I Like What I'm Hearing

I like the way Skip Holtz handles the media. Even after a loss, he seems honest and doesn't pass blame to all the players a la Steve Logan. From the Sunday Gazette-Mail:

MORGANTOWN — Last season West Virginia pounded East Carolina so hard it hurt — 56-23. On Saturday, the Pirates came so close, well ...

"It hurt," said ECU coach Skip Holtz. "To have [my team] play that hard and compete that hard and come as close as they did. I said from the beginning this was a work in progress. I'm proud of this team."

With good reason. West Virginia, now 4-0, held Maryland to 50 rushing yards last week. ECU runner Chris Johnson had 92 by himself. On the flip side, WVU's rushing game, which averaged 271 yards entering the contest, was held to 127.

"Last week we had some things clicking offensively," Holtz said of his team's 44-34 loss to Wake Forest. "This week, we really made great strides as a defense. One of these days we're going to put them both together and be a pretty good football team.

"I told our players before the game this would be close. I said we'd be able to look back and say one or two plays was the difference. And you can look at the [WVU Antonio Lewis touchdown] punt return and the [WVU Mike Lorello] interception in the end zone."

Holtz's attitude may be infectious. I liked this quote from Aundrae Allison: "We stayed together as a team. When times were hard, we kept believing. That's the most important part."

I remember another season when believing was the magic that guided us.

Here's the rest of the story. And here's a good story about Allison from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.