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

BLOG: Future of WVU backfield on display in Heart of Dallas Bowl

December 16, 2017 by Ryan Decker

On Thursday, the West Virginia football announced a pair of statements:

Quarterback Will Grier is returning to the Mountaineers for his senior season in 2018, and running back Justin Crawford will not play in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl against Utah later this month.

The first assures that an experienced quarterback will be leading the WVU offense next season, while the second means we’ll have a good idea of the talent that will be around him.

Although the bowl game would’ve served as one final game for senior running back Justin Crawford to put his talents on display, it now gives a glimpse at what the backfield will operate like next year without him.

Crawford battled a nagging injury during the middle part of the season, part of what contributed to him being held under 50 rushing yards for three straight games, but still managed to be one of just three Big 12 rushers to eclipse 1,000 yards on the ground this year.

He surpassed that mark in each of his two seasons in Morgantown.

Behind – or, now, replacing – Crawford is a pair of Mountaineer backs with experience and another that hasn’t gotten much action, though it can be anticipated that will change against Utah and next year.

Leading the way is sophomore Kennedy McKoy, who ran for a career-high 137 yards the last time West Virginia was on the field against Oklahoma. McKoy did a lot of his damage out of the wildcat formation, which is expected to be used again against the Utes.

Both Crawford and McKoy averaged over five yards per carry this season.

Behind McKoy is fellow sophomore Martell Pettaway, who had his coming out party two seasons ago against Iowa State when he rushed for 181 yards against the Cyclones on the same day his redshirt was burned.

Getting a very limited number of carries, Pettaway didn’t reach that total in all 10 games combined this season, but without Crawford will surely see more action and garner a bigger role.

Freshman Tevin Bush is the other back that will likely touch the football a few times in the Mountaineers’ final game of 2017.

Bush, who tallied just a total of 81 yards on 20 carries, was said before the season to be a back that can be a threat both running and catching the football. Although that wasn’t fully put on display this year, it’s something to watch out for against the Utes.

The potential mixture of three backs, all of whom are different in style, will be key against a Utah defense that was third-best in the PAC-12 at defending against the run.

The Utes had four defensive performances in which they held the opposition to under 100 yards as a team. Six times this season Utah’s defense held opposing offenses under four yards per run.

West Virginia takes on Utah on Tuesday, Dec. 26 at 2 p.m. in the Cotton Bowl. It’s just the second meeting between the two programs.

 

BLOG: WVU-Iowa State Report Card — A solid outing

November 5, 2017 by Ryan Decker

A second win of the season over a Top 25 team isn’t something that often comes in Morgantown. It’s the first time that’s happened since 2012.

This is now just the fifth time in the last 16 seasons that the Mountaineers have picked up at least two wins over ranked teams in the regular season. And it’s a win that might not have happened had it not been for multiple defensive stops in big moments.

The defense rising to the occasion at the right times will help its grade, but what about the rest of the team?

Here is the WVU report card for this week.

Offense – C+

It was great seeing Justin Crawford running healthy in the first half. His explosiveness was back, he was making good cuts, and had it not been for multiple times he being dragged down by his jersey, Crawford could’ve been well on his way to a big day.

Will Grier was efficient, just throwing five incompletions, and once again eclipsing 300 passing yards against a stingy Iowa State defense.

Receivers had a bounce-back game after a disappointing performance against Oklahoma State.

Play calling was also much improved Saturday.

Things weren’t all great on the offensive side of the ball, though. West Virginia didn’t score in the second half. Not one point.

They also left some points on the field, having to settle for field goals three times in the first half, one of which was missed. Granted Iowa State’s defense has made a habit of being a much stronger team, defensively, after halftime than before, but WVU continuing to only be truly productive on offense for one half at a time is still an issue.

Defense – B+

A goal line stand early in the third quarter ultimately made the difference.

Stuffing the Cyclones twice inside the 3-yard line, and holding them to a field goal not only kept the lead at seven for the Mountaineers instead of three, but defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said that it kept momentum on WVU’s side.

To then hold the Cyclones to a field goal in the red zone in the fourth, and then force a turnover on downs later in the period proved to be the difference in the outcome of the game as well.

The defense played well for a majority of the game. A few of the committed penalties were unnecessary. However, the Mountaineers excelled most of the game at making Kyle Kempt uncomfortable, which coming in didn’t seem to be possible.

Some points were taken away for poor tackling that, at times, aided David Montgomery on a number of his runs, allowing him to gain more yardage than he should’ve.

Overall, though, it was a good day for the defense, especially since they were shorthanded due to injuries.

Special teams – B-

Another good performance out of the special teams unit.

Billy Kinney appears to be returning to form. Two of his three punts pinned the Cyclones inside the 20-yard line, including one that was downed at the three.

Evan Staley did a fairly good job once again filling in for the injured Mike Molina, making two of three field goals.

Kickoff coverage wasn’t as good as it’s been over the past two games, but punt coverage performed well.

Linemen – B

It wasn’t a great day, statistically, for the guys in the trenches, but they graded well on the eye test.

Starting with the offensive linemen, they did a much better job at keeping Grier upright. He did have to scramble some early on, but that lessened as the game progressed. Giving up six tackles for loss isn’t great, but that isn’t all on the O-line.

Switching to defense, they only registered one sack (a huge hit by Ezekiel Rose), and only four tackles for loss were collected on the day.

However, the defensive line performed well. They were physical and, even if they themselves weren’t getting to Kempt, they were creating holes for other players to do so.

The boys up front answered the call to be more physical.

Overall – B

West Virginia played well for the most part.

This wasn’t your average Iowa State team. The Cyclones were big, physical and also quicker than some may have expected.

WVU didn’t completely succumb to the second-half let down, and overall played one of its better games of the year despite the low score.

Saturday’s contest was one that many were saying was going to decide the rest of the season for the Mountaineers, who now have good vibes entering the final three games.

Holgorsen Press Conference News and Notes

October 24, 2017 by Ryan Decker

No. 22 West Virginia (5-2) is riding a two-game winning streak, with both wins involving fourth-quarter comebacks – one by the Mountaineers, and one against the Mountaineers that the Baylor Bears almost pulled off.

When asked about the recent comebacks, head coach Dana Holgorsen said they’re learning experiences that “give us confidence,” based on the fact that WVU has come out on the right side of the comeback both times.

“You go into that point up 25, to be in the situation we were in it’ll teach you a lot,” said Holgorsen.

Here are some other notes.

Oklahoma State worth the hype

Holgorsen and the rest of the Mountaineers that were available to the media Tuesday referred to No. 11 Oklahoma State as a top-10 team. Obviously, their ranking puts them just outside the top 10, but WVU believes the Cowboys are one of the ten best teams in the nation.

“They’re a good team. They’re an outstanding program,” Holgorsen said. “Offensively (they’re) as good as you’re going to see.”

He highlighted quarterback Mason Rudolph’s ability to throw the deep ball, and the Cowboys’ deep wide receiving corps that’s highlighted by James Washington.

Holgorsen admitted that the Mountaineers “got our work cut out for us on offense” based on what he said may be the best safety tandem they’ve seen this year in the Cowboys’ Tre Flowers and Ramon Richards.

Offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said, when asked about Oklahoma State’s defense, said the Cowboys like to keep everything in front of them, acknowledging that’s one of the biggest reasons they’ve only surrendered four passing TDs this season

Defense getting better

Despite giving up the points in the fourth quarter, Holgorsen felt good about the way the WVU defense played Saturday in Waco for the first three quarters.

He said his team simply “got gassed” in the final period.

“I thought we took a step in the right direction at stopping the run, they had minus six yards through three quarters,” Holgorsen said. “But then we got tired.”

Running Pains

The head coach said he wished they would’ve given the ball to Kennedy McKoy more with Justin Crawford not carrying the load against Baylor.

Crawford appears to be banged up and/or slightly worn down, but Holgorsen said he’s getting treatment and that those bruises come with the position.

According to the head coach, McKoy looked better than he had all year on Saturday.

Benton’s Improved and Productive

Asked about Al-Rasheed Benton’s improvement, Holgorsen praised the production that the team’s getting out of Benton.

“Probably the smartest player I’ve coached on that said of the ball,” he said. “Defensively, he’s off the charts intelligent.”

Holgorsen referenced it, and Tony Gibson confirmed, that Benton’s “production points” (a measurement of a player’s productivity on the field) are as high as any defensive player in Holgorsen’s tenure.

Report Card: Texas Tech

October 15, 2017 by Ryan Decker

In what was truly a tale of two halves, West Virginia (4-2) pulled off its second largest fourth-quarter comeback ever Saturday to defeat No. 24 Texas Tech 46-35, ending a nine-game losing streak to ranked teams that dated back to 2014.

As you can expect, being that it was two very different teams on the field for the Mountaineers between the first and second halves (really the first three quarters and the fourth) the report card won’t be great.

 

Offense — C

This is the lowest grade the offense has gotten this year.

Will Grier was great, as always, completing 78 percent of his passes for five touchdowns, four of which came in the second half.

But the running game was practically non-existent.

Neither team finished the first quarter with positive rushing yardage, and the Mountaineers didn’t stay in the positives until late in the third quarter.

Two reasons stick out as to why, one that will be addressed here, and the other in another section.

The first is play calling.

Albeit, it is common for teams to abandon the run when trailing like WVU was, but for Justin Crawford to only carry the ball 14 times is odd.

And it highlights a trend that’s been growing over the last few weeks — West Virginia going to him early in the game and then going away from him for much of the first half.

 

Defense — D+

If not for a complete turn around in the fourth quarter, this group would’ve failed the test.

Missed tackles, bad coverage, not being able to recognize the opposing quarterback staring down his receivers, absolutely no push up front.

The troubling part was that early in the game Texas Tech wasn’t taking many chances down the field. It was a lot of screens and slants near, or behind, the line of scrimmage that turned into decent gains.

As we’ve seen before this year, though, the defense knows what time it is in the fourth. And you have to commend them for stopping one of the top offenses in the Big 12 when it mattered most.

However, giving up 190 yards on the ground to Texas Tech is disheartening. Texas Tech may be an improved team at running the ball, but to allow a team built around throwing the football to run it that well is sad.

You want to think a game next week against lowly Baylor could lead to some needed fixes, but that was the consensus heading into Lawrence, Kansas and it was not the case.

 

Special Teams — B-

It’s a good feeling to go a full 60 minutes of football and not see a kick-out-of-bounds penalty.

No missed field goals. Only allowing two yards on punt returns, and being better on kick return coverage all showed signs of improvement.

Compared to the lack of execution by Texas Tech and the Mountaineers special teams unit looked good.

You would like to see Marcus Simms be able to have better return lanes, especially when back to receive punts, but Texas Tech’s punt unit seemed faster than most.

West Virginia loses a full letter grade by allowing the long run on the fake punt. You could see it coming a mile away; Tech didn’t hide their intentions well yet it was defended even worse.

 

Linemen – D-

I won’t spend too much time here because it’s obvious to everyone. Line play is just not good.

Grier was sacked four times and was forced to move out of the pocket many others. Texas Tech also racked up five tackles for loss. On the other side, WVU was only able to register two sacks and four stops behind the line of scrimmage.

Offensive line play is the other reason I alluded to earlier as to why running the ball was so poor. The O-Line couldn’t get any push. Crawford is without a doubt the best running back in the Big 12, but he needs to have somewhere to go in order to help move the ball, and that wasn’t given to him Saturday.

 

Overall – D+

It was an amazing comeback despite a poor game played for three quarters, and Dana Holgorsen said that after the game. The Mountaineers have to be more consistent for the full four quarters if they want to continue to win ball games, especially with the meat of the schedule looming.

WVU Report Card: TCU game

October 8, 2017 by Ryan Decker

Tough way to have Saturday’s game decided, isn’t it?

A game between two ranked conference foes coming down to the wire that the outcome is, in part, dictated by a questionable call on a completed pass that would’ve flipped the field and potentially led to a score.

Games between West Virginia and TCU have had a glaring tendency of coming down to the very end.

The way the game ended gets a big frowny face, and the principal has been called in to speak with the parents of the official in question, but as for the Mountaineers themselves, here’s how they graded out:

Offense – B

It wasn’t a great start to the game for the offense for sure. The second half brings this grade up some.

However, as unproductive WVU was, offensively, on the scoreboard, what the Mountaineers did was something I said before the game was important for them to do – possess the football.

The longer TCU had the ball, the more damage it was going to do and the more tired the defense was going to get. With West Virginia holding onto the football and winning the time of possession battle in the first half, it saved the defense for the end of the game.

In the passing game, Will Grier proved once again that he shows command and good presence in the pocket, despite being constantly pressured.

Running-wise, Justin Crawford eclipsed 100 yards for the fifth straight game and doing so against the conference’s top run defense, once again proving he’s the top back in the Big 12. Outside of Crawford, though, running the football wasn’t a viable option in this game.

Part of that was because of constantly running the ball up the middle instead of to the outside, but that’s been the “MO” of the Mountaineers for most of the season so the other backs should be used to it at this point.

Defense – B-

On the plus side, WVU held the best rushing team in the Big 12 to 50 yards under its season average. On the other hand, it still gave up 170 yards on the ground.

Individually, Mike Daniels had a good game in coverage, and David Long quickly made his presence known in his return to action from injury.

The trick plays hurt. Allowing the score on the WR pass back to Kenny Hill, and giving up the first down on the WR reverse on third down both came back to bite the Mountaineers.

To the defense’s credit, it held TCU to its second-lowest scoring output of the year. Lack of pressure and some key missed tackles knock the grade down a tad.

Linemen – C-

Both sides of the ball, just plain bad. It’s been a theme all season.

The defensive line gets no push, and the offensive line has a good first few drives before being overwhelmed.

Simply, both line groups need to improve.

Grier was under constant pressure, though, he did a good job of escaping it most of the game, and only one of the four tackles for loss by the WVU defense came from one of the linemen.

Special teams – C

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but West Virginia was issued a penalty for a kickoff going out of bounds.

The special teams unit also was at fault for a missed 29-yard field goal, and a turnover when trying to receive a punt in the first half that led to a TCU touchdown.

They also got outclassed by the Horned Frogs groups, which downed four punts inside the 10-yard line.

It’s often said that special teams can win or lose you ballgames on their own, and you can’t overlook that in this game.

Overall grade – C

Big 12 Heisman Hopefuls

August 21, 2017 by Ryan Decker

By Ryan Decker

Earlier this month I took a look at the Heisman Award candidates from around the country and made projections.

Today, focus shifts slightly more narrow to just the Big 12 Conference.

The Big 12 begins the year with half of its teams ranked in the Coaches Poll, meaning that the spotlight will be on the conference a lot this season, which is what players need to take home the most sought-after individual award the sport has to offer.

Rivalry games, notable out of conference games, numerous ranked vs. ranked contests in hostile environments all are ingredients to help bolster a Heisman candidate’s résumé.

The players below have the best chances within the Big 12 to take home the trophy.

big-12-heisman-hopefuls
Senior quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Mason Rudolph are the preseason favorites to take home the Heisman trophy. But dark horses in Austin and Morgantown are looking to upend the Sooner State’s bid for the biggest award in College Football. Graphic created by Ryan Decker

 

  1. Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma QB

Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield was a Heisman finalist last year, meaning the voters are very familiar with his work. The senior is just twenty passing yards and two touchdowns short of 10,000 and 90, respectively, for his career.

He threw for over 300 yards in six games last year and tallied at least 200 passing yards in all but one contest.

Mayfield and the Sooners have five games scheduled against ranked teams, three of which are on the road (Ohio State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State).

Oklahoma’s receiving corps appears to be thin to start the year, meaning Mayfield may need to be more creative with his feet, both extending plays behind and running for yards past the line of scrimmage.

 

  1. Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State QB

Not only do preseason polls indicate the Big 12’s candidate for a spot in the College Football Playoff runs through Bedlam, but likely so does the conference’s chance at sending one of its premier players to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

Mason Rudolph has been nearly as impressive as his Oklahoma counterpart in his career, and is a big part of the reason Mike Gundy’s squad could be primed for a trip to the Playoff.

Rudolph finished in the top 10 in the nation in passing yards (4,091) and passer efficiency (158.9) last year, and only two QBs in the Big 12 had a better completion percentage than he did.

The second half will make or break his Heisman candidacy, with a slate of games that pits Rudolph against Texas and West Virginia on the road, Oklahoma in Bedlam, Iowa State in Ames, and Kansas State in Stillwater.

 

  1. Will Grier, West Virginia QB

The former Gator dazzled in his six games at Florida. Starting as a freshman in Gainesville, Grier threw for 1,204 yards and 10 touchdowns while completing nearly 66 percent of his passes.

He’s now the starting quarterback for the Mountaineers.

Will Grier has his work cut out for him, with a thin wide receiving group that just got thinner, and a tough schedule on the backend.

Morgantown is buzzing with hopes of Grier keeping the Mountaineers as one of the top teams in the conference, and even more on an individual approach, with the fan page @GrierforHeisman already dedicated to the cause.

 

  1. Shane Buechele, Texas QB

A pro-style quarterback with a big arm, Shane Buechele was made for the Big 12.

Slow starts inhibited Texas last year, forcing Buechele to work from behind in a number of games, but that doesn’t mean he shied away from the spotlight, as he was part of a Week 1 victory against Notre Dame and a shootout win over Texas Tech.

This year, Buechele has the opportunity to shine on the road Week 3 against USC in LA before getting to conference competition.

Only a sophomore, he has time to improve before heading to the next level, but if Buechele can lead the Longhorns to their first 10-plus win season since 2009, he could be the Heisman dark horse that voters go for.

 

  1. James Washington, OK-State WR

The last two Heisman hopefuls from the conference are a pair of position players.

James Washington is the premier wide receiver in the Big 12.

The senior wide out hauled in 71 passes last season for 1,380 yards, the tenth-highest total in the country, last year. His 19.4 yards per catch was good enough for third-best amongst receivers with at least fifty catches.

No wide receiver has won the Heisman award since Desmond Howard in 1991, but if you’re looking at pass catchers from each conference to break the 25-year drought, look no further in this conference than Washington.

 

  1. Justin Crawford, West Virginia RB

West Virginia’s Justin Crawford is the top returning runner in the Big 12, with only two players in the conference rushing for more yards than he did last year in his first season at the D-1 level. Both of those players are now in the NFL.

The former Junior College Offensive Player of the Year is surely one of the focal points in the Mountaineer offense.

Even with traditionally pass-happy minds in head coach Dana Holgorsen and new offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, don’t expect Crawford to go hungry in the backfield. WVU ran the ball nearly 60 percent of the time last year, and as a team has rushed for 200-plus yards in a game 27 over the last six years.

 

Latest Heisman Trophy Odds (via Brovada, Odds Shark)

Player Team Position Odds
Baker Mayfield Oklahoma QB +800
Mason Rudolph Oklahoma State QB +2500
Will Grier West Virginia QB N/A
Shane Buechele Texas QB +5000
James Washington Oklahoma State WR N/A
Justin Crawford West Virginia RB N/A