once enacted is almost impossible to undo. If we go to nationalized health care, it will be almost impossible to go back to private health care until the U.S. is bankrupt and is faced with the fact that it cannot pay for all these services. That will be a dark day for the country and the world as the much of the rest of the world depends on our spending for their economic success.
The public has turned against nationalized health care, which is interesting since it voted all these Democrats into office, including Obama, who promised to give it to us. So, it appeared we might get a watered down bill that did not go to nationalized health care. However, the liberals would not accept such a failure, and Reid produced the public option which is a door to nationalized health care. There will likely not be 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, but the Democrats may use the process of reconciliation to jam the legislation through with only a majority. What does all this have to do with my vote? The more the public pressures Washington to get rid of the public option, the less likely reconciliation will be used. Currently, the best way to apply pressure would be to send a message by way of resounding Republican victories in Virginia and a Republican victory in the governor's race in New Jersey. I hope that's what we see.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Sports - USF 30 WV 19
The Mountaineers could not get it done in Tampa once again. South Florida seems to have their number. The Mountaineers were able to move the ball through the air decently and could have done better in that area if the receivers wouldn't have dropped a few. Once again, however, South Florida shut down the run game. Offensively, the Bulls looked very good against the Mountaineers' defense. They were able to convert big plays and move the ball. The Mountaineers couldn't blame this one on turnovers since they only committed one. The one was a costly interception on a terrible pass by Brown. Brown was lucky he didn't lose a fumble or two. On the plus side, it was the best the special teams have looked this year. Overall, the game seemed to show what I felt all year despite a 6-1 record, the Mountaineers are just an average BCS team. In fact, I might have to put them 6th in the Big East. Cincy is #1 and Pitt is #2. After that it gets tighter. I really feel for UConn who lost another close game that it seemed they were going to win. An 80+ yard touchdown with less than a minute to go made them 4 point losers. They could legitimately be 8-0. I'm not sure the order I'd put UConn, USF, Rutgers and WV in in terms of who I'd take on a neutral field, but I'd lean towards putting WV at the end of that list. I would also have WV as underdogs in their final 3 games, although they could potentially find a way to win one or two of those. 8-4 would be a good finish at this point, 7-5 may be more likely. Either way it's not a disastrous season and it gives Stewart some time to establish himself. In terms of his start, perhaps it is will be the best two year start of any coach in WV history. I'm pretty sure no coach inherited a team one game away from playing in the national championship game with the start quarterback returning either, so that doesn't mean much. In recent history, excluding Rod's first year conversion, the worst two year regular season stretch WV has experienced is 16-7. I would guess Stewart's start will be worse than that. The three years previous to Stewart were double digit win seasons for the Mountaineers. So, the bar has definitely dropped. I hope it can be raised again in the next couple of years and I'm certainly willing to give Stewart that chance, but I doubt we will be seeing the top 10 again for a while. At the quarterback position, my support for Brown remains low. He's just not steady. He was fortunate to get out of the game with one turnover. He also had a play that I have never seen before. On the final play of the first half, the Mountaineers ran a Hail Mary. Brown got to the outside and had nobody around him. Instead of heaving down to the end zone, he ran out of bounds for a two yard gain. Was he concerned about his stats? Was he gun shy after the bad pick (he finished the half very poorly)? It's a Hail Mary. Your receivers will be covered!!! You throw it up and see what happens. You could get a touchdown, an incompletion, or an interception that ends the half. You take your chances. Brown continues to show me that he has a low football IQ. He's very talented, perhaps as much as any WV quarterback to come to the school, but a huge part of the position is mental. I'm excited to see what Smith can do, but at this point it's probably best not to turn the team over to him since they are likely to have little success in those final three games. Perhaps they could give him a couple of series. All this seems very negative because it's relative to what we have experienced in recent years. It's really not that bad. WV is currently an average BCS team and that's what they are projected to be going forward. Expectations will no longer be high and every once in a while you'll have a really good year. Unfortunately, when you are an average team, you'll also have a losing season every once in a while. Hopefully WV takes care of Louisville and gets to 7 wins. From there the pressure would be off in my mind. Any win would be a bonus.
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