2013 August Archive | The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board

You are looking live at the set of IMG’s new pregame show. Peep the over-caffeinated Amanda Mazey on the end. I did some immersion journalism and nailed a cameo in the media roundtable segment. Near as I can tell, the new radio show sounds like the old radio show. I think I heard some new advertisers and new studio music, and this pregame program is outside, which lends itself to a certain ambiance, but also wind (!). Apart from that, ~~Mack was right~~ same as it ever was.

The inimitable Jon Antonik was on the segment before the roundtable and he regaled the audience with tales of past tiles between West Virginia and William & Mary, including a coaching matchup for all times in 1970.

That was Bobby Bowden v. Lou Holtz and Antonik retold the story from that post game, when Holtz wondered aloud with Bowden why Bowden had chosen to run up the score (such an unBowden thing to do, I know). Bowden replied that it was up to Holtz to coach better or recruit harder.

Fastforward two years. Holtz was coaching harder and recruiting better at N.C. State and sipped on sweet revenge.

As for today? The worst part about last night’s otherwise wonderful North Dakota State upset of shockingly soft Kansas State (called it!) is that every FBS team playing host to a FCS team is on upset alert. Lord. The Bison are legitimately good. The Wildcats, for now, are not. Towson is very athletic. UConn, forever, is not.

William & Mary was 2-9 last season, true, with quarterback issues and a stout defense, but this isn’t on anyone’s radar for a shocker. Nor should it be. And if the Tribe get their first ever win to go with an 0-15-1 record in the series, well, we’ll have plenty of other things to discuss next week.

Speaking of radio shows …

If you need to kill some time, Thursday’s show is at the ready.

And I’d love to fill you in on who’s playing and who isn’t relative to the injury list. However, WVU has chosen not to issue a dress list this season, which is extremely inconvenient for the people covering the team. But I digress.

TFGD is rolling. Do join the fun.

Care for a blog?

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which holds nothing back.

More than Porta-Pottys being unloaded from trucks and grocery stores unable to keep their shelves stocked with Kingsford, the surest sign that the college football season is upon is is the requisite question to head coaches and coordinators as to whether they’ll keep is vanilla in the opener.

I guess it’s a provocative question at WVU this season, but, no offense to the Mountaineers, I’m confident this isn’t a team that can be vanilla this Saturday and then Neapolitan next Saturday in Norman, Okla. They need a dress rehearsal and, to be honest, they actually need to put things on tape for their own benefit. For starters, WVU will get to see the tape and learn what worked and what did not and, more importantly, why.

But you knew that.

It’s also important to give Oklahoma plenty to think about next week as they address the issues that will naturally come from an opener against a Louisiana Monroe team that will ask questions of the Sooners.

So, no, don’t expect a September Surprise next week that was hidden just for the sake of hiding it.

It’s kind of a non-issue for WVU. For starters, Bob Stoops knows Dana Holgorsen’s offense, but so do many other opponents. Dana doesn’t really change what he does. He changes the formations and the personnel groupings with which he’ll do those things. From week to week he might tilt his game plan toward a strength of his own or a weakness of the opponent. When you watch the film, though, you’re seeing but a handful of runs and routes.

If the Mountaineers don’t run a stick-and-a-slant in the end zone this Sataurday, it won’t stun the Sooners if they do it next week.

Now, defensively? Much different story and thus much more fertile ground for a conversation. Nobody has seen this rendition of Keith Patterson’s defense. It was, dare I say, vanilla in the spring without many of the parts that arrived in the summer and are in place now. Then WVU didn’t really dress it up in preseason camp until late in the schedule.

So this is Patterson’s cotillion and he’s going to flaunt the finest threads he can find.

“I don’t believe in that philosophy,” said Patterson, the linebackers coach who was the co-coordinator last season. “We’re going to play to win every single rep, every single play. I don’t think you can sit there and hold things back. It’s not going to be a secret for long. It’s going to be on film eventually.”

So when the defense debuts at Mountaineer Field for the noon kickoff on Fox Sports 1, the Mountaineers will play their 3-4, their 4-3 and their 3-3-5. They’ll blitz more, they’ll cover receivers tighter and they’ll ask safeties to play closer to the action.

“That’s just what we do,” Patterson said.

At long last, we’ll see that exactly that is.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, look the part.

Jeff in Akron said:

Past TCU, and maybe K-State, though they only return two starters from last year’s defense. What defense can you look at in the Big-12 and say, they can stop anyone. Diaz is struggling at Texas, Oklahoma is installing a new base defense. Texas Tech has an entirely new staff and Ok. State has a new d-coordinator. Bennett at Baylor is starting his third season and hasn’t sniffed the top-100 in his first two, Iowa State is only slightly better and Kansas only has 35 letterman returning for the entire team.

Texas and Oklahoma have the talent, they just haven’t shown they have the ability. Gotta believe one of them steps up this season but not both. So, Holgorsen faces three truly legitimate defenses in conference this season. I’ll take Holgorsen’s ability to teach offense over the defensive coaches ability to teach defense any day. Except Snyder at K-State, Holgorsen struggles to score points against K-State.

I’m the contrarian, I guess, but I see the defenses making a stand this season — and part of that is the state of the league’s offenses. I’m invested in Texas. They played without ~~arguably~~ possibly their two best defenders for most of last season and Hicks and Jeffcoat are both back this season. They also played a lot of young kids who got better at the end and, presumably, should be better now. Tackling was an issue, but that’s something you can fix. I have questions about the safeties, but Texas has talent. Oklahoma, your guess is as good as mine, but Jerry Montgomery is a very good addition as the defensive line coach and the secondary is no joke. Baylor will make a jump this season for a variety of reasons, but they have some studs up front, Hager is a tackling machine at MLB and Ahmad Dixon was out of position as a nickel back last season. He’s at safety now. You know Paul Rhoads and Wally Burnham can scheme up a defense and I think people are overlooking what Dave Campo can do with a year under his belt and some really good additions at Kansas. All of that said, I have a feeling Oklahoma State’s defense will end up as the best in the Big 12. They’ve got an all-conference caliber player at tackle, end, inside linebacker, outside linebacker, corner and safety.

The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

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