The WVU coach uses a lot of adjectives and tells a lot of truths to describe the Texas Tech loss and the challenge Kansas State presents. The lede is perhaps buried, though, because there will be some personnel changes Saturday.
Sorry to do this to you. The good news it this probably won’t take long. There really wasn’t much good to come out of that 49-14 debacle in Lubbock, Texas, and even the bad things were so apparent and so often repeated Saturday that I’m not sure you need much enlightening or antagonizing.
You know when they say “It is what it is!” and you sort of angle your head and wrench your lips? Well, that is pretty much what it means. I’m only going through stuff from the first half because 1) it was so bad and 2) the second half was a lot like the first half. I suppose the differences were that the Red Raiders didn’t score as much and that WVU’s body language went south and never returned.
It seemed many watching that some, though not all, WVU players, on offense and defense, were slow to get up after plays and many trotted off the field or even headed to the locker room as soon as they could. It was bad form — and don’t take my word for it.
Wait, bad link … better?
“It has something to do with mindset and mental toughness,” he said on the Big 12 coaches’ teleconference. “In a physical game, guys tend to go down and get hurt quicker.”
I’ve heard an interesting point the past few days and I’m willing to consider it: More good comes from a blowout loss than a nail-biter loss. That can make some sense. Had WVU lost close at Texas — and really, we’re not much more than one center-to-quarterback snap on a third down in the red zone away from seeing that — I think the Mountaineers could have still felt relatively good about themselves.
Unlikely they would have felt as swell as they watched the Longhorns get trounced by Oklahoma, though.
And had WVU lost a tight one to Texas Tech, I think there could again have been an argument that the Mountaineers may have thought things were OK, or at least not as bad as they are now, but also that the mood would merely delay an inevitable outcome that instead arrived with alacrity Saturday.
Right now, WVU has to look at itself after getting thumped by the Red Raiders and you get the feeling this team may have needed a third party to point out a few things.
And Texas? Probably wasn’t too devastated by the narrow loss to the Mountaineers, but the Longhorns are probably going to work a little harder after the Sooners had their way in the Cotton Bowl.
Anyhow, how did we get here? Let’s take a look at the good and the bad of WVU v. Texas Tech.
Good: Corey Smith
Three kickoffs, two touchbacks and the one that was returned was about five yards deep. He’s actually been pretty good at this, which matters because WVU’s coverage team can look good and terrible on any given snap.
Good: No straw
I don’t know why, but that makes me feel good. Like, I know the coach is there and ready to go and isn’t going to be lethargic. Also, to his left, wearing No. 84, is Josh Lambert, the freshman P/K. Yes, the Mountaineers travel with four punters/kickers, three that are on scholarship. It’s like that.
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If the beatdown Saturday didn’t ignite the thing, than this ought to be the can full of gas and handful of matches.
Texas Tech safety Cody Davis first hinted after the game WVU had it coming.
“It was huge,” said linebacker Cody Davis, who had 13 solo tackles. “They come in really cocky, just kind of on the high road, so to get up on them fast is big in games like this. You kind of show them we’re serious and get a jump on them and get the momentum on our side of the stadium.”
Apparently that wasn’t enough. He circled back on his personal blog Monday and, like he did 13 times all by himself Saturday, brought the wood.
West Virginia came in a little over confident. I usually don’t say anything bad about opponents, but this was by FAR the cockiest and arrogant team I have ever seen on film and in person. I have played a lot of football too, so I think that says something. I might be wrong, but that’s how I saw it. From Eugene Smith not shaking hands at the coin toss and waving us off to Tavon Austin doing his strut after every single catch he made, they were all about Me, Myself, and I… but the best TEAM won the game.
Uh oh …
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… or is not blowing in the wind. A variety of theories floated around following Saturday’s game — and those followed the one within the game.
Stopped at halftime for a mandatory interview, Dana Holgorse said, “I’ve seen a lot of these games. We’re letting the wind get to us too much. It’s a real windy day. … Geno’s got to settle down. He’s forcing some balls. He’s worried about the wind too much. We don’t practice in wind like this. It’s swirling at about 40 miles per hour.”
So it came up afterward as we tried to find ways to explain a very un-WVU performance.
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So, that did happen. Hate to pull you back in again, but we shouldn’t be too long in the introduction today. This is six games now and the numbers suggest West Virginia has one of the most gracious defenses in the country.
True, there are going to be days like that in the Big 12 Conference, but that makes three in three days in the Big 12. Sooner or later, you are who you are and the Mountaineers are a very good offensive team, but one that can only do so much so many times and just does not have the luxury of being off, or even iffy, when the other offense is on.
Saturday, the offense was not on. Texas Tech’s was. I’m not sure the WVU defense was anywhere near an outlet.
Three weeks ago, this was the talking point: The Big 12 puts pressure on defenses because of the offenses, but these defenses put pressure on their own offenses. WVU, in so many words, panicked Saturday and started playing more aggressively with calls and decisions — and to be totally honest and not a devil’s advocate, it’s kind of hard to blame Dana Holgorsen for that.
What else was he supposed to do? Punt it and hope the defense figured something out? Check that, hope the punting figured something out and then punt it and then hope the defense figured something out?
That wasn’t the way to go and that’s a hell of a thing to find yourself in on the road. You’d like to see plays called that would go around or over the wall Texas Tech’s defense had built and not see the group try to go through it, but there were some adjustments and those didn’t really work either. The Red Raiders were well prepared made few errors.
Right now WVU is a team that’s a little red in the face because it got pantsed on a very big stage. The Mountaineers, quite frankly, need a break so they can go to their corner, catch their breath, spit in a bucket and figure a few things out.
Trouble is, the bell just sounded and charging out of the opposite corner is Kansas State, only one of the most physical and most disciplined teams in the country.
But let’s save all of that for later. These texts remind of of the need to issue the reminder, since there are new eyes here all the time: Not my texts. These are from fans, to me, throughout the course of the game and they come together like Lite-Brite to present a unique vision of the game.
And they hold no punches. None.
Rocking my peers, putting suckers in fear, making the tears rain down like a monsoon. Listen to the texts go boom. My edits are in [brackets].
2:22
No Midnight Matador today 🙁
2:27
And what the hell is up with Texas? Did their starters stay in the fried food section of the Fair outside the Cotton Bowl?
3:40
Nice helmets. They look like garbage can lids.
3:40
Tight end.
3:40
…and, there is our non-existent defense!
3:41
Nice to see the defense pick up right where they left off with Texas.
3:48
Calling timeout when we have 4th down. Worked well for Texas last week.
3:49
Why doesnt Geno buckle all four helmet straps? Always has one flying around. Drives me nutz. Helmet rule!
3:50
This is “mid season form” for the defense?
3:51
I’m sober. I’m rational. I say this with full confidence… WVU is about to get blown out.
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If you’re still out there, the update from Lubbock, where Texas Tech hammered No. 5 WVU, 49-14.
So yesterday was something of a sad day. Fifteen years earlier, John Denver died in a plane crash. Denver’s intentions and loyalties have been debated warmly throughout the years and we’ve had occasion to visit those topics in the past, including the 2008 game at Colorado.
Was he more fond of the Rocky Mountains or the Country Roads? And is “Take Me Home, Country Roads” about West Virginia or the western part of Virginia?
It doesn’t matter. Not today. What we do know is Mr. Denver played his beautiful guitar at the first game at Mountaineer Field …
… and that the song is an indelible part of the WVU tradition.
Yet he was also an architectural student at Texas Tech who was in the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. The story, as I was told by the locals here, is that the school’s chancellor, Kent Hance, was the fraternity president. He urged Denver to stay in school because the music thing was a little risky. Denver gambled, left the university and ultimately won.
Fittingly, this game-within-the-game has become a fun little diversion this week. You’ll have to do some navigating, because there isn’t a direct link, but there’s a short feature here.
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Texas Tech has a defense that, for the time being, ranks very highly in some very important defensive categories. Quality of opposition? That does not rank so highly. The Red Raiders had their first real challenge last week in the loss to Oklahoma and when Landry Jones dropped back 40 times, he threw 40 passes and completed 25 and managed two touchdowns and 259 yards. He wasn’t sacked. He wasn’t hurried.
But that’s what the Red Raiders do — which is to say, they don’t do much. Don’t blitz. Don’t feign blitzes. Don’t disguise. Don’t confuse. They instead do a few things again and again and do them pretty well, which is a choice of words borrowed from descriptions of the WVU offense.
“It doesn’t look overly complicated and it’s pretty simple what they do, but a lot of times when you face a defense that doesn’t do a lot, they end up being really good at what they do,” offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said.
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Not that you were concerned, despite some curious and concerning moments last season, but Bob Huggins has no designs on retiring anytime soon. Huggins, 59, will sign a new contract before the end of the year — and given the speed at which contracts happen, that’s virtually tomorrow.
Oliver Luck told me coach and school will be “looking at adding to both the length and the compensation.” Huggins told me he’ll know when it’s time to unplug the treadmill.
“I want to do this as long as I’m excited about doing it, as long as I feel like I can bring the kind of passion to it that I’ve always brought,” he said. “When it comes to where I say, ‘I just don’t want to go in there and do this,’ I need to quit.”
Huggins keeps two thoughts in his mind when he thinks about the end of his career. Most powerful is having watched his father, Charlie, retire as a winning high school coach in Ohio with no regrets.
“He was at the top of his business, but he walked away and never really thought anything about it,” Huggins said. “It didn’t bother him because he knew it was time.”
Huggins has also had time off and knows what to expect, while many coaches struggle to adjust to the newfound time. Huggins resigned at Cincinnati in 2005 and sat out the 2005-06 season before returning for one season at Kansas State. He said he enjoyed the break.
“Everyone thinks I’m (kidding) them, but the year I was out, I never missed the games,” he said. “I missed practice. I missed the camaraderie I had with Andy Kennedy and Frank Martin. I missed the kids. I missed Eric Hicks and James White and those guys and the interactions we had, but as far as the games? I never missed the games.”
So, what do you do with that guy? Karl Joseph says he wants to intimidate as many people as often as possible. His coach, Joe DeForest, knows the freshman safety is one of the few and most explosive players on defense and wants to see “every aggressive bone in his body getting after people.”
Those aggressive bones will become sore and tired throughout the course of the season, especially given the number of snaps Joseph has been made to play and the relentless way he plays on those snaps. Joseph can wear himself out or even hurt himself out on the field and the Mountaineers are ready to keep an eye on him and both how and how often he plays.
“There’s no question we have to be careful with him because he plays so hard,” defensive coordinator and safeties coach Joe DeForest said. “The longer we get into this league and the more plays he’s going to play, he may get worn down by the end of the season if we don’t limit him. We have to do a better job; I have to do a better job of getting him out of there. Sometimes that’s hard to do.”
Mack Brown, as witnessed by this reaction to Tavon Austin’s 40-yard touchdown on a fourth down Saturday, is not a member of Team Go For It. Know who is? These guys.
“With our offense, I do like our changes to convert a lot of those situations, but it all depends where you are on the field,” receiver Stedman Bailey said. “It could be a big momentum shift if you don’t get it, especially in an environment like Texas.
“That would pretty much rev their fans up and make them go crazy, which would make it hard on our defense. If you do get it, it’s kind of like, I don’t know, a slap in their face. I’m for it, but like I said, it all depends on where you are on the field.”
Join Mack and Stedman and all the others to talk about WVU v. Texas as well as WVU v. Texas Tech and whatever else is under the sun when the WVU sports chat returns at 11 a.m. Here’s the your traditional link to the chat as well as your mobile link.
