HERTZEL: An Irishman may have saved WVU's football season

MORGANTOWN — It isn't often a placekicker walks into the team room at the Milan Puskar Center and is confused with a linebacker or fullback, as is the case with Jack Cassidy, who entered the day on Saturday standing 6-foot, 6-inches and 230 pounds and left seemingly having reached Shaquille O'Neal proportions. That might have been the first thing you noticed about him, but as soon as he spoke, there was an odd Irish brogue mixed in with a year or so of Kentucky or West Virginia inflection having become one of the latest imports out Kohl's Kicking Camps from overseas who are now threatening to supplant Irish whiskey and linens as America's top import from Ireland while not carrying any tariff. A year ago he was drawn to America to kickoff at Western Kentucky, and having completed a solid year there, decided to test his skills at the highest level of college football as a transfer junior at West Virginia. While not matching Rory McIlroy, Ireland's most accomplished import to the United States and professional golf's lifetime Grand Slam winner in distance with his longest drive being one of 427 yards at the seventh hole of the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, the 35-yard walk-off field goal to beat Cincinnati, 45-42, Cassidy had all the laser beam precision of a McIlroy approach with a 90-degree wedge iron. And it figured, the two being nearly neighbors, Cassidy's home in Kerry, being just 75 miles from McIlroy's native Holywood. While McIlroy is a product of the more genteel country clubs in the area, Cassidy's gene pool and famIly tree took him through the more rowdy Gaelic football club that his uncle had founded. That is the national sport of Ireland and is more a conglomeration of soccer, basketball and rugby and shares very little but the name "football." Still, as he reached that stage in life where you decide what path you will take, he came across fellow countryman Charley Smythe, now kicking for the New Orleans Saints and decided that he just might have the necessary tool box to pursue such a career. The year at Western Kentucky gave him the rudimentary A-B-Cs of the profession but it wasn't until he found out what it's like to reach heroic levels before nearly 50,000 fans fans in Mountaineer Field, winning a must-win game. And, if he didn't fully grasp it at the stadium, certainly he did as he went out and celebrated and found that he didn't have to spend a dime purchasing shots of Jameson, although he claimed before leaving to get out and about with the local gentry that moderation is the best approach in season. Not that kicking a pressure kick was out of character for he acknowledged that he'd done so many times "since I was 4 or 5" in the Gaelic league. This was different. "Those moments are kind of different, too, because you can be 15 years of age and missing a free kick you think yar not going to wake up tomorrow or something like that. But you find out life goes on and those moments can build you toward today. I'm thankful I have those memories," Cassidy continued. Oddly, it was his opposite number on the Cincinnati side, an Australian Rules import, who looked as though he would be the most remembered kicker after he tried to run on a fake punt, only to see he couldn't make it so he kicked on the run and got a tremendous bounce and roll, the ball being downed on the WVU 1 with two minutes to play and 99 yards to go. The offense strung together an heroic drive that included three marvelous pass plays from quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. and receivers Prince Strachan and DJ Epps to position the ball for the game-winning field goal. "The defense did an incredible job forcing the drive and then on the drive before that forcing a punt," he said. "We were pretty lucky with the punt, getting it down to the 1-yard line, but that really shows the character of the team, the tightness of the team and the trust of the team in each other despite the last few weeks." Cassidy admitted he had dreams of being put into such situations since coming to the United States. "Yeah, you dream of it," he said. "But you don't want to make too much of the moment." The preparation for the kick was building toward a moment to remember. Ninety-nine yards away he's thinking he might to get a kick at it and as they moved closer the warmups become more intense. "I progressed from kicking with no steps into the net, to one step into the net to full steps into the net and then all of a sudden there's 3 seconds left on the clock and you're heading out there," he said. "That was the quickest drive I remember." The ball flew straight and true and he was hugging his snapper and holder, senior Macguire Moss and sophomore Kaden Seller. "I've never had any problem," he said, considering the group a unit. In his own way, Cassidy wrote his name into what probably is a strong Irish presence contributing to the history of West Virginia. Statistics show that about 15% of the West Virginia population is Irish/Scottish and that they played a large role in creating the infrastructure of the state. They came mostly during the potato famine of 1845 to 1855. A year ago St. Patrick's Day, Hoppy Kercheval of MetroNews talked with Margaret Brennan of the Wheeling Area Historic Society. “The Irish came, mostly during the Potato Famine, and they were recruited to help build the turnpikes, railroads and roads. One of the reasons they were a big contributor to West Virginia was because they were poor and had little education. They built the state as much as anyone,” she said. The construction projects that had a high percentage of Irish workers included the Paw Paw Tunnel, the B&O Railroad and the C&O Canal along the Potomac River. The work was hard and dangerous and Cholera claimed many lives. But today, one can safely claim that Jack Cassidy saved West Virginia's football season.