Buckeyes Loss May Be Big 12's Gain

  It was pure college football melodrama. Late in the fourth quarter, the Ohio State Buckeyes were clinging to a narrow lead in a hard fought contest against a team that was considered to be a 19 point underdog. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We’ve seen Ohio State struggle against teams that don’t have their level of talent, only to watch the Buckeyes have the ball bounce their way in the waning moments of the game to preserve the win.

 But this one didn’t follow the script. The Buckeyes lined up for a field goal that would secure the win against the unranked but tough Nittany Lions. The kick was blocked and the ball bounced into the arms of Grant Haley, who took the ball all the way to the end zone. The Penn State defense held on the final series and the mighty Buckeyes went down.

 So, who really lost? And who stands to win as a result of this? The answers may not be as easy as they seem.

OHIO STATE

Yes, they lost the game and that’s always bad. But tOSU is almost never just playing for one game. They’re playing for a playoff spot. Did this loss diminish their hopes of obtaining one of those four golden tickets? Not really. They dropped a few spots in the polls, but not far enough that a victory over Michigan at the end of the year won’t propel them right back into the picture. The Buckeyes don’t have a cakewalk for the remaining four games until they face the Team Up North but they should win them. Northwestern, Nebraska, Maryland and Michigan State stand in their way. If they lose any of those five they will likely be out of contention. Bottom line? This loss isn’t a determining factor for the Buckeyes.

THE BIG TEN

This is where the real issue lay. Now that Ohio State has lost, the playoff spot will most likely come down to the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game. It was possible that the Big 10 could’ve gotten two teams into the playoff. The loser of the OSU-Michigan game might not fall far enough to knock them out of fourth place. That’s not likely now. So the Big 10 is a virtual certainty to get one of their teams in unless something unprecedented happens. But they most likely won’t get two.

BIG TWELVE/BAYLOR/WEST VIRGINIA

College football is a zero sum game. Someone’s misery is someone else’s treasure trove. The Big 12 has been bad mouthed all season as not being worthy of consideration. Some of that talk is merited. Most of it is not. Conferences rise and fall in cycles. The Big 12 is not as powerful this year as they are in most years when considered in total. But the ACC is proving that they aren’t anywhere near as good as they were touted early in the year too. Miami in the top 10? Notre Dame ranked in the top 10? (Yes, I am aware that Notre Dame is only a stepchild of the ACC but I’m still counting them) Pac 12? Anybody remember when Stanford was in the top 10?

The truth is that you have a wobbly Clemson team that is very talented but has been living on the edge. You have a Louisville team that is no doubt talented but darn near lost to Duke. The Pac 12 has one team that has the look and feel of a playoff contender. That’s Washington.

 So why is the Big 12 getting pounded on while others have an easy go in the media? You can make a pretty good case that the SEC is the strongest conference top to bottom and that the Big 10 is next. After that it’s not so clear if you’re objective. The answer is simple. The media lack objectivity. The Big 12 is being punished because the standard bearers right now aren’t Oklahoma and Texas. They are Baylor and West Virginia. As long as the old stalwarts are in control the sports media plays along. But if you try to put the Mountaineers or to a lesser extent the Bears into the playoff, well, you’d better buckle up. It’s going to be a rough ride.

 Baylor is a known quantity. We understand they have talent. But do they have the depth to see this thing through with only 70 scholarship players? Disaster is just a turf toe away every week for the Bears.

 But hear this; West Virginia is tough. West Virginia is snarling. West Virginia means business. Take a cue from their basketball team the past few years if you want to have an understanding of what this disrespected school in this disrespected state is all about. They are a no-nonsense, up in your face aggressor that backs down from no one. They may have the best receiving corps in the country. Their offensive line is a top ten unit and the best lineman they have is out for the season. Their senior quarterback that no one wanted has quietly improved into a quality P5 leader and passer. The defense is just…..nasty. It’s a blitz early, blitz often, blitz from places you don’t think we’ll blitz from scheme.  They gamble a lot. And one of these days it may cost them a game. But it also may not. And if it doesn’t, West Virginia will be coming to a college playoff near you, whether your favorite sports commentator wants them to or not. And they probably will have the Penn State Nittany Lions to thank for it.

The Rubicon Trilogy: An Interview With the Author of the Soon to be Published Techno-Thriller, Stephen M. Walker

(We sat down with Stephen Walker to discuss his soon to be published historical techno-thriller trilogy, Rubicon, and to get his thoughts on the book, his experiences as a first-time novelist, his influences and the challenges he faced undertaking such a complex project. Stephen has contributed blog articles and white papers on a wide range of subject to this blog in the past.)

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

 So we have with us today the new author of the soon to be released techno-thriller Rubicon, Stephen Walker. Stephen, set the stage for us and give potential readers a broad overview of what they can expect in Rubicon.

STEPHEN

 The finishing chapter and scenes have not been finished, but the bulk of the writing is complete. The word you used, techno-thriller, is probably a fair one, but it also encompasses a lot more than your standard gee-whiz descriptions of gadgetry and technology. The book is actually three books, a trilogy.

 I’ve always been fascinated by the pace of technological change and the good and bad that comes with it. Most people have heard of the Nobel Prizes awarded in Sweden for various positive academic achievements and research and also the Nobel Peace Prize. Most people don’t realize that Alfred Nobel was a chemist and engineer who ran one of the largest and most successful armaments manufacturing companies in the world, Bofors. He was responsible for inventing the blasting cap, dynamite and the substance that is the forerunner of what we today call cordite.

 He was keenly aware that his inventions would be used to make war. Although he saw positive uses for his explosive inventions such as blasting railroad tunnels, taking down dangerous rock overhangs and stabilizing avalanche zones, he understood that his work would mostly be used to make war. As a way to counter-balance these things, he used his sizable estate to fund the Nobel Prizes.

 The book leans on this for part of its premise. Technology in and of itself is benign. It is neither good nor bad. The uses that imperfect men and ambitious nations put the technology to make the application either bad or good.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

So would you then also say that Rubicon as a novel, is a statement about the dangers of runaway technology?

STEPHEN

 It is. We hear a great deal these days about the singularity from a purely technological perspective. Raymond Kurzweil wrote a brilliant book about ten years ago called The Singularity is Near. Although he never claims to have come up with the base idea that the pace of technological change is outstripping society’s ability to comprehend it, he was the first to try and formulate what an unrestrained future might look like.

 I’ve used a term in the book called the sW, the Singularity of Warfare. Although the term is a creation of my imagination, the evidence that it is indeed occurring is all around us. Military forces all around the world are having difficulty getting design and testing for the fighter planes and battle tanks of the next generation because technology is changing so quickly that they aren’t certain that a project that gets green-lighted in 2014 will still be a relevant weapon system by the times its fielded in perhaps 2019.

Rubicon speaks directly to the very real possibility that a very small country or even a very small company or group could become a force to be reckoned with on the world stage because of the wild pace of technological change. They could wield the power that in the past was reserved only for industrialized nations; the ability to project power overseas and carry out one nations will against another on that nations soil with relative impunity. When you can bring that kind of power to bear, you’re a superpower.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

 Without being a spoiler, can you tell our readers a little more about Rubicon and what they can expect in terms of its’ playout scenario?

STEPHEN

 Certainly. In a rare moment of candor, the President of the United States and his advisory team comes to the realization that America is too hamstrung politically to win the so-called War on Terror. His belief is that no matter which political party is  in power in Washington, the party in the  minority will do anything, no matter the cost, to regain power. That includes seeing the country cede territory that was seized in battle, leave areas where US troops were previously engaged and release those captured during fighting. Although many in his own party, and many in the opposition party believe that America can’t collapse no matter how badly the war is mis-managed, he sees a different picture. He sees that for every fire he puts out, five to ten new ones take its place. He comes to understand that he will be the man sitting in the Oval Office when America’s reign as the sole world superpower comes crashing down.

 This President is a pragmatist. He knows that he has a House and Senate that is aligned against him that will counter any move that he takes. He begins to meet secretly with Senator Myron Canfield, a longtime opponent and powerful member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee. Canfield is a dinosaur from the days of the Cold War and has many friends in both the House and the Senate. He’s owed many favors by the intelligence community and is in the twilight of his career.

 Although Canfield and the President are polar opposites, they do agree on this point; America will soon lose the War on Terror. Together, they jointly cobble together a very small team of like-minded people from both parties. They make the decision that the only way to win is to completely bypass the giant US intelligence machine and outsource the dirtiest and most controversial aspects of the war to a group that has no trace to the United States.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

 So this is a group that operates in the shadows of The Shadow War?

STEPHEN

(Laughing) I suppose that’s a good way to think of it. I hadn’t thought of that.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

You call these men “francs-tireur”, correct? Basically meaning that they are high-tech pirates?

STEPHEN

 Many countries have employed francs-tireur over the years. In the broadest of terms, yes they are pirates. The distinction with francs-tireur is that they have been sanctioned to perform certain duties on behalf of a government. At times they were paid a commission and at other times they were simply allowed to plunder whatever they came across and keep it with the promise of no reprisals against them. If this sounds a lot like Blackbeard and Black Bart stuff, that’s because that’s what it usually was.

 So although a country may secretly hire francs-tireur to complete a mission, they don’t direct them on how to accomplish that mission. It was this plausible deniability that made dealing with these people so appealing.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

The parts of the book you provided to us had a great deal of historical content and accuracy. The story actually goes back into the 1940’s and spends a good deal of time there. Why did you feel it was so important to include that in order to tell the story?

STEPHEN

 Like millions of others, I’m a fan of espionage thrillers, techno-thrillers and Black Operations stories. I know for myself, I always find myself asking questions, like, “how did they manage to get those safe houses set up?” or “how did the bad guys come into possession of this technology in the first place” or “how do they get the money to operate and where do their weapons come from?” Some authors explain it, but most just leave it to your imagination to get the answers to those questions.

 The story behind the Tesla technology, the mysterious death of Tesla, the seizure and then disappearance of his research and writings, that is all true. The fact that he approached the War Department with an idea for a peace ray is real. The fact that his friend was a registered agent for Nazi Germany is also real.

 The truth is that there were dozens of projects being undertaken in 1942-1944 that now sound outlandish; pigeon-guided missiles, bombs that were steered by cats, small packages of explosives affixed to millions of bats so that they would be released over Tokyo and fly into dark corners of wood and paper homes before exploding and catching the entire city on fire. Some regarded Tesla as a crackpot but many others thought that he might have the solution to the end of the war. In either case, he was watched by the FBI until his unexplained death in his hotel room.

 The United States knew that they were working on the atomic bomb and at some point, saw that it was going to be the answer for the super-weapon they were looking for. However, they were afraid that the Germans, as well as the Soviets, were making overtures to Nikola Tesla. He had made it very clear that he felt that every country should be given his technology because it would mean that no country could successfully wage war against another. It was the original Mutual Assured Destruction. He’d offered it first to the US because he was a naturalized American. The War Department didn’t want it, but they didn’t want anyone else to have it either. Tesla was a close associate and friend of George S. Viereck. He often gave Tesla money and befriended him, often hosting him at their home in New York. Viereck was jailed on charges of being an agent of Germany. He was released temporarily under odd circumstances and the re-incarcerated. Although charged with a federal crime, he was held in the Washington, DC city jail.

 Tesla’s family were ethnic Serbs, but he was born in Croatia. The United States feared that Tesla’s allegiances, ethnicity or love for the country of his birth could also move him to provide his peace ray to the Soviet Union, who were funding and assisting the Chetniks in fighting the Nazi’s at various points in the war.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

So you’ve woven the fictional story piece into the fabric of the historical account? The manuscript you provided to us does that with several different story lines throughout the book, correct?

STEPHEN

 Yes. It’s a favorite technique of mine. I always enjoy looking at actual events that transpired and then trying to weave in what I think the back story might be. Call it the conspiracy theorist within.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

So, again, not to give away the entire story, but this technology continues to be pursued throughout the Cold War and into the present day?

STEPHEN

 Yes. The Tesla technology becomes something of a black market “White Whale”. I trace the parties that were pursuing it from the end of World War Two up through the present day. There are three proxy parties that are involved, just as there were three parties involved in the war years. As we know, the United States lost interest in particle beam weaponry. But a group picked up that torch.  Tesla’s research was obtained through a partial sampling of his stolen papers by the Nazi’s and that line is also traceable to a group trying to obtain these weapons. A third group managed to obtain old research done just after the war by the Soviets and replicate a measure of success by trying to update the work.

 The three lines can all directly be traced back to Nikola Tesla’s original works and the failure of the War Department at that time to see the use case for particle beam weapons. The myopia was caused by the pressure to bring the war to a close and defeat the Germans and Japanese. The focus was on super-weapons, what we now refer to as weapons of mass destruction. The thinking then was that an invasion of the Japanese home islands would cost one million American lives. The Allies knew that Germany was close to perfecting more accurate V2 rockets, jet propulsion aircraft, helicopters and even a nuclear bomb of their own. The story goes that were it not for the actions of a handful of Norweigian resistance fighters, the Nazi’s would have taken enough deuterium away from Norway to create an atomic bomb before the Americans did.

 As a result of these things, no one saw the need to develop a weapon who’s power dissipated over very short distances. Only in the decades around the 1980’s and 1990’s did governments begin to see the benefit that pinpoint strikes from these short-range weapons could have. With the development of UAV technology, miniaturized versions of these weapons could be flown anywhere in the world and used for covert assassinations, hostage rescues and support for special forces operating in hostile areas.

 The UAV and particle beam technologies become chicken and egg complements to one another. As both become smaller, quieter and more powerful, their desirability starts to come alive again. But most nation-states have ignored them for so long that they’re hopelessly behind these small but well funded groups that have been working through trial and error with these technologies for decades.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

 And, as one might expect, the technology must be used by one group to destroy the ability of the other groups to employ it?

STEPHEN

Yes, its not giving too much of the storyline away to say that the powers that have developed or are trying to develop the Tesla technology are pitted against one another. The risk here being not that World War Three will break out as a result, but that a thousand small, black, covert wars will break out if those who are seeking to employ this technology succeed and that the world will implode into a tangled mess of plausibly deniable assassinations and covert attacks.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

This is your first full length novel. You’ve written other short stories and smaller fare prior to this. Why take on a complex, 1300 page monster like this on your first attempt?

STEPHEN

I agree that it’s a huge challenge. But I think I’m up to the task. In truth, it probably would’ve been easier to start with a less complex story line and fewer characters to develop. But this is the story I’ve wanted to write for some time. I didn’t see trying to break it down into three separate books. It just doesn’t play or flow naturally to that direction. In a general sense, the novel flows chronologically, but in order to allow the reader to stay abreast of the background and to fully grasp why things happened as they did or mist happen as they eventually will, I have to flashback throughout the book.

 Although it’s my first novel, I’ve done writing for others and written short stories and essays, so it’s not my first attempt at writing.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

You’ve said that you’re a huge fan of the novels of the late great Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn as well as the Scott Harvath series that Brad Thor authors. Two questions come up here from reading your manuscript; first, who else besides those three do you feel has been an influence on the way you write? And second, what accounts for the lack of coarse language in the book and what seems to be eschewing graphic descriptions of violence?

STEPHEN

 As for other influences on what makes me want to write, those three are big. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Brad Thor. He must do tons of research for his books. His back story designs are just wonderful. Not only do I think he’s an excellent writer technically, he’s great at weaving in a fictional story to a historical account. And he does it without trying to come off as trying to alter someone’s perspective or engage in revisionist history. It’s a fine balance and I don’t think he gets enough credit for how good he is at it. As for other writers, I’m like every other guy I guess. I like George Orwell, I like adventure stories like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe. I like Jack London, James Michener and Sherwood Anderson. That’s quite a crew, huh?

 To answer your question about the coarse language and the violence, yes, it was done intentionally. I’ve served in the military, I’ve been around these types of operators and operations, and I’ve heard every four letter word you can imagine used in some very creative and often humorous ways. But when you grow up and get a few years on you and have kids, you begin to realize that vulgar language and cursing in general really just contribute to the coarsening of society. I’ve never alleged that any of the characters in my book are choir boys or even that that they should be emulated and admired. In some cases, they engage in some very shocking behavior that most people would consider barbaric. I’m not saying that these tough black operators don’t curse or ever use foul language. That’s up to the reader to decide. Just because you didn’t see him or her say anything vulgar in the scene you looked in on doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen in some other place when they’re out of view of the readers eye.

 I didn’t want to use the language in my writing because I don’t use that language around my friends or family or think its an appropriate way to express myself. It’s probably not realistic to expect that a group or men like this wouldn’t use profanity. That’s fine. They just didn’t happen to say it when we were looking in on them.

 I don’t think I need to painfully describe graphic scenes of violence. If someone feels that they are reading something purely for the long, drawn out descriptions of someone in the throes of dying, you probably just need to not read my book and go rent Saw VI or something to satisfy that need.

 It’s the nature of espionage, war and games of state that people lose their lives in the pursuit of their nation’s or group’s interests. It wouldn’t re realistic to write about otherwise. When you do that you get Adam West in Batman where people get beat up and fall off of buildings but are back the following week to terrorize the people of Gotham City.

 People die in this book. Many of them die violent deaths, as would be the case in real life. I feel like I tell the story enough to give you a feel for what’s happened without being over the top about it. I have no desire to morbid or grotesque. My aim is to deliver to the reader the essence of what happens when a team of door kickers takes down a warehouse with criminals inside. That doesn’t, in my humble opinion, require descriptions of bullets ripping through tissue and body parts flying everywhere.

 You can show someone a pig and then point them to a slaughterhouse and then show them a sausage patty and they get the idea. They understand what went on in that slaughterhouse without having to be walked into it and forced to turn the handle of the sausage grinder themselves. I just don’t see that it’s necessary to do as a literary device. Others may disagree.

THE ERUDITE AARDVARK

Thank you for your time today. We appreciate you talking with us about your observations and about the book.

STEPHEN

You’re more than welcome. I should be thanking you. Hopefully people will read the interview and make a point to look for the book. If they like Clancy, Thor and Flynn novels and enjoy a little conspiracy theory and history lesson on the side, hopefully they’ll like this book and buy it and recommend it to their friends.

 The Erudite Aardvark writes blog articles on a wide range of topics.  We can be reached at info@eruditeaardvark.com.

This article is the intellectual  property of The Erudite Aardvark, which reserves all rights to the content. It may not be copied or re-transmitted in any fashion without the express, written permission of the owner.

Rumble in the Mountains - Troubled Times for West Virginia Mountaineer Football

  In late 2007 all was right in Mountaineer land. The West Virginia Mountaineer football team was on the verge of playing in its very first BCS Championship game. A bizarre series of upsets in college football had left the highly regarded Mountaineers as the only legitimate prospect to play Ohio State for the national title.  There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that, had West Virginia played Ohio State in that game, they would have ripped the Buckeyes to shreds. OSU was a paper tiger that year and the Mountaineers, under seventh year head coach Rich Rodriguez, were the scourge of college football. With Pat White at quarterback, Steve Slaton and freshmen super-recruit Noel Devine at tailback (RichRod prefers the term “Superback” but it’s the running back with the speed to take it the distance) and fullback Owen Schmitt blocking and running as well this was one of the most talented and perhaps fastest backfields in the history of college football. Although they weren’t any great shakes as a passing team, the WVU ground game was nearly impossible to stop. Rodriguez’s read option based offense presented defenses with a serious conundrum; pack your defenders in to stop the run between the tackles and White would make you pay the moment you bit on the fake to the back. Spread your defenders out to keep White from running wild and Slaton and Devine would gash you for fifteen right up the middle. Get them in third and short and the Mountaineer big uglies would drive block while 260 pound Owen Schmitt made you regret hitting him head on.

 But, as college football fans know, they didn’t play in that game against OSU. With melodrama swirling around the program about Rodriguez flirtation with Michigan they dropped a 13-9 game to a 4-7 Pitt team that shouldn’t have been able to stay within 30 points of the Mountaineers.

Rodriguez and his entourage’s handling of the Michigan affair was an absolute clinic of how not to leave your current position for another. Rodriguez lied about his whereabouts, lied to his players, contacted West Virginia recruits from his state-issued cell phone to try and get them to follow him to Ann Arbor and, worst of all, insulted his alma mater and his home state. In California or New York that may not sound like a big deal, but in West Virginia, where state pride is taken very seriously and the WVU Mountaineers are the traveling embodiment of a state that faces continual ridicule, it stirred up a hornets nest of resentment and loathing.

 The Mountaineers bowed up their backs and against all odds, destroyed an Oklahoma team in the Fiesta Bowl that was, by many knowledgeable talking heads, the most talented team in the country. The emotional victory by West Virginia native, interim coach and all around good guy Bill Stewart propelled the university administration to make an emotional (and financial) decision to hire Stewart as the full time coach.

 After two big BCS wins, double digit wins season records and finishes in the Top 10, the Mountaineer nation had arrived. And they weren’t going to tolerate 8 or 9 wins any longer. Although many people don’t realize it, West Virginia is among the top fifteen all-time winning-est programs in the history of college football. They were finally getting the respect and recognition that they had long deserved and many felt that Stewart’s nice guy approach was robbing the team of the reputation it had built for nastiness on the field. (West Virginia also has a reputation for nastiness from its fans as well but that is a discussion for another time)

 After three seasons of sub-par performances, West Virginia Athletic Director Oliver Luck made the decision to let Stewart go. It seemed that the vast majority of the fans and booster thought that he was a wonderful man, a proud West Virginian, someone that you’d love to have as a next door neighbor or the coach of your kids soccer team or even the assistant coach but not someone that most wanted to be at the helm of the ship. He was and is to this day, wildly popular in the state but most were eager to see him go. Tragically, Bill Stewart died of a heart attack while playing in a golf event the following year.

 Here is where our story begins.

 Oliver Luck had reached back to his Texas days and hired Dana Holgorsen, a hotshot offensive coordinator with Oklahoma State who had also had stints at Houston and Texas Tech, all highly productive offenses with star quarterbacks. For the uninitiated among you, Oliver Luck is a graduate of West Virginia University and was the quarterback for the team in the early 1980’s. A Rhodes Scholar finalist, he was drafted by the Houston Oilers and served as the backup to Archie Manning. Luck went to law school at the University of Texas and served as commissioner of the World League of American Football and as president of the Houston/Harris County Sports Authority. Luck hired Holgorsen as head coach in waiting, arguably the one questionable thing he’s done in a career of high achievement. Holgorsen would serve one season as the teams offensive coordinator before taking over the head job.

 After some shenanigans that seemed to suggest that Bill Stewart night not be quite the nice guy that his image seemed to portray, Holgorsen found himself taking over as head coach immediately. Luck no doubt felt some pressure to act quickly on the Holgorsen hire. West Virginia’s arch rival Pitt was also looking to replace their departed coach in Dave Wannstadt and was looking hard at Holgorsen. (Pitt’s embarrassing coaching carousel is also a subject for another time) Holgorsen had produced prolific offense everywhere he’d been and was going to get a head coaching job somewhere. Luck pulled the trigger and signed him to a contract with an $11.6 million dollar buyout clause. Luck can be forgiven for the size and scope of this buyout. West Virginia had been involved in incidents with both RichRod and Bill Stewart over aspects of contract buyouts. With Holgorsen as an Oklahoma native with deep Texas recruiting roots, West Virginia needed to be certain that, if Holgorsen was going to be their man, he was going to be there for a while or else someone was going to pay a bundle to hire him away. If Holgorsen did well at West Virginia and an opening came about at say, Texas, he would have been on the short list of possible candidates to replace Mack Brown.

 Although the 2011 season wasn’t magical by Mountaineer standards (understand that this team has had two undefeated seasons in the past 25 years and won three BCS bowls in a six year span) they did manage to squeak out the Big East’s automatic BCS bid over Connecticut and Cincinnati. In the Orange Bowl they did what West Virginia always seems to do in BCS games; they made broadcasters and pundits look stupid, not to mention the Clemson Tigers. In 2006, West Virginia was picked to get mauled by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Nobody told the Mountaineers. They jumped out to a 28-0 lead before Georgia managed to wake up and at least make a game of it. In 2008 they obliterated the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. West Virginia was given no chance to win the game. Sooner players were seen having their pictures taken beside the Fiesta Bowl trophy in the days leading up to the game, stating that once it got back to Norman, it would be put in a case behind glass and they would never be able to get this close to it again. I wasn’t able to ask any of the Sooner players from that game if they’d made the drive to Morgantown

To visit “their” trophy.

 But now those heady days seem long past to West Virginia fans. The 2012 season saw them ranked fifth before dropping five straight games. The Tavon Austin, Geno Smith and Stedman Bailey show couldn’t put up enough points to make up for a defense that was just awful. Historically awful. The Mountaineers finished that season 7-6, getting manhandled by a Syracuse team in the lowly Pinstripe bowl who looked and acted like they actually wanted to be there.

  This season was a giant question mark for the Mountaineer faithful. How would they replace the productivity of their wide receivers? How do you replace a quarterback who starts in the NFL as a rookie for the New York Jets? How do you improve a defense that was one of the worst ever against the pass? The answers are quite simple really, even if the end result isn’t good.  Tavon Austin was a once in a generation player. If you doubt me I suggest that you go watch his three touchdown performance in the NFL a couple of weeks ago against the Colts. No one as much as laid a finger on him all day. He is hands down the fastest and quickest player in the NFL. Stedman Bailey simply caught everything that was thrown his way. You can’t replace those things. However, you do what West Virginia did. You open up playing time to true freshman if they earn it,  you bring in Juco players to try and fill holes and you encourage transfers. (encouraging transfers is tricky business but you are naïve if you think that every team in the FBS doesn’t do it) In part the strategy has worked and in part it hasn’t. West Virginia’s defense is vastly improved from the previous one. They may not always look the part but its not easy when your offense turns the ball over on your own ten yard line and then says, “go out and hold them to a field goal for us.”

 The quarterback position at West Virginia is a disaster. The guy with the knowledge of the system and the ability to read defenses is a marginal scholarship athlete at best who has a weak arm and panics in the pocket. The transfer student from Florida State with Blue and Gold blood in his veins has the heart of a lion but seems to have little grasp of the playbook other than to either throw a middle screen or toss it up for grabs to wideout Kevin White (Juco), who will become a beast with time and will play on Sunday but right now is mostly unrealized potential. The gunslinging 6’5”, 230 pound redshirt freshman with the cannon for an arm has no clue what to do with the football once its snapped to him. He has time to improve. The other two will be seniors next season. They are both as good as they will ever get, although Clint Trickett will benefit from at least knowing the system next year. If West Virginia can find another transfer or junior college quarterback that can enroll in Janiary and participate in spring football, they would be foolish not to take the chance and offer him a scholarship. Auburn did it with Cam Newton, Wisconsin did it with Russell Wilson. The fact that the job is wide open for the taking and that your last quarterback is making millions in the NFL will add considerable weight to the recruiting.

 The Mountaineer offensive line is just terrible. Trickett’s father, Rick Trickett, coached at West Virginia under Rodriguez and built one of the most effective units in the country. When Bobby Bowden (another West Virginia tie) came calling with more money, Trickett bolted for Tallahassee. His offensive line this year for head coach Jimbo Fisher (native West Virgninian) is one of the best in the country. WVU needs to hire an offensive line coach that can bring back the attitude that produced All-American talent like Jozwiak, Compton, Mozes, Paige and Stanchek. They are out there. They aren’t cheap. Maybe the university can part with a little of that new found Big Twelve TV money to pay for a coach that will make a difference. The current one isn’t. The Mountaineers need to go trolling for the best Juco talent that’s out there. Of course, so is everyone else. But the Mountaineers have a pretty good pedigree of putting offensive linemen into the NFL. They need to leverage that along with the carrot of early playing time for those who can prove that they can do the job. Blocking junior college linemen and safeties and blocking Jackson Jeffcoat are not the same thing. No matter how good an offensive line recruit is coming out of high school, he isn’t likely to be big enough, heavy enough or strong enough to start a D1 game.

 They could also potentially get that money from ridding themselves of ineffective coaches with exorbitant salaries. Special teams coach Joe DeForest (yep, the same one from the Okie State story that went nowhere) adds little to the staff and is essentially paid to be Holgorsen’s party pal. DeForest presided over the defense last season (yes, that defense). He simply needs to go and his salary needs to be divided on an inexpensive special teams coach while the rest goes to find someone who can teach twenty year olds how to block. Holgorsen will not likely be amenable to letting his running buddy go. Luck will need to be forceful. Head coaches of 4 or 5 win teams that used to be 9 and 10 win teams don’t get to be indignant and picky. Sorry, Dana.

 That brings us to Holgorsen himself. The truth is that Luck took a chance based on Holgorsen’s past performance as an offensive coordinator and so far, it’s not panning out. It may yet, though. Although his play calling is not good, Holgorsen is being forced to use what he’s got. If the offensive line can’t pass protect for a seven step drop, you can’t run plays that require a seven step drop. If you have to keep two protectors in to block in order to buy yourself enough time to execute a pass play, you can no longer employ a four wide look. He’s hindered by the lack of talent on the line in everything he does. But Dana Holforsen’s shortcomings as a coach aren’t really on questionable play calls. They are in leadership. They are in the way he conducts himself on the sideline. Right now, he is not head coach material. He may grow into the role and mature if given time.

 When the man in charge looks like he’s losing control of his composure on the sidelines, it has a detrimental effect on the players. These are young men that need to be led. Throwing play cards and destroying headsets is immature and serves only to lessen his authority over his team. Most parents want to be assured that their son will be part of a program that is headed by a mature, level headed coach. When that parent brings their child to a game at Mountaineer Field, does it look like a situation where that is the case? Not now it doesn’t. It looks like you’ve got a man in charge that isn’t in any more control of his emotions than your eighteen year old son. That has a detrimental effect on recruiting, something that West Virginia has historically done very well. In a state that ranks 41^st in population and produces only two or three FBS-level athletes each year, it is absolutely vital that West Virginia keep a sterling reputation as a place to come and play. Very few kids from Florida or New Jersey or Texas grow up wanting to wear the Blue and Gold as children.

 Dana Holgorsen can turn things around at West Virginia. He won’t be fired no matter what happens against Iowa State, no matter what some fans and boosters want. However, his leash is short and the seat of his trousers should be getting very warm right about now. If West Virginia doesn’t win eight games next season, and they probably won’t, he’ll be gone. The schedule next year is less favorable than the one this year.

 If he’s fired from his first head coaching job with a below .500 record at a school that has always been a winner, he will have to wait a long time before he gets another chance to coach at the D-1 level again.

 Should Holgorsen be fired after next season, or even in mid-season if things are going badly, Oliver Luck won’t be able to go the “aggressive young assistant coach” route again. He’ll be forced to hire a coach who has proven he could recruit and win in the past but has for some reason or another been tarnished to make him more affordable for West Virginia’s limited budget. The Mountaineers aren’t poor by NCAA standards but they also aren’t Texas or Michigan or Alabama (Sorry, West Virginia but Nick Saban isn’t coming home to coach – yet another West Virginia link)

 There are six tarnished coaches right now that would jump at the chance to come to Morgantown, and would do it on the cheap. I have listed these in order of likelihood.

1.     Rich Rodriguez – I know what you all said, Mountaineers. Never in a million years. It’s amazing how quickly a million years can go by.

2.     Terry Bowden – another West Virginia link. Bowden played at West Virginia.

3.     Tommy Bowden – Ditto Terry but without the hint of scandal. He’d like to coach again.

4.     Bobby Petrino – somebody is eventually going to do it.

5.     Mike Locksley – West Virginia is a better job than Maryland. He’d jump but he’s not well liked by those at West Virginia who write big checks.

6.     Lane Kiffin – He can recruit like nobody’s business. He may be a jerk but you already had RichRod. Could this be any worse?

Stephen Walker writes blog articles on a wide range of topics. He is a novelist and short story fiction writer who writes for the Erudite Aardvark and other online concerns. He can be reached at stephen.walker@eruditeaardvark.com.

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