Published: May 21, 2008 02:12 am            

COLUMN: Where were those agents?

MORGANTOWN — A few things that cross the mind while I wonder where agents like those who are claimed to have dealt with O.J. Mayo were when I was a kid coming up.

I could have used a new Crosley radio console — which was equivalent to a flat screen TV then — to listen to “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger.”

• I want to thank Patrick White for giving me a reason to buy Playboy, as if I didn’t already have a reason or two.

This time, when the issue comes out with the Playboy All-American quarterback, it’s deductible.

• My question after breezing through Rich Rodriguez’s deposition in merely three and a half hours is this:

If members of the Board of Governors pressured Rodriguez into signing his final contract at WVU, who pressured him into that game plan he put forth against Pitt … a member of the sociology department?

• If President Mike Garrison and Athletic Director Ed Pastilong swung top basketball prospect Devin Ebanks to WVU, as coach Bob Huggins claims they did, then one has to ask where the heck they were in the effort to get Tyrelle Pryor in football?

“He had a great visit to our campus last month. One of the many things that pushed us over the top were his visits with our president and athletic director. Devin was impressed to spend a half hour with the president and athletic director, and had the feeling that everyone here is onboard to win a national championship,” Huggins is quoted as saying in the press release.

• ESPN college football columnist Mark Schlabach has come out with his pre-preseason Top 25. Considering that the polls in September have no meaning, you can guess that this one has even less.

Still, for those who are interested …

West Virginia is No. 9, Pitt No. 19.

Oh, and it might be good if Rodriguez would just pay what he owes and moves on because he has some work to do, considering that his arch enemy down south, Ohio State, is ranked No. 1 and his transitioning Michigan Wolverines are unranked.

Interesting, Rodriguez left No. 9 WVU and No. 7 Clemson.

No, Glenville State is unranked.

• Perhaps the feel-good story this year has been the way the West Virginia baseball team has refused to give up, coming from behind to wipe seemingly insurmountable leads too many times to count over the course of the season to allow it to qualify for the Big East Tournament despite laying an egg during two of the final three weekends at St. John’s and Cincinnati.

• Whoever got former Notre Dame-Florida State-Marshall-Minnesota-Oakland and current New England wide receiver Randy Moss to show up wearing an outfit covered with flying WVs for the Celtics-Cavaliers final NBA game out to be given some kind of award.

That kind of publicity can’t do anything but help the Mountaineers recruiting, considering how important it is for kids to believe it’s “cool” to be a Mountaineer.

• Considering that he has had a heart attack from which he had to be shocked back to life and fallen on a tarmac, perhaps WVU basketball coach Bob Huggins ought to consider staying out of airports.

It’s cheaper, less hectic and, in his case, a whole lot safer to take the Greyhound. You know, “… and leave the driving to us.”

• It appears West Virginia has cleared about $7 million from its affiliation with the Big East, which is a good chunk of scratch.

Perhaps you should make that $6 million, though, because the school says it lost about $1 million in going to the Fiesta Bowl, which is just about the amount tickets it had to buy and eat

• Somehow, though, I sense no one is complaining about that loss of money.

• Pacman Jones has his house in Tennessee on the market now that he’s Dallas bound.

House? Make that mansion.

It’s listed as having “30 acres and a lake” and it’s all yours for just $1.8 million, which might just cover his lawyer’s fees the past year or so.

It also appears to have a stable, which must be for his posse’s horses.

• And just so you can keep in perspective just how well Rich Rod did for himself in Morgantown, his house is on the market for $2 million, which is $200,000 more than Pacman’s asking price in Nashville.

• Rest assured the recruiting wars of the century may be waged in the Hampton Road area of eastern Virginia in the future.

That, of course, is Michael Vick territory, recruited hard by Virginia Tech, Virginia and a lot of other ACC schools.

Well, WVU pulled to a pair of gems out of their in quarterback Tajh Boyd and receiver Logan Beatsie.

Guess who got the next quarterback out of the area?

Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, landing a verbal from Kevin Newsome, who is being compared with Donovan McNabb and is Rodriguez’s consolation prize after having lost Tyrelle Pryor.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

        

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