Author: davehiggins

Nicely done.  This should be a fun season.  Odds are the lads will drop one somewhere along the way but right now the needle points to a Big East championship and a BCS bowl – probably the Orange Bowl against an ACC team.  The key is one player – the freshman Garrison.  If he can continue to improve (love to watch him run – he has vision  meaning he knows which way to cut to take advantage of a block) then the already superior passing game will get even more effective. 

In terms of realignment, WVU will end up in the ACC I hope.  In terms of quality play the ACC is going to need a pistol like WVU particularly when Miami is banished to the bleachers.  The SEC doesn’t need another quality team but the ACC sure does.

I also like the way Dana coaches.  He puts freshmen in and doesn’t hesitate to reshuffle the deck if someone isn’t getting the job done.  Old school (I won’t mention the coaches by name) placed seniority at the top (which is one way to do it) but in the long run holding back better players just because someone else has been on the team longer is not fair.

If and this is a big if, WVU can run the table and keep hanging 40 plus points on the board each game…..well can you say national championship game???

It’s now all on the coaching staff.  WVU‘s performance against Bowling Green shows that the players know the play book, they can execute the plays and there is enough individual talent to be dominant or at least competitive in any game.  (Hanging points on LSU and coming within a touchdown ain’t bad).  So, going forward, sure there will be teams with more “talent” than Bowling Green and some with less.  This means it now boils down the how the coaches call the games and make adjustments.  In other words, WVU has the potential.  Can the coaching staff do its part?  We will see.

 

 

1.  I think the Mounties stumbled against LSU because they were looking passed the Tigers to Bowling Green!

2.  For the last two weeks I have seen nothing but negative ads in the governor’s race.

3.  What happened to moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans?  Are there still any left?

4.  With the advent of movies streaming into our homes, why is Hollywood not making more good movies?  It still seems like there are only a couple of dozen good ones each year.

5.  The economy won’t get better until the gold bubble bursts.

Believe it or not, the 12-10 score and the half and the 55 point win is probably a very positive thing.  Every season there is a highly ranked team that stinks up the first half against a light weight opponent then blows them out in the second half.  Check it out.  Always happens.  The fact that the team can “muscle up” in the second half is very telling about the ability of the team to play once circumstances force it to “focus.”

So, although puzzling I think the Norfolk State win is perfectly OK.  Don’t write the Mountaineers off.

That seems to be the desperately “big” question these days, and rightly so.  There is a great deal of pain in the country because of unemployment.  The politicians are trying to create jobs but so far nothing has worked to reduce the pain of unemployment.  Here is one way to look at it:

1.  The Democrats seem to favor using tax dollars to “create jobs.”  That is somewhat of a misnomer since the dollars don’t really create jobs but rather provide funds for projects intended to create or “save” jobs.  The “prime the pump” approach.

2.  The Republicans prefer to just cut taxes and assume the private sector will use those savings to “create jobs.”  Problem with that is that the jobs may not be created in America.

3.  Consider this:  Change the tax code to provide that a taxpayer gets a tax CREDIT for $60,000 for every job created in America with a salary of $40,000 and benefits (health insurance and pension).  Now, a company or individually who is staring at his or its tax return which shows a tax obligation of, let’s say, $150,000 would need to say to himself “Well, I can either send a check to Washington or I can create two new jobs and only send Washington $30,000.”  Wonder what will happen?  I think new jobs will get created.  And remember the $40,000 salary generates withholding tax to the state and federal government along with withholding for social security and unemployment benefits.  (There would need to be severe penalties for those jokers who turn to their pal and say you hire me, I’ll do nothing and I’ll hire you and you do nothing and we both save tax dollars.  But the smart guys on capitol hill can write tough regulations that make this hard to do.)

With one tax bill the government could well “create” lots of jobs.  Well, actually, the private sector would be creating the jobs assuming they would rather have the productive services of an employee as opposed to sending money to Washington.  (The credit could be even higher if the state authorizes the same credit.)

This might just work.  Nothing else seems to have so far.

 

After four games, we will know whether the Mountaineers will go undefeated this year.  Here’s what to look for.

Game One.  If WVU has 30 plus points by half time, that’s one of four markers.

Game Two:  If Norfolk State has zero points at half time, that’s marker two.

Game Three:  If Maryland fumbles three times and gives up two interceptions, that’s marker number three.

Game Four:  If WVU comes from behind to beat LSU in a close game then we will go undefeated.

Now, we won’t play for the national championship because of that stupid strength of schedule component of the BCS but, no mind, the ‘eers and the Dana Holgorsen era will have arrived!

 

As Mark Twain once said, “Always do the right thing.  It will please some people and astonish the rest.”

 

When my generation starts to retire, some will experience the empty horror of “crackberry withdrawal.”  Right now, the ever present Blackberry or iPhone constantly has business related messages all day long.  Now some people even put the thing on vibrate and can’t resist checking it each and every time it wiggles.  Now when this largely irrevelent barrage stops when these people retire, these folks will freak out.  They will feel alone, isolated and no longer worthwhile because no one is communicating with them.  Therapist will start treating this new disorder.

Do you think we are experiencing a gold bubble?  No one seems to be talking about that but the price just seems to go up and up without end.  Sound famiiar?  Real estate always goes up.  Remember that?  If interest rates every go back up to five or six percent for certificates of deposit, the gold bubble will “burst” big time.  After all, gold doesn’t pay a dividend, gold doesn’t pay interest, gold doesn’t represent a work force or assets.  Gold is basically valuable because we think it is.  You sure can’t eat it or use it to heat your home or power your car.  So don’t be all that surprised when the price of gold drops and tons of folks lose millions of dollars.  It will happen.

 

First of all, if you know any political history at all, the supposed “unprecedented” divisions within the American body politic is absolutely nothing new.  It happens all the time.  If you think vitriol and hyperbole are something new, check out the Truman presidential years – “Who lost China?”, “Dewey Defeats Truman“, the Korean War, sacking Douglas MacArthur, McCarthyism…

If you want a real example check out the Civil War!

But one good thing may be happening in the background and under the radar as the debt ceiling crisis, the credit downgrade, joblessness and so forth is “boiling on the front burner.”  If you lend some credence to the observation that government can no more control and manage the economy than a coach can control the outcome of a sporting event then the abject failure of government to do anything positive for the economy may have a good result.  The American people (business and labor alike) may now stop waiting for the government do correct the problem.  They now see that is not going to happen. So, instead of sitting on their hands, wallets and ideas hoping the “turn around” will begin with the next government move, slowly but surely folks are figuring out that they need to move forward and start making their own way out of this mess. 

To the extent that means individuals start thinking for themselves and quit waiting for “the government” to figure out what happens next, the economy (which after all is the composite of millions of individual decisions every day) may start to improve.

 

It is July 31.  Everyone is talking about the debt ceiling crisis and the possibility that the rating agencies may downgrade America to double A status.  Aren’t these folks (Moody’s, Standard and Poor, etc) the same “rocket scientists” who COMPLETELY MISSED THE SUBPRIME MORTGAGE BACKED SECURITIES PROBLEM??  Quite frankly, why would anyone care what those agencies think?  If safe money wants to buy US Treasuries, just where does Moody’s think they will put their money if we are downgraded?  Nobody seems to ask them that.  Will they buy Russian debt?  Corporate debt?  Gold futures?  Here’s the point.  If there are no five star hotels, who cares if a hotel loses its fifth star?  Think about it.