Behind the Scenes: How WVU’s Video Team Helped Make ‘The Stroke’ a Tradition

The Mountaineer Mantrip and the singing of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" are two traditions that mean a lot to West Virginia fans, coaches, and players. During the football team's opener last week against Robert Morris, a new tradition began with the playing of "The Stroke" by Billy Squier before every WVU kickoff.

WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez talked about it earlier this week on his coach's show, stating, "Typically when you’re kicking off, it’s after something good — it’s beginning of the half, beginning of the game, or after you score a touchdown. The only time it’s not is if it’s after a safety, so everybody should be in a good mood when we do a kickoff."

On today's episode of In the Gun, WVU Assistant Director, Athletics Video Productions, Sean "Big Daddy" Merinar, gave a cool behind-the-scenes story of how he first learned of the new tradition and how he helped put it all together on gameday.

“The Friday before (the opener), the 22nd, we had the beanie bowl where coach takes the team through, they do the entrance and everything so they can treat it like an actual game day. I was up top an hour and a half before playing music, I’m doing videos, getting the team accustomed to everything.

"I was over there the day before, getting stuff together and organized, and I saw Reid Carrico and Chase Wilson in the linebacker room, so I poked my head in and I said, 'Hey, I’m obviously playing music tomorrow, is there anything you guys kind of want or just want to hear during warmups? Let me know — I always ask the players and staff what they might want to hear.

"And Reid Carrico — he’s just (always) even-keeled and flat as can be. And I asked him that, and I looked over and Reid’s eyes got real wide and he goes, ‘The Stroke.’

"I said, ‘The Stroke’? And he goes, ‘Yeah!’

"I’ve never seen him like this. He was just nodding his head and was like, ‘Dude, we do it for kickoffs and everybody claps on the sidelines — it’s crazy."

"The next day before we get up there (to the press box), I’m in the facility just kind of cruising around and Racquel (Rodriguez), coach’s daughter, who really helps us with a lot of in-game stuff — I said, ‘Hey, Racquel, I asked the guys yesterday what they want to hear and they said ‘The Stroke.’

And she goes, 'I was going to talk to you about that. Every kickoff. Every time we kick the ball, we play ‘The Stroke’."

"She had the idea to play the Chazz Michael Michaels video from Blades of Glory. Watching some of the players do it, we knew some of the fans would (clap). Nobody needed trained. If you go back and watch, it wasn’t even to the part where he was trying to get them to clap. People in the stands were already clapping. It was crazy. It worked like gangbusters.”