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

Texts From Youngstown State Game Day

September 12, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

A quick note about my cell phone. It’s a Samsung Galaxy S6. I’ve had it for about three weeks now, and as far as I can tell, it doesn’t spontaneously combust. Maybe it does. Again, I’ve had it a little more than three weeks. But in that time, I’ve protected my phone against intrusion.

I’m paranoid about losing it or having it fall in the wrong hands and then people getting a peak inside my world. Not that it’s that cool, mind you, but because there’s a lot of sensitive material in email and documents and, you know, texts. That’s how I communicate, I’d say, 80 percent of the time.

So without giving away trade secrets, I have something like 700 numbers and email addresses in my contacts folder and only a few names. Those are necessities, like utility companies and restaurants and customer service for airlines, hotels and rental car companies, so on and so forth. But I promise you if you do find my phone, you’ll never be able to find a number for Bob Huggins or Dana Holgorsen or Red Panda or Erick Elliott.

I take that back. You’ll find the number, but unless you recognize that number, you’ll never know whose it is. All the identities — the names with numbers — are hidden in an area I can access because I know how to access it. It’s like “Stranger Things.” Everything exists in the upside down.

This is a long way of saying I never know who is texting me during games and I’m interchangeably sorry about and jealous of what a few of you experienced Saturday.  I judge wisely, as if nothing ever surprises me. Texting between two pillars of ivory. My edits are in [brackets].

10:40:
Why is Wolfman wearing a tuxedo? 

11:41:
Random Gameday Observation; A football stadium in a race track is the most SEC thing that’s ever SEC’d.

11:41:
Other Gameday Observation; Pitt can still eat [stuffing], but James Conner is that dude. Respect.

11:47:
Saw Tressel in a polo and not a sweater vest. But as he walked toward the press box, someone yelled, “That wasn’t pass interference.” Cold!

11:48
*Gold! But also cold!

12:09:
You’ll find out later but QB1 didn’t practice all week. Crest got a ton of reps and looked good, might play early.

12:41:
Chasing down a rumor that there’s a real penguin in the Blue Lot.

1:32:
FYI: 5 years ago today waa the first beer i bought at mtneer field!

1:34:
Perfection is when you arrive at your seat in this heat and your BFF hands you a cold one and says, “I got you this because buying 2 was as easy as buying 1.”

1:37:
Re: Real penguin. False alarm. It’s a nun. Is it wrong to be [piqued]?

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Sunday Brunch: WVU 38, Youngstown State 21

September 11, 2016 by Mike Casazza
White_MMORAES

 

A while back, Ka’Raun White was talking about his performance in the Cactus Bowl, when he caught four passes for 116 yards as part of West Virginia’s Blue Angels Air Show. He mentioned that his older brother, Kevin, thought it was a good game, but he also let his younger brother know that it was just OK and that it would have been a lot cooler if he’d scored. (Aside: Imagine what Kyzir has to deal with with those two.)

Ka’Raun, as you can see, scored a touchdown Saturday.

Shelton Gibson caught two.

Mr. End Zone, Daikiel Shorts, caught one on the outskirts of Quillacollo and a dusty cantina where Mack was alone and miserable at the end of the bar.

And Kennedy McKoy caught one, too, and that was a useful piece of late-game psychology to send the freshman into the locker room with a much different air about himself.

We can — and will! — make more out of McKoy’s score and the fact Shorts is like Moonlight Graham and transforms into a different entity when he crosses the goal line, but let’s instead discuss the big deal on a big day for Skyler Howard: Long passes!

There were scant opportunities to find and embrace them against Missouri, and Youngstown State attempted Saturday to in a similar way and discourage the bombs-away mentality. The trouble, as we discussed in the pregame portion of the live post, was the way the Penguins used their safeties. A lot was put upon their shoulders in that Cover 4 coverage scheme, and they were asked to spy the pass and play the run.

That’s not unusual and it requires skill and discipline and speed and experience. For a while, it was working. WVU’s running game was inexplicably stuck against what was essentially a five-player box, except that one or both of the safeties (and some others) would roll in to help with the run.

But then the Mountaineers slipped in a wrinkle, thanks to a tip from Gibson, whose spying was as valuable as his speed Saturday, and and some flicks from Howard.

“The way they played their guys, they were funneling things to their safeties, and their safeties had to come down and get to the ball in the running game,” Holgorsen said. “We didn’t really make them come down on the run very often, but our play-action was good.”

Three of Howard’s touchdowns and an additional 45-yard pass came on play-action fakes. Each time, the fake gave the safety a reason to pause and look to see if the running back had the ball. Each time, the safety spotted the fake and retreated into the defensive backfield. Each time, it was not enough.

It was all Skyler,” receivers coach Tyron Carrier said. “He did a great job putting his head down and selling the play-fake. The safety would scoot up, but by the time he scooted up, we were even with him. Nobody’s going to catch us from behind.”

So Howard had a large day with big yardage and touchdown totals and good-enough accuracy — again — and the deep passes were there on a day they maybe weren’t supposed to be there. That’s the good news!

The bad? Not much else was better in the second game than it was in the first.

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WVU v. Youngstown State: Let’s do this in 2018!

September 10, 2016 by Mike Casazza

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You are looking live at the excited and excruciating expressions of West Virginia quarterback Skyler Howard from last week’s win against Missouri. It was an interesting day for the senior. He had this third-best completion percentage in his 16 career starts, but he finished without a touchdown pass for just the second time. (Can you name the other one?)

Howard, of course, was knocked out of the game for four plays/two series. The play in question, believe it or not, was not this one. He lived to run another down, and then that red zone possession ended in a field goal. Howard was hurt, we think, on a botched handoff late in the second quarter. On the fist snap of his career, running back Kennedy McCoy went one way and Howard was under the impression the freshman, heretofore praised for his football intelligence, would go another way.

So Howard bailed and felt some pain and was tackled and got up and went back to the huddle and seemed concussed and took a knee and then needed some help to get off the field.

A fumble and an interception followed in his absence, but Howard, to the surprise of many and to the relief of most, returned in the second half. He played five possessions and led the Mountaineers to three trips into the red zone and 13 points.

On Tuesday, we learned the diagnosis was strained ribs, that he’s not physically limited and that he’s going to be in pain until the pain goes away. It’s not like a fly or a cloud of midges that you can shoo away, an there’s no way to accelerate the recovery. So Howard will play and wince and take short breaths when he tries to huff and puff. It’s a Thing, for sure, and you know Youngstown State knows this.

So, what to do with Howard today? He starts and he plays for as long as he’s needed, but he’s going to take, say, 60 snaps and hand off on 30 of them and throw on 25 and have orders to run or make a call on a run-pass option five times. By that extremely unscientific assessment, he’s open to a hit on 30 plays. You protect the quarterback, right? Do you do something along the lines of eliminating those five quarterback runs/run-pass options and allocate seven to 10 of the 25 passes to the 30 handoffs?

We already know the answer. Howard only ran seven times last week, matching a career low, and none of those came in the second half — not even in the six snaps WVU had inside the Missouri 10-yard line, where Howard is a weapon. There’s a contingency in place today.

“I think it depends on how he’s feeling,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said. “I didn’t run him up in between the tackles in the second half like I did in the first half. It limits us a little bit. You only do that when you really have to with quarterbacks.”

“Limits,” not because the Mountaineers absolutely need Howard to run the ball for the running game to thrive. Rushel Shell and Justin Crawford and probably Eli Wellman and McKoy need to help their quarterback today. But Holgorsen does enjoy calling quarterback counters and quarterback power plays in the red zone. The offense has an extra blocker and Howard only needs a little space to make a big play.

You see, Howard averages 11.3 carries and 39.9 yards per start. This is not like losing Pat White. But Howard’s six career touchdown runs covered 50, 32, 9, 3, 2 and 2 yards, and 30 of his 181 carries as a starter came in the red zone. Howard is a scoring option, and WVU’s red zone woes are known by now.

“He’s been very successful and effective in the run game, and we’re going to make sure that continues to happen, but we’re always going to try to protect that position, as well,” Holgorsen said. “It’s the balance that you kind of have to figure out.”

The Mountaineers would welcome more 23-yard touchdown runs by Shell and maybe even the first catch-and-run touchdown of Daikiel Shorts’ career, but let’s keep an eye on formations and play calls in the red zone today and see if WVU dares to be different or if Howard allows it.

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Friday Feedback

September 9, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which wonders if it’s ever seen a penguin in northeast Ohio.

I did see a point spread yesterday at 22 1/2 points, if you’re interested. That seems fair, I guess? I only saw highlights from Youngstown State’s season-opening win against Duquesne, so everyone and everything looked good, but the Penguins aren’t going to try to win this game in the first or second quarter. They’ll try to stay close in the first half with their running game, controlled passing game and defense and then they’ll look to make things interesting in the third and fourth quarters.

This used to be the formula for FCS teams, but that was when they had to create a narrow margin and live on it. That was when the talent wasn’t where it is now. There are some really good FCS programs with really good talent. They have spread offenses and — this is the key — spread offense skill position players. They can strike, sometimes quickly, sometimes in succession, and create and sustain drama.

There are outliers, and Charleston (ESPN is on in the office, and they were talking about the mass suspensions for Florida State) Georgia Southern optioning all over The Swamp is a wildly underrated moment in recent college football history. But the sport always trends and bends, and typically one team mirrors another. Now one level mirrors another.

The Penguins are different. Here’s their drive chart from the 45-10 win against the Dukes.

YSU   1st  Y20  15:00  Kickoff  D00  13:01  *  TOUCHDOWN  4-80  1:59    
YSU   1st  Y19  10:47  Punt  D10  04:44  *  FIELD GOAL  14-71  6:03  # 
YSU   1st  Y25  01:59  Kickoff  D00  14:19  *  TOUCHDOWN  6-75  2:40  # 
YSU   2nd  Y38  11:45  Punt  D40  08:00     Punt  6-22  3:45    
YSU   2nd  Y35  05:41  Punt  D00  01:37  *  TOUCHDOWN  8-65  4:04    
YSU   2nd  Y14  00:17  Kickoff  Y14  00:00     End of half  1-0  0:17    
YSU   3rd  Y44  00:00  Punt  Y44  14:39     Fumble  0-0  0:00    
YSU   3rd  D45  14:31  Fumble  D00  12:37  *  TOUCHDOWN  4-45  1:54  # 
YSU   3rd  Y32  10:33  Downs  D44  07:08     Punt  7-24  3:25    
YSU   3rd  D48  03:12  Punt  D00  14:11  *  TOUCHDOWN  8-48  4:01  # 
YSU   4th  Y22  12:06  Punt  D00  08:04  *  TOUCHDOWN  7-78  4:02  # 
YSU   4th  Y09  04:55  Punt  D02  00:00     End of half  7-89  4:55  # 

Now, they did hit some big plays. A 49-yard touchdown pass opened the scoring. Quarterback Ricky Davis and receiver Darien Townsend connected again later for a 36-yard score. But 11 other completed passes netted 125 yards — and that includes a 39-yard screen pass. YSU can and might be cautious.

The running back there was Jody Webb, and he had a 40-yard run. Tevin McCaster had a 50-yard run. In all, 53 runs netted 394 yards. Take away the two big runs by Webb and McCaster — and you can’t — and it’s 51 runs for 304 yards. That’s still 6 yards per carry.

But Webb weighs 175 pounds and McCaster 195. They combined for 18 carries. Martin Ruiz is the lead back, if you will, and the biggest of the three had 17 carries in the opener. Davis, who beat out last season’s starter in the preseason, ran 10 times. You see the plan there, no?

And why not? Check out the offensive line.

  • LT: Justin Spencer, 6-5, 305, junior – Honorable-mention All-Missouri Valley Football Conference, only offensive lineman to start all 11 games last year. Started 10 games at right tackle and made one start at left tackle
  • LG: Gavin Wiggins – 6-4, 310, sophomore – Started the final four games of the season on the offensive line after not playing in the first seven
  • C: Vitas Hrynkiewicz – 6-4, 300, junior – Junior college transfer, honorable-mention all-Jayhawk Community College Conference
  • RG: Cameron Fraser, 6-4, 300, junior – Transfer from Louisville and probably the most recruited player up front, played in 11 games and started seven times at left tackle last season
  • RT: Dylan Colucci, 6-6, 330, senior – Former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 player, started 10 games last season, including nine at left guard and one at right tackle.

Big guys. Seemingly talented. Mostly experienced. But a left tackle who was a right tackle, a left guard who was needed late in his true freshman season, a new center, a right guard who was a left tackle and a right tackle who was a left guard. That’s pretty interesting, and you figure YSU found its best lineup and chose to follow them.

Here’s the concern as it relates to any game, let alone a FCS v. FBS game: It’s not easy to chain together chunk plays to assemble a drive that gets points and then to do that over and over. When you’re an FCS team, your depth is inferior and those third- and fourth-quarter drives don’t come as easily. When you’re facing WVU, the 3-3-5 keeps everything in front and rallies to the ball and more or less trusts its scheme against the likelihood of an opponent putting together a 14-play drive without making a mistake that is a turnover or precedes a punt or a field goal.

Over/under Saturday: Length of the game. WVU’s probably not throwing it 40 times.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, blame it on your phone. (Actually, this is sort of terrifying, thanks to the FAA memo.)

avb31 said:

Maybe Howard went down just to show everybody just how bad his backups are, and to get people off his back. Because we all saw that it could be much, much worse.

Crafty veteran!

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A real de-cleater

September 8, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

Another tremendous photo by us, this from @samowensphoto.

The lesson for Drew Lock in the first game of his first full season as Missouri’s starting quarterback was to lace his shoes tightly. The lesson for West Virginia linebacker Justin Arndt was to make sure his cell phone is charged.

‘It’s a mystery’

by Mike Casazza

 

Tuesday. Puskar Center. Interview session with the West Virginia players. Quarterback Skyler Howard finishes up and heads toward a door on the left. A curious reporter sees this and gets Howard’s attention for a quick conversation off to the side.

“Hey, Skyler. Can I ask you about your fashion statement Saturday?”

“Yeah. What was it?”

“Your wrist band with the acronym. I’ve had a million people ask me about it.”

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Two more FCS foes on the way

September 7, 2016 by Mike Casazza

The new normal as we move forward. I was surprised WVU and Youngstown State hadn’t played since 1938, but I guess I’m more surprised they’ll wait two years for the next bout.

The Good and the Bad of WVU v. Missouri

by Mike Casazza
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Another game, another depth chart, and you’ll note only a few changes. I want to keep pointing this out, because even with the roster turnover from one year to the next as well as the injuries and suspensions, West Virginia has dealt with only a few personnel-related surprises. Since before they got started (in the spring, even), the Mountaineer have circled certain players and expected them to handle certain roles, and it’s generally gone as planned. When they deal with an injury or a suspension, they prescribe the same practice and are rewarded the same way. That continues to be good news for the Mountaineers, and remember that a week ago Dana Holgorsen said he expected to make many changes to the depth chart between the first and second games, just because he’d learn a lot about the players during the first. Maybe they already knew much of what they needed to know?

Defensively, all that really matters is Xavier Preston is the backup Sam linebacker now. That nudges Zach Sandwisch out of the two-deep, which is not a surprise. The true freshman did play Saturday, though not a lot. He’ll focus on special teams now while trying to carve out a few plays here and there on defense. That won’t be easy, but Preston’s not going to have an easy time getting on the field, either. Justin Arndt answered a lot of questions, did he not?

Offensively, I tried to write about tight ends last week, and the one thing that stood out was WVU only had four. I checked on that a few times. I asked Joe Wickline, the offensive coordinator who works with the offensive tackles as well as the tight ends and H-backs, who he had. “It seems sort of thin. Who do you have?” Something like that. He ambiguously replied along the lines of having who he had, and I realized that was on me. So then I reeled off the names — Stone Wolfley, Trevon Wesco, Mike Ferns and Elijah Wellman — and Wickline said those are the only names he was aware of.

No offense to Rob Dowdy, but he’s not a secret weapon. This is not 2012 and Holgorsen isn’t secretly moving Tavon Austin to running back for the Oklahoma game. I’ll assume Dowdy, who did spend some time at tight end in the spring, was probably given a new jersey sometime during the week and after my intense inquisition. And now he’s the starter, but I’m going to also assume he’s in that role so he can block in one-tight end sets, should the Mountaineers use them, and Dowdy and Wolfey would be in two-tight end sets, when WVU is more likely to throw a pass to a tight end, though we’re probably a good distance from there.

But let’s talk about quarterbacks. It’s what we do, no? We had a few questions for the first week, and the best ones seemed to revolve around the quarterback(s). Could Skyler Howard hit the short passes? How’s his poise? Will he run as much? Who’s the first backup?

Yes. Improved. Apparently. William Crest.

Now, though, Chris Chugunov is the backup. There is no “or” binding Chugunov and Crest, as there was before the opener. Are we making a meal out of that? Possibly. But we know Howard has sore ribs/rib cartilage. That’s going to stick with him for a while. But WVU is going to ask him to stand back in the pocket and wing it — behind a redshirt freshman left tackle — and WVU is going to ask Howard to run the ball. Howard has never packed a white flag in his duffel bag. He doesn’t slide. He wants that extra half-a-yard when he’s on the run. He’ll wait that extra half-a-second when he’s throwing a pass. To change that — the way he plays, the plays he runs — is to waste time, so, yeah, the backup quarterback is probably going to play. Holgorsen said that Saturday afternoon. “… the truth of the matter is that we’re going to get to that second guy a good bit.” (Then again, he’s coaching The Most Injured Team in America, so maybe he’s just projecting.)

What’s notable about this new distinction is that Crest and Chugunov made major errors Saturday, and Holgorsen was so mad at Chugunov.

sideye

 

This was, like, five minutes after Chugunov’s turnover. He threw an interception, Missouri celebrated and swapped its defense with its offense, the offense ran a play and then the head coach called a timeout. Holgorsen isn’t just fuming, either. He’s submitting his bust for the side-eye Mount Rushmore. And Chugunov is the backup! How did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look at the Good and the Bad of WVU v. Missouri. (New request this year: Share this with the world, please.)

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Dana Holgorsen: Youngstown State

September 6, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Aaah, the famous red zone question.

Wasn’t me!

The many moods of WVU’s quarterbacks

by Mike Casazza

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West Virginia’s quarterbacks had, to say the least, an interesting game Saturday. Skyler Howard hurt his ribs. Backups William Crest and Chris Chugunov committed turnovers. No one had as much fun as freshman Cody Saunders.