Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to put on a sweater vest and a pair of penny loafers and give a history lesson today. The season was 2004-05, the sport men’s basketball. WVU had a formidable squad powered by a beautiful style of play.

They were also maddening in one particular aspect. The Mountaineers had a habit of playing close games for a few different reasons, but basically because their style lent itself to hot and cold spells and, for some reason, the players were just more comfortable in close games. Without fail, the team would jump on a team and usually allow them back into the game.

Nowhere was this more apparent than at the end of a half. WVU would put a run on an opponent and take a lead of 10 or 14 or 20 points and inevitably head to the locker room up six or eight or 12. It was uncanny and the team was thereby dubbed in the place I used to work as “The Team that Never Learned.”

Well, they learned. In the Elite Eight game against Louisville the Mountaineers were up 20 late in the first half when the Cardinals closed on a seemingly harmless 7-0 run. People in the press room were amazed at the way WVU had played … and that included the WVU press, which couldn’t believe it’d happened again. I remember talking to a WVU employee who walked up to me and rolled his eyes. At about the same time we both said, “Smallest 13-point lead ever.”

You know what happened. Question is, are you seeing it happen again? What you have right now is a WVU football team with unquestioned offensive talent, but also questionable fundamentals. The Mountaineers have 14 turnovers in three games. Fourteen. I thought after Auburn it was somewhat flukish — whoops — but I’m now sure the Mountaineers have a problem, one that also transcends turnovers and extends to so many other critical areas — kickoff return defense, kickoff return blocking, this thing called pass blocking, pass defense, etc. It has to be treated as a problem, too.  If it isn’t, either in practice or in punishment, they deserve whatever fate awaits them.

What’s troubling is this is three games in a row now where the errors have persisted and in key spots in the game and on the field. You just can’t say it’s gotten any better even though it’s been a major point for three weeks now. They should consider themselves lucky to be 3-1 and to have played two teams that just weren’t good enough to take advantage of WVU’s many, many errors. Play those ECU or Colorado games on the road, like they did against Auburn, and the Mountaineers are certainly not 3-1. Guess what! WVU plays at Syracuse, at South Florida, at Cincinnati and at Rutgers still. If they don’t correct this, they’re in for a painful reminder of the past.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, think things through. 

Homer said:

Sometimes when you try to do everything, you do nothing well.

That’s not even funny. It’s 100 percent accurate. Last night we didn’t see shovel pass or double pass or any of the triple option — if we did, it was simply given to Noel. There was one reverse and it was a bizarre call when WVU needed only to run the clock against a retreating defense asking to be scored upon again, but instead decided to give Brad Starks a whirl, which lost eight yards. When the Mountaineers got real serious they ran 13 times on a 14-play drive and called maybe four different run plays. The potential for error is much smaller when you limit the possibilities and do what you do best.

Karl said:

Devine is like the football equivalent of a luchador. He’s got a talent for high-risk, top rope maneuvers that are exciting when they hit and can cost him the match when they miss. When you’re a cruiserweight in the ring with heavyweights, it’s all you can do. He is what he is.

I have no problem with how he’s been used so far. Opening up space for him with the pass gives him the best chance to break one for long. He is not an effective RB when he has to power it up the gut. Don’t people remember our short-yardage problems last year?

I think the way he’s being used is less of a concern than the amount of times he’s being used. When you tag in the luchador, he climbs the top rope and hits the flying body press. He doesn’t come in and go for the body slam. WVU gets that, but it doesn’t seem to know when to tag Noel in…or out. Wait, what happened here?

Sam said:

Karl,

I’m sad to report, but the reason that luchadors high risk maneuvers cost them matches is because the matches are fixed

No!

Jeff said:

Let’s separate “power it up the gut” from running between the tackles. No, he isn’t the best option for short yardage plays but running him up the middle has the potential of allowing him to break through to the second level and operate in space where he is without peer.

You’re right and Karl’s “up the gut” is probably just a matter of semantics. The only time Noel really runs in a singleback set is in the Pistol. Just about everything else is in the shotgun or with a fullback accompanying him. They know how to use him, especially after last night.

Foul Shot:

If you can’t see the result of your play call, how do you know if you should run it or not later in the game?
Such as how the defense reacted to the play and so forth.
That explains the shovel pass result late in the Auburn game.
Nice, new layout for the blog.

You know, I thought that myself when Mullen was telling me about the way he goes about his business, but I didn’t follow up because I figured he couldn’t have been the only coach to do that. Plus, he can look at the scoreboard for down-and-distance and hear the reaction of the crowd to pass or fail a play and he has those discussions between series to bring him up to speed. It has to be standard, right?

Alli said:

I love how every win for USF against a ranked team is their “Biggest Win in school history.”

Can’t wait to see who wears what baseball cap for the Oct. 30 game.

oklahoma mountaineers said:

Riddle me this……USC falls to an unranked Washington team who hadn’t won a game last year and falls to 12. Ole Miss loses a game to an unranked South Carolina team who is markedly better than Washington and Ole Miss nearly falls out the 25 after that loss.

Michigan is declared as “back” after beating 2 sisters of the poor and a team in need of a new head coach….then follows up that with stellar win over an Indiana team who looks to have nothing and they move up a space in the rankings.

The rankings, especially this time of year, is more name recognition and reputation. USF fell when they had their chance in the past and will need a run in the Big East to get into the rankings. I think they played over their heads for 1 week (loss of their QB and a team they desparately wanted to beat), but will fall back to reality during their conference schedule.

I have no clue what to think of USF. Their early schedule was laughable and impossible to learn much from. The Florida State win was a great one, but the Seminoles are a schizophrenic team that just hammered BYU and presumably didn’t think much of a Grothe-less USF … a hunch Bowden himself more or less corroborated. The Bulls hit a few big pass and run plays with the new QB but otherwise looked to have trouble moving the ball. Time, I guess, will tell, which leads back to the point about polls. I think now is about the proper time for the first poll of the season. Anything before then is speculation and projections. Four games/five weeks is a pretty accurate assessment of who is what.

overtheSEC said:

Oklahoma, I’ve easily wasted 3 hours today on Pollstalker reports cursing at the AP voters for every one of your valid rhetorical questions posed above. Craig James has obviously not seen Notre Dame or Michigan play this year http://pollspeak.com/pollstalker/pollstalker.php?s=9&p=18&t1=72&t2=0&v=14&w=5&r=V

Pollspeak.com is one of the best sites on the Internet.

Karl said:

Hawkins is one of the most surprising coaching hires not to work out in recent memory. I thought he was a perfect fit for Colorado. He seemed to be one of the game’s brightest coaches, having laid the foundations at Boise State. With all his success in the Rocky Mountain region, I thought he would be able to recruit well there. His personality seemed to fit the state well. Hard to believe how bad it turned out.

He’s recruited at a pretty high level there, too, and I think you could tell he has some skilled players on offense and defense. One thing I’ve thought, though, is perhaps going from Boise State to the Big 12 wasn’t the type of transition that would capitalize on his offensive ingenuity. Doesn’t everyone throw the ball in that conference? Aren’t you going to see some variation of his system again and again when you’re playing Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas, so on and so forth? Had he brought that to the Big Ten or the ACC, it might be a different story. Maybe Chris Peterson has been wise to pick his spot.

glibglub said:

If you don’t want to guarantee 10 wins, go coach intramurals, brother!

Enjoy …

EER96 said:

Mike:

I like the new look of the blog. However, the word on the street is that Mike Locksley is a bit disappointed with it…watch your back!

… the weekend!