We’ve probably overlooked this, but this transformation WVU’s offensive line is undergoing from an average group to a superior group probably has a lot to do with constant reminders it was an average group.
Not since 2000 has WVU had the second week of the season off and in that season, as well as the 1998 and 1993 seasons that shared the distinction, the Mountaineers played only 11 regular season games.
What last week’s off week means is WVU will play six straight Saturdays and on 11 of 12 weekends. That’s a whale of a run, especially in this travel-troubled Big 12, where the Mountaineers make their only four road trips in the final eight games and nine weeks.
Whistling past Marshall preceded polishing throughout an open week before facing a talented, though still FCS, James Madison — and we’ll table the discussion about two tests quizzes in three weeks before facing a Maryland team that will have three increasingly difficult games (William & Mary, Temple and UConn) under its shell.
What the Mountaineers tried to do last week, and apparently succeeded in doing, was maintain the sharp edge that they showed off during the 69-34 win against the Thundering Herd.
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Certainly WVU’s front five had a very promising debut Sept. 1 against Marshall and Coach Dana Holgorsen said a case was made to name right guard Jeff Braun the team’s offensive player of the game. Collectively, though, the offensive line led the way for 331 yards rushing — second most since the start of the 2008 season — and a robust and ridiculous 9.5 yards per carry.
Braun, center Joe Madsen and left guard Josh Jenkins played every snap. Right tackle Pat Eger had the only penalty with a false start. Left tackle Quinton Spain had 10 1/2 knockdowns. Ten-and-a-half! Madsen led the team with 55 in 13 games all of last year!
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The Mountaineers coach has only nice things to say about Saturday’s opponent and quasi-critical observations about his squad.
Dana Holgorsen bent some ears Monday when he insinuated James Madison would be a bigger challenge for his WVU team Saturday than Marshall was two Saturdays ago. I could do without all that, whether it’s a coaching tactic to get his team’s attention or a swipe at Marshall, but I didn’t find that to be as interesting as something his counterpart said the same day.
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This one comes with a twist. There is nothing new about 2011’s leading rusher and Dana Holgorsen preached patience once more Monday. Then again, there was a slight angle to it all and Holgorsen said there may come a point where WVU will use Garrison if it needs Garrison. “If not,” Holgorsen said, “we won’t.”
Figure the offensive line’s performance and the way it foisted Shawne Alston and Andrew Buie upon Marshall has something to do with this, right? Wrong!
Give the line some credit, though. Garrison has a powerful and inspiring confidant in his return to form — angry left guard Josh Jenkins. He’s been through three knee surgeries and three rehabilitations . Jenkins, now a fifth-year senior, said if Garrison recuperates patiently and prudently, he can come back and be better. Jenkins would know.
“I never wanted to be a backup. I never wanted to be the guy you saw at the end of the bench,” Jenkins said. “I’m not saying they don’t contribute because everyone contributes in their own way, but to me, if I was going to come back, I wanted to get my position back. That mentality made a big difference for me, even during the rehab.
“Eventually there was no one thing in my mind that said, ‘Your time is up. Someone is going to take your position from you.’ I believed it was my time to come back, work hard, battle guys and come out and physically dominate.”
WVU has one of the premier offenses in the country. The talent is top-shelf stuff. The coaches are among the best with some of the brightest futures. And in the season-opener, the Mountaineers did something a little different and snapped the ball from under center quite a bit more than normal.
Naturally, this was the byproduct of a defensive coach’s input.
“I’ve studied Dana’s offense for a long time and one thing I told him was that I thought Geno and the offense would be very effective – even more effective – under center,” Patterson said. “In my opinion, as a defense, I want the quarterback to have to wait for the ball when it’s snapped.
“If you have an offset back to the right, to me, there’s a lot of time spent waiting for the ball. There’s no direct hit.”
The Mountaineers (1-0) like the shotgun because Smith can better survey the defense when he starts off several steps behind the line of scrimmage. It gives him a head start because a snap from under center precedes a multi-step drop and the time it requires as Smith reads the defense.
Patterson said the Mountaineers could run the ball better from under center because they’d be able to spring 6-foot, 235-pound running back Shawne Alston on the defense quicker.
“When you have an offset back to the side in the shotgun, it’s harder for the running back standing next to the quarterback to get the ball and, to me, generate momentum toward the line of scrimmage,” Patterson said.
“Now move the quarterback under center and take the ball and hand it right away to No. 20. That is a completely different deal.
JMU Coach Mickey Matthews said earlier this morning West Virginia and its coaches have very little to worry about before Saturday’s game. “The true statement is I’m sure they haven’t even watched our film,” he said.
Eh, I get the point, but it’s not true. WVU has devoured both JMU games and Dana Holgorsen seemed well-versed on JMU under Matthews since 1999.
He knew of big wins and close calls, said the Dukes have done essentially the same things as long as Matthews has been there and even recited JMU’s CAA defensive ranks from 2011.
He didn’t know Dae’quan Scott was possibly out, but was nevertheless respectful of the 1-2 punch Scott and quarterback Justin Thorpe provide, spotlighted a tight end who’s on the field 80 percent of the time, hailed a middle linebacker that’s as good as any Dana has seen on film, yada, yada, yada.
Then came this: “We’re anticipating this being a bigger challenge than what we faced a week ago.”
Saturday is WVU’s unusual venture to the Nation’s Capital, or thereabouts, to play a neutral-site game against a FCS school.
To briefly review the details, WVU is guaranteed $2.3 million for the game and can make an additional $200,000 in a ticket incentive that looks like it might be hard to meet. Nevertheless, WVU isn’t paying James Madison a penny and, as such, looks to clear about $500,000 more than it might for a normal home game.
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Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which can’t wait for tomorrow’s game against Flori– damn.
Oh, what might have been with WVU and the Seminoles in Tallahassee, surely on national television, on the second Saturday of the season. Instead, No. 6 Florida State is at home as a 10 touchdown favorite against Savannah State. No. 9 WVU is idle (Note: It’s not a bye week. A bye advances you in a tournament.) and $500,000 poorer.
I mention that financial component not to pick at scabs, but because I found today’s real news to be quite apropos. WVU had to beg out of the Florida State game because of the Big 12 schedule and, let’s be candid here, because the Seminoles were too steep a risk to take on the schedule.
Today the Big 12 announced it’s $2.6 billion media rights deal that promises WVU $240.2 million (it’s not $260 million … I’ll explain). Getting rid of the FSU game, removing a landmine from a potentially super regular season and ensuring next week’s payday at FedEx field remains in place will cost WVU 1/480th of the revenue it can expect from the Big 12 contract.
Not too shabby.
I’ll pick this thing apart below and then later in print, but what grabs my attention is the Tier 3 stuff and how much freedom it gives schools. One football game, four men’s basketball games and potentially all other contests can go to the Tier 3 package WVU eventually institutes.
Not only that, but WVU can sell a game back to the Fox network and that, for example, might interest Fox Sports Atlantic when WVU plays Towson. Or, whatever. Just trying to illustrate it. Lots of possibilities there and the Mountaineers can choose their own adventure in a lot of ways when it picks its partner.
Word about this TV deal got out last night. I was watching Pitt v. Cincinnati before flipping over to what I was really watching — you don’t want to know — and I started to think about something. WVU’s cost for leaving the Big East and accepting the Big 12’s conditions for entrance is going to be around $35 million in money paid/not earned. Thirty-five million dollars!
I see $15 million in the settlement (I know it was a $20 million settlement, but WVU is ultimately responsible for “just” $15 million). Big 12 schools will reportedly get $20 million annually, but WVU is a partial member the first three years.
So I see $10 million left behind as a 50-percent partner in the Big 12 revenue this year, $6.6 million left behind next year as a 67-percent partner and $3.2 million left behind as a 84-percent partner in the 2014-15 athletic year. That’s $19.8 million.
Now we’re at $34.8 million. Add the half-a-mill for buying out FSU, which, again, was a move necessitated by taking on a larger conference schedule as a Big 12 member, and you’re definitely over $35 million.
Scary part is that you haven’t even taken into account the changes in coaching salaries across the athletic department, which is merely the biggest of many like changes. I wouldn’t put that in the same canister as the aforementioned. The former is the cost of the move. The latter seems more like the cost of doing business, and I think it’s the necessary cost of doing business. But it adds up. This is entirely unresearched and non-scientific and simply me spinning numbers in my head last night and this morning, but I’m thinking the changes in coaching salaries — Dana and his assistants and their salary pool, as well hiring and upping the salary for as Randy Mazey — to meet the Big 12 standard is more than $1 million. And none of that accounts for the added travel expenses, which I’m told will be similarly steep as well.
That’s a lot of brown paper bags.
I supposed that, today, you can say it’s all worth it. The sun is shining and and the forecast does’t look to be changing, so why worry? And I don’t see a need to put a stopwatch on this because, to me, time shouldn’t expire as much as time should be enjoyed. Never mind that WVU won’t start turning a profit on the overall cost/investment until 2015, when it gets its final partial-member share of the Big 12 revenue ($10 million this year + $13.4 million next year +$16.8 in the following year = $40.2 million, which is greater than $35ish million).
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, pay attention to detail.
Mr. M said:
GOOD: outscoring the opponent in the first quarter (13-0).
We only did that twice last season (no, not against Marshall — or even Norfolk State but to Bowling Green and Maryland). Probably not a very meaningful statistic, but one that common sense dictates carries some significance.
No, no. I agree. I want to see it happen a few times, though. I’ll never understand that an offense as seemingly simple and liberating as is WVU’s could sputter like it did early in games last season. WVU will be very hard to beat if it gets two touchdowns in the first quarter.
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