Things I liked from W Mich Game:
- Pat White
- Noel Devine/ Jock Sanders
- The Score
Things I didn’t like:
- Early on so no variety to either side of the ball; I want to see us blitz more, we have alot of depth on D
- Not getting backups in sooner…First off I think Jarrett Brown should get snaps regualrly, however it could hurt Pat White for Heisman.
- Our O-Line needs to get in sync.
- I hate running Slaton on outside sweeps where it takes forever to develop
- I want to see some of these WR’s more; right now we are like a three trick pony.
- On a 3rd and short PA with Owen Schmitt and throw deep or the Slaton wheel route. We are good enough to get it on 4th.
For the record, and so that the ENTIRE world doesn’t think that I am an asshole and just likes to start shit, I am rooting for WVU to be 11-0 heading into their game against my beloved Pitt Panthers.
I likened our game to playing College Football on Play Station. You want to have your QB get the Heisman, your RB finish 2nd and your WR finish 3rd. You’re afraid to go outside of the 5 plays that you know are guaranteed to work against the computer so you continue to do the same plays and dominate. We know White, Slaton and Reynaud are awesome and yes, we’ll obviously rely on those 3 all season long. But what I’m getting at is in the first half I would have liked to see them try a few more things. I would have been happier about the game if they “only” scored 49 points because a few of their drives ended short when they tried to go deep to Tito Gonzalez or Wes Lyons. Or because Devine or Jock got stuffed on a 2nd down in the 2nd quarter. We used Jalloh a little but wasn’t enough variety.
While Western Michigan is better than some people realize and I don’t think it’s THAT horrible to give up 24 points to them I still didn’t like a few things about HOW they got the 24 points. The defense played great in the first half except for two drives. Those two drives were so incredibly easy for WM. Didn’t like how easy they were. Plus, 3 TD’s and 1 FG. Would have been nice for a 1 and 3 or 2 and 2 ratio.
Loved the blitzing but still don’t blitz enough. While it might not be humanly possibly to ever think a team “blitzed enough” I still think our weakness is when we sit back and let the QB do as he pleases.
Offensive line didn’t seem great but tough to really dissect o-line play on tv. I’m basically just hoping our holes get bigger and our runs get longer.
Sidney Glover really made things happen. A true freshman that I wasn’t even expecting to play. Was great to see.
Marcus Broxie looked was bigger than I thought. He was so sweet to watch in the 4th quarter. Huge man crush on him.
Our defense can be solid but the 11 players on the field clearly aren’t good enough that they have to play every play. I thought some bigtime energy was provided when some younger guys were on the field. I’d like to see them be in on some more meaningful action.
I’d also love to see Jarrett Brown get regular action, sometimes to spell Pat White, but I’d love even more to see Brown and White in at the same time. I wish they hired a guy to just come up with plays that involved the two of them in at the same time.
Overall I thought it was a great first game. An opponent not too tough but also not too easy. Marshall should be similar.
Funny that Louisville is looking horrible and instead of being happy it sucks. The one thing though is I still think this isn’t a great sign for WVU. We know we can score on them, but how much they can score on us is the scary part. With that said, I agree that WVU SHOULD be undefeated this year. The thing is, I think about 4 teams in the country SHOULD be undefeated. USC should win every game. LSU should win every game, especially with all those home games. The winner of Oklahoma-Texas should win every game. 4 teams never finish undefeated. Just have to hope you’re one of the lucky ones that doesn’t get upset.
Yeah, as a Big East fan, you can’t be happy with the performance of the Louisville defense tonight. That UL-WVU game should seriously approach over 100 total points.
Of the 4 teams that you listed, I think that USC and WVU are the 2 best and the 2 that have the best chance of finishing undefeated. Not coincidentally, those 2 teams are my picks to get to the BCS Championship. Furthermore, you have to like the fact, if you are a USC or WVU fan, that your team doesn’t have to go through an extra Conference Championship game while LSU/Florida and Oklahoma/Texas do.
Cincy winning big is good for the conference, as would a strong showing from USF against Auburn this week. Most importantly (tongue in cheek) is the big non-conference game between Pitt and Grambling.
First and Foremost, I loved the fact that although it was like Beauty and the Beast, both Big East teams won last night. A win is a win in my opinion and it’s early enough in the season for a team like Lousiville, with a new coach, to receive a scare.
This weekend I’m going to Martinsburg,WV to watch the WVU-Marshall game at his new house. So instead of working a full day and getting alot done, I’m bouncing 2 hours early and watching clips of WVU on youtube all day.
What I’ve concluded:
1. Nobody can match our speed: NOBODY
2. I was way too drunk at the end of last game, because I claimed I wasn’t that impressed by Devine. He is straight nasty.
What I’d like to see this week:
1. More Jarrett Brown
2. Getting Devine and Sanders on the field with Pat White and/or Slaton.
3. More Tito Gonzalez, the dude can block but we don’t try and stretch the field with him.
4. More WR’s in general. Listen Reynaud is my favorite player on offense, but spread the Love.
5. More blitzing. Can’t say it enough.
6. Less cushion on defense. I’m sick of seeing teams chewing up 6-7 easy yards underneath our defense.
You know, I give a lot of credit to WVU for scheduling this game with Marshall. I liken it to the Pitt-Penn State fiasco. Clearly, it is not below WVU to schedule Marshall; hell, the ‘Queers will even travel to the Land of the Thundering Herd, which is admirable, unlike Penn State who thinks they are better than Pitt (and pretty much everyone else for that matter).
I know that WVU is trying to improve their non-conference slate, but this is a game that I would like to see played every year. So what if WVU beats Marshall every year. I’d rather see WVU schedule Marshall as its “cupcake” as opposed to Western Michigan or someone else. Even if it is only Marshall, I think it’s important to keep local “rivalries” going strong.
What I’d like to see this week:
1. More Jarrett Brown
3. More Tito Gonzalez, the dude can block but we don’t try and stretch the field with him.
4. More WR’s in general. Listen Reynaud is my favorite player on offense, but spread the Love.
To me it’s almost a Catch-22 situation. You may want all of the above, but the only way this could be attained is if:
1) Games are lengthened to 6 quarters
2) Less Pat White and Steve Slaton
3) In relation to #2, it would kill their #’s, and thus hurt their Heisman hopes.
4) Matt Wells replaces RichRod and Paul Wells is instilled as his Offensive Coordinator
I’m going to go outside of the box a bit here. These guys can obviously score on anyone at any given time. Let them. Give the defense a chance to work on their game as much as possible. Yeah, quick scoring may tire them a bit, but it gives them more of an opportunity to work out the kinks on a defense which is very suspect.
Sort of like Haver was alluding to above, the score of that Louisville-WVU game later in the year may approach something like 54-52. One or two defensive stands that game may prove the difference between a National Championship appearance and a disappointing showing in the Gator Bowl (or wherever).
Raibs, PSU’s “cupcake” opponent should be Pitt.
p.s. I’m going to take WVU laying points tomorrow. If they don’t cover because they gave Brown more time or tried forcing the ball downfield to Tito (Jackson) instead of allowing White-Slaton to do their thing….I’m blaming Wells.
p.s.s. Please don’t mistake the sounds reverberating around Heinz field tomorrow for fans. It will only be the Grambling band and the food vendors (“PEANUTS, POPCORN, ITALIAN ICE!!”)
Wells, you seem to want a lot of the same things as me but write them as if I didn’t already write them.
I also don’t know how you can come to the conclusion NOBODY can match our speed after a game against Western Michigan. I still actually think whether ANYONE can match our speed is a huge mystery. Don’t get me wrong, maybe we’d score 60 points against every team in the country. BUT, over the past three years have we played a great defense other than Virginia Tech, which was early on in the first season of these guys anyway? Because of our offense is so simple, I still worry that an elite defense can shut out offense down. But, like I said, this really is something I don’t want to argue because we don’t argue, and I’m rather just pointing it out.
Yetti, you don’t realize that more Jarrett Brown is a good thing. Only WVU’s backup is compared to Vince Young. I’m convinced this guy is a top 10 QB in the country. Argue if you want, but my point is that he’s awesome and I think he could easily be a first round pick in 2 more years.
Also to Yetti, I certainly don’t care about White and Slaton’s Heisman chances and I’m not sure on this board who does.
I don’t think it’s fair that some conferences have conference title games and others don’t. However, I think LSU’s schedule is actually set up easier than ours. Look at their away games. Mississippi State, Tulane, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi. They play South Carolina, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas all at home. I’d argue that our away game against Rutgers is tougher than any road game they have and I would have said before last night Louisville could be as good as any team LSU plays. Obviously not looking like as good of a point today and the SEC is always tough to get through.
Until WVU’s defense shows a little more and Ellis Lankster and JT Thomas are reinstated, I find it tough to rank WVU ahead of two teams that are outstanding on not just one, but both sides of the ball.
Pitt and Penn State somehow should play every year. Because you root for your conference foes these days I think the only true BIGTIME rivalries left are ones of different conferences. Florida and Florida State. Pitt and Penn State could be a huge rivarly, but playing is kinda important. I wonder if the NCAA could do anything about making 6 home games and 6 away games mandatory to avoid things like this. But, since I don’t see that happening, I wish they’d just play 1 and 1. Since Penn State won’t agree, I wish Pitt would just cave and play them 2 out of 3 away. I love the idea that if Pitt won 2 out of the 3 they’d split for the next 4, 10 or 20 years.
You can’t put it any better than Jonny Frank puts it, “Pat White is the balls.” 13-18 and that included 3 drops. His poise and control of the offense is top notch. Heisman!
Steve Slaton has way too many subpar runs but had a huge 2nd half. Maybe goes hand in hand with the O-line still looking weak but also came on in the 2nd half.
Noel Devine. Wow. I loved his first touchdown, which was right in the middle of the action. It’s nice he’s looked great the first two games once the game has been decided but I asked for more of him throughout the course of the game, got a taste today, and want more. Will only keep Slaton fresher. When will we see Slaton and Devine on the field together? I think soon.
Darius Reynaud has the quickest feet in college football since Pete Warrick.
Still not one deep ball. Are Tito and Wes Lyons even on the team? They had one ball down the field to Sowers that I loved and he dropped it. That is what I asked for though but only 1 play.
Defense actually played fine. 2 tds and 3 fgs is a better ratio than last week. Once again, when we blitzed we had success. When we sat back we sucked. They give the biggest cushions ever but even worse were the plays where Marshall receivers/tight ends got behind us. Unacceptable. Also too many missed tackles. The reason I thought the defense played better than one would think is because of how bad the special teams were and how good field position they got. Also, if the offense put up points in the first half and the score was 28-13, it would have seemed fine. It was disappointing that we could have put the hammer down in the 3rd quarter when 27-16 and Marshall had a 2 play TD drive. That sucked. Overall, solid defense, but I can’t even pick one player on the entire unit that I thought had a good game (maybe Scooter). Wicks was horrible and Quinton Andrews constantly looks lost. A thing I didn’t like was no Lazear, Broxie, Glover, and all of the other young guys. The guys in there weren’t playing well enough that you had to keep them in. Why not give the young guys some action? I’m hoping as the year continues we see more and more of the youngsters.
Didnt like the play calling. Let White throw the ball down the field more. Nothing like 3rd and 5 and throwing a pass where you need to run 5 yards just to get back to the line of scrimmage. Defensively, how pissed were you when they brought in the freshman QB and then only rushed 3. The next play they bring the house and cause an incompletion. Blitzing a young, new QB, what a concept.
Far below average performance but I was worried about an inter state home team coming out on fire. A 42-10 2nd half was nice to see.
Pam Ward repeatedly saying Ken McAfee was probably the worst thing ever. I did love when Ray Bentley “accidentally” said “Yes sir” to Ward, though.
Friday: “Also to Yetti, I certainly don’t care about White and Slaton’s Heisman chances and I’m not sure on this board who does.”
Saturday: “You can’t put it any better than Jonny Frank puts it, “Pat White is the balls.” 13-18 and that included 3 drops. His poise and control of the offense is top notch. Heisman!”
I don’t care if he’s the Heisman. I’ve love Jarrett Brown to play more. I don’t care about stats. But Pat White had a 2nd straight good game and is a pretty good player who has a shot at the Heisman. How is having a shot at the Heisman caring if he’s gets the Heisman? You can’t possibly think that just because I don’t care if he runs up his stats or not that I wouldn’t want him to win the Heisman, right? I don’t care if John David Booty gets the Heisman either but I might refer to him being a top candidate. Or Brian Brohm. Or Ray Rice. Can I not care but refer to them as Heisman? Do you want me to say Pat White has no chance of the Heisman? Don’t call me out if you’re inaccurate.
Wasn’t calling you out. Just addressing you since you made the point and I was writing a lot of things. I didn’t think there was anything wrong (that would be considered calling out) about saying, “Also, to yetti” and then just letting you know that I’m not too concerned about running up the score and building up their Heisman cases. Just felt there’s a huge difference between not caring if a WVU guy gets the Heisman to the point of running up stats and rooting for the WVU guy to get the Heisman if he’s in the running. Didn’t seem funny so I didn’t realize it was a joke.
+Noel Devine seems to be picking up the blocking schemes pretty damn quick. OH and he’s ridiculous.
+Darius Reynaud is not just a great athlete playing wr anymore, he’s a legit #1.
+ Like Haver mentioned Pat White’s arm has been really impressive.
+ D-Line picking up a ton of sacks, DINGLE-BERRY is a nice combo up front.
+ O-Line is coming together as witnessed during our second half explosion.
+Haver’s boy Sidney Glover is really beginning to turn some heads and could see alot of PT kind of like Jamhile Addae as a Frosh.
- Not spreading the wealth still
- Barely any JB
- Not enough DEVINE and for that matter Jock Sanders
- Haver’s comment about points coming too easy for the opposition is true. I think our defense is improved but feel like we just go through the motions sometimes, miss tackles and end up giving up TD’s instead of 0-3 points.
- Didn’t stretch the D allowing them to stack the box.
Once again a very reserved game from Rich Rod. I don’t know if he is baiting the other teams with the WR/Bubble screens or if he’s just too god damn stubborn to run anything else. I really think Pat White is a force to be reckoned with and think that we need to begin alleviating some of the pressure of Slaton. Haver wants to see Slaton spelled by Devine and Sanders and I agree. I’d also like to see thos three on the field together or in combinations.
What happened to Brandon Hogan? I heard nothing but good things about this kid in camp and haven’t seen him a lick.
I agree with Yetti(and Haver) that our big WR’s do a great job in the running game, but think about how much more lethal we’d be if teams had to worry about the long ball.
I really think Thursday against Maryland will be a good gauge of where we are at in the young season. They always play us tough at home and have a huge chip on their shoulder after we thumped them in the 1st quarter last year. We might be missing Keilen Dykes, which could prove to be a tough hurdle. However, I’d like to see what some of these other players can do like thor merrow, doug slavonic, marcus Broxie and even Julian Miller or Chris Neild(both longshots) The other thing I think it opens up for us, is to showcase some of these blitz packages I’ve been hearing so much about. The Terps have an unproven corner and I think with a couple of well placed blitz’s should be able to keep him out of rhythmn.
Players to watch out for are for are Derrius Heywood- Bey and Keon Lattimore/Lance Ball.
To be honest, as much as I’d love to see White/Slaton get the Heisman, the reality of it is that they are just hurting each other. It is really the last thing on my mind, and if Devine can make us a better team, put him on the field! One thing I have heard is that Rod wants to save the two scat backs and other players, but in essence you are just wearing down your veteran players, and the nucleus of the team. Darius Reynaud can’t make EVERY catch for us EVERY week, Slaton/White wore down last year and it cost us a BCS berth, so while we can we should be playing a large amount of our personnel. How will we ever know what some guys can do if we don’t throw them into the fire?
My final thought is this, I really hope that we got jumped in the polls because people thought OKLAHOMA played THAT RIDICULOUS of a game and not the fact that we were losing at halftime. I’ve never seen other teams penalized for winning by 25 points, just because they had a bad half.
I DVR’d the WVU press conference and know Wells will like this……….
When asked about Devine being a regular part of the kick return team, Rich Rod said, “We’re gonna slowly ease those freshman more and more into there. Devine, Jock Sanders, Brandon Hogan and Will Johnson. Those are the 4 particularly offensively, true freshman, that you’ll see more and more get into not just to the special teams, thats the first place they’ll be put, but on the rotation offensively.”
I’m hoping there’s a similar strategy with the young guys on defense.
A lot of same old same old. Probably starting to seem like a broken record so i’ll start with those and go from there.
-Defense looks incredibly soft but yet ends up with good results
-When we blitz, we have success; when we don’t blitz, we don’t have success
-Maryland ratio. 2 TD’s 0 FG’s. Hate that.
-Not too much variety. We did try one deep ball to Reynaud, that was open but not even close. We also ran a few plays I’ve never seen before and liked.
-Slant pass seems to be one of our best bets on 3rd down. Rarely do it but tonight we did to Jalloh for a real nice play
-Noel Devine is Barry Sanders
-Steve Slaton started fast and was solid the whole way through.
-A team seemed to actually figure out Pat White. Bad game, but not worried.
-Tito Gonzalez is still on the team and actually had a catch.
-Scooter blew up the backfield, Dingle had a huge hit, Slavonic made a few plays at the end, Magro had some sacks. Those are positives but also negative as a whole that i have to bring up 5 specific plays from our defense and can’t mention more
-Mortty Ivy has been one of our best defensive players if not the best. I hope Shayne Hale is watching and realizes Gateway linebackers (and graduates in general like Dean) EXCEL at WVU.
-Rich Rod is the man. Love how pissed he gets
-Hated that we let Maryland get a late TD
-Really enjoyed the 3 man booth of Fowler, Flutie and James.
-People might hate on me but Ray Lewis was absolutely hilarious
-At one point in about the 3rd quarter, Hogan and Johnson were both in at WR but were not used
-No Broxie. Pissed.
-No Wells on TV. Real pissed.
-Bring on Skip Holtz!
WVU’s defense WILL NOT be the bigtime defense I was hoping it could be this year but if they do 2 things they will be fine
1. Better 3rd down defense
2. Better red zone defense
Our team is going to give up a few first downs and some yards. But when a team gets to the 50 and has a 3rd and whatever, they have to make a stand and get their offense back on the field.
I feel like when a team gets within the 20 or 30 yard line, it’s almost inevitable that they’re going to score a TD. Look against Maryland, if they held them to 2 FG’s instead of 2 TD’s the score woulda been 31-6. That looks dominating.
Also, I know Wells likes to analyze and look at all sorts of factors like needing other teams to lose, teams jumping over us or us jumping over them, how people view us. If we keep winning, things will play out. It’s that simple.
Good artilcle this past week about Hale and Saddler. Saddler pushed back his visit to Michigan, citing Hale taking the SAT’s and wanting to go together, but also said he wanted to push all of his visits back a little bit to see what happens to his teams. He made a comment about how things are very uncertain in Virginia. The schools that have offered Hale and Saddler are Michigan, Virginia and WVU. The only thing I hated about the article was the writer didnt ask if these things meant that WVU has really vaulted ahead of the other 2.
Safety recruit Jermaine Robinson had a pick six last night in a big city league win.
Pryor was on ESPNU last night but I dont have the channel. Looks like he had his typical 100 and 100, high per play averages and multiple td game in a romp.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, give me Hale, Saddler, Josh Jenkins and round out the rest of the class with Dub V style recruits in addition to the 13 we already have and I’ll be ecstatic. Anything more is a bonus.
Another article this morning (titled “Give defense credit for win”) in the Post Gazette talked about things we’ve mentioned before, playing Devine more and playing him with Slaton….
“The emergence of Noel Devine means Rod is going to have to be creative and find ways to get Slaton and Devine in the game at the same time. Rod said he feels comfotable putting Devine in the game in almost any situation when he is the ball carrier, but still has some concerns when it comes to pass protection and blocking.”
It’s tough for me to analyze this week’s game because I was there live and didn’t catch the replay. However, I was impressed by a couple of things:
- Slaton/Devine carrying the offense with Pat White being neutralized
- White’s game management
- D-Line play
- Defense after 1st drive
Haver, I agree with the fact that this D won’t be what we anticipated it COULD. I think we definitely give up too many 3rd down conversions, I believe we were 5-11 at UMD.
I also think that I’d love to see the TD/FG ratio flip a bit, but for the most part even though we didn’t give up a FG, it’s more that our D played well then we were just giving up TD’s. The last TD was against our backup D.
I also think that our Offensive line is wearing teams down, but I’d like to see them when they have completely gelled. I feel like Slaton is not seeing very good holes.
Quick Notes:
-I hope ECU is treated lightly because this could be a major trap game if we look ahead to ECU.
-Normally I’d be the first one to be pisse
d that we were dropped in the rankings to 5 in both polls. However, we will not drop any further. The teams who leap frogged us were OKLAHOMA and Florida who have both put together a better resume. I like that we will have to earn any and all honors this year.
- I did notice Johnson and Hogan out there, but realized we wouldn’t throw the ball unless we needed to. Like to see more from them this week.
- In due time we will see White , Slaton and Devine in the back field, I pity opposing defenses.
- I really feel like we didn’t throw because Reynaud was banged up. I don’t mind this, but would have been nice to see us work the ball to other wr’s.
Huge news that I received last night is that Ellis Lankster and JT Thomas are going to suit up this weekend. These guys were both slated to start before getting suspeneded for “stealing” a laptop. What is this UCONN? Haver and I talked long and hard about this, so I won’t go into great length, just that I’m so pumped they are back.
As for the game tomorrow, everyone continues to make a huge deal out of the fact that 2 years ago at home we only scored 20 points against ECU. However, they fail to mention that our offense consisted of Jason Gwaltney, Jason Colson and Adam Bednarik. No offense to any of these guys but it’s hardly the trio/ or quad for that matter of White, Slaton, Devine and Schmitt. So let’s sit back and enjoy the new regime.
Moreover, Patrick Pinkney will definitely pose some problems for our defense, especially when it comes to third down defense. His ability to run/throw worries me a bit, but when does our D not worry me. I think this team lacks the running back they’ve had in the past though and that should allow us to key in on the QB and passing game. If we can just disrupt his rhythm early and often I think we could walk away big winners.
I will never make a prediction because I am too superstitious, but I’m confident we can win and look good doing it.
Wells, you are right, the talk about East Carolina having our number is annoying. Only one way to stop it and that’s to go out and pound East Carolina today and there’s really no reason we shouldn’t.
The thing I’m most encouraged about WVU so far is I feel like we haven’t even clicked and have so much room to improve. It is necessary that we improve or we won’t go undefeated but it should happen. White and Slaton haven’t both clicked in a game yet. Devine is only becoming more and more involved in the regular offense. Offensive line clicking. Still finding our 3rd and 4th WR’s (Hogan!?!). On defense, we’ve played the first 3 games without two of our starters. People seem to dismiss this. We no longer have any excuses and what if’s about Ellis Lankster and JT Thomas. They are back and they need to be as good as advertised.
Continue to win and continue to be in the national title hunt. It’s that simple.
Wow, where to even begin?!? Maybe the best game I’ve ever watched WVU play and for the first time this year they clicked on all cylinders.
1st play of game, Hogan. Wow. And then 5 more catches for the game. That’s big for our offense.
3rd and 6, first possession of the game, screen to Slaton that was 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage. About the only thing I didn’t like all game.
2nd ECU drive. They got a couple of first downs, 1st and 10 on the 36. IVY with an interception. That’s the type of huge play this defense needs. Mortty Ivy has been our best defensive player. So pumped about Ivy.
After a sack by Dingle, my dad throws out, “You don’t mingle with Johnny Dingle. He can sure bring the tingle.”
Finally saw Devine come in a play here and there. Loved that. And I’m almost glad Devine was human today, as we can’t expect him to always be super. It’s a bonus when he is super, not disappointing when he isn’t.
Slaton, the halfback pass turned run might be the one clip i showed NFL scouts if i was showing one. Smart, made a quick move, strong stiff arm. It was the whole package.
Slaton and White’s favorite foods: Crab Legs and Snow Crab, respectively. Just when I thought I couldn’t love them any more.
Jarrett Brown in the middle of the game. I love how he just glides. As Wells said to me when he called at halftime, “Does Rich Rodriguez read Watercoolers?!?!?!?!”
3rd and 11 at the end of the 3rd after a few first downs and 4th and 1 in the 4th. Stops both times. Such a nice change to what had previously been going on.
Just when I admitted that I’ve come to grips with our defense not being great, they tease me by playing great and now I expect it again.
Wells made a great point on the phone to me the other day alluding that our 2nd and 3rd receivers might be out there for blocking purposes more than even receiving purposes. Today we saw Wes Lyons have zero catches but be an absolute force on a handful of plays including the biggest pancake block of the day. Jock Sanders seems to really stick his nose in there on plays making some nice blocks as well. Great thought by Wells and really was illustrated today. Tito might block and Sowers might be decent but from my perspective I’d like to see the top 5 receivers be Reynaud, Jalloh, Hogan, Lyons and Jock.
FINALLY, the game we were waiting for. Man, that was nice to watch. @ South Florida this Friday is monsterous.
Instead of completely following the same track as Haver(which I will probably repeat some thing) I will take a different approach.
-Pat White completing to 8 different WR’s was huge. I don’t understand why this isn’t commonplace. We have one stud WR in Reynaud, and a bunch of great blocking guys who can get open in pockets on defenses. I love the fact that we are beginning to use the slant and the middle of the field more. I think this could open up the sweeps and runs to the outside. As Haver mentioned, I loved that one of those eight wr’s was Brandon Hogan leading the way with 6 catches.
- Slaton was Slaton this week and I love how hard he’s been running this year. The offensive line is really coming together at the right time. I also loved, and I think Haver mentioned this, that Noel Devine was brought back down to earth for a week. Devine is generally a humble player and I think a humbling performance not only takes a players head out of the clouds, but gets them hungry to work harder and bounce back.
- Back to the WR’s- For a while now, we’ve been dying to see some of our second tier wideouts get into the game and look at the effects. We knew Tito and Jalloh could block but how about Wes Lyons just flat out murdering that D-Back.
- Jarrett Brown getting into the game was so huge. People often forget how good he is.
- I liked that Jock and Ed Collington contributed to the offense this week. God forbid we have a situation like last yr where slaton goes down, we need to see playmakers and depth behind him.
- The D-Line has been sick as well as surprise play from our LB’s. There are some good D’s in the BEAST this year, but we lead all teams in sacks thusfar.
- Morty Ivy has been the D Mvp to this point. Magro(as much as I hate to admit it) has been solid as well and is a good pass rusher. Reed leading the team in tackles is what you like to see at MLB. I think last year that honor went to Wicks or Q and that’s just not good.
- Antoastio Lewis learned how to tackle and it’s really benefitting our defense, espeically on 3rd downs.
- Has anyone hear Larry Williams name called once during a game this year? I truly believe he is playing so well that they just don’t throw at his side. Although I’d try to exploit Lewis too.
- Mundy has been a beast when it comes to coming up and stuffing the run. He has played well around the line of scrimmage while Wicks and Q continue to be improved ballhawks.
Now, I know all I’m doing is praising WVU, but this week they truly deserve it. Now they must set their sites on USF and I will too some time this week.
Really was nice to see Collington play well. He could actually be important next year as we try to replace Owen Schmitt. While we don’t have another player on our roster like Schmitt, I think it’d be nice to still have some type of big back. We keep expecting it to be Terrance Kerns, but who knows if he’ll be ready to provide an impact as a true freshman. Collington seemed faster and I agree that not only was it nice to see this year, but real nice for next year.
I really think that’s one of my favorite things about this year’s team. It’s the first time I’ve really felt comfortable about moving forward. Before this year, I wasn’t positive that we had what it took to continue being an elite program without the White and Slaton combo. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved JB from the beginning and have loved our recruiting classes, but I’m talkin top 5 program. When you think that our o-line has zero seniors, several underclassmen are making nice plays a variety of ways at receiver; devine, jock, davis and collington; SCOOTER, IVY, a bunch of other defensive players, and a nice recruiting class shaping up again, I’m really loving things more than ever.
Ha, I’ve heard Larry Williams name called but I also don’t watch the games at bars taking tequilla shots. Let’s not act like he’s Rod Woodson, but he has been better.
I’m really glad Mundy is starting. If you’re gonna transfer for one year, you better start.
My Keys to the game vs. S. Florida tonight on offense:
- ESTABLISH the run early. We are averaging over 200 yards in the 2nd half running, however this is not the type of team we want to wait until the second half to start to run on. If the run is getting stuffed, open it up with the pass, and not just WR screens, but possibly stretching the field.
-SCORE EARLY- Again we do not want to be in a tight game with the Bulls like we were at Marshall. We need to score early, because this team will not be able to keep up with us in that dept. They are averaging 17.5 OFFENSIVE pts against us in the last two meetings.
DEFENSE:
-Disrupt Grothe’s Rhythm. The guy hasn’t thrown a pick all year so if we just sit back and let him through underneath, USF will just will just march right down the field on us and we will be in trouble. However, if we continue to have success with the blitz, we should be able to keep him out of a rhythm and allow for the secondary and LB’s to step up and make some plays.
- Like Haver always preaches- We need to keep the 3rd down success rate to a minimum. Period.
I’ve also put together a basic plan for tonight……..
First, I want you all to know that my door will always be open……because I know from my dad it’s you guys that keep Bluestar flying.
What I’ve come up with here is a basic three-point plan.
One: We modernise. Our computer software is dogshit. We update it.
We squeeze every dollar out of each mile flown. Don’t sell a seat to a guy for 79 bucks when he’s willing to pay 379. Effective inventory management will increase our load factor by 5-20%. That translates to approximately $50-200 million in revenues. The point being, we can beat the majors at a price war.
Two: Advertising. More, and aggressive.We attack the majors.
Three: Expansion. We expand our hubs to Atlanta, North Carolina and St Louis. And we reorganise all of our feeder schedules.
We gotta think big, guys. We’re going after the majors.
Wow, that was bad. So horrible. So painful to watch. So frustrating. So disgusting. Nothing worse than a loss like that when you walk away feeling like it was the furthest thing possible from a true indication of your team. South Florida also played sloppily and if there’s one thing you could say about a game if they played again it would be that the game would certainly be different.
Look at this from the post gazette this morning, “Twice they reached the Bulls’ 30, only to turn over the ball. Once, thye reached the Bulls’ 36 and turned it over on downs. Once they reached the Bulls’ 8, and Jarrett Brown forced an interception into the end zone. Once they reachedthe Bulls’ 2, and a fourth bad snap of the first half by Jeannette’s Mike Dent-this one over the 6′4 Browns head- resulted in a 17 yard los and a Pat McAfee field goal. Once more, they reached the Bulls’ 18 and stalled, and McAfee added another field goal for a 21-6 deficit.”
It cannot get any worse. It doesn’t, it can’t. Not for a team that’s built around it’s powerful offense. I think you have to give South Florida some credit. Their defense was fast, good and tackled amazingly. George Selvie is an animal. That McKenzie dude’s tackle and forced fumble on Slaton was about the most perfect and nicest hit I’ve ever seen.
Such a shame that our defense really did look great. Love our front 6. And I went nuts when Ellis Lankster picked off that pass. Outside of one freak play where Charles Pugh didn’t wrap up, and the first drive of the second half, the defense was great. And now all for nothing. BCS Championship hopes are over and once again we’re gunning for a Big East crown and “next year’s” national championship game.
Last night woulda been the perfect game to squeak out a game that no one played their “A” game. To look at some positives like the defense in general, Sidney Glover on special teams and Wes Lyons on offense. But we lost. All of the talk that WVU didn’t belong in the top tier is now justified. I’m not gonna say never because offhand I can think of Tommie Frazier’s Nebraska teams, but I think it’s very very very hard to win a national championship being a team that cannot throw the ball downfield. WVU relies on big chunks of yards from runs and against a good defense you can’t rely on that. If you can’t throw the ball downfield every drive is going to be a struggle. I also think last night that we saw in order to be a national title contender our o-line needs to be dominating and not just solid. I’d also prefer not having 50% of our pass plays be freakin bubble screens that you can see coming.
About the only person that brought his “A” game last night was Chris Spielman. It’s a sad, sad day in Eer-land.
I can’t believe that our defense is actually outperforming our offense this year.
Three problems I see:
No consistency on our O-Line
No variation to our offense
Lack of big plays: which might be helping our defense, but Slaton is not touching the ball enough
I can’t tell if there is a correlation yet, but the D has looked alot better right around the time JT Thomas and Ellis Lankster were reinstated.
My goal at this point is to stay in the BCS hunt just to reach a major bowl game. However, with the way this year is playing out I could see us with 3 losses or potentially still playing for a title….yeah, right
You know what else we need? We need a 200 yard game by Slaton. He hasn’t exploded this year and he needs to. I’m actually not sure that I agree that he’s not touching the ball enough. I know we might not have the exact same kind of depth (although we might), but I’d like to emulate teams like USC and LSU on offense. Slaton, Schmitt, Devine, and Sanders are all talented ball carriers. I’d like to utilize them all and not just pound Slaton. Keep em fresh and see who’s doing the best on that particular day.
Thomas seems to have been Wally Pipp’d by Mortty Ivy. Ivy has been one of our top 2 or 3 defensive players. With Magro a senior, I’m hoping JT can just get his act together and return as a starter next season. Lankster seems to be solid every time he’s in there. We currently start 7 seniors on defense but the fact that a guy like Lankster doesn’t start should keep our defense strong next year. I’ve also seen Johnny Dingle listed on projected 2008 depth charts and need to get to the bottom of this. Probably a little early to start worrying about next year, though.
If we keep winning we should put ourselves in the position to be playing in a BCS game. We must keep winning.
Neither Cincy or Rutgers looked overly impressive last week but I guess it can be tough to gauge. I still think Louisville won’t be easy for us but with all these other teams beating them it’d be a huge disappointment if we lost. Losing 1 of those games is one thing but 2 of them would be very bad.
I got my Johnny Dingle question answered for me………”He practiced a few times at Florida in fall 2003 but found out he would be ineligible before classes started. Since he never officially enrolled/attended classes, it didn’t count towards his eligibility. He came to WVU in January 2004 and sat out that season as a prop. Played in 2005, 2006, and 2007. He can come back next year assuming his classwork is in order.”
Dub V with a solid performance against Mississippi St. I could go on and on about how this win doesn’t get enough credit, but I won’t. A win’s a win, a loss is a loss and we won. If we continue to do so, good things will happen. If we win out I think it’s impossible not to be involved in a BCS bowl.
Win out, get Pryor, Hale, Saddler, Jenkins and others and this season has to be considered a huge success. Rutgers is going to be a tough game. They get up for big games and their crowd will be incredibly active. We gotta be able to stop their smash mouth style. We have to let Mike Teel beat us and if he does, that’s pathetic.
Watching the game live with Wells was awesome. Nobody loves Trippe Hale more than Wells. We cannot blitz enough. I love blitzing. Our offense continues to be like a high school team, where we basically tell you what we’re gonna do and it either works or doesn’t. Defense is really coming along. Will be important to stop Rutgers this week but it’s put us in a position to dominate every game this season and it’s our offense that has let us down.
Pat White is so tough but yet so fragile. Here’s hoping he’s fine to go against Rutgers. Wells seems down but I still love what I see in Jarrett Brown. Still lookin for Slaton to break a long and I hate that shotgun handoff more than just about anything but he had a nice game. Love him involved in the passing game. No Devine is never a good site and we need to see him right back in the mix this Saturday to ensure there are no problems. Reynaud is so sweet.
Nice to see Neild play a big role in place of Berry. Makes me feel pretty good about next season without Dykes. Lankster really seems to do a solid job. Wicks was pretty good at the blitz. Love that. I also love lookin at team stats and seeing our three leading tackles are our linebackers. This might seem normal, but I feel like in years past, our defense has been led by safeties, which is never a good thing.
Each week it gets more and more apparent we need offensive line dominance. Man we need Josh Jenkins.
Rutgers Saturday at noon sucks. Won’t get the attention it deserves. Gotta win. Then we’ll get the attention we want. Very simple.
I like the noon start because we really wouldn’t get national attention with OSU-PSU on and the rest of the games Saturday has to offer. We are on ABC which I think helps.
Love the defense, hopefully it’s not a abberition of playing against bad teams. However, i agree it seems we r truly getting better and I really think alot of it has to be attricuted with all 11 players’ ability to tackle.
We are better than Rutgers: ON PAPER. However, in recent games where we’ve had the target on our back with something to lost we have shit down our legs.
I think the key will be to jump out in front early. It would force the Knights to throw which is definitely not their strong suit. Stopping Rice is a must, which comes back to tackling not only when we stack the box, but on the perimeter as well.
I honestly think we need to really stretch the field to open up more running lanes for our stars. I don’t care if that means passes of 7-15 yards or 25-50. They are going to blitz alot which also sets slaton and devine(if he plays up for big plays off of screen passes. The slant needs to be used more effectively as well. We have a ton of speed beyond white, slaton and reynaud, but really fail to use it.
This is obviously a must win just like every other game. Alot of people think if we win and VT and USC win, we get jumped. Well the computer’s hate USC, and the only way to get more respect than VT if they win is to beat a top 30 team convincingly.
Huge win against Rutgers. I know it shouldn’t matter but Nessler, Griese and Maguire announcing the game and playing like we did was HUGE. One of them at the end of the game even said something along the lines of “I wanted to see what this defense had and they played great.” People always want respect but I agree with BWitt’s thoughts on our fantasy page, win and get respect. We won. At Rutgers. It doesn’t look like we’ll be moving up too much in the polls but being off next week means if anyone loses we’ll move up then.
Pat White was the balls today (Frank, Jon). Outstanding performance that we’ve all grown accustome to but haven’t been seeing. Likewise for Steve Slaton not only getting in the endzone three times but having a highlight td run. As usual, WVU ran their team like a High School offense basically saying, “Here’s what we’re gonna do, try to stop us.” I don’t exactly like that, but at least they couldn’t stop us today.
Defense was good. I wouldn’t say great, just because of Ray Rice’s stats. But you can’t argue with final score. Stopping Rutgers seems like such as easy formula….contain Rice on first down, make Teel throw. Mundy is so sweet and Wells’ boy Boogie Allen had a huge pick as well. Johnny Dingle continues to be a force.
I can’t even put into words how badly I want Owen Schmitt to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.
I love Vaughn Rivers punt returning. The guy means business and just runs straight ahead for guaranteed yards.
I loved Noel Devine at the end of the game. I know it’s not much, and didn’t factor into the win AT ALL. But he’s an important part of our future and also is able to add another element this season. Not playing last week, it was big to see him back in the action.
How bout that WVU defense? 5th in the country in passing yards allowed per game. And they’re 15th in the country against the run so it’s not one of those skewed stats. I think those first two games giving up 23 and 24 to Western Michigan and Marshall made everyone feel like, “Same ole West Virginia Defense.” Since then, we haven’t given up more than 14 points in a game.
Could the insertion of Selvish Capers into the lineup at Right Tackle be the biggest move ever?!? I love that Rod still isn’t happy with our o-line and continues to switch things up. Our o-line never seemed to be a strength so there’s nothing worse than just putting the same guys out there every single game without any repercussions.
As good as our defense seems to be playing we still don’t have ONE player listed as a top 25 player at their position per Rivals. And actually, outside of White and Slaton, Ryan Stanchek is the only other player on our entire team to be ranked in the top 25 at his position. Maybe it doesn’t matter but that kinda worries me.
I love this bye week. Guaranteed to move up at least one spot, get to sit back and smile if a top 6 team gets upset. We need to keep winning and I’m the first, second and third person to preach that, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nice to watch others lose and us move up.
Louisville are the Cincinnati Bengals. All this talk about the defense. We gotta show it against Louisville. I don’t care what they do they are soooo scary.
WIthout really doing any research and prefaced by saying that we won’t really know until Bowl season, I kinda think everything that has gone on this year, especially recently, kinda puts the Big East at the bottom of the BCS conferences with the ACC. Just being honest.
Wheels, cmon, two straight posts from me, I’m expecting big things.
Not really a WVU thing as much as it is a Big East thing, but I definitely think that the Big East has fallen a bit this year with the disappointment of Louisville and, to an extent, Rutgers. However, when you look at the total landscape of college football, every conference seems to be struggling this year with parity running rampant.
First and foremost it’s tought to post on last week’s game when all I can remember is the massive amount of shots we were taking at Mad River after every Touchdown.
I think Haver could be on to something.. Selvish Capers could be the difference make on the O-Line that seems like it’s starting to gel.
I think it’s fair that Pat White’s name is resurfacing when you talk about the Heisman, he’d have to have a ridiculous November to unseat some of these guys in front of him though.
I was in the bathroom at work today and picked up a SI recapping the first weekend of college football and in the top 3 of Stewart Mandel’s top 25 was:
#7 West Virginia- We’re used to seeing “West Virginia” among the NCAA’s leaderboards when it comes to offense (currently they’re No. 2 in rushing, No. 7 in scoring), but who saw this coming? NCAA total defense leaders, through last weekend’s games: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 LSU, No. 3 … West Virginia.
How much do we love Casteel now?
As far as Raible’s rankings, and Haver’s thought that BEAST is near the bottom of the barrel, I think it goes hand in hand with things we’ve said:
1. It changes from week to week(which actually probably wont help the BEAST through Nov)
2. BEAST only has 8 teams, so looking at total # of top 25 teams is kind of unfair.
I think it’s safe to say we are near the bottom right now, but not much is differentiating us from other conferences.
More to come…
2. We know West Virginia’s offense is downright scary,(I put that in my own words)but it’s going to have to be their defense that steps it up.(Allowed 60% completion pctg to Western Michigan and like 7 plays of 14 yards or more)
How ironic that I read that on the shitter today the same day I read:
Those conference rankings look pretty good. While I agree things can change weekly, we’re getting a little more to the end of the year so we can see a lot of the body of work. They certainly could change at any point and nothing is official but it’s not like the rankings are “Conferences based on the last 5 years” and is a running thing. I agree that you can’t just look at the number of teams in the top 25 based on our 8 teams. That goes hand in hand with my belief that we won’t get taken seriously until we have at least 10 teams. Basically, the bowls will be great and I hope the Big East brings it. They should get 6 in, and 6 out of 8 is a pretty darn good ratio.
I really feel like more and more people are starting to talk about our defense. It’s the perfect time but yet a horrible time…right before Louisville. If we give up 900 yards all of the “good defensive” talk will go out the window. If we play great defense on national TV Thursday night, I think the buzz will be huge.
Pat White huge on national TV could be huge for Heisman!
Ha im not ready to say I love Casteel but I’ll let him slide. Personnel is the key and we finally have some players. It did always seem like people liked the scheme Casteel was running but we just didn’t have the guys for it. This needs to continue. Shayne Hale!
Wow, my boy! Selvish “Lox and Bagel with Tomato and extra” Capers!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dominating!
-We should be able to score pretty often against this defense, it’s going to be our defense that will have to rise to the occassion.
-The reason I think that everyone is looking at this from this perspective, is because it was our achilles heel against Louisville last year. While I don’t disagree, I think it will be a great platform for our offense to continue to show how dominant we can be. One thing that we have been looking at as a negative(or atleast I have) is that lack of quick scoring drives we’ve had this year. However, that could be the one reason we are more polished on defense this year; our ball control. On defense, I want to see us continue the blitzing, it’s been effective and it was something that was non-existent against Louisville last year.
- WVU has to contain Brian Brohm.
– While I again don’t disagree, times when we’ve run in to trouble is when we let teams keep the ball away from us with their running game. Moreover, in the past we have tended to let RB’s who really aren’t that great run all over us when we just focus on the pass. I think we did a tremendous job in ” Containing” Ray Rice, despite the statistics he accumulated. Last year, and at times this year, it seems like we have ” Conceded” easy running plays/td’s, espeically inside the redzone.
I think a big difference in our team this year vs. last is that we are not only getting alot of pressure up front, but our safeties have been tremendous in making plays both downfield and behind the line of scrimmage. We really can’t say enough about the edition of Mundy, but we often overlook the two playmakers in Wicks and Andrews.(OK, maybe not overlook, but Mundy has been gettin alot of pub) Also, our ability to tackle this year has been unbelieveable and alot of that falls on the LB’s and CB’s and their ability to finish off tackles the first time this year, as opposed to year’s past.
Listen, Championship game or not, we are going to learn alot about our team and program in this upcoming month. The target is back on us, and we have 4 games we SHOULD be a lock to win. It would be nice to run the table and see where the chips fall, especially after such a disappointing loss back in September.
My final thought is this:
We have been “saving” plays for games down the stretch, and before the season it seemed like this was the game we were saving them for. Whether or not Louisville is the team we thought they were going to be record-wise I think we still ahve to treat this like a legit chance to show the nation what we are capable of. The same vanilla offense is not going to score us any brownie points with the voters or anyone that already thinks we just benefit from a cupcake schedule. We have to approach this game knowing that we are 2-1 and Louisville is 2-2, everything else should be tossed by the waste-side.
Getting so tired of these horrible, fumbling performances. It’s getting a little too common. How often are we gonna point to games and say, “Only if we didnt fumble and play like crap.” It’s a valid point if it rarely happens but when it happens often it’s more than a coincidence. One thing nice about last night is that we actually won. It seems like all too often when we start playing bad and make mistakes we lose. Was very nice to get “play bad but win.”
Slaton. What the f? Did he gain weight and get slower? Is he unhappy? Is it the line? Is he nervous? It’s a shame his biggest run of the day was called back by a hold that wasnt a hold, but nonetheless he’s regressed bigtime this year. Can only hope that that means he stays for redemption as a senior. Not to mention 4 monsterous games left this season, including the bowl game.
Pat White, what a warrior. Fumbles were bad but it’s pretty safe to say he bounced back. What a superstar. What a leader.
Does anyone struggle and look worse putting 38 points on the board than WVU? I mean, they scored 38 points, which is a lot, but it seemed like they played absolutely horrible. When another team puts 38 on the board they look good doing it. I also agree with Flutie. The Mountaineers only are stopped by themselves. Stupid plays, fumbles, penalties. Problem is they all happen far too often. Sooo many dumb penalties too.
I thought our defense played pretty solid but just gave Louisville too many chances. I always harp on the TD/FG ratio and last night was horrible. Also, it seemed like we went back to our previous years form last night rushing 3 and dropping 8 back in coverage. I believe if you rush 3 and put 15 guys in coverage a guy like Brian Brohm is still going to find an open receiver. Look what happened when we blitz the house and Johnny Holmes made the hit and Wicks scored the TD. The screen defense was beyond suspect as well.
Unbelievable how many times WVU was in the 40-50 yard range and could get 10-20 yards further for some Pat McAfee FG action. I know I got a text from Wheels last night sayin it was all Rich Rod’s fault but I think it was more so the players. The fumbling, the penalties. The play call reverse to Reynaud seemed like the perfect play call but the execution was bad. The Owen Schmitt punt was awful but it appeared as if Rod was yelling to Schmitt to just kick the ball, not do the rugby style. The end of the 1st half was definitely horrible and one of the biggest turning points and the play calling was bad but the execution didnt help. A bad first down play can be a disaster for us.
The nation got a little taste of Darius Reynaud last night and things were lookin good. Definitely turned for the worst but I think Louisville still gets some credit for being Louisville. A win’s a win. Nice to end with a statement from Patrick. One thing I really liked is that WVU and Louisville is really becoming “The game.” Three years in a row it’s been massive. We’ve come up with 2 of them. I feel like it’s by far the one must watch game in the Big East year in year out.
Haven’t been talkin about the games lately so I thought I’d write some things.
Loved the distribution of the ball yesterday. I don’t know exactly what happened to Steve Slaton or who’s fault it is, but he’s just not a 20-30 carry back this year, especially with our depth. I’ve been asking for more distribution all year and got it yesterday. White with 16 carries was nicer than the 20+ he’s been receiving, although part of the reason he was getting 20+ was out of necessity in my opinion. Slaton is much better suited for 10-15 carries and also 3 or more catches. I love getting him the ball out wide in space. I have nothing against Slaton doing great and going to the well 25 times, I just haven’t been seeing it that often this year. Devine is too dynamic not to give at least 5 touches to on offense per game. I’m not asking for too much. 10 or so is just awesome. Owen Schmitt only had 1 carry yesterday and I’d even like to see more. I feel like he can pound at the defense and wear them down a little. Also, our team is tough to stop when we’re going forward, sometimes plays to any of the speed backs can be losses. Schmitt usually runs upfield and even 3 or 4 yards sets up a nice 2nd and 6 or 7.
Pat McAfee is amazing.
Mortty Ivy is an animal. I loved all the blitzing yesterday and all year really.
While last night was great I don’t think we can just jump to conclusions that we can do that on anyone. The way our team is set up you pretty much know what we’re gonna do and you either stop it or you don’t. It was obvious yesterday that Connecticut couldn’t stop us. We threw the ball decently early but pounding a team with the run doesn’t really tell me we can pound a team that can stop our run. It was nice to see what we’re capable of doing when we don’t fumble or have stupid plays, though, and that’s something that can’t be said for way too many games this year.
Was glad to hear Wells’s best friend Chris Fowler mention before the game yesterday how huge it was for us to have Jarrett Brown. You look at a lot of other teams this year and when they’ve lost it’s been without a starter (USC, Oklahoma, and Oregon all have at least 1 loss without their starter). Having JB ready and willing if anything happens to White is big.
That’s how I feel about this game. As if there wasn’t already enough media pressure on us, I feel like the weight of the Backyard Brawl could play a factor as well. Eventhough Pitt is a bad team, I feel like they could benefit if we start slow, or make any type of big mistake.
With that said, I really feel like there’s no reason we should ever lose this game, no matter what’s on the line. We have the best player on the field touching the ball every offensive snap, with a handful of weapons at his disposal. I love the fact that people are starting to acknowledge any production from Pat’s arm as a real good outing. He may not put up lofty stats through the air but is second in the Beast in Passing efficiency. I think he is gaining more and more confidence in the throw as well which has really opened up opposing defenses.
Moving to the backs, Haver, I couldn’t agree more. I love Slaton and he is the reason we are where we are, but the other backs bring a different aspect to our offense. Slaton getting the ball in the open is magnificent, but so is watching Devine run past everyone or Owen plowing would be tacklers. I think the more we use everyone the more it also opens up Steve for runs, like the one he had on his TD against UCONN. It’s nice because I feel if people sleep on any of our backs they can all hurt you.
Darius Reynaud is a god.
Our defense is playing exceptional, eventhough we still employ the ” bend but dont break” strategy. I think the huge difference this year has been the pressure we have been getting up front, and our players making the tackles they need to make.
Ryan Mundy has to feel real good about his decision to transfer and I love him for it. A few years back when we beat Georgia in the Gator Bowl I thought the two biggest pieces to the defensive pie were Addae and Lorello. Well, Wicks and Mundy are arguably better than those two. I really enjoy seeing them play.
Rich Rod as Haver said flat-out runs the same plays and says “try and stop me.” I hate that, but you know what, it’s not going to change. So I live with it and really soak it in when we are successful. Another point Hav made was the distribution of the ball. I think this is a reason I have been less critical of Rod recently and another reason why we are playing for a shot at the title game on Saturday. If we work the ball around I feel like it doesnt matter if we just run three plays. As long as the ball is being spread to more than just 3 people it’s going to be nearly impossible to stop.
McAfee was still amazing…but probably not for WVU fans.
The BCS sure didn’t do you guys any favor, matching you up against Oklahoma instead of Virginia Tech. Although, this gives us the opportunity for Wells to see his WVU-OK game to come to fruition!
Because CLEARLY McAfee was the ONLY player from WVU not to bring his A-Game on Saturday night. Nevermind the fact that Slaton had 11 yards rushing, that White couldn’t hold on to the ball when he was in, that Devine had 11 yards rushing, that Brown couldn’t hold on to the ball when he was in, that Reynaud had 3 catches.
Look, I’m not trying to start anything, but I think it’s completely unfair for anyone to pin the blame of Saturday’s loss on the kicker. He clearly didn’t have his best stuff, but he only missed 2 field goals; McAfee was simply money on the XP attempt!
Oh and all this time I thought Slaton rushed for 800 yards in that game.
Big win for WVU hoops! Not many chances on national TV…to do that in front of Nessler and Mr SEC Jimmy Dykes was nice. Big game comin up against The Dukes.
T-Hav: I can’t tell if you are agreeing with me about the bullcrap that McAfee is taking or not, but the whole point of my post was to say that I don’t think it’s fair for the Kicker to take all of the blame when there was plenty to spread around.
no one on here solely blames mcafee nor did we harass him and his family. im pretty aware of all the people to share the blame and didn’t understand why it was posted other than rubbing in the win.
How much do you guys hate the University of Michigan? And, now, it looks like Pryor might be heading there, too?
As a Pitt fan, I am both happy and upset in Rod’s decision to leave. While I am happy that a new coach is going to be hard pressed to have as much success as he had at WVU, I am somewhat upset in that WVU being good is good for the Big East.
Nevertheless, who’s up next? I think all of the WVU fans can agree that landing Huggins after Beilein left was a solid move, but who’s next in line now that Rod, like Huggins a WVU alum, is gone? Here is a list of guys that I have seen as possible candidates:
Terry Bowden (WVU alum)
-Seems like he would be a good fit, although he has been out of coaching sine 1998.
Tommy Bowden (WVU alum)
-Just signed a big deal with Clemson, so I’d be surprised if he left.
Jimbo Fisher (WVU native)
-It was just announced that he would take over at FSU once Bobby Bowden retires, so I think he’s a longshot, too.
Todd Graham (former WVU asst.)
-An interesting candidate, Graham led Rice to the N.O. Bowl last year and Tulsa to the GMAC Bowl this year.
Mike Locksley
-Current Offensive Coordinator at Illinois.
Mel Tucker
-Current Secondary Coach at Cleveland Browns.
Calvin Magee (WVU asst.)
-Current Offensive Coordinator at WVU…will he go to Michigan, too?
I would be surprised if Terry Bowden didn’t at least get an interview, and the job could probably be his if he wanted it. I think it would be interesting to see if they stayed in-house with Magee, or went with an up-and-comer from the outside. What do you WVU guys think?
Potentially losing out on Pryor probably won’t be the only domino to fall. If a new guy comes in, what do you think White and Slaton will decide to do? I think they could both benefit from another year in college, but I think it will be interesting to see what they decide.
A few other names. Central Michigan’s Butch Jones, who had been WVU for a few seasons working with our offense. Duke Henshaw is another one but I’m not big on him. Brian Kelly’s name could be mentioned but it appears as if he’s actually loyal to his school.
I’d assume Jimbo will be staying at FSU. Maybe if this was 2 weeks ago, but I just don’t see it happening now. I love the positives of Terry Bowden….A Bowden (big name), WVU alum, has connections, has had success. But his negatives…not coaching in 35 years and not sure of the offense he’d run are pretty huge question marks.
Of the other names, Butch Jones seems to be a good candidate if not for his offensive experience alone. This could be devastating in general, but if we try to run some different type of offense it could be completely devastating. I’d like to continue to do what we’re doing.
I like that Reynaud called Jones. Not even for Jones’s sake, but that should mean that Reynaud intends on staying. No matter what coach we bring in, we should have great success next year. That could lead to immediate good recruiting and not let enough time for a downfall to occur.
Recruits that leave and players that leave will be big to see. Hoping nothing drastic happens but that’s a lot to ask from this program these days.
Some interesting names I’ve seen, heard or would like to see.
Nick Saban, Bud Foster, Rick Trickett and Dan Mullen.
One guy I kept saying I thought I’d like to hear was “the Appalachian State head coach.” I just googled App state head coach and realized Jerry Moore was born in 1939.
As for Saban, I’m sure you’re as surprised as I am to see his name. But remember, I’m just saying I saw his name listed. It appears as if there are rumors he’s very unhappy at Alabama and being from West Virginia and a former assistant coach it’s only natural his name surfaces. But more rumors seem to be he was in contact with WVU to put in a good word for Jimbo Fisher. That brings me to a sidenote. Every time I type Jimbo I think how sweet it would be to have a coach named Jimbo.
Foster is behind Frank Beamer at VTech and doesn’t appear as if Beamer is leaving any time soon. He sure would bring a different mindset to Morgantown but you’d also have to think whoever he’d hire at O-coordinator would actually run the offense. Being hated in Morgantown probably isn’t a good thing, though.
I should have mentioned Trickett’s name in my initial post. The ideal scenario woulda been Fisher at HC and bring along Trickett. I’m not sure if Trickett can be the head coach.
I’d love to see Dan Mullen’s name surface. The offensive coordinator at Florida, he’s obviously a genius. Urban Meyer will also be there for a long time. Could be a good place for him to come if he were to become a head coach.
The shame of this is that I think it’d be best to have about a month or two long search that was very thorough and extensive. But with the recruiting impact and transferring impact it’s almost like we need a coach as of yesterday.
He’s been out of coaching since 1998, is that right? Which means he’s not dialed in to the recruiting pipeline anywhere. And he……hasn’t coached football in a decade.
Anyway that’s all I’m seeing so I’d like to hear the other side of it. While being an alum and being related to a famous coach aren’t negatives, I hope there’s something that’s actually relevant here.
Listen, I don’t know who I’d like as the new head coach for football, but I do know I really don’t want Doc Holliday, Trickett or Terry Bowden. The rest of the candidates all have their positive and negatives, but it’s too early to tell who’s actually a reality to be our new coach.
He never struck me as a terrific writer but I like this column. Whether or not you or I completely agree with the view on Rodriguez, I like his take and the way he presents it.
There’s no question that the timing of the departure will screw up recruiting somewhat, and it’s a little scary to mess with success considering the era that Rod replaced and eradicated. But at the same time we weren’t exactly running schemes that will be that difficult to replicate. I believe the hardest part about making the system work is making the commitment to it and focusing on the athletes needed to run it. WVU has already done that. After that, I think it’s tough to give Rod credit for much in the way of in-game adjustments, or for getting the team over the top in big games through scheme or motivation. He’s the guy who turned the program around it around and gave it an identity- no more, no less.
Of course that still doesn’t answer the question of who they’re going to hire.
1. Haver brought mentioned yesterday that we might be waiting until after the bowl season to pursue Butch Jones and Mike Locksley. Makes a ton of sense and I hope that’s the case because these are the top 2 candidates in my book.
2. Would love to get Trickett back, but it doesn’t look likely as he seems like the heir apparent to the FSU offense now that Jimbo stayed.(Could be very wrong here)
3. I’m getting extremely pumped for WVU-Oklahoma double dip this upcoming week. The basketball game is a huge measuring stick for us before Big East play, and the football game could quiet alot of doubters. Not to mention give the Big East 3 BCS Bowl wins against ACC, SEC and Big 12.
4. Recruiting can take its hit this year, we just need to hire a coach to take the ball and run with it. As long as we can continue our winning ways, players will continue to come.
5. Did I mention that I won’tbe able to watch the bball game on Saturday because it’s my grandfather’s 80th birthday?
Seriously not even remotely trying to start anything (that’s my disclaimer), but the Oklahoma-WVU basketball game was actually pretty entertaining. While it did force me to miss almost the entire 1st half of Pitt-Dayton (the half where the Panthers were actually remotely competitive), I did enjoy tuning in. I have to admit that I was rooting for OK (Capel and my being a Pitt fan were the reasons), but I thought the game was well played on both ends. All WVU fans are probably ecstatic about Levance going down with an injury.
This week was a huge measuring stick for the mounties bball program and I must say after watching the game tonight, we seem to have a long way to go. I feel like the offseason workout program helped some players(Alexander) and hurt others. (Smalligan, Darris???) I know it’s a longshot, but how does Smalligan who was a legit threat from three last year totally lose his stroke? Darris hasnt been the same either especially from the FT line. We are going to have alot of trouble against Big East big men and may need to revert to zone looks on D. Nonetheless, I think we need more time to see where the team is at.
Ya, tonight’s game really sucked. Road conference games against comparable foes are tough, though. Had that Oklahoma game in the bag in OT up 3 with 31.7 seconds left and Darris Nichols heading to the line and he misses the front end. All downhill after. All big men will dominate us. We’ll battle, scrap and play hard, but the hot start could have been exactly what Huggins said it was….”Fools Gold.” Right now, we’re currently dreaming about how good we woulda been with Patrick Patterson and counting down the days til Bryant, Jones and Davis come to Morgantown.
Nice and much needed hoops win. As Wells and I were sayin before the game, thought it was a good matchup for us…at home and a guard oriented team. I always think Marquette sucks, too.
Ya Know, Marquette might end up being overrated, but I still think this boils down to a quality win like you said. I think we were inconsistent at times but have to like Ruoff’s big shots down stretch. Seems to me he could be emerging as a guy they get the ball to late in the game.
Loved:
Wellington 4 O-rebs
Mazzulla’s D and strong takes to the rack
John Flowers playing like he’s been there before
EH:
Free Throw shooting in tight contest
DeSean’foul troubles
Joe Alexander forcing up WAY too many shots
Q:Is it just me or does it seem like there’s something wrong with Darris? And did he always where two knee braces?
All in all great win, and way to bounce back after the ND debacle. Tough stretch ahead, but if we can go 1-1 again this week I’ll be content. A 3-3 Start in the Beast with opponents like ND, MARQ, LOUISVILLE, CUSE, ST JOHNS AND GEORGETOWN could easily be 1-5 or 2-4, so I’d be happy with splits the first couple of weeks.
Good hire for WVU getting Doc Holliday. Now, even if Stewart doesn’t work out, they have a qualified head coaching candidate on their staff who can take over.
Old Coach or New Coach (or, in your case, an Old New Coach), WVU is still in for an ass kicking when the ‘Queers pay their visit to Heinz Field this year. Coach Rod is, and always was, a giant douche bag. Looking forward to Bob Huggins crying on the sidelines of The Pete in a couple of weeks as DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, and the boys lay one on Dub-Vee.
Things I liked from W Mich Game:
- Pat White
- Noel Devine/ Jock Sanders
- The Score
Things I didn’t like:
- Early on so no variety to either side of the ball; I want to see us blitz more, we have alot of depth on D
- Not getting backups in sooner…First off I think Jarrett Brown should get snaps regualrly, however it could hurt Pat White for Heisman.
- Our O-Line needs to get in sync.
- I hate running Slaton on outside sweeps where it takes forever to develop
- I want to see some of these WR’s more; right now we are like a three trick pony.
- On a 3rd and short PA with Owen Schmitt and throw deep or the Slaton wheel route. We are good enough to get it on 4th.
That’s it for now…More to come
Marshall Sucks
Wells
September 6, 2007
For the record, and so that the ENTIRE world doesn’t think that I am an asshole and just likes to start shit, I am rooting for WVU to be 11-0 heading into their game against my beloved Pitt Panthers.
Cheers!
Raible
September 6, 2007
That’s why you are Raible
Wells
September 6, 2007
I likened our game to playing College Football on Play Station. You want to have your QB get the Heisman, your RB finish 2nd and your WR finish 3rd. You’re afraid to go outside of the 5 plays that you know are guaranteed to work against the computer so you continue to do the same plays and dominate. We know White, Slaton and Reynaud are awesome and yes, we’ll obviously rely on those 3 all season long. But what I’m getting at is in the first half I would have liked to see them try a few more things. I would have been happier about the game if they “only” scored 49 points because a few of their drives ended short when they tried to go deep to Tito Gonzalez or Wes Lyons. Or because Devine or Jock got stuffed on a 2nd down in the 2nd quarter. We used Jalloh a little but wasn’t enough variety.
While Western Michigan is better than some people realize and I don’t think it’s THAT horrible to give up 24 points to them I still didn’t like a few things about HOW they got the 24 points. The defense played great in the first half except for two drives. Those two drives were so incredibly easy for WM. Didn’t like how easy they were. Plus, 3 TD’s and 1 FG. Would have been nice for a 1 and 3 or 2 and 2 ratio.
Loved the blitzing but still don’t blitz enough. While it might not be humanly possibly to ever think a team “blitzed enough” I still think our weakness is when we sit back and let the QB do as he pleases.
Offensive line didn’t seem great but tough to really dissect o-line play on tv. I’m basically just hoping our holes get bigger and our runs get longer.
Sidney Glover really made things happen. A true freshman that I wasn’t even expecting to play. Was great to see.
Marcus Broxie looked was bigger than I thought. He was so sweet to watch in the 4th quarter. Huge man crush on him.
Our defense can be solid but the 11 players on the field clearly aren’t good enough that they have to play every play. I thought some bigtime energy was provided when some younger guys were on the field. I’d like to see them be in on some more meaningful action.
I’d also love to see Jarrett Brown get regular action, sometimes to spell Pat White, but I’d love even more to see Brown and White in at the same time. I wish they hired a guy to just come up with plays that involved the two of them in at the same time.
Overall I thought it was a great first game. An opponent not too tough but also not too easy. Marshall should be similar.
God I want Lankster and Thomas back.
thav916
September 6, 2007
PS Pittsburgh freaks is a little harsh
thav916
September 7, 2007
Funny that Louisville is looking horrible and instead of being happy it sucks. The one thing though is I still think this isn’t a great sign for WVU. We know we can score on them, but how much they can score on us is the scary part. With that said, I agree that WVU SHOULD be undefeated this year. The thing is, I think about 4 teams in the country SHOULD be undefeated. USC should win every game. LSU should win every game, especially with all those home games. The winner of Oklahoma-Texas should win every game. 4 teams never finish undefeated. Just have to hope you’re one of the lucky ones that doesn’t get upset.
Cincy pounding Oregon St. UGE
thav916
September 7, 2007
Yeah, as a Big East fan, you can’t be happy with the performance of the Louisville defense tonight. That UL-WVU game should seriously approach over 100 total points.
Of the 4 teams that you listed, I think that USC and WVU are the 2 best and the 2 that have the best chance of finishing undefeated. Not coincidentally, those 2 teams are my picks to get to the BCS Championship. Furthermore, you have to like the fact, if you are a USC or WVU fan, that your team doesn’t have to go through an extra Conference Championship game while LSU/Florida and Oklahoma/Texas do.
Cincy winning big is good for the conference, as would a strong showing from USF against Auburn this week. Most importantly (tongue in cheek) is the big non-conference game between Pitt and Grambling.
Raible
September 7, 2007
First and Foremost, I loved the fact that although it was like Beauty and the Beast, both Big East teams won last night. A win is a win in my opinion and it’s early enough in the season for a team like Lousiville, with a new coach, to receive a scare.
This weekend I’m going to Martinsburg,WV to watch the WVU-Marshall game at his new house. So instead of working a full day and getting alot done, I’m bouncing 2 hours early and watching clips of WVU on youtube all day.
What I’ve concluded:
1. Nobody can match our speed: NOBODY
2. I was way too drunk at the end of last game, because I claimed I wasn’t that impressed by Devine. He is straight nasty.
What I’d like to see this week:
1. More Jarrett Brown
2. Getting Devine and Sanders on the field with Pat White and/or Slaton.
3. More Tito Gonzalez, the dude can block but we don’t try and stretch the field with him.
4. More WR’s in general. Listen Reynaud is my favorite player on offense, but spread the Love.
5. More blitzing. Can’t say it enough.
6. Less cushion on defense. I’m sick of seeing teams chewing up 6-7 easy yards underneath our defense.
That’s it for now. Go EERs
Wells
September 7, 2007
Interesting tidbit. The last time WVU- Marshall met was 92 years ago. The Score?:
92-6
Wells
September 7, 2007
You know, I give a lot of credit to WVU for scheduling this game with Marshall. I liken it to the Pitt-Penn State fiasco. Clearly, it is not below WVU to schedule Marshall; hell, the ‘Queers will even travel to the Land of the Thundering Herd, which is admirable, unlike Penn State who thinks they are better than Pitt (and pretty much everyone else for that matter).
I know that WVU is trying to improve their non-conference slate, but this is a game that I would like to see played every year. So what if WVU beats Marshall every year. I’d rather see WVU schedule Marshall as its “cupcake” as opposed to Western Michigan or someone else. Even if it is only Marshall, I think it’s important to keep local “rivalries” going strong.
Take notice Nittany Fags!
Raible
September 7, 2007
Wells said:
What I’d like to see this week:
1. More Jarrett Brown
3. More Tito Gonzalez, the dude can block but we don’t try and stretch the field with him.
4. More WR’s in general. Listen Reynaud is my favorite player on offense, but spread the Love.
To me it’s almost a Catch-22 situation. You may want all of the above, but the only way this could be attained is if:
1) Games are lengthened to 6 quarters
2) Less Pat White and Steve Slaton
3) In relation to #2, it would kill their #’s, and thus hurt their Heisman hopes.
4) Matt Wells replaces RichRod and Paul Wells is instilled as his Offensive Coordinator
I’m going to go outside of the box a bit here. These guys can obviously score on anyone at any given time. Let them. Give the defense a chance to work on their game as much as possible. Yeah, quick scoring may tire them a bit, but it gives them more of an opportunity to work out the kinks on a defense which is very suspect.
Sort of like Haver was alluding to above, the score of that Louisville-WVU game later in the year may approach something like 54-52. One or two defensive stands that game may prove the difference between a National Championship appearance and a disappointing showing in the Gator Bowl (or wherever).
Raibs, PSU’s “cupcake” opponent should be Pitt.
p.s. I’m going to take WVU laying points tomorrow. If they don’t cover because they gave Brown more time or tried forcing the ball downfield to Tito (Jackson) instead of allowing White-Slaton to do their thing….I’m blaming Wells.
p.s.s. Please don’t mistake the sounds reverberating around Heinz field tomorrow for fans. It will only be the Grambling band and the food vendors (“PEANUTS, POPCORN, ITALIAN ICE!!”)
yettipsu2003
September 7, 2007
Wells, you seem to want a lot of the same things as me but write them as if I didn’t already write them.
I also don’t know how you can come to the conclusion NOBODY can match our speed after a game against Western Michigan. I still actually think whether ANYONE can match our speed is a huge mystery. Don’t get me wrong, maybe we’d score 60 points against every team in the country. BUT, over the past three years have we played a great defense other than Virginia Tech, which was early on in the first season of these guys anyway? Because of our offense is so simple, I still worry that an elite defense can shut out offense down. But, like I said, this really is something I don’t want to argue because we don’t argue, and I’m rather just pointing it out.
Yetti, you don’t realize that more Jarrett Brown is a good thing. Only WVU’s backup is compared to Vince Young. I’m convinced this guy is a top 10 QB in the country. Argue if you want, but my point is that he’s awesome and I think he could easily be a first round pick in 2 more years.
Also to Yetti, I certainly don’t care about White and Slaton’s Heisman chances and I’m not sure on this board who does.
I don’t think it’s fair that some conferences have conference title games and others don’t. However, I think LSU’s schedule is actually set up easier than ours. Look at their away games. Mississippi State, Tulane, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi. They play South Carolina, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas all at home. I’d argue that our away game against Rutgers is tougher than any road game they have and I would have said before last night Louisville could be as good as any team LSU plays. Obviously not looking like as good of a point today and the SEC is always tough to get through.
Until WVU’s defense shows a little more and Ellis Lankster and JT Thomas are reinstated, I find it tough to rank WVU ahead of two teams that are outstanding on not just one, but both sides of the ball.
Pitt and Penn State somehow should play every year. Because you root for your conference foes these days I think the only true BIGTIME rivalries left are ones of different conferences. Florida and Florida State. Pitt and Penn State could be a huge rivarly, but playing is kinda important. I wonder if the NCAA could do anything about making 6 home games and 6 away games mandatory to avoid things like this. But, since I don’t see that happening, I wish they’d just play 1 and 1. Since Penn State won’t agree, I wish Pitt would just cave and play them 2 out of 3 away. I love the idea that if Pitt won 2 out of the 3 they’d split for the next 4, 10 or 20 years.
thav916
September 7, 2007
It is a fact though, that LSU will lose on October 6th.
thav916
September 8, 2007
You can’t put it any better than Jonny Frank puts it, “Pat White is the balls.” 13-18 and that included 3 drops. His poise and control of the offense is top notch. Heisman!
Steve Slaton has way too many subpar runs but had a huge 2nd half. Maybe goes hand in hand with the O-line still looking weak but also came on in the 2nd half.
Noel Devine. Wow. I loved his first touchdown, which was right in the middle of the action. It’s nice he’s looked great the first two games once the game has been decided but I asked for more of him throughout the course of the game, got a taste today, and want more. Will only keep Slaton fresher. When will we see Slaton and Devine on the field together? I think soon.
Darius Reynaud has the quickest feet in college football since Pete Warrick.
Still not one deep ball. Are Tito and Wes Lyons even on the team? They had one ball down the field to Sowers that I loved and he dropped it. That is what I asked for though but only 1 play.
Defense actually played fine. 2 tds and 3 fgs is a better ratio than last week. Once again, when we blitzed we had success. When we sat back we sucked. They give the biggest cushions ever but even worse were the plays where Marshall receivers/tight ends got behind us. Unacceptable. Also too many missed tackles. The reason I thought the defense played better than one would think is because of how bad the special teams were and how good field position they got. Also, if the offense put up points in the first half and the score was 28-13, it would have seemed fine. It was disappointing that we could have put the hammer down in the 3rd quarter when 27-16 and Marshall had a 2 play TD drive. That sucked. Overall, solid defense, but I can’t even pick one player on the entire unit that I thought had a good game (maybe Scooter). Wicks was horrible and Quinton Andrews constantly looks lost. A thing I didn’t like was no Lazear, Broxie, Glover, and all of the other young guys. The guys in there weren’t playing well enough that you had to keep them in. Why not give the young guys some action? I’m hoping as the year continues we see more and more of the youngsters.
Didnt like the play calling. Let White throw the ball down the field more. Nothing like 3rd and 5 and throwing a pass where you need to run 5 yards just to get back to the line of scrimmage. Defensively, how pissed were you when they brought in the freshman QB and then only rushed 3. The next play they bring the house and cause an incompletion. Blitzing a young, new QB, what a concept.
Far below average performance but I was worried about an inter state home team coming out on fire. A 42-10 2nd half was nice to see.
Pam Ward repeatedly saying Ken McAfee was probably the worst thing ever. I did love when Ray Bentley “accidentally” said “Yes sir” to Ward, though.
thav916
September 8, 2007
Friday: “Also to Yetti, I certainly don’t care about White and Slaton’s Heisman chances and I’m not sure on this board who does.”
Saturday: “You can’t put it any better than Jonny Frank puts it, “Pat White is the balls.” 13-18 and that included 3 drops. His poise and control of the offense is top notch. Heisman!”
yettipsu2003
September 9, 2007
I don’t care if he’s the Heisman. I’ve love Jarrett Brown to play more. I don’t care about stats. But Pat White had a 2nd straight good game and is a pretty good player who has a shot at the Heisman. How is having a shot at the Heisman caring if he’s gets the Heisman? You can’t possibly think that just because I don’t care if he runs up his stats or not that I wouldn’t want him to win the Heisman, right? I don’t care if John David Booty gets the Heisman either but I might refer to him being a top candidate. Or Brian Brohm. Or Ray Rice. Can I not care but refer to them as Heisman? Do you want me to say Pat White has no chance of the Heisman? Don’t call me out if you’re inaccurate.
thav916
September 9, 2007
I don’t think I called you out. I think you did in your post though. “Also, to yetti…” come on. Take a joke.
-Insert last word here-
yettipsu2003
September 9, 2007
Wasn’t calling you out. Just addressing you since you made the point and I was writing a lot of things. I didn’t think there was anything wrong (that would be considered calling out) about saying, “Also, to yetti” and then just letting you know that I’m not too concerned about running up the score and building up their Heisman cases. Just felt there’s a huge difference between not caring if a WVU guy gets the Heisman to the point of running up stats and rooting for the WVU guy to get the Heisman if he’s in the running. Didn’t seem funny so I didn’t realize it was a joke.
thav916
September 9, 2007
Marshall Thoughts:
+Noel Devine seems to be picking up the blocking schemes pretty damn quick. OH and he’s ridiculous.
+Darius Reynaud is not just a great athlete playing wr anymore, he’s a legit #1.
+ Like Haver mentioned Pat White’s arm has been really impressive.
+ D-Line picking up a ton of sacks, DINGLE-BERRY is a nice combo up front.
+ O-Line is coming together as witnessed during our second half explosion.
+Haver’s boy Sidney Glover is really beginning to turn some heads and could see alot of PT kind of like Jamhile Addae as a Frosh.
- Not spreading the wealth still
- Barely any JB
- Not enough DEVINE and for that matter Jock Sanders
- Haver’s comment about points coming too easy for the opposition is true. I think our defense is improved but feel like we just go through the motions sometimes, miss tackles and end up giving up TD’s instead of 0-3 points.
- Didn’t stretch the D allowing them to stack the box.
Once again a very reserved game from Rich Rod. I don’t know if he is baiting the other teams with the WR/Bubble screens or if he’s just too god damn stubborn to run anything else. I really think Pat White is a force to be reckoned with and think that we need to begin alleviating some of the pressure of Slaton. Haver wants to see Slaton spelled by Devine and Sanders and I agree. I’d also like to see thos three on the field together or in combinations.
What happened to Brandon Hogan? I heard nothing but good things about this kid in camp and haven’t seen him a lick.
I agree with Yetti(and Haver) that our big WR’s do a great job in the running game, but think about how much more lethal we’d be if teams had to worry about the long ball.
I really think Thursday against Maryland will be a good gauge of where we are at in the young season. They always play us tough at home and have a huge chip on their shoulder after we thumped them in the 1st quarter last year. We might be missing Keilen Dykes, which could prove to be a tough hurdle. However, I’d like to see what some of these other players can do like thor merrow, doug slavonic, marcus Broxie and even Julian Miller or Chris Neild(both longshots) The other thing I think it opens up for us, is to showcase some of these blitz packages I’ve been hearing so much about. The Terps have an unproven corner and I think with a couple of well placed blitz’s should be able to keep him out of rhythmn.
Players to watch out for are for are Derrius Heywood- Bey and Keon Lattimore/Lance Ball.
To be honest, as much as I’d love to see White/Slaton get the Heisman, the reality of it is that they are just hurting each other. It is really the last thing on my mind, and if Devine can make us a better team, put him on the field! One thing I have heard is that Rod wants to save the two scat backs and other players, but in essence you are just wearing down your veteran players, and the nucleus of the team. Darius Reynaud can’t make EVERY catch for us EVERY week, Slaton/White wore down last year and it cost us a BCS berth, so while we can we should be playing a large amount of our personnel. How will we ever know what some guys can do if we don’t throw them into the fire?
My final thought is this, I really hope that we got jumped in the polls because people thought OKLAHOMA played THAT RIDICULOUS of a game and not the fact that we were losing at halftime. I’ve never seen other teams penalized for winning by 25 points, just because they had a bad half.
I’m leaving work, more to come before Thrusday…
Wells
September 10, 2007
I DVR’d the WVU press conference and know Wells will like this……….
When asked about Devine being a regular part of the kick return team, Rich Rod said, “We’re gonna slowly ease those freshman more and more into there. Devine, Jock Sanders, Brandon Hogan and Will Johnson. Those are the 4 particularly offensively, true freshman, that you’ll see more and more get into not just to the special teams, thats the first place they’ll be put, but on the rotation offensively.”
I’m hoping there’s a similar strategy with the young guys on defense.
thav916
September 13, 2007
DUB V VS MARYLAND
A lot of same old same old. Probably starting to seem like a broken record so i’ll start with those and go from there.
-Defense looks incredibly soft but yet ends up with good results
-When we blitz, we have success; when we don’t blitz, we don’t have success
-Maryland ratio. 2 TD’s 0 FG’s. Hate that.
-Not too much variety. We did try one deep ball to Reynaud, that was open but not even close. We also ran a few plays I’ve never seen before and liked.
-Slant pass seems to be one of our best bets on 3rd down. Rarely do it but tonight we did to Jalloh for a real nice play
-Noel Devine is Barry Sanders
-Steve Slaton started fast and was solid the whole way through.
-A team seemed to actually figure out Pat White. Bad game, but not worried.
-Tito Gonzalez is still on the team and actually had a catch.
-Scooter blew up the backfield, Dingle had a huge hit, Slavonic made a few plays at the end, Magro had some sacks. Those are positives but also negative as a whole that i have to bring up 5 specific plays from our defense and can’t mention more
-Mortty Ivy has been one of our best defensive players if not the best. I hope Shayne Hale is watching and realizes Gateway linebackers (and graduates in general like Dean) EXCEL at WVU.
-Rich Rod is the man. Love how pissed he gets
-Hated that we let Maryland get a late TD
-Really enjoyed the 3 man booth of Fowler, Flutie and James.
-People might hate on me but Ray Lewis was absolutely hilarious
-At one point in about the 3rd quarter, Hogan and Johnson were both in at WR but were not used
-No Broxie. Pissed.
-No Wells on TV. Real pissed.
-Bring on Skip Holtz!
thav916
September 14, 2007
Came to some revelations
WVU’s defense WILL NOT be the bigtime defense I was hoping it could be this year but if they do 2 things they will be fine
1. Better 3rd down defense
2. Better red zone defense
Our team is going to give up a few first downs and some yards. But when a team gets to the 50 and has a 3rd and whatever, they have to make a stand and get their offense back on the field.
I feel like when a team gets within the 20 or 30 yard line, it’s almost inevitable that they’re going to score a TD. Look against Maryland, if they held them to 2 FG’s instead of 2 TD’s the score woulda been 31-6. That looks dominating.
Also, I know Wells likes to analyze and look at all sorts of factors like needing other teams to lose, teams jumping over us or us jumping over them, how people view us. If we keep winning, things will play out. It’s that simple.
thav916
September 15, 2007
Good artilcle this past week about Hale and Saddler. Saddler pushed back his visit to Michigan, citing Hale taking the SAT’s and wanting to go together, but also said he wanted to push all of his visits back a little bit to see what happens to his teams. He made a comment about how things are very uncertain in Virginia. The schools that have offered Hale and Saddler are Michigan, Virginia and WVU. The only thing I hated about the article was the writer didnt ask if these things meant that WVU has really vaulted ahead of the other 2.
Safety recruit Jermaine Robinson had a pick six last night in a big city league win.
Pryor was on ESPNU last night but I dont have the channel. Looks like he had his typical 100 and 100, high per play averages and multiple td game in a romp.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, give me Hale, Saddler, Josh Jenkins and round out the rest of the class with Dub V style recruits in addition to the 13 we already have and I’ll be ecstatic. Anything more is a bonus.
Another article this morning (titled “Give defense credit for win”) in the Post Gazette talked about things we’ve mentioned before, playing Devine more and playing him with Slaton….
“The emergence of Noel Devine means Rod is going to have to be creative and find ways to get Slaton and Devine in the game at the same time. Rod said he feels comfotable putting Devine in the game in almost any situation when he is the ball carrier, but still has some concerns when it comes to pass protection and blocking.”
thav916
September 15, 2007
It’s tough for me to analyze this week’s game because I was there live and didn’t catch the replay. However, I was impressed by a couple of things:
- Slaton/Devine carrying the offense with Pat White being neutralized
- White’s game management
- D-Line play
- Defense after 1st drive
Haver, I agree with the fact that this D won’t be what we anticipated it COULD. I think we definitely give up too many 3rd down conversions, I believe we were 5-11 at UMD.
I also think that I’d love to see the TD/FG ratio flip a bit, but for the most part even though we didn’t give up a FG, it’s more that our D played well then we were just giving up TD’s. The last TD was against our backup D.
I also think that our Offensive line is wearing teams down, but I’d like to see them when they have completely gelled. I feel like Slaton is not seeing very good holes.
Quick Notes:
-I hope ECU is treated lightly because this could be a major trap game if we look ahead to ECU.
-Normally I’d be the first one to be pisse
d that we were dropped in the rankings to 5 in both polls. However, we will not drop any further. The teams who leap frogged us were OKLAHOMA and Florida who have both put together a better resume. I like that we will have to earn any and all honors this year.
- I did notice Johnson and Hogan out there, but realized we wouldn’t throw the ball unless we needed to. Like to see more from them this week.
- In due time we will see White , Slaton and Devine in the back field, I pity opposing defenses.
- I really feel like we didn’t throw because Reynaud was banged up. I don’t mind this, but would have been nice to see us work the ball to other wr’s.
That’s all for now.
Wells
September 18, 2007
Huge news that I received last night is that Ellis Lankster and JT Thomas are going to suit up this weekend. These guys were both slated to start before getting suspeneded for “stealing” a laptop. What is this UCONN? Haver and I talked long and hard about this, so I won’t go into great length, just that I’m so pumped they are back.
As for the game tomorrow, everyone continues to make a huge deal out of the fact that 2 years ago at home we only scored 20 points against ECU. However, they fail to mention that our offense consisted of Jason Gwaltney, Jason Colson and Adam Bednarik. No offense to any of these guys but it’s hardly the trio/ or quad for that matter of White, Slaton, Devine and Schmitt. So let’s sit back and enjoy the new regime.
Moreover, Patrick Pinkney will definitely pose some problems for our defense, especially when it comes to third down defense. His ability to run/throw worries me a bit, but when does our D not worry me. I think this team lacks the running back they’ve had in the past though and that should allow us to key in on the QB and passing game. If we can just disrupt his rhythm early and often I think we could walk away big winners.
I will never make a prediction because I am too superstitious, but I’m confident we can win and look good doing it.
Wells
September 21, 2007
I’m confident we can win and Wells will look good watching it!
thav916
September 21, 2007
Wells, you are right, the talk about East Carolina having our number is annoying. Only one way to stop it and that’s to go out and pound East Carolina today and there’s really no reason we shouldn’t.
The thing I’m most encouraged about WVU so far is I feel like we haven’t even clicked and have so much room to improve. It is necessary that we improve or we won’t go undefeated but it should happen. White and Slaton haven’t both clicked in a game yet. Devine is only becoming more and more involved in the regular offense. Offensive line clicking. Still finding our 3rd and 4th WR’s (Hogan!?!). On defense, we’ve played the first 3 games without two of our starters. People seem to dismiss this. We no longer have any excuses and what if’s about Ellis Lankster and JT Thomas. They are back and they need to be as good as advertised.
Continue to win and continue to be in the national title hunt. It’s that simple.
thav916
September 22, 2007
Wow, where to even begin?!? Maybe the best game I’ve ever watched WVU play and for the first time this year they clicked on all cylinders.
1st play of game, Hogan. Wow. And then 5 more catches for the game. That’s big for our offense.
3rd and 6, first possession of the game, screen to Slaton that was 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage. About the only thing I didn’t like all game.
2nd ECU drive. They got a couple of first downs, 1st and 10 on the 36. IVY with an interception. That’s the type of huge play this defense needs. Mortty Ivy has been our best defensive player. So pumped about Ivy.
After a sack by Dingle, my dad throws out, “You don’t mingle with Johnny Dingle. He can sure bring the tingle.”
Finally saw Devine come in a play here and there. Loved that. And I’m almost glad Devine was human today, as we can’t expect him to always be super. It’s a bonus when he is super, not disappointing when he isn’t.
Slaton, the halfback pass turned run might be the one clip i showed NFL scouts if i was showing one. Smart, made a quick move, strong stiff arm. It was the whole package.
Slaton and White’s favorite foods: Crab Legs and Snow Crab, respectively. Just when I thought I couldn’t love them any more.
Jarrett Brown in the middle of the game. I love how he just glides. As Wells said to me when he called at halftime, “Does Rich Rodriguez read Watercoolers?!?!?!?!”
3rd and 11 at the end of the 3rd after a few first downs and 4th and 1 in the 4th. Stops both times. Such a nice change to what had previously been going on.
Just when I admitted that I’ve come to grips with our defense not being great, they tease me by playing great and now I expect it again.
Wells made a great point on the phone to me the other day alluding that our 2nd and 3rd receivers might be out there for blocking purposes more than even receiving purposes. Today we saw Wes Lyons have zero catches but be an absolute force on a handful of plays including the biggest pancake block of the day. Jock Sanders seems to really stick his nose in there on plays making some nice blocks as well. Great thought by Wells and really was illustrated today. Tito might block and Sowers might be decent but from my perspective I’d like to see the top 5 receivers be Reynaud, Jalloh, Hogan, Lyons and Jock.
FINALLY, the game we were waiting for. Man, that was nice to watch. @ South Florida this Friday is monsterous.
thav916
September 22, 2007
Oh, and Pat White is the balls.
Works cited
Frank, Jon. His bedroom. Parsippany, NJ. 2006.
thav916
September 22, 2007
Instead of completely following the same track as Haver(which I will probably repeat some thing) I will take a different approach.
-Pat White completing to 8 different WR’s was huge. I don’t understand why this isn’t commonplace. We have one stud WR in Reynaud, and a bunch of great blocking guys who can get open in pockets on defenses. I love the fact that we are beginning to use the slant and the middle of the field more. I think this could open up the sweeps and runs to the outside. As Haver mentioned, I loved that one of those eight wr’s was Brandon Hogan leading the way with 6 catches.
- Slaton was Slaton this week and I love how hard he’s been running this year. The offensive line is really coming together at the right time. I also loved, and I think Haver mentioned this, that Noel Devine was brought back down to earth for a week. Devine is generally a humble player and I think a humbling performance not only takes a players head out of the clouds, but gets them hungry to work harder and bounce back.
- Back to the WR’s- For a while now, we’ve been dying to see some of our second tier wideouts get into the game and look at the effects. We knew Tito and Jalloh could block but how about Wes Lyons just flat out murdering that D-Back.
- Jarrett Brown getting into the game was so huge. People often forget how good he is.
- I liked that Jock and Ed Collington contributed to the offense this week. God forbid we have a situation like last yr where slaton goes down, we need to see playmakers and depth behind him.
- The D-Line has been sick as well as surprise play from our LB’s. There are some good D’s in the BEAST this year, but we lead all teams in sacks thusfar.
- Morty Ivy has been the D Mvp to this point. Magro(as much as I hate to admit it) has been solid as well and is a good pass rusher. Reed leading the team in tackles is what you like to see at MLB. I think last year that honor went to Wicks or Q and that’s just not good.
- Antoastio Lewis learned how to tackle and it’s really benefitting our defense, espeically on 3rd downs.
- Has anyone hear Larry Williams name called once during a game this year? I truly believe he is playing so well that they just don’t throw at his side. Although I’d try to exploit Lewis too.
- Mundy has been a beast when it comes to coming up and stuffing the run. He has played well around the line of scrimmage while Wicks and Q continue to be improved ballhawks.
Now, I know all I’m doing is praising WVU, but this week they truly deserve it. Now they must set their sites on USF and I will too some time this week.
Wells
September 24, 2007
Good stuff Wells. Let me try to build on that.
Really was nice to see Collington play well. He could actually be important next year as we try to replace Owen Schmitt. While we don’t have another player on our roster like Schmitt, I think it’d be nice to still have some type of big back. We keep expecting it to be Terrance Kerns, but who knows if he’ll be ready to provide an impact as a true freshman. Collington seemed faster and I agree that not only was it nice to see this year, but real nice for next year.
I really think that’s one of my favorite things about this year’s team. It’s the first time I’ve really felt comfortable about moving forward. Before this year, I wasn’t positive that we had what it took to continue being an elite program without the White and Slaton combo. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved JB from the beginning and have loved our recruiting classes, but I’m talkin top 5 program. When you think that our o-line has zero seniors, several underclassmen are making nice plays a variety of ways at receiver; devine, jock, davis and collington; SCOOTER, IVY, a bunch of other defensive players, and a nice recruiting class shaping up again, I’m really loving things more than ever.
Ha, I’ve heard Larry Williams name called but I also don’t watch the games at bars taking tequilla shots. Let’s not act like he’s Rod Woodson, but he has been better.
I’m really glad Mundy is starting. If you’re gonna transfer for one year, you better start.
Friday is so huge
thav916
September 25, 2007
They were kamikaze shots, not tequila.
Wells
September 25, 2007
My Keys to the game vs. S. Florida tonight on offense:
- ESTABLISH the run early. We are averaging over 200 yards in the 2nd half running, however this is not the type of team we want to wait until the second half to start to run on. If the run is getting stuffed, open it up with the pass, and not just WR screens, but possibly stretching the field.
-SCORE EARLY- Again we do not want to be in a tight game with the Bulls like we were at Marshall. We need to score early, because this team will not be able to keep up with us in that dept. They are averaging 17.5 OFFENSIVE pts against us in the last two meetings.
DEFENSE:
-Disrupt Grothe’s Rhythm. The guy hasn’t thrown a pick all year so if we just sit back and let him through underneath, USF will just will just march right down the field on us and we will be in trouble. However, if we continue to have success with the blitz, we should be able to keep him out of a rhythm and allow for the secondary and LB’s to step up and make some plays.
- Like Haver always preaches- We need to keep the 3rd down success rate to a minimum. Period.
Wells
September 28, 2007
I’ve also put together a basic plan for tonight……..
First, I want you all to know that my door will always be open……because I know from my dad it’s you guys that keep Bluestar flying.
What I’ve come up with here is a basic three-point plan.
One: We modernise. Our computer software is dogshit. We update it.
We squeeze every dollar out of each mile flown. Don’t sell a seat to a guy for 79 bucks when he’s willing to pay 379. Effective inventory management will increase our load factor by 5-20%. That translates to approximately $50-200 million in revenues. The point being, we can beat the majors at a price war.
Two: Advertising. More, and aggressive.We attack the majors.
Three: Expansion. We expand our hubs to Atlanta, North Carolina and St Louis. And we reorganise all of our feeder schedules.
We gotta think big, guys. We’re going after the majors.
Well, cards on the table, guys. What do you say?
thegreatawakening
September 28, 2007
Wow, that was bad. So horrible. So painful to watch. So frustrating. So disgusting. Nothing worse than a loss like that when you walk away feeling like it was the furthest thing possible from a true indication of your team. South Florida also played sloppily and if there’s one thing you could say about a game if they played again it would be that the game would certainly be different.
Look at this from the post gazette this morning, “Twice they reached the Bulls’ 30, only to turn over the ball. Once, thye reached the Bulls’ 36 and turned it over on downs. Once they reached the Bulls’ 8, and Jarrett Brown forced an interception into the end zone. Once they reachedthe Bulls’ 2, and a fourth bad snap of the first half by Jeannette’s Mike Dent-this one over the 6′4 Browns head- resulted in a 17 yard los and a Pat McAfee field goal. Once more, they reached the Bulls’ 18 and stalled, and McAfee added another field goal for a 21-6 deficit.”
It cannot get any worse. It doesn’t, it can’t. Not for a team that’s built around it’s powerful offense. I think you have to give South Florida some credit. Their defense was fast, good and tackled amazingly. George Selvie is an animal. That McKenzie dude’s tackle and forced fumble on Slaton was about the most perfect and nicest hit I’ve ever seen.
Such a shame that our defense really did look great. Love our front 6. And I went nuts when Ellis Lankster picked off that pass. Outside of one freak play where Charles Pugh didn’t wrap up, and the first drive of the second half, the defense was great. And now all for nothing. BCS Championship hopes are over and once again we’re gunning for a Big East crown and “next year’s” national championship game.
Last night woulda been the perfect game to squeak out a game that no one played their “A” game. To look at some positives like the defense in general, Sidney Glover on special teams and Wes Lyons on offense. But we lost. All of the talk that WVU didn’t belong in the top tier is now justified. I’m not gonna say never because offhand I can think of Tommie Frazier’s Nebraska teams, but I think it’s very very very hard to win a national championship being a team that cannot throw the ball downfield. WVU relies on big chunks of yards from runs and against a good defense you can’t rely on that. If you can’t throw the ball downfield every drive is going to be a struggle. I also think last night that we saw in order to be a national title contender our o-line needs to be dominating and not just solid. I’d also prefer not having 50% of our pass plays be freakin bubble screens that you can see coming.
About the only person that brought his “A” game last night was Chris Spielman. It’s a sad, sad day in Eer-land.
thav916
September 29, 2007
Hey, it could be worse Mountaineers fans…you could be Pitt fans!
Raible
September 29, 2007
This is why I don’t root for Florida to lose.
This is why I don’t worry about other teams losing.
This is why I question our offense against a fast defense.
This is I think it’s tough to go undefeated.
What happened to Mike Dent?
Can Rod adjust?
Who woulda thought I shoulda started South Florida defense this week in fantasy college football?
thav916
September 29, 2007
I can’t believe that our defense is actually outperforming our offense this year.
Three problems I see:
No consistency on our O-Line
No variation to our offense
Lack of big plays: which might be helping our defense, but Slaton is not touching the ball enough
I can’t tell if there is a correlation yet, but the D has looked alot better right around the time JT Thomas and Ellis Lankster were reinstated.
My goal at this point is to stay in the BCS hunt just to reach a major bowl game. However, with the way this year is playing out I could see us with 3 losses or potentially still playing for a title….yeah, right
Wells
October 12, 2007
You know what else we need? We need a 200 yard game by Slaton. He hasn’t exploded this year and he needs to. I’m actually not sure that I agree that he’s not touching the ball enough. I know we might not have the exact same kind of depth (although we might), but I’d like to emulate teams like USC and LSU on offense. Slaton, Schmitt, Devine, and Sanders are all talented ball carriers. I’d like to utilize them all and not just pound Slaton. Keep em fresh and see who’s doing the best on that particular day.
Thomas seems to have been Wally Pipp’d by Mortty Ivy. Ivy has been one of our top 2 or 3 defensive players. With Magro a senior, I’m hoping JT can just get his act together and return as a starter next season. Lankster seems to be solid every time he’s in there. We currently start 7 seniors on defense but the fact that a guy like Lankster doesn’t start should keep our defense strong next year. I’ve also seen Johnny Dingle listed on projected 2008 depth charts and need to get to the bottom of this. Probably a little early to start worrying about next year, though.
If we keep winning we should put ourselves in the position to be playing in a BCS game. We must keep winning.
Neither Cincy or Rutgers looked overly impressive last week but I guess it can be tough to gauge. I still think Louisville won’t be easy for us but with all these other teams beating them it’d be a huge disappointment if we lost. Losing 1 of those games is one thing but 2 of them would be very bad.
thav916
October 13, 2007
I got my Johnny Dingle question answered for me………”He practiced a few times at Florida in fall 2003 but found out he would be ineligible before classes started. Since he never officially enrolled/attended classes, it didn’t count towards his eligibility. He came to WVU in January 2004 and sat out that season as a prop. Played in 2005, 2006, and 2007. He can come back next year assuming his classwork is in order.”
That would be HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE
thav916
October 13, 2007
Dub V with a solid performance against Mississippi St. I could go on and on about how this win doesn’t get enough credit, but I won’t. A win’s a win, a loss is a loss and we won. If we continue to do so, good things will happen. If we win out I think it’s impossible not to be involved in a BCS bowl.
Win out, get Pryor, Hale, Saddler, Jenkins and others and this season has to be considered a huge success. Rutgers is going to be a tough game. They get up for big games and their crowd will be incredibly active. We gotta be able to stop their smash mouth style. We have to let Mike Teel beat us and if he does, that’s pathetic.
Watching the game live with Wells was awesome. Nobody loves Trippe Hale more than Wells. We cannot blitz enough. I love blitzing. Our offense continues to be like a high school team, where we basically tell you what we’re gonna do and it either works or doesn’t. Defense is really coming along. Will be important to stop Rutgers this week but it’s put us in a position to dominate every game this season and it’s our offense that has let us down.
Pat White is so tough but yet so fragile. Here’s hoping he’s fine to go against Rutgers. Wells seems down but I still love what I see in Jarrett Brown. Still lookin for Slaton to break a long and I hate that shotgun handoff more than just about anything but he had a nice game. Love him involved in the passing game. No Devine is never a good site and we need to see him right back in the mix this Saturday to ensure there are no problems. Reynaud is so sweet.
Nice to see Neild play a big role in place of Berry. Makes me feel pretty good about next season without Dykes. Lankster really seems to do a solid job. Wicks was pretty good at the blitz. Love that. I also love lookin at team stats and seeing our three leading tackles are our linebackers. This might seem normal, but I feel like in years past, our defense has been led by safeties, which is never a good thing.
Each week it gets more and more apparent we need offensive line dominance. Man we need Josh Jenkins.
Rutgers Saturday at noon sucks. Won’t get the attention it deserves. Gotta win. Then we’ll get the attention we want. Very simple.
thav916
October 22, 2007
I like the noon start because we really wouldn’t get national attention with OSU-PSU on and the rest of the games Saturday has to offer. We are on ABC which I think helps.
Love the defense, hopefully it’s not a abberition of playing against bad teams. However, i agree it seems we r truly getting better and I really think alot of it has to be attricuted with all 11 players’ ability to tackle.
We are better than Rutgers: ON PAPER. However, in recent games where we’ve had the target on our back with something to lost we have shit down our legs.
I think the key will be to jump out in front early. It would force the Knights to throw which is definitely not their strong suit. Stopping Rice is a must, which comes back to tackling not only when we stack the box, but on the perimeter as well.
I honestly think we need to really stretch the field to open up more running lanes for our stars. I don’t care if that means passes of 7-15 yards or 25-50. They are going to blitz alot which also sets slaton and devine(if he plays up for big plays off of screen passes. The slant needs to be used more effectively as well. We have a ton of speed beyond white, slaton and reynaud, but really fail to use it.
This is obviously a must win just like every other game. Alot of people think if we win and VT and USC win, we get jumped. Well the computer’s hate USC, and the only way to get more respect than VT if they win is to beat a top 30 team convincingly.
P.S. Ryan Mundy is the man
Wells
October 25, 2007
Those yellow uni’s were awesome!!!!
thav916
October 25, 2007
Huge win against Rutgers. I know it shouldn’t matter but Nessler, Griese and Maguire announcing the game and playing like we did was HUGE. One of them at the end of the game even said something along the lines of “I wanted to see what this defense had and they played great.” People always want respect but I agree with BWitt’s thoughts on our fantasy page, win and get respect. We won. At Rutgers. It doesn’t look like we’ll be moving up too much in the polls but being off next week means if anyone loses we’ll move up then.
Pat White was the balls today (Frank, Jon). Outstanding performance that we’ve all grown accustome to but haven’t been seeing. Likewise for Steve Slaton not only getting in the endzone three times but having a highlight td run. As usual, WVU ran their team like a High School offense basically saying, “Here’s what we’re gonna do, try to stop us.” I don’t exactly like that, but at least they couldn’t stop us today.
Defense was good. I wouldn’t say great, just because of Ray Rice’s stats. But you can’t argue with final score. Stopping Rutgers seems like such as easy formula….contain Rice on first down, make Teel throw. Mundy is so sweet and Wells’ boy Boogie Allen had a huge pick as well. Johnny Dingle continues to be a force.
I can’t even put into words how badly I want Owen Schmitt to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.
I love Vaughn Rivers punt returning. The guy means business and just runs straight ahead for guaranteed yards.
I loved Noel Devine at the end of the game. I know it’s not much, and didn’t factor into the win AT ALL. But he’s an important part of our future and also is able to add another element this season. Not playing last week, it was big to see him back in the action.
KEEP WINNING!
thav916
October 28, 2007
How bout that WVU defense? 5th in the country in passing yards allowed per game. And they’re 15th in the country against the run so it’s not one of those skewed stats. I think those first two games giving up 23 and 24 to Western Michigan and Marshall made everyone feel like, “Same ole West Virginia Defense.” Since then, we haven’t given up more than 14 points in a game.
Could the insertion of Selvish Capers into the lineup at Right Tackle be the biggest move ever?!? I love that Rod still isn’t happy with our o-line and continues to switch things up. Our o-line never seemed to be a strength so there’s nothing worse than just putting the same guys out there every single game without any repercussions.
As good as our defense seems to be playing we still don’t have ONE player listed as a top 25 player at their position per Rivals. And actually, outside of White and Slaton, Ryan Stanchek is the only other player on our entire team to be ranked in the top 25 at his position. Maybe it doesn’t matter but that kinda worries me.
I love this bye week. Guaranteed to move up at least one spot, get to sit back and smile if a top 6 team gets upset. We need to keep winning and I’m the first, second and third person to preach that, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nice to watch others lose and us move up.
Louisville are the Cincinnati Bengals. All this talk about the defense. We gotta show it against Louisville. I don’t care what they do they are soooo scary.
WIthout really doing any research and prefaced by saying that we won’t really know until Bowl season, I kinda think everything that has gone on this year, especially recently, kinda puts the Big East at the bottom of the BCS conferences with the ACC. Just being honest.
Wheels, cmon, two straight posts from me, I’m expecting big things.
thav916
November 2, 2007
Not really a WVU thing as much as it is a Big East thing, but I definitely think that the Big East has fallen a bit this year with the disappointment of Louisville and, to an extent, Rutgers. However, when you look at the total landscape of college football, every conference seems to be struggling this year with parity running rampant.
My conference rankings as of today:
1. SEC – LSU (#3 in BCS), Georgia (#10), Auburn (#16), Alabama (#17), Florida (#20).
2. Pac-10 – Arizona State (#4), Oregon (#5), USC (#19)
3. Big 12 – Oklahoma (#6), Kansas (#8), Missouri (#9), Texas (#15).
4. Big Ten – Ohio State (#1), Michigan (#12), Wisconsin (#21).
5. ACC – Boston College (#2), Virginia Tech (#11), Virginia (#23), Wake Forest (#24), Clemson (#25).
6. Big East – West Virginia (#7), Connecticut (#13), South Florida (#18).
7. WAC – Hawaii (#14), Boise State (#22)
Raible
November 2, 2007
First and foremost it’s tought to post on last week’s game when all I can remember is the massive amount of shots we were taking at Mad River after every Touchdown.
I think Haver could be on to something.. Selvish Capers could be the difference make on the O-Line that seems like it’s starting to gel.
I think it’s fair that Pat White’s name is resurfacing when you talk about the Heisman, he’d have to have a ridiculous November to unseat some of these guys in front of him though.
I was in the bathroom at work today and picked up a SI recapping the first weekend of college football and in the top 3 of Stewart Mandel’s top 25 was:
#7 West Virginia- We’re used to seeing “West Virginia” among the NCAA’s leaderboards when it comes to offense (currently they’re No. 2 in rushing, No. 7 in scoring), but who saw this coming? NCAA total defense leaders, through last weekend’s games: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 LSU, No. 3 … West Virginia.
How much do we love Casteel now?
As far as Raible’s rankings, and Haver’s thought that BEAST is near the bottom of the barrel, I think it goes hand in hand with things we’ve said:
1. It changes from week to week(which actually probably wont help the BEAST through Nov)
2. BEAST only has 8 teams, so looking at total # of top 25 teams is kind of unfair.
I think it’s safe to say we are near the bottom right now, but not much is differentiating us from other conferences.
More to come…
2. We know West Virginia’s offense is downright scary,(I put that in my own words)but it’s going to have to be their defense that steps it up.(Allowed 60% completion pctg to Western Michigan and like 7 plays of 14 yards or more)
How ironic that I read that on the shitter today the same day I read:
cnnsi.com….Blah Blah Blah
Wells
November 2, 2007
Those conference rankings look pretty good. While I agree things can change weekly, we’re getting a little more to the end of the year so we can see a lot of the body of work. They certainly could change at any point and nothing is official but it’s not like the rankings are “Conferences based on the last 5 years” and is a running thing. I agree that you can’t just look at the number of teams in the top 25 based on our 8 teams. That goes hand in hand with my belief that we won’t get taken seriously until we have at least 10 teams. Basically, the bowls will be great and I hope the Big East brings it. They should get 6 in, and 6 out of 8 is a pretty darn good ratio.
I really feel like more and more people are starting to talk about our defense. It’s the perfect time but yet a horrible time…right before Louisville. If we give up 900 yards all of the “good defensive” talk will go out the window. If we play great defense on national TV Thursday night, I think the buzz will be huge.
Pat White huge on national TV could be huge for Heisman!
Ha im not ready to say I love Casteel but I’ll let him slide. Personnel is the key and we finally have some players. It did always seem like people liked the scheme Casteel was running but we just didn’t have the guys for it. This needs to continue. Shayne Hale!
Wow, my boy! Selvish “Lox and Bagel with Tomato and extra” Capers!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dominating!
thav916
November 2, 2007
LOUISVILLE PRE-GAME THOUGHTS:
-We should be able to score pretty often against this defense, it’s going to be our defense that will have to rise to the occassion.
-The reason I think that everyone is looking at this from this perspective, is because it was our achilles heel against Louisville last year. While I don’t disagree, I think it will be a great platform for our offense to continue to show how dominant we can be. One thing that we have been looking at as a negative(or atleast I have) is that lack of quick scoring drives we’ve had this year. However, that could be the one reason we are more polished on defense this year; our ball control. On defense, I want to see us continue the blitzing, it’s been effective and it was something that was non-existent against Louisville last year.
- WVU has to contain Brian Brohm.
– While I again don’t disagree, times when we’ve run in to trouble is when we let teams keep the ball away from us with their running game. Moreover, in the past we have tended to let RB’s who really aren’t that great run all over us when we just focus on the pass. I think we did a tremendous job in ” Containing” Ray Rice, despite the statistics he accumulated. Last year, and at times this year, it seems like we have ” Conceded” easy running plays/td’s, espeically inside the redzone.
I think a big difference in our team this year vs. last is that we are not only getting alot of pressure up front, but our safeties have been tremendous in making plays both downfield and behind the line of scrimmage. We really can’t say enough about the edition of Mundy, but we often overlook the two playmakers in Wicks and Andrews.(OK, maybe not overlook, but Mundy has been gettin alot of pub) Also, our ability to tackle this year has been unbelieveable and alot of that falls on the LB’s and CB’s and their ability to finish off tackles the first time this year, as opposed to year’s past.
Listen, Championship game or not, we are going to learn alot about our team and program in this upcoming month. The target is back on us, and we have 4 games we SHOULD be a lock to win. It would be nice to run the table and see where the chips fall, especially after such a disappointing loss back in September.
My final thought is this:
We have been “saving” plays for games down the stretch, and before the season it seemed like this was the game we were saving them for. Whether or not Louisville is the team we thought they were going to be record-wise I think we still ahve to treat this like a legit chance to show the nation what we are capable of. The same vanilla offense is not going to score us any brownie points with the voters or anyone that already thinks we just benefit from a cupcake schedule. We have to approach this game knowing that we are 2-1 and Louisville is 2-2, everything else should be tossed by the waste-side.
Wells
November 7, 2007
Getting so tired of these horrible, fumbling performances. It’s getting a little too common. How often are we gonna point to games and say, “Only if we didnt fumble and play like crap.” It’s a valid point if it rarely happens but when it happens often it’s more than a coincidence. One thing nice about last night is that we actually won. It seems like all too often when we start playing bad and make mistakes we lose. Was very nice to get “play bad but win.”
Slaton. What the f? Did he gain weight and get slower? Is he unhappy? Is it the line? Is he nervous? It’s a shame his biggest run of the day was called back by a hold that wasnt a hold, but nonetheless he’s regressed bigtime this year. Can only hope that that means he stays for redemption as a senior. Not to mention 4 monsterous games left this season, including the bowl game.
Pat White, what a warrior. Fumbles were bad but it’s pretty safe to say he bounced back. What a superstar. What a leader.
Does anyone struggle and look worse putting 38 points on the board than WVU? I mean, they scored 38 points, which is a lot, but it seemed like they played absolutely horrible. When another team puts 38 on the board they look good doing it. I also agree with Flutie. The Mountaineers only are stopped by themselves. Stupid plays, fumbles, penalties. Problem is they all happen far too often. Sooo many dumb penalties too.
I thought our defense played pretty solid but just gave Louisville too many chances. I always harp on the TD/FG ratio and last night was horrible. Also, it seemed like we went back to our previous years form last night rushing 3 and dropping 8 back in coverage. I believe if you rush 3 and put 15 guys in coverage a guy like Brian Brohm is still going to find an open receiver. Look what happened when we blitz the house and Johnny Holmes made the hit and Wicks scored the TD. The screen defense was beyond suspect as well.
Unbelievable how many times WVU was in the 40-50 yard range and could get 10-20 yards further for some Pat McAfee FG action. I know I got a text from Wheels last night sayin it was all Rich Rod’s fault but I think it was more so the players. The fumbling, the penalties. The play call reverse to Reynaud seemed like the perfect play call but the execution was bad. The Owen Schmitt punt was awful but it appeared as if Rod was yelling to Schmitt to just kick the ball, not do the rugby style. The end of the 1st half was definitely horrible and one of the biggest turning points and the play calling was bad but the execution didnt help. A bad first down play can be a disaster for us.
The nation got a little taste of Darius Reynaud last night and things were lookin good. Definitely turned for the worst but I think Louisville still gets some credit for being Louisville. A win’s a win. Nice to end with a statement from Patrick. One thing I really liked is that WVU and Louisville is really becoming “The game.” Three years in a row it’s been massive. We’ve come up with 2 of them. I feel like it’s by far the one must watch game in the Big East year in year out.
thav916
November 9, 2007
Dub V. So close.
Haven’t been talkin about the games lately so I thought I’d write some things.
Loved the distribution of the ball yesterday. I don’t know exactly what happened to Steve Slaton or who’s fault it is, but he’s just not a 20-30 carry back this year, especially with our depth. I’ve been asking for more distribution all year and got it yesterday. White with 16 carries was nicer than the 20+ he’s been receiving, although part of the reason he was getting 20+ was out of necessity in my opinion. Slaton is much better suited for 10-15 carries and also 3 or more catches. I love getting him the ball out wide in space. I have nothing against Slaton doing great and going to the well 25 times, I just haven’t been seeing it that often this year. Devine is too dynamic not to give at least 5 touches to on offense per game. I’m not asking for too much. 10 or so is just awesome. Owen Schmitt only had 1 carry yesterday and I’d even like to see more. I feel like he can pound at the defense and wear them down a little. Also, our team is tough to stop when we’re going forward, sometimes plays to any of the speed backs can be losses. Schmitt usually runs upfield and even 3 or 4 yards sets up a nice 2nd and 6 or 7.
Pat McAfee is amazing.
Mortty Ivy is an animal. I loved all the blitzing yesterday and all year really.
While last night was great I don’t think we can just jump to conclusions that we can do that on anyone. The way our team is set up you pretty much know what we’re gonna do and you either stop it or you don’t. It was obvious yesterday that Connecticut couldn’t stop us. We threw the ball decently early but pounding a team with the run doesn’t really tell me we can pound a team that can stop our run. It was nice to see what we’re capable of doing when we don’t fumble or have stupid plays, though, and that’s something that can’t be said for way too many games this year.
Was glad to hear Wells’s best friend Chris Fowler mention before the game yesterday how huge it was for us to have Jarrett Brown. You look at a lot of other teams this year and when they’ve lost it’s been without a starter (USC, Oklahoma, and Oregon all have at least 1 loss without their starter). Having JB ready and willing if anything happens to White is big.
thav916
November 25, 2007
So close, yet so far away…
That’s how I feel about this game. As if there wasn’t already enough media pressure on us, I feel like the weight of the Backyard Brawl could play a factor as well. Eventhough Pitt is a bad team, I feel like they could benefit if we start slow, or make any type of big mistake.
With that said, I really feel like there’s no reason we should ever lose this game, no matter what’s on the line. We have the best player on the field touching the ball every offensive snap, with a handful of weapons at his disposal. I love the fact that people are starting to acknowledge any production from Pat’s arm as a real good outing. He may not put up lofty stats through the air but is second in the Beast in Passing efficiency. I think he is gaining more and more confidence in the throw as well which has really opened up opposing defenses.
Moving to the backs, Haver, I couldn’t agree more. I love Slaton and he is the reason we are where we are, but the other backs bring a different aspect to our offense. Slaton getting the ball in the open is magnificent, but so is watching Devine run past everyone or Owen plowing would be tacklers. I think the more we use everyone the more it also opens up Steve for runs, like the one he had on his TD against UCONN. It’s nice because I feel if people sleep on any of our backs they can all hurt you.
Darius Reynaud is a god.
Our defense is playing exceptional, eventhough we still employ the ” bend but dont break” strategy. I think the huge difference this year has been the pressure we have been getting up front, and our players making the tackles they need to make.
Ryan Mundy has to feel real good about his decision to transfer and I love him for it. A few years back when we beat Georgia in the Gator Bowl I thought the two biggest pieces to the defensive pie were Addae and Lorello. Well, Wicks and Mundy are arguably better than those two. I really enjoy seeing them play.
Rich Rod as Haver said flat-out runs the same plays and says “try and stop me.” I hate that, but you know what, it’s not going to change. So I live with it and really soak it in when we are successful. Another point Hav made was the distribution of the ball. I think this is a reason I have been less critical of Rod recently and another reason why we are playing for a shot at the title game on Saturday. If we work the ball around I feel like it doesnt matter if we just run three plays. As long as the ball is being spread to more than just 3 people it’s going to be nearly impossible to stop.
I’m tired…sure I’ll have more thoughts soon
Wells
November 27, 2007
November 25, 2007 I said, “Pat McAfee is amazing.” What a difference a week makes.
thav916
December 4, 2007
McAfee was still amazing…but probably not for WVU fans.
The BCS sure didn’t do you guys any favor, matching you up against Oklahoma instead of Virginia Tech. Although, this gives us the opportunity for Wells to see his WVU-OK game to come to fruition!
Raible
December 4, 2007
I’m sorry, but this is some of the funniest shit I have ever heard:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07339/839296-100.stm
Because CLEARLY McAfee was the ONLY player from WVU not to bring his A-Game on Saturday night. Nevermind the fact that Slaton had 11 yards rushing, that White couldn’t hold on to the ball when he was in, that Devine had 11 yards rushing, that Brown couldn’t hold on to the ball when he was in, that Reynaud had 3 catches.
Look, I’m not trying to start anything, but I think it’s completely unfair for anyone to pin the blame of Saturday’s loss on the kicker. He clearly didn’t have his best stuff, but he only missed 2 field goals; McAfee was simply money on the XP attempt!
Raible
December 5, 2007
Oh, and by the way, McAfee’s punting (44.5 average on 4 punts) was solid as usual, too!
Raible
December 5, 2007
Oh and all this time I thought Slaton rushed for 800 yards in that game.
Big win for WVU hoops! Not many chances on national TV…to do that in front of Nessler and Mr SEC Jimmy Dykes was nice. Big game comin up against The Dukes.
thav916
December 6, 2007
T-Hav: I can’t tell if you are agreeing with me about the bullcrap that McAfee is taking or not, but the whole point of my post was to say that I don’t think it’s fair for the Kicker to take all of the blame when there was plenty to spread around.
Raible
December 6, 2007
no one on here solely blames mcafee nor did we harass him and his family. im pretty aware of all the people to share the blame and didn’t understand why it was posted other than rubbing in the win.
thav916
December 6, 2007
There’s no rubbing in going on at all…just voicing my displeasure of how some people are treating McAfee, that’s all. Relax, dude man.
Raible
December 6, 2007
How much do you guys hate the University of Michigan? And, now, it looks like Pryor might be heading there, too?
As a Pitt fan, I am both happy and upset in Rod’s decision to leave. While I am happy that a new coach is going to be hard pressed to have as much success as he had at WVU, I am somewhat upset in that WVU being good is good for the Big East.
Nevertheless, who’s up next? I think all of the WVU fans can agree that landing Huggins after Beilein left was a solid move, but who’s next in line now that Rod, like Huggins a WVU alum, is gone? Here is a list of guys that I have seen as possible candidates:
Terry Bowden (WVU alum)
-Seems like he would be a good fit, although he has been out of coaching sine 1998.
Tommy Bowden (WVU alum)
-Just signed a big deal with Clemson, so I’d be surprised if he left.
Jimbo Fisher (WVU native)
-It was just announced that he would take over at FSU once Bobby Bowden retires, so I think he’s a longshot, too.
Todd Graham (former WVU asst.)
-An interesting candidate, Graham led Rice to the N.O. Bowl last year and Tulsa to the GMAC Bowl this year.
Mike Locksley
-Current Offensive Coordinator at Illinois.
Mel Tucker
-Current Secondary Coach at Cleveland Browns.
Calvin Magee (WVU asst.)
-Current Offensive Coordinator at WVU…will he go to Michigan, too?
I would be surprised if Terry Bowden didn’t at least get an interview, and the job could probably be his if he wanted it. I think it would be interesting to see if they stayed in-house with Magee, or went with an up-and-comer from the outside. What do you WVU guys think?
Potentially losing out on Pryor probably won’t be the only domino to fall. If a new guy comes in, what do you think White and Slaton will decide to do? I think they could both benefit from another year in college, but I think it will be interesting to see what they decide.
Raible
December 17, 2007
Raible loves coaching searches!
A few other names. Central Michigan’s Butch Jones, who had been WVU for a few seasons working with our offense. Duke Henshaw is another one but I’m not big on him. Brian Kelly’s name could be mentioned but it appears as if he’s actually loyal to his school.
I’d assume Jimbo will be staying at FSU. Maybe if this was 2 weeks ago, but I just don’t see it happening now. I love the positives of Terry Bowden….A Bowden (big name), WVU alum, has connections, has had success. But his negatives…not coaching in 35 years and not sure of the offense he’d run are pretty huge question marks.
Of the other names, Butch Jones seems to be a good candidate if not for his offensive experience alone. This could be devastating in general, but if we try to run some different type of offense it could be completely devastating. I’d like to continue to do what we’re doing.
I like that Reynaud called Jones. Not even for Jones’s sake, but that should mean that Reynaud intends on staying. No matter what coach we bring in, we should have great success next year. That could lead to immediate good recruiting and not let enough time for a downfall to occur.
Recruits that leave and players that leave will be big to see. Hoping nothing drastic happens but that’s a lot to ask from this program these days.
thav916
December 17, 2007
Some interesting names I’ve seen, heard or would like to see.
Nick Saban, Bud Foster, Rick Trickett and Dan Mullen.
One guy I kept saying I thought I’d like to hear was “the Appalachian State head coach.” I just googled App state head coach and realized Jerry Moore was born in 1939.
As for Saban, I’m sure you’re as surprised as I am to see his name. But remember, I’m just saying I saw his name listed. It appears as if there are rumors he’s very unhappy at Alabama and being from West Virginia and a former assistant coach it’s only natural his name surfaces. But more rumors seem to be he was in contact with WVU to put in a good word for Jimbo Fisher. That brings me to a sidenote. Every time I type Jimbo I think how sweet it would be to have a coach named Jimbo.
Foster is behind Frank Beamer at VTech and doesn’t appear as if Beamer is leaving any time soon. He sure would bring a different mindset to Morgantown but you’d also have to think whoever he’d hire at O-coordinator would actually run the offense. Being hated in Morgantown probably isn’t a good thing, though.
I should have mentioned Trickett’s name in my initial post. The ideal scenario woulda been Fisher at HC and bring along Trickett. I’m not sure if Trickett can be the head coach.
I’d love to see Dan Mullen’s name surface. The offensive coordinator at Florida, he’s obviously a genius. Urban Meyer will also be there for a long time. Could be a good place for him to come if he were to become a head coach.
The shame of this is that I think it’d be best to have about a month or two long search that was very thorough and extensive. But with the recruiting impact and transferring impact it’s almost like we need a coach as of yesterday.
thav916
December 18, 2007
Tom Bradley and Chris Peterson two other names that have been mentioned. I feel like I could list about 50 guys that “have been mentioned.”
One guy I’m really liking what I read about is Locksley.
thav916
December 18, 2007
My list
1. Jim Mora Sr.
2. Dick Vermeil
thegreatawakening
December 18, 2007
I need some help here.
What’s the infatuation with Terry Bowden?
He’s been out of coaching since 1998, is that right? Which means he’s not dialed in to the recruiting pipeline anywhere. And he……hasn’t coached football in a decade.
Anyway that’s all I’m seeing so I’d like to hear the other side of it. While being an alum and being related to a famous coach aren’t negatives, I hope there’s something that’s actually relevant here.
thegreatawakening
December 20, 2007
Listen, I don’t know who I’d like as the new head coach for football, but I do know I really don’t want Doc Holliday, Trickett or Terry Bowden. The rest of the candidates all have their positive and negatives, but it’s too early to tell who’s actually a reality to be our new coach.
Wells
December 21, 2007
An interesting read from a Pittsburgh sports columnist regarding Coach Rod and the WVU coaching situation…
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/sports/s_544368.html
Merry Christmas guys!
Raible
December 25, 2007
Wow Prisuta bringin some lumber on Christmas!
He never struck me as a terrific writer but I like this column. Whether or not you or I completely agree with the view on Rodriguez, I like his take and the way he presents it.
There’s no question that the timing of the departure will screw up recruiting somewhat, and it’s a little scary to mess with success considering the era that Rod replaced and eradicated. But at the same time we weren’t exactly running schemes that will be that difficult to replicate. I believe the hardest part about making the system work is making the commitment to it and focusing on the athletes needed to run it. WVU has already done that. After that, I think it’s tough to give Rod credit for much in the way of in-game adjustments, or for getting the team over the top in big games through scheme or motivation. He’s the guy who turned the program around it around and gave it an identity- no more, no less.
Of course that still doesn’t answer the question of who they’re going to hire.
thegreatawakening
December 25, 2007
Prisuta is right. We’ll probably hire someone and never lose again.
thav916
December 26, 2007
Couple of WVU points I wanted to throw out there:
1. Haver brought mentioned yesterday that we might be waiting until after the bowl season to pursue Butch Jones and Mike Locksley. Makes a ton of sense and I hope that’s the case because these are the top 2 candidates in my book.
2. Would love to get Trickett back, but it doesn’t look likely as he seems like the heir apparent to the FSU offense now that Jimbo stayed.(Could be very wrong here)
3. I’m getting extremely pumped for WVU-Oklahoma double dip this upcoming week. The basketball game is a huge measuring stick for us before Big East play, and the football game could quiet alot of doubters. Not to mention give the Big East 3 BCS Bowl wins against ACC, SEC and Big 12.
4. Recruiting can take its hit this year, we just need to hire a coach to take the ball and run with it. As long as we can continue our winning ways, players will continue to come.
5. Did I mention that I won’tbe able to watch the bball game on Saturday because it’s my grandfather’s 80th birthday?
Enough for now.
Wells
December 27, 2007
Seriously not even remotely trying to start anything (that’s my disclaimer), but the Oklahoma-WVU basketball game was actually pretty entertaining. While it did force me to miss almost the entire 1st half of Pitt-Dayton (the half where the Panthers were actually remotely competitive), I did enjoy tuning in. I have to admit that I was rooting for OK (Capel and my being a Pitt fan were the reasons), but I thought the game was well played on both ends. All WVU fans are probably ecstatic about Levance going down with an injury.
Raible
December 31, 2007
This week was a huge measuring stick for the mounties bball program and I must say after watching the game tonight, we seem to have a long way to go. I feel like the offseason workout program helped some players(Alexander) and hurt others. (Smalligan, Darris???) I know it’s a longshot, but how does Smalligan who was a legit threat from three last year totally lose his stroke? Darris hasnt been the same either especially from the FT line. We are going to have alot of trouble against Big East big men and may need to revert to zone looks on D. Nonetheless, I think we need more time to see where the team is at.
Wells
January 4, 2008
Ya, tonight’s game really sucked. Road conference games against comparable foes are tough, though. Had that Oklahoma game in the bag in OT up 3 with 31.7 seconds left and Darris Nichols heading to the line and he misses the front end. All downhill after. All big men will dominate us. We’ll battle, scrap and play hard, but the hot start could have been exactly what Huggins said it was….”Fools Gold.” Right now, we’re currently dreaming about how good we woulda been with Patrick Patterson and counting down the days til Bryant, Jones and Davis come to Morgantown.
thav916
January 4, 2008
Nice and much needed hoops win. As Wells and I were sayin before the game, thought it was a good matchup for us…at home and a guard oriented team. I always think Marquette sucks, too.
thav916
January 7, 2008
Ya Know, Marquette might end up being overrated, but I still think this boils down to a quality win like you said. I think we were inconsistent at times but have to like Ruoff’s big shots down stretch. Seems to me he could be emerging as a guy they get the ball to late in the game.
Loved:
Wellington 4 O-rebs
Mazzulla’s D and strong takes to the rack
John Flowers playing like he’s been there before
EH:
Free Throw shooting in tight contest
DeSean’foul troubles
Joe Alexander forcing up WAY too many shots
Q:Is it just me or does it seem like there’s something wrong with Darris? And did he always where two knee braces?
All in all great win, and way to bounce back after the ND debacle. Tough stretch ahead, but if we can go 1-1 again this week I’ll be content. A 3-3 Start in the Beast with opponents like ND, MARQ, LOUISVILLE, CUSE, ST JOHNS AND GEORGETOWN could easily be 1-5 or 2-4, so I’d be happy with splits the first couple of weeks.
Wells
January 8, 2008
Good hire for WVU getting Doc Holliday. Now, even if Stewart doesn’t work out, they have a qualified head coaching candidate on their staff who can take over.
Raible
January 12, 2008
Dear Mountainqueers,
Old Coach or New Coach (or, in your case, an Old New Coach), WVU is still in for an ass kicking when the ‘Queers pay their visit to Heinz Field this year. Coach Rod is, and always was, a giant douche bag. Looking forward to Bob Huggins crying on the sidelines of The Pete in a couple of weeks as DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, and the boys lay one on Dub-Vee.
Yours Truly,
Raible (on behalf of Pitt Nation)
HAIL TO PITT!
Raible
January 25, 2008