NEW YORK -
Joe Madsen has always been known as the class clown of sorts
on the West Virginia football team.
When the cameras were on him, he would show off, always
ready with a quip or a joke or some sort of action to bring a smile and a great
bit of b-roll for television. When the cameras turned off, by all accounts, he
remained the same type of person behind the scenes.
His presence at Mountaineer practices and in the meeting
room and at team meals helped to lift spirits and keep the mood light, but at
some point, all class clowns must learn when to get serious about class.
For the second time in his career, Madsen was unable to
fulfill his academic requirements and join his teammates in their bowl game.
Now, as a fifth year senior, his absence signifies the end of his time as a
collegiate football player.
Dana Holgorsen acknowledged that Joe Madsen will miss the
bowl game after being deemed academically ineligible after the news broke
earlier on Wednesday.
"It's disappointing that he didn't take care of business,"
said Holgorsen. "The expectation for our guys is to go to class, get good
grades and leave West Virginia with a quality education and a degree. Joey fell
short of that and we're disappointed that he did."
Holgorsen wouldn't divulge any of his plan to replace the
senior center, but his quarterback apparently wasn't told to maintain the same
level of secrecy. Geno Smith, when asked what being without Madsen would mean
for his offense, spoke with confidence about his starting right guard.
"Braun's a guy who has pretty much started at every position
on offensive line and we expect him to carry his weight, as he always does,"
Smith said of starting right guard Jeff Braun. "I have tremendous faith in Jeff
Braun. It's unfortunate that Joey wasn't here to be with us our senior year,
but that's really his fault, so he can't blame anyone but himself. "
So according to Smith, the senior guard will replace the
senior center and the rest of the line will likely fall into place with Pat
Eger moving to right guard and Nick Kindler taking the right tackle position.
Syracuse defensive coordinator Scott Shafer is plenty
familiar with Madsen, having game planned against him in recent years as the
teams faced off in Big East play. When asked about what losing Madsen would do
to West Virginia's offense, he downplayed the news, but his lack of knowledge
regarding who would step in for the starter disproved his own point.
"I'm sure that Bassier is a good football player as well,"
Shafer said, referring to back-up center John Bassler, whose name he
mispronounced while reading it from a WVU roster that lay before him.
"He's a big kid. 6-4, 308 [pounds] they've got him listed at
and he's been around, played a lot of football. He's also a redshirt senior, I
think, so they've got good football players over there. They've done a good job
recruiting and like I said, we'll have our hands full," Shafer continued.
As genuine as his remarks about Bassler may or may not have
been, Shafer clearly had admiration and respect for what he had seen from
Madsen on film and in person through previous seasons. He is wholly unaware of
who WVU would replace its center with.
So it will be on Braun – or Bassler or whoever Holgorsen
would have you believe has a chance at the job – to step up for the kid out of
Ohio with arms like a tyrannosaurus rex.
He may not have the humor of his fellow lineman or the
experience at the position, but he has the confidence of his quarterback.
Connect on the first few exchanges of the game, and that confidence will grow.
Losing a senior leader who has been the cornerstone of the
offensive line will hurt, but the Mountaineers are plugging the pieces together
to soften the blow as much as they cane.
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