Punt. Pass. Kick right in the sack. Repeat.

It seems like West Virginia University's being hit over and over and over again with a tube sock full of quarters. I mean, one more good, solid whack to the daddy box and I'm not sure they're gonna be able to get up.

Today's "House of the Rising Sun" watch brought to you by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (and complete with supporting documents available on the home page):

WVU e-mails on degree opened
Show president's chief of staff directed response to M.B.A. queries

... And the hits just keep on' coming!

And, if that's not enough for you, enjoy this column by a CBS Sports writer who managed to call Gov. Joe Manchin a "jock-sniffing meddler."

Absurd, comical, over the top: Hey, if the Gov fits ...

I mean, at least Hawaii's governor took it up the tailpipe, too.

I loved the '80s as much as the next guy, but ...

G: "Shoot me now, Jacque."
Me: "I can't shoot you, George. I like you too much."
Sweet Ann (from behind the cubicle): "I'll do it, George!"

I just saw this story in the Daily Mail:

WVU adds four assistants
MORGANTOWN — New West Virginia University Coach Bill Stewart is turning his staff vacancies into a "Return of the Native" scenario.
Three former Mountaineer players and coaches — John "Doc" Holliday, Steve Dunlap and David Lockwood — have been hired to rejoin the WVU coaching staff, sources said today.

Is anybody else ready to dust off their "Up the Middle-O-Meter"? I'm not trying to be a Negative Nancy, but ... eesh.

Trust me, I look back on most of the '80s with a smile and a wisp of nostalgia and a dreamy, glazed-over glance. I'm not sure I'm ready to look back on THIS part of the '80s with that same look.

Who's in for a trip to Johnstown? I'm gonna need some hockey to put this out of my mind.

Anybody else see the end of "Casino"?

One of my favorite movies is this classic.

I'm fascinated by organized crime at all levels, from "The Godfather"-like behavior of the old school to the more modern "Sopranos" style of management.

"Casino" falls sort of in the middle. If you've never seen the movie, it focuses on the building of what we know as "new Vegas." It's the transition from the 1950s-1960s Dean Martin-Frank Sinatra kind of Vegas to what we see today ... the mega hotels, the roller coasters. The movie ends in the 1980s, so it ends with right where the serious changes start to take place.

But, I digress. Again. I'm always digressing.

Anyway ...

At the end of the movie, I guess with about 10 minutes or so to go, you can hear "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals start playing in the background and EVERYBODY STARTS DYING. It's kind of like falling dominoes -- one mob guy goes down, and starts to take everybody else down with him and it's nothing by 10 solid minutes of death.

So, you could imagine that when I read this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today, I started hearing "House of the Rising Sun" play in the background:

WVU's provost unsure of records on MBA

This is a followup to an extensive story they did Dec. 21 about how, well, an MBA (and, oof, it just sorta happens to be for the governor's daughter ...) just sort of showed up. It's all very intriguing and if you're a conspiracy theorist, it's pretty much as good as Christmas.

This was the paragraph in today's piece, though, that caused me to kind of let out one of those long, ooooooooooooof kind of breaths:

Yesterday, Mr. Lang acknowledged that those records are lacking and that no other students have reported problems with their records since a Dec. 21 story by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette raised questions about how the university went about retroactively granting the degree to Ms. Bresch, a longtime friend and business associate of WVU President Mike Garrison.

Oh. Hell. Something on the inside tells me that probably wasn't the right answer.

It's almost like if you listen really carefully, in the background, you can hear it very faintly:

"... there is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun ..."

Hometown proud

(Picture from thatgoddardkid.wordpress.com -- a blog by fellow New Martinsville kid Jordan Goddard)

I hope that someone gets the purchase order for the new ones in soon. And I hope they look a little less chintzy than the ones in Grant Town did. But I'm really proud of whoever did this one. That's just how New Martinsville rolls.

Quote of the Week

Paige, on Arizona Diamondbacks honcho and WVU grad/big donor Ken Kendrick:

"Don't shit in the punchbowl, Ken. It's our party."

For those who may not have seen what lead to my awarding of the Quote of the Week, here's the context from a story on ESPN.com:

West Virginia booster Ken Kendrick, who was outspoken in his support of Rodriguez following his departure, called it a "sad morning."

"He is so overmatched it's not even funny," said Kendrick, managing partner of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. "He's a nice guy and a father figure. But they had a wonderful architect and they hired the painter to build the next house. I want Bill Stewart to win and I want our program to be successful. But I feel bad for our future. I'm very concerned."

Really, Ken? Really?

I get it. Rich was your boy. And that's cool. I'm OK with that. But is it necessary to kick a man in the sack the morning after he picks up the pieces of something shattered at his feet, takes some duct tape, puts the thing back together and happens to make it work?

And here's the other thing -- I don't think it really matters what you think. You'll write your check or you won't. A big wallet doesn't give you the final say and it doesn't entitle you to be a total douchebag. You love this program so much? Just do everybody a favor and shut up.

About that pesky WVU coaching situation ...

As always, I'm not saying. I'm just saying. And I'm saying I'm amazed that there are more conspiracy theories about this coaching departure than there were about Sept. 11. And it's stupid.

At the end of the day, Rich Rodriguez made a choice. Every day, we all make choices. He made a choice. That's it. That's really as complicated as it gets.

Sun!!

The sun is out in Charleston!!

The first time I've seen the sun in West Virginia since Dec. 1.

I don't want to talk about Dec. 1.

I'm trapped in a glass case of emotion!!

The only thing I'm saying about Saturday:

"This reminds me of two years ago when that -- AUGH -- I DON'T EVEN HAVE A WORD FOR HIM -- promised me up until freaking 24 hours before opening kickoff that he bought season tickets for us, and you know what? It was all a lie. A huge letdown and a huge lie. Like this season's been. It's all one GIANT HUGE LIE and one giant letdown."
-- Jacque on the phone, 11:45 p.m. Saturday night, taking it all out on someone who just happened the be the unfortunate S.O.B. who answered the phone

Cooler heads since have prevailed. The sun came up, but still hasn't shined here. I really don't even mean what I said about the season being a letdown. Or a giant lie.

You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a prediction: It's going to be cold. It's going to be gray. And it's going to last you for the rest of your life.

It was a great idea at the time!

This came in the mail yesterday. It's just a shame that nobody's going to see it under the five other layers of clothes when Erinn and I go into Nippert Stadium Saturday night for the WVU-Cincinnati game.

I'm so excited for this trip! Erinn and Mike (her husband, whose blog you should read after this one by clicking HERE!) and I will leave on Friday and we'll eat at a restaurant you can read about here.

I'm taking my camera ... now that I've got the cord and I stopped being lazy ... to document the action. :)

The changes you find

When I lived at my old house, I was really lazy. I mean, I didn't do anything. I wasn't much into housework. I didn't do laundry. I hated cleaning.

I've been in my new place almost one month and this place is spotless. I clean it at least once a day. Clothes are put away. I hang up laundry the second it's done in the dryer.

I don't know why I wouldn't do these things when I was at my old house, but I do them here. I've been trying to figure that out.

I'm not sleeping all that well yet. I really wanted to go to bed an hour ago but I realized I didn't finish my laundry yet. I stayed in Morgantown an extra day, so Saturday night didn't end up being laundry night like I planned.

I tell you, it's a party a second here on Roundhill.

Homecoming was great. Morgantown is so different and it changes all the time. I remember with fondness the way it used to look and how things used to be, and I can see why people love it or hate it the way it is now. Every piece of spare land has an apartment building or a townhouse complex on it. There's more shopping there than you can wrap your mind around. Where I used to live is gone.

Morgantown's still got its charms, though. The Dairy Mart. Marris' store. The Beanery.

I really could get into a stromboli right now.

If only I didn't need to go to bed. If only I'd actually laid out the paper on Friday. Starting Monday in a deficit isn't the way to start a Monday. But here I am. In a total time deficit.

Morgantown bound!

I'm just wrapping up a couple of things, and then it's Homecoming time! :)

West Virginia's a 23-point favorite. I hope this doesn't become a "parking lot by halftime" game. My parents are going with me (and my friend Philip) and I'm getting them into a tailgate. I hope they have a great time.

Must get outta here ... I need to pack and set up the perpetual feeders for Inky.

I hope to BlackBerry blog ... 'cause I'm a geek, and because I can.

*Updated* Pimping ain't easy (but for them, anything!)

Please check out my friend Philip's column in today's Charleston Daily Mail:

My Turn: This wedding couple is brought to you by ...

It's a hilarious column about getting corporate sponsors for his wedding and a suggestion I'd made to him a while back about having the Friends of Coal sponsor the whole event.

Oh, and if you're not already a reader, make sure to put Mike Casazza's blog (on WVU and various other topics) on your favorites.

Speaking of Mike, he also had a great first-person piece in the Daily Mail today about the adventure before his wedding to Erinn, one of my oldest and dearest friends. I wasn't able to go to their wedding because I was in Kentucky at a funeral, but from all accounts and pictures, it was a beautiful day and Erinn couldn't have been a more beautiful bride.

But their wedding day is a classic case of, "Everything was going along really well until ..."

Here's their story, complete with a slideshow of pics:

The trolley blew its lid, but not the wedding

The pic of her dad (I'll let you discover it on your own) is absolutely priceless.