Forget the losing streak or where WVU was ranked just three games and four weeks ago. Never mind defensive statistics or offensive inefficiencies. Try to forget that no Mountaineers team has ever lost four straight conference games. There’s only one number that matters Saturday when WVU and Oklahoma State mirror one another at Boone Pickens Stadium: The first to 11 wins.
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Travares Copeland, who started telling Twitter last night about family problems and a situation back home, has left the team. A brief press release announced the move and said it was for personal reasons — actually, it confirmed the news. Copeland revealed “The Rebirth of Travares Copeland” on Twitter this morning, which … well, it makes you wonder.
In more inspiring news, Shawne Alston is back, though admittedly not back to normal…
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Back for round 10 of the weekly sports chat and two days before WVU plays Oklahoma State and one of two possible quarterbacks. We can discuss that and so much more at 11 a.m. As always, two routes to the chat room. Here the mobile link and here’s ye olde traditional link.
One more WVU personnel note: Joe DeForest sure sounded Tuesday night like a defensive coordinator and a safeties coach who was going to play Cecil Level over Darwin Cook again.
Apparently Cook has been a little limited physically, but Dana Holgorsen made it quite clear that Cook also hasn’t played very well lately. DeForest echoed that and said Cook had done plenty of great things at WVU, but not lately, and that Level earned and deserved the trust to start — and WVU’s secondary was better last week.
Here’s Level sharing his thoughts on his special occasion against TCU.
Joe DeForest has his hands full, again. Granted, he lugs more confidence and good vibrations into the game Saturday than he has in the past, but there are a pair of problems he’s readying for in Stillwater, Okla.
1) He knows that place and that team quite well after working there as an assistant coach the previous 11 years.
2) He knows the Cowboys are No. 2 in total offense, No. 3 in passing offense and No. 8 in scoring offense, but he also knows who runs the ball for the Cowboys.
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The good news? The older, yet still green men’s basketball team at West Virginia controlled Tuesday night’s exhibition game against Glenville State. It was never close and was rarely compelling and the Mountaineers won by 42 points, which is the kind of score you’d expect from a team that’s supposed to be better than the sixth-best team in the 10-team Big 12.
Plus, a year ago, WVU lost its exhibition game and, save one stretch in the middle of the season before Kevin Noreen’s injury, could never avoid itself.
The bad news? Bob Huggins wasn’t too happy with things, at least not relative to what feels like high expectations this season.
“I want us to be better than we were last year,” he said. “I thought we could get 10, 11 guys and we could play really, really hard and keep subbing guys in and keep people fresh to wear teams down. I don’t know that we have that many people.”
Kilicli had 19 points and made 8 of 10 shots, but only had three rebounds. Murray had 13 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Staten had 16 points, six assists, three steals and no turnovers. Gerun, who has to sit out the first six games of the season, finished with 12 points in 12 minutes.
WVU shot 50 percent, but had assists on only 14 of 37 baskets. The Mountaineers committed 13 turnovers and only outrebounded the Pioneers 46-34. They open the season next week at Gonzaga.
“We’re going to look at how we didn’t run any offense, we’re going to look at how we didn’t transition down the floor and we’re going to look at how we didn’t rebound the ball,” Huggins said.
The head coach hit on a number of topics, some hard, some lightly, during today’s pres conference — including something quizzical about Stedman Bailey.
WVU returns to practice today and I’d have to imagine it’s going to be a mix of emotions. Determination, I’m sure, but this is a team that just suffered a brutal loss, which is the third brutal loss in a row, but a different brand of brutal.
That’s not the brutal that stings or stinks. That’s the brutal that can devastate.
The Mountaineers invested a lot in the two weeks between games. They met some harsh realities. They made some bold personnel decisions. They really and truly believed everything was going to work. And it nearly did and probably would have, if not for some colossal errors that send them back to a fourth straight week of post-defeat practice.
In November, that’s very tough. When it follows WVU’s September, it’s even tougher. The physical part of the game is hard. Throw in the volatility of this emotional and mental struggle and it’s so much harder. And, oh, by the way, WVU goes on the road Saturday.
Such a difficult spot for the Mountaineers. How did we get here? Let’s take a look by evaluating the good and the bad of WVU v. TCU…
Good: Audience participation
I’ll just stay away from the junior varsity implication here, mostly because I think it was sincere, but the standing ovation in the bleachers and the mosh pit on the sideline was one of my favorite moments of the season. Erik Slaughter was seeking out people to hip thump and chest bump. I don’t think there can be any misunderstanding as to why the defensive line played with such urgency.
Side bad: It’s the eighth game of the season and the home crowd of 52,000 or so is cheering wildly for a rather basic occurrence in a college football game.
Good: Pass rush
I think the open week did those guys well. The ends and tackles and the rush linebackers played with great energy and guys like Kyle Rose and Josh Francis and Dozie Ezemma, who was a nice surprise, spent much of the game moving the pocket and stressing Trevone Boykin, who was hurt a week before, is a redshirt freshman and apparently sounded like he wasn’t much liking the constant contact. I’m serious…
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TCU, because of the youth and the injuries it’s had to deal with this season, has used a few different starting lineups. The Horned Frogs, famed for their 4-2-5, hadn’t done what they did Saturday against WVU.
“The one thing we did was go to a nickel package (with an extra defensive back) so we’d have more speed on the field,” Horned Frogs Coach Gary Patterson said. “It helped us because both those nickel guys and the safeties made tackles. They played more effectively than what I had hoped.”
Basically, this was a 4-1-6, even if it looked like and was shaped like 4-2-5. Joel Hasley, a linebacker and the team’s leading tackler who had started every game this season, was out of the starting lineup in favor of safety Derrick Kindred. The former was a bad matchup for Tavon Austin. The latter, who had made five tackles all season, made 10 against WVU and nine by himself and did an admirable job against Austin.
He finished with 101 yards receiving, but he needed 11 receptions and one zany, 43-yard touchdown play to make it happen.
You can see where I’m going here.
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Technically, the answer for WVU’s defense is “Yes.” Defensive coordinator Joe DeForest was in the coaching box above the field Saturday night for the first time in his career. The team played well. He noticed and liked the differences in his game duties. It’s not going to be any different anytime soon.
“I loved it,” said DeForest, who doubles as the safeties coach. “I thought it was calm. It’s so surreal up there. In 23 years coaching, I’ve never been in the box before. I don’t think I’ll ever leave. I could see what was going on in the secondary, which is my most important thing, and I could see the big picture. I was calm and could make calls. I think that has a lot to do with how we played.”
Now, realistically? Well …
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