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

Tuesday Taboo: Meaning of the season

December 1, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Bowls are rubbish and West Virginia’s four-game winning streak pales with a loss Saturday.

Texts from Iowa State Game Day

November 30, 2015 by Mike Casazza
hat

I can’t with this picture. Can’t. Tried. Can’t. Your captions are welcome and encouraged. I’m definitely quizzing Alex Hammond and Jed Drenning, both in the background here, when I see them next. I need to know what was said.

Say what you will about Paul Rhoads, but don’t say he didn’t have as much fun as the game, weather and job conditions would allow Saturday. And I trust he’ll land on his feet shortly. He’d be a good Group of 5 head coach, a good Power 5 defensive coordinator/assistant hire and even a good studio analyst. But if coaching or talking football isn’t available or desired — can’t forget that — then I trust he has other possibilities as well.

Anyhow, Iowa State hired Toledo’s Matt Campbell, who’s a young coach putting a lot of chips in the middle of the table now, and defensive coordinators throughout the Big 12 exhaled because the Cyclones did not go weird with an option coach.

I’ll forever remember Rhoads’ final game because of a 19-play drive — the longest of his entire tenure at Iowa State — that went 43 yards, took 7:02 off the clock and featured two fake punts. Amazing.

But the team that won and the coach who will continue were frustrated, too. The passing game was not great by the very definition of not great, and that’s an issue.

We’ve seen teams load the box and play the secondary back. It didn’t work for Kansas. It did work for Iowa State, which went with that Bear look (you’ll remember WVU did some of that with success against Georgia Southern). I don’t know that Kansas State can or will do that, but I know the Wildcats will certainly try to take away WVU’s strength and make the Mountaineers pass to prevail. Color Dana Holgosen concerned.

Skyler Howard completed 12 of 26 passes for 202 yards and one touchdown. He hadn’t thrown as many passes in four games or passed for as many yards in five games, indicative of a game plan that expected what Iowa State presented. But it was also the third time he’s completed less than half his passes and the sixth time he’s thrown no more than one touchdown pass in conference play.

Shelton Gibson caught six passes for 148 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown and a 52-yard catch. Everyone else caught six passes for 54 yards.

The Mountaineers did run the ball better in the third and fourth quarters, but Holgorsen was certain they’d pass better, too, once productive running plays encouraged the Cyclones to shift their focus from defending the pass. Howard was instead 4 for 13 for 74 yards, and an interception in the third quarter gave him 12 for the season — only 12 players in the FBS have more this season — and at least one in nine straight games.

“Disappointing offensively that we didn’t take advantage of that more,” Holgorsen said. “We took some shots. It was good to see Shelton make some plays. He’d been absent three or four weeks, almost a month. For him to come back was really good, but he’s about the only one we’ve got who’s making plays right now.”

WVU’s trouble did not come about from a lack of effort. Howard threw deep to Gibson and Jovon Durante throughout the second half, but the 52-yard play to Gibson was all the offense had to show for it.

Those plays aren’t Holgorsen’s concern, though.

“Anything but that, really,” he said. “We can throw deep balls. We’re not really making as many plays as we have in the past. But the pass protection’s got to improve. The quarterback’s got to improve. The intermediate passing has got to improve. Receivers being where they need to be has got to improve. There are a lot of things that have got to improve. I’ve got to improve and get more confident in it.”

That said, Kansas State’s pass defense is suspect and is the worst in the Big 12 in conference play in yards per game, yards per attempt, completion percentage and passer rating.

I ain’t no rough guy, ain’t no tough guy. Don’t get out much, don’t dress up fly. A pawn in the game, that’s all I am
Giving all my text to Uncle Sam. My edits are in [brackets].

9:38:

11:25:
Fire Dana!……too soon?

11:58:
Inside my skull feels like Owen Schmitt shat out Cody Clay, and now they’re fighting.

12:00:
#GoBlu…wait, wrong beat writer…#LetsGoMountaineers

12:02:
Shut up, Petros.

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Sunday Buffett: WVU 30, Iowa State 6

November 29, 2015 by Mike Casazza
endgame

Such mirth! Here’s the season recap: Undefeated in September, winless in October, undefeated in November and here comes December and/or January (more on that in a moment). A quick tip of the hat to Dana Holgorsen & Co., though. He caught a lot of crap the past three and four years for his November record, which was 3-9 since joining the Big 12 and 5-10 overall since 2011.

He just went 4-0 and it started at what was almost certainly his lowest point here with the most uncertain (outside) projections about his future.

True, only three of the nine losses since 2012 were to ranked teams (No. 12 Oklahoma in 2012, No. 10 TCU and No. 12 Kansas State last year), but consider, too, that WVU played three, two and three teams from the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State/Texas/TCU pool in those three seasons.

This November year only had one, and Texas is as down as it’s been in a long, long time. So it wasn’t the most challenging November yet, but I really don’t know what else the 0-for-October Mountaineers were supposed to do other than what they just did. They couldn’t go 5-0, right?

There are no do-overs, but, whew, WVU sure would like one right about now.

But after what the defense did again in the 30-6 win against the Cyclones, WVU can’t quite forget the October losses to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU.

“They were really good,” said defensive coordinator Tony Gibson. “They put a lot of pressure on the defense playing those teams with their speed. And they were all clicking and playing their best football at that time. I’d like to play any of them over right now with where we’re at. I think we’ve got our feet back under us. We’re extremely confident right now.”

Playing their seventh game without safety Karl Joseph and with all the changes that came about with that loss, the Mountaineers won their fourth straight game by forcing three turnovers and allowing the Cyclones a season-low 284 yards of offense. In the past nine quarters, WVU hasn’t allowed a touchdown and has given up nine points while forcing nine turnovers.

The last time the WVU played consecutive games without allowing an offensive touchdown was in 2011 and victories against Marshall and Norfolk State.

“I like it,” Gibson said. “I’d like to go another four quarters with that.”

The win guarantees the bowl-bound Mountaineers (7-4, 4-4 Big 12) a winning season 30 days after they slipped below .500 with a 40-10 loss at TCU. WVU was outscored 179-98 in the losing streak, but can finish the season alone in fifth place in the conference standings with its first five-game winning streak since starting 5-0 in 2012 — and that was part of a nine-game string extending to the end of the prior season.

All that’s left is the final game against Kansas State (5-6, 2-6), which will be playing at home for bowl eligibility and hasn’t lost to the Mountaineers since they joined the Big 12.

“It says we came to work,” said senior safety K.J. Dillon, who had one of the defense’s two interceptions. “We knew a lot of people gave up on us in October. We wanted to let Mountaineer Nation and let the world know we’re still for real and we still wanted to do this.”

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WVU v. Iowa State: Pronounced opportunity

November 28, 2015 by Mike Casazza
2015-11-28 09.49.42

You are looking live at something especially relevant to today’s game, a sign Nick Kwiatkoski’s uncle John created years back to alleviate any and all confusion, though to virtually no avail. It was only during this season that WVU fixed things within its publications in print and online.

To be clear:

My last name being what it is, I’m sensitive to brutal mispronunciations. If you know me or if it’s your business to know me — and this goes not just for me but for anyone with a slippery surname — messing it up is no different than calling me Mark and not Mike.

Now, there are exceptions. If I’m flying standby and the gate agent calls my name and butchers it, that’s OK. If my wife and I are waiting on our reservation at a restaurant, and some version of my last name pages us, we’re OK. But if I led the team in tackles for going on three years now, it’s not OK. If I’m not two or three games away from 300 career tackles, just the 18th player in school history to get there and the first since 2004, we’re not OK.

For so many reasons, it’s a good thing I’m not Nick Kwiatkoski. But imagine being him — an all-conference player in a major conference — and hearing his name rattle around storied stadiums or national broadcasts incorrectly and uncured. Imagine being his mom. Poor Pam!

“It’s almost to the point I don’t know if I’m even pronouncing it correctly,” Pam said. “We’ve just learned to live with it. It doesn’t bother me. It can be disappointing, but I think it bothers a lot of my family members more than it does me.”

Nick Kwiatkoski — and for the record, it’s Quit-COW-ski — plays his final home game at noon today on Fox Sports 1 against Iowa State (3-8, 2-6 Big 12). Pam and Frank will accompany him out of the tunnel and onto the field for Senior Day festivities before the game, and the public address announcer at Mountaineer Field will get their name right when it matters most.

But Kwiatkoski’s provided plenty of practice. With two games left in the regular season and a bowl game to follow, he’s likely to lead the Mountaineers (6-4, 3-4) in tackles for a third straight season. He’s 18 tackles shy of 300 for his career. Only 17 others in school history have reached that level, the last in 2004.

He’s followed a preseason first-team all-Big 12 honor with a team-high 65 tackles, eight tackles for a loss, two sacks, two interceptions, two pass break-ups, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. If there was a name for television, radio and stadium announcers on the road or at home to get to know through the years, it’s Kwiatkoski’s.

“What gets me is when the same person pronounces it two or three different times in one game,” he said. “But it’s probably my fault for not correcting people. It’s something I’m so used to that it doesn’t even faze me now.”

He’s been playing sports since early in his elementary school days, and Kwiatkoski was usually one of his team’s better players, whether it was football, basketball or baseball. Every time his name followed a tackle, basket or base hit, he and his parents learned to live with the speaker’s rendition.

But the rest of the family wasn’t as understanding.

“For our immediate family, it’s become kind of a joke,” Pam said. “I have relatives in different states who get to see him play on TV now and they’ll write in, which embarrasses me. Nick hates it. But they send messages to the announcers to clear it up.”

(Source: This is 100-percent true.) This day is not about Kwiatkoski, but he is a senior and he is one of many seniors who have persevered through changes both personal and institutional the past four or five years. I don’t (yet) know what the legacy of this senior class is, but through injuries and coaching changes and conference switches and up-and-down seasons, I think resilient is an apt adjective. But 20 players have a pen in their hands and three more paragraphs to pen in this final chapter.

Skinny post. Let’s go deep. A winning season is nigh.

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No quit in Sharif

November 27, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Four colleges, three he’s played for, two he’s paid to play and just one goal for West Virginia’s walk-on safety.

“I want the coaches to trust me and believe I can go out there and make a play so they wouldn’t hesitate having me out there,” he said. “I want to show people I can really do it regardless of my size, because I work hard.

“I feel like I get patted on the back always for working hard and not being talented. I feel like that’s a — I don’t want to say a dis, but a dis on me. ‘Oh, you work hard,’ and this and that, but I’m just as talented as everybody else.”

WVU in 2016 NIT Season Tip-Off

by Mike Casazza

Next season’s holiday tournament is a little closer to home.

In its second year under the ESPN Events umbrella, the 2016 NIT Season Tip-Off will maintain its format with Florida State, Illinois, Temple and West Virginia each hosting two games at home against designated campus-site teams prior to traveling to Brooklyn. The full schedule, remaining four teams, and campus-site games will be announced at a later date.

And we’re back

by Mike Casazza

Well, not all of us. West Virginia’s basketball team is still in Las Vegas, and Devin Williams might be on another level right now. The junior was who and what the Mountaineers needed last night to get past Richmond in their Las Vegas Invitational semifinal.

“The turning point was every time we threw it to Devin Williams,” Huggins said. “He was just great, scoring for us. And when we missed, he was rebounding. He was terrific.”

Williams tied his career high by scoring 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead West Virginia to a 67-59 victory over Richmond, as the Mountaineers won their fifth straight to open the season. It was Williams’ fifth consecutive double-double to open the season.

Jevon Carter added 13 points for the Mountaineers (5-0), who shot 21 of 48 (43.8 percent) from the field, but never trailed.

Williams had his way against the Spiders’ frontcourt, hitting 9 of 11 from the field, while sinking 5 of 8 from the free throw line.

“I don’t know what we would have done if we couldn’t have thrown inside to him,” Huggins said.

WVU plays for the title at 10:30 p.m. tonight against San Diego State. The Aztecs upset No. 14 Cal early this morning.

Just when you think these tournaments never go in favor of the Mountaineers and they play teams that either weren’t supposed to be in the final (See: 2009 76 Classic.) or aren’t good (See: 2014-15 UConn), consider for a moment that SDSU isn’t a cupcake and instead look what happened last night. Every year, that teams goes really hard with a  and the roster grows up and us coached with an edge. Get ready for a fight tonight, which is what the Mountaineers needed and wanted so early in this season.

The Good and the Bad of WVU v. Kansas

November 25, 2015 by Mike Casazza
oddlook

We’re 10 games into the season and, what, four games into this run game renaissance. A lot of time has transpired, a lot of things have changed and a lot of items have been shown and seen. West Virginia was in its rarest form Saturday in Kansas, not merely because the day produced a 49-0 final score, the first conference shutout since 2005, the first year with two shutouts since 1996 and the first time since 1969 three players had 100 yards. The Mountaineers were doing and showing things they hadn’t really done or shown much if at all before. There were new ideas, there were old things with new appearances and there were old ideas done in new ways.

I think we’ve seen this particular formation now and then and not much more than that. But I think it’s always been a draw. This was not a draw, which is what the defense just has to expect. And it wasn’t a power play, which would probably be second in line in the minds of the Jayhawks. It’s a zone play to the left, and Skyler Howard’s legs have essentially moved defenders to the opposite of the play — what I mean is that since he can run the ball, there’s no need for a running back in the backfield, and that running back can go right and take a safety with him.

It quite nearly worked, too.

Pause it at :02. Cody Clay widens out. That lets left tackle Marquis Lucas combine with left guard Stone Underwood to handle the defensive end, and Clay and Lucas create an alley. If Howard goes to that space, he’s 1-on-1 with the safety. Plays like this are supposed to create 1-on-1s, and though Howard might not win that confrontation, he also might win it. Howard instead cuts it inside, no doubt because he really trusts center Tyler Orlosky, who has had better snaps than this one.

But this was there, and given the volume of running plays in practice and in games, WVU won’t make a mess of this too many times. (Aside: This doesn’t look easy, and it’s not as easy as it looks.)

Uh, Mike, what’s so rare about this? Why lead with one play and just a minor alteration?

Get your own blog! Good question! This was only one leaf on the branches the offense has been and is sprouting.

Surely by now you know WVU runs power plays in gap schemes, which is a fancy way of saying when the offense gets away from zone blocking and goes between the tackles, it likes to have the offensive linemen on the side of the play seal off the defense inside and climb up to the linebackers if possible while a guard guard pulls from the back side of the play to clear the way.

Last week against Texas, we saw a wrinkle. Here’s a power play that includes fullback Elijah Wellman.

That’s actually a counter play. It’s a power play with the offensive linemen on the play side sealing and climbing and the added fullback assuming the role of the pulling guard, who now takes on the outside linebacker or defensive end while the fullback clears a path.

So WVU’s added a concept to its offense by only giving the fullback the guard’s job and then asking the guard to block someone different and at the same time obvious. (And this isn’t the best example, because Texas gets got, which is nevertheless a win for the offense.)

The Mountaineers again had this rolling against Kansas, and it was really fun to watch.

But … but there was no Wellman there. That was Wendell Smallwood playing the role of fullback and blocking the linebacker, and how often has WVU used Rushel Shell and Smallwood together this season? Not often, right? As it was, WVU barely used Wellman with another running back on these counters. Wellman was actually used most on the counters with Cody Clay and another running back in the diamond, and it was new and startling.

No contest. Untouched through the middle. The right guard gets the outside defender. Clay (bottom of the screen) gets a second-level defender and Wellman clears a linebacker from Shell’s pathway.

Did I say it was startling? Shell scored not one, but two touchdowns on the play. WVU didn’t abandon the ordinary power runs, either, and Smallwood scored one of his two touchdowns on the play — actually no, he didn’t, because Wendell Smallwood, but he pushed in on the next play.

But watch those last two runs. They’re similar and different and effective. Knockout punches, man.

The counters are new, and the Mountaineers spent a few weeks working on this in practice before they ever brought it out of the garage.

“We started to look at it from different formations and think, ‘How can we take this thing that looks really good and expand it even more now?’” Crook said. “It gets guys moving and it’s something our guys are good at. They go out and execute it, and we’ve got running backs who are pretty good at sticking their foot in the ground and going vertical with it.”

The success is in the deception, though. The Mountaineers are doing something new by showing something familiar.

“It looks like we’re going to go outside zone, but then we take a counter step and come back with a guard pulling the other way and another back leading the way to pick up anything extra,” said Wendell Smallwood, WVU’s first running back in eight seasons to have four straight 100-yard games.

 

(Aside: Remember how WVU used to get tripped up by the unblocked defender on the back side of plays? This takes care of that.) WVU pulled the cover off the counter against Texas, and that thing’s on wheels and taking this offense places. Seriously…

WVU’s in a four-receiver set, which we know is not common this season, and this ends up being a counter without any sort of assistance from the fullback. It might be a trap that uses the pulling guard to seal off the side the run goes to. I don’t know. I do know WVU kept doing it — left side! — because it worked, and if you know Holgorsen, you know that if it works, he’ll do it again.

We’d not seen many of these things, but now we’re to a point where a single aspect — pulling guards — worked and spawned a handful of new plays that feature that single aspect in wholly different ways. That’s next-level stuff taking this rebooted offense to the next level.

How did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look at the Good and the Bad of WVU v. Kansas.

Use it. You know you will.

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Plan your weddings accordingly

November 24, 2015 by Mike Casazza
16sked

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2016 football schedule is out, and there’s what faces West Virginia. There’s but one homestand, and the final 11 games alternate road/neutral and at home. I think most teams would like a chance to play some home games in conference play in succession because of momentum, but the flip side here is WVU isn’t on the road in back-to-back weeks, either.

The larger concern? WVU is off after its second and fourth games and then not at all in the final eight weeks of the season. The Mountaineers again play on the final Saturday of the season, interestingly against Baylor, but that robs the coaches of a head start on recruiting. Bonus? Only Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech and Texas are off that week.

Tuesday changeup

by Mike Casazza

At some point in time after taping this last night, Tier 4 lost a soldier. My camera just sort of stopped working, and that’s going to preempt your normally scheduled Taboo. Here’s the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special in its stead.

It’s not impossible I fix this before kickoff, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing today.

We need to break off our route and throw some spotlight elsewhere (and I need to do a lot of work in a condensed week). Football’s our focus here, what with three 100-yard rushers for the first time in 46 years, but what about other WVU items in triplicate?

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