Here's to You Coach Rod

This weekend was a nightmare for many of the Top 25, the Big East (minus USF), and WVU. As far as the Mountaineer's go, it was not the players fault. We were completely out coached. I love paying $1 million + in coaching to draw right, draw left, and throw screens on 3rd and 8. I saw that combo way too many times Friday night. It made me want to vomit, cry, etc... To say the least, the Mountaineer's coaching failed, miserably. On a bright side, our defense stepped up, big time. They intercepted the now infamous Grothe two times, forced and recovered two fumbles, and allowed only two TD's.
.
Unfortunately, we also had to play offense. I believe the O-line should have taken a left at Albuquerque. Although White got scared hurt in the second quarter, he and Slaton combined for a mere 90 yards. Another notable twosome, Brown and Devine, basically carried (literally and figuratively) the Mountaineers (yes I know they lost). If you look at the stats (minus the score) you would believe the Mounties won the game. They out gained the Bulls by approximately 160 yards and dominated the time of possession by over nine minutes. The one stat that cost us the game was turnovers. We came into the game +3 and left +1. The first (and more than likely the worst) was an interception thrown by White in the first quarter. It slightly resembled the USF game of a year ago. White dropped back and looked left for a quick slant, he released it, then immediately regretted it. Ben Moffitt's eyes glazed over. He reached up, snagged the ball, and took it to pay dirt 26 yards later. That play basically set the stage for the rest of the game. WVU turned the ball over again and again, they did not execute the obscure plays the coaches called, and turned the ball over again. We abandoned what works for us; the speed option right, down field passes, and options left.
.
So in summary, the players did not execute to the level they normally do, the coaching staff FAILED miserably, and USF wanted it more.
.
We shall see what happens with the Top 25 shuffle later today and I may comment more then. But for now, I am disappointed.

The Big D on the South Florida Game

The Mountaineers come into the college football match up of the week with South Florida as a seven point favorite. However, it is not surprising that a majority of the media talking heads are all over the South Florida’s nutz. That is encouraging to the Big D as these guys are a bunch of clowns for the most part. Lee Corso, nuff said!

Look for WVU to come and strong and play Mountaineer Football all night long baby, winning convincingly by at least three touchdowns. The Big D is going on the record projecting the Mountaineers to dominate the game and leave Raymond James Stadium with a 38 – 17 VICTORY.

The Big D could spend a lot of time throwing a bunch of stats and trends around but none of those matters in this game. There are only two things that matter in this game and they are Offensive Coordinator, Rod Smith and Offensive Line Coach, Greg Fry both of whom joined the Mountaineer coaching staff after departing from South Florida. Mountaineer fans can remember only a few years ago how much trouble we had with Maryland during the Scott McBrein years. McBrein was only a player and Maryland was able to dominate us every time we played them in a way that seemed like they knew what we were going to do in the game before we did. Smith and Fry, being former coaches should be able to provide even more of a benefit than a player as they were instrumental in recruiting and coaching South Florida’s current players, therefore knowing their strengths and weaknesses and how best to exploit them. They also know how the coaching staff thinks and what their tendencies are, which should prove to be a huge benefit to the Mountaineers.

The Mountaineers just have to execute and play mistake free football and they will have no problem winning the game. It will be a long night for all the South Florida fans making the first sold out game in school history a great Mountaineer moment that will help spring them back into the National Championship talk again.

Big D OUT!

Another WVU Blog

Saturday is always a good day, but yesterday was special. The Mountaineers came out strong, offensively and defensively. On a older post, I stated the Pat White was the Mountaineers Most Improved Player. That statement still holds true, but with an addition- Pat White is the Mounties Most Valuable Player, he is the Big East's MVP, and he should be a strong contender for the prestigious Heisman Trophy. Although many of his 18 completions where screen passes, he was deadly accurate. Pat White's numbers are as follows: 18-20 passing with 181 yards and 2 TD's and 9 rushing attempts with 42 yards and 2 TD's (0 sacks). To say the least, Patrick was infallible this year against ECU.

.

Master Slaton came through like a man wanting a National Championship. He ran for 110 yards (41 yard long) and a touchdown on 18 carries. He also had 3 catches with 42 yards in order to fulfill his "Super" status. Although both Slaton and White were deliciously nasty, however the game breaker goes to Darius Reynaud. With less than half the first quarter gone, Reynaud received a typical WVU end around (that usually goes nowhere). But this time it was different. Reynaud took of with a blast, had a defenders bounce of each side of him simultaneously, then nearly broke some poor fellows legs on his way to a 64 yard jaunt; which subsequently led to a 1 yard Slaton TD.

.

Again, on to the sceptics. And again, our defense showed up to play. Four sacks for 30 total lost yards (Wicks, Ivy, Magro, and Dingle), 6 tackles for losses, 2 forced fumbles (Magro and Ivy), and an interception (Ivy). That all leds to the defensive player of the game...Morty Ivy (no shit).

The weakness in our pass defense seems to be slipping away. The ECU team totaled 160 yards (less than 100 prior to 4th quarter). Out of their total yards they only produced 54 in the air! Although the game was a shut out in essence, the Pirates scored their lone touchdown on a 3-yard scamper by Chris Johnson with 59 seconds left on the game clock.

.

This game was a massacre, a trouncing, and a good warm-up for a tough road game this Friday against USF. Loyal readers look forward to a preview later this week...

No Love

As we all know, WVU football always gets crapped on in some form or fashion; and this year seems to be no different...
Although we are predicted to reach a BCS game, no one believes we are a national title contender. ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach both have USC fighting on January 7 for the title; but they differ on who will face USC. Ivan believes it will be Oklahoma. Mark projects it to be LSU. Pretty optimistic by both I say. Oklahoma travels to #7 Texas on October 6th. This will be a big test for the Sooners (or "laters", as I see them losing). USC has to go on the road for their two biggest games this year. First they travel to #13 Oregon on October 27. Then on November 10, they travel to face a revengeful #6 Cal team. LSU may have the toughest schedule...this week they are at home to face #12 S. Carolina, two weeks after that they face #3 Florida, then turn around and go to #21 Kentucky (a dream destroyer), and two weeks after that they travel to #16 Alabama...that's alot of hurdles. If any of those teams get through that, they deserve the right to play for the title.
But what about WVU? First up is #23 S. Florida (a team that beat us at home last year), away to #11 Rutgers (not a violent stadium, but a tough team), and then at home to face #18 Louisville (whom beat us last year). As I said before, if a team can get through that, they deserve to play for the National Championship. As the old adage goes, "its not over til the fat BSR sings."

The Black Pearl

As many of you may remember from years past, the Pirates from ECU are capable of coming into Morgantown and throwing a wrench into the system. This year seems to be different. Our offense is clicking like a well oiled machine; averaging 47 points/game (9th in the nation), gaining 344 yards/game rushing (2nd in the nation), and totaling 507 yards/game total offense (16th in the nation). Now it seems the defense is on the right track. Although not stupendous, our defense is ranked 44th nationally in scoring (20.3 points/game), 22nd in rush yards allowed/game, and 22nd in interceptions (1.3 per game). Considering our offense-defense point averages, we should win this game.
Now onto ECU. Their offense is averaging 20.7 points/game, 343.7 yards/game, and 242.6 passing yards/game (our weakness). Their defense has given up an average of 361.3 yards/game, their turnover ratio is -3, and have given up 25.3 points/game. Thus far, they have lost to a vulnerable VT team, a 2-1 S. Miss team, and have beaten UNC (well it's UNC). Over their three games, their point difference is -4.5.
So, does ECU have a chance this weekend? No. Will this game help the Mountaineer's quiet their critics? No. Will it be a beautiful day for watching football in Morgantown? Yes.

I love the occasional tasering

Remember that ol' thing called freedom of speech?

Tangled Web

After an exciting week of college football, there was an unfortunate shift in the top 5, as WVU dropped to #5 behind both Florida and Oklahoma (and LSU and USC). As far as I can see, LSU (3-0) deservedly should retain the top spot with a sparkling 44-0 win over East Tennessee State (0-3). LSU dominated from start to finish. They amassed 508 total yards of offenSe, which was led by a talented Sophomore during his first college start. For the game, the LSU QB threw for 304 yards and three TD's and went 20-26 for the game. Although they were playing East Tennessee, a who's who among East Tennesseans, LSU allowed only 90 yards on defenSe. Ninety yards! Noel Devine (a true-fresh at WVU and You Tube God), had over 100 yards on his first two carries in Thursday nights bout between WVU and Maryland. For a team to allow under 100 yards on defenSe for a game is impressive, no matter how lousy the other team may be.

On to other "events". I have been criticized for by previous posting on several levels. First, and possibly the most embarrassing, the fact that I did spell offenSe and defenSe with a "c". Although it CAN be spelled either way, the preferred way by my (two) readers is with an "s". So from here on out I will spell both accordingly; offenSe and defenSe.

The other issue is my loyalty, faith, and love for Mountaineer football. It may seem I "dissed" the Mounties. Here I want to clarify. I by no means wish to belittle the efforts of my Alma mater.

Through three games, in my opinion, the most improved player goes to Patrick White. Although he was already an "A" player, Patrick has shown the nation he is not just a speedy option quarterback. In the 2006 season, Patrick threw for 1477 yards and 11 touchdowns (and 5 INT's). In that season, he amassed an impressive quarterback rating of 162 while completing 66.2% of his 157 passing attempts. His impressiveness through the air was overshadowed by his ground game. His numbers would normally be that of a #1 running back: 150 attempts, 1202 yards, 8 yards per carry, and 18 TD's.

As far as this year goes, Patrick has actually improved on those already stellar numbers. In the air, Patrick's numbers are as follows: 31 of 49 with 436 yards, 4 TD's (0 INT's), and a QB rating of 164.9! On the ground he has again run like a #1 RB and gained 244 yards on 38 attempts with a 6.4 yards/carry average and 4 TD's. For the past two seasons Patrick's main target has been Darius Reynaud, who is averaging 15.6 yards/catch, 93.6 yards/game, and 0.3 TDs/game. As the season progresses, I foresee Patrick's performances to continue to be stellar and the Mounties to continue winning with the power of their offenSe.

National Title Contenders?

As the West Virginia Mountaineers roll to 3-0, the question still remains: Are we a National Championship caliber team? Thus far, the polls say no, as do I. Albeit, we have one of the most powerful offences in the nation, our defence is lacking. Many may disagree, I can hear it now "what about the two interceptions against Maryland?" To that I can only say, what about the 3-3-5. It is suspect to the pass. It is venerable to the run. It is a pathetic attempt by "Rod" to be different. Our strength is linebackers, so why not run a 3-4. It is hard-nosed, mean, and most importantly proven. But who am I to comment on such things...