Welcome to the Friday Feedback, a bandit for eight years running. Today we begin with Karl Joseph and the end of his career at WVU. Worst news since Da’Sean Butler’s knee. This is not worse — I’m not going to compare and contrast ACLs or differentiate between the scopes and specters of each, because they were both awful — and it’s equally terrible because of what those players, separate from one another with a distance created by time and sports, came to mean for the team, the season, the state, so on and so forth. I hate it. The WVU v. Duke game was, for all practical purposes, over before Butler fell. I was writing and ready to send a story to post at the buzzer. Butler’s injury, Bob Huggins’s intervention, the reality Butler’s draft stock was irreparably affected, all of it just stalled me. I don’t even like to think about it now
Wednesday was no different. I hate it. Hate. It.
Obviously, I spent a bunch of time on the phones and in front of people talking about this very bad news, and you can imagine how disappointed and angry people were. Just about all of the conversations, though, began similarly, and those prefixes started with The Letter F.
That kind of blow for the team, the locker room, the season, just the way you’re supposed to feel when this happens to great young adults who are great players and worked hard to become each.
Dana Holgorsen, who has established a pattern of secrecy and subterfuge but should be commended for announcing the news Wednesday and not stunning 60,000 people Saturday, used his radio show last night to say Jarrod Harper will start.
That’s not a surprise. He’s been in the program for as long as Joseph has, and he’s this team’s version of the guy who would be starting at many other places if he wasn’t behind The Man here. I’ll be honest. For as much pub as Jeremy Tyler got in the offseason, I was surprised Harper went as unmentioned as he did. The coaches like him at least as much. He knows the position. In addition to being the backup bandit, he’s also the backup nickelback behind Ricky Rumph, which speaks to Harper’s coverage skill. But Rumph is better in coverage, and WVU’s facing teams that are going to use 10 personnel (four receivers) or stellar receivers in sets with three receivers. Does he play more now, either as an answer to a matchup or to spell Harper, who can’t be accustom to playing as much as he’ll have to now? Or is Tyler the (able) backup bandit?
There are other ripples. Joseph was on two special teams. A backup is in now, unless WVU moves a starter on that unit over to Joseph’s spot. And if that’s the case, a backup takes the opening created there. Harper is all over WVU’s special teams, but he’ll have fewer duties now, and backups will go into those places.
With Harper starting now, there’s a new backup (third-string!) bandit plus a new backup nickelback. That matters more than it would appear on the surface. We’re not sure who spells Harper or how WVU will do it. We also know Rumph is the team’s third cornerback. If Terrell Chestnut or Daryl Worley can’t play, Rumph slides in, but what happens on third down? Previously in that scenario, Harper would be the nickel, but he’s the bandit. Who’s WVU’s third nickelback, and how much football has he played?
Lots to keep track of Saturday and all the Saturdays and one Thursday that follow.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, keep your head.
Shoot4Show said:
The young wideouts struggled versus physical play. When they got a release, OU had safeties back to prevent the big play. It also made Skyler hold the ball and exposed him to pressure. OU gave up some yardage in the run game by doing that, but you want to make Dana’s teams to try to beat you by being methodical. The young WRs will develop, and the offense will get better… but who knows when.
More concerning to me was that it seemed Gibby got out schemed. Maybe his boys just played poorly – and it looked that way at times – but I thought the Sooners had some really effective counters to what we do on D.
You know, I wondered the same about the receivers, but the corners weren’t in-your-face physical with them, and Lonnie Galloway, of all people, was content with how Shelton Gibson and Jovon Durante handled that. I don’t think that was their biggest problem. But here’s the dig: This is what teams are going to do — it is what they do — to WVU. The receivers are different, but teams were hanging second defenders over Kevin White and Mario Alford. WVU has to run the ball — it does — and hit the middle routes — hmmm — to avoid falling fully into the trap. As for the defense, more players than coaches and probably more Oklahoma than WVU in some instances, a few being just critical and devastating. But here’s the dig again: That’s what WVU does. Blitzes did not get home, but do you not call blitzes? Remember those times I shared on Howard’s sacks? If you applied some of them to Mayfield on the double move and some other big plays (not the other two touchdowns) he gets sacked. Mayfield got rid of it and beat the blitz. WVU better get used to that idea, too.
Continue reading…
