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Grier named Newcomer of the Week

September 11, 2017 by Ryan Decker
Photo via Raymond Thompson / AP

 

West Virginia quarterback Will Grier is quickly making a name for himself around the conference. For the second week in a row, Grier has been named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week.

Saturday againt East Carolina, Grier and the first string offense sliced through the Pirates defese any way possible, posting 49 points in the first half alone.

Grier completed 19-of-25 passes for 352 yards and five touchdowns, three of which were to David Sills V.

Grier led seven touchdown-scoring drives, all which took under three minutes to complete, two of which look less than one minute to result in six points.

The junior QB leads the Big 12 in passing touchdowns (8), passing yards (723) and total offense per game (390.5), beating out Heisman hopefulls Baker Mayfield and Mason Rudolph in all three categories.

Grier and the Mountaineers host Delaware State (0-2) at noon. WVU scored more points in the second quarter alone Saturday than the Hornets have scored this season.

 

Scouting the Opponent: ECU

September 8, 2017 by Ryan Decker
wvu-v-ecu

Saturday afternoon the West Virginia Mountaineers open up the home slate at Milan Puskar Stadium when they host American Athletic Conference opponent East Carolina.

Both teams are coming off losses to open the season, and ECU certainly did not get the result it was looking for, suffering a twenty-point loss to FCS opponent James Madison.

Here’s a look at the Mountaineers opponent.

Last Week

East Carolina was defeated 34-14 on Saturday by reigning FCS champion JMU, giving up over 400 rushing yards to the Dukes.

ECU made a quarterback change during the contest, placing Thomas Sirk under center for the second half, which improved the offense’s production.

The Pirates were held scoreless until the third quarter.

Last Meeting

2009 was the last season the two teams met. That game was also in Morgantown.

West Virginia picked up a 35-20 victory behind four touchdown passes from Jarrett Brown. The Pirates scored the game’s first ten points and led after the first quarter before being outscored 28-10 over the next three periods. Noel Devine led the Mountaineer ground attack, picking up 80 yards and scoring the Mountaineers final touchdown.

WVU has picked up the victory in 18 of the 21 meetings.

ECU’s Reputation

East Carolina’s reputation of taking down more well-known opponents was not lost on WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen at his weekly press conference Tuesday.

“They’ve been known to take out Power Five schools left and right as we well know,” Holgorsen said. “They’ve done it consistently throughout their program.”

The Pirates have defeated seven Power-5 Conference opponents since 2010, and defeated Virginia Tech and West Virginia in back-to-back weeks to start the season in 2008.

If ECU is unable to defeat either the Mountaineers this week, or Virginia Tech in Greenville next weekend, it would be the first year since 2012 that the Pirates hadn’t defeated a team from a Power-5 conference.

ECU Offense

The Pirates became more of a pass-happy team in the second half last weekend with Sirk controlling the offense. He attempted 35 passes in the second half alone, totaling 210 yards in the air.

Sirk tried spreading the wealth, targeting eight different receivers. Davon Grayson and Deondre Farrier led the team in receptions with seven.

ECU returned three of its top five receivers from a year ago.

ECU Defense

Pirates defensive players gave up almost 230 rushing yards per game a year ago, and that number was not improved upon in East Carolina’s season opener.

It’s a defensive unit that is replacing a number of players from a year ago, meaning there are growing pains.

Holgorsen mentioned that it’s a defense that gives multiple looks, but does like to blitz often, which is was James Madison took advantage of multiple times to get long plays.

West Virginia is currently a 24-point favorite to win on Saturday.

 

Big 12 Notebook: Week 2

by Ryan Decker

Seven of the 10 teams in the Big 12 started the season on the right foot with wins last weekend. Arguably the biggest story line from the conference was Texas’ loss at home to Maryland, and that’s where we start this week’s Big 12 Notebook.

Longhorn Defense Anything but Perfect

After Tom Herman said in his Monday press conference that he thought his players tried to play “perfect” in their loss Saturday, almost every available player was asked about that Tuesday during Longhorn player availability.

Although some players denied that the team tried to play perfect, others agreed with the head coach.

“Definitely, it was more a sense of trying to be perfect, trying to be 100 percent on each and every play,” said linebacker Naashon Hughes.

Others agreed that during film review earlier this week, there were plenty of things that stood out.

“We didn’t look like (a) team,” said PJ Locke III. “Just didn’t look confidant, didn’t go full speed, kind of overthinking basically.”

Texas’ defense surrendered 263 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground to the Terps. One positive was that the Longhorns limited Maryland to just 3 of 11 on third downs.

Baylor loses RB for next month

Sophomore running back JaMycal Hasty is expected to miss a “minimum of four weeks” with a straight right knee. Hasty carried 11 times for 56 yards before sustaining the injury in Baylor’s 48-45 loss to Liberty, which was playing in its first game at the FBS level.

New QBs shine in Week 1

Many wondered what the status of the Texas Tech offense would be in the first season after Patrick Mahomes.

Early indications show that not much has changed.

In his first career start, Nic Shimonek completed each of his first 14 passes and ended the day with 384 passing yards in TTU’s 56-10 rout of Eastern Washington.

Kansas and West Virginia also saw good things out of their new QBs.

Jayhawk passer Peyton Bender completed 23 of 37 attempts for 364 yards and four scores in the Kansas win.

Will Grier, named Big 12 Player of the Week, was asked to throw the ball 53 times, completing 31 of those throws for 371 yards and three trips to the end zone. He also showed the ability to extend plays with his feet.

Bender’s showing is especially exciting for Jayhawk fans because of this:

Ryan Decker’s Big 12 Football Predictions: Week 1

August 28, 2017 by Ryan Decker
Mountaineers line up on defense seconds before stuffing the Hokies just short of the goal line in the fourth quarter.

Last week, Mitch Vingle gave his predictions for each of West Virginia’s 12 regular season games, projecting the Mountaineers to finish with an 8-4 record.

As for the rest of the conference, which boasts five preseason ranked teams and at least two teams with realistic shots at playing in the College Football Playoff, the turnout will go as follows, starting with Week 1.

Week 1 Matchups

Thursday, Aug. 31 — Tulsa at #10 Oklahoma State

Saturday, Sept. 2 – Maryland at #23 Texas

UTEP at #7 Oklahoma

Eastern Washington at Texas Tech

Liberty at Baylor

Southeast Missouri State at Kansas

Central Arkansas at #20 Kansas State

Northern Iowa at Iowa State

Jackson State at TCU

­Sunday, Sept. 3 – #22 West Virginia vs. #21 Virginia Tech

Biggest Game

Only one Big 12 team hits the road in Week 1, that being WVU, which travels to Landover, Maryland to renew its rivalry against the Hokies. With only one ranked-vs-ranked game this week, it’s easily the biggest matchup within the conference of the weekend.

Potential Upset

Crazy things happen on Thursdays. Crazy things happen in Boone Pickens Stadium. Oklahoma State is one of only four Big 12 teams playing an FBS opponent this week. Not that it’s likely, but if you’re going to pick an upset, Stillwater is the place to look.

Winners

OK-State (45-24); Texas (38-14); OU (58-17); Baylor (28-20); KU (22-18); K-State (40-15); ISU (29-15); TCU (44-10); WVU (35-28)

Losers

Texas Tech (39-42)

Standings

T1. Oklahoma 1-0

OK-State 1-0

K-State 1-0

WVU 1-0

Texas 1-0

TCU 1-0

Baylor 1-0

Iowa State 1-0

Kansas 1-0

  1. TTU 0-1

 

Women’s Soccer is Back

August 24, 2017 by Ryan Decker

Fresh off a victory over then No. 5 Georgetown last weekend, the No. 1 West Virginia women’s soccer team is back in action Thursday evening at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium against a highly ranked team.

Renewing a once-fierce rivalry, top-ranked WVU hosts No. 10 Virginia, as the two teams square off in the regular season for the first time since 2011.

“It’s going to be a battle,” head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “It’s always a huge rivalry and one of the best teams in the country.”

The game marks the first time the Mountaineers have played a home game since defeating Duke in last year’s NCAA tournament. It’s also the third time in the last four year that WVU has started its home slate of games against a ranked team.

West Virginia will put its home winning streak on the line, having not lost a home match in regulation since falling 2-0 to No. 21 Duke on August 29, 2014. Over the last three years, WVU is 35-2-3 in Morgantown.

The Mountaineers enter the season as five-time defending regular season Big 12 champs. Despite losing key contributors Ashley Lawrence and Kadeisha Buchanan, West Virginia returns 85 percent of its offensive production from last year, including senior Michaela Abam, who led the team in goals scored at 12. Abam is already off to a good start this season. She scored the lone goal in the season opener against the Hoyas.

Kickoff between the Mountaineers and Cavaliers is set for 7 p.m. You can hear all WVU women’s soccer home games broadcasted in the Morgantown area on 91.7 FM, or online at u92.wvu.edu.

Big 12 Notebook – August 14     

August 14, 2017 by Ryan Decker

Texas Tech reinstates QB

Texas Tech has allowed redshirt freshman quarterback Jett Duffey to resume practicing with the team after he served a two-semester suspension. Duffey was suspended by the university in January after being found responsible for two counts of sexual misconduct.

Duffey was the No. 13 dual threat quarterback in the 2015 recruiting class by 247Sports, and despite the suspension, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said in February that he expects Duffey to, “slide right in and be very good.”

 

WVU’s Simms arrested

West Virginia wide receiver Marcus Simms was arrested early Sunday morning, and charged with DUI and driving with a revoked license. Neither WVU or the team have commented on the incident.

 

Gundy reacts to scrimmage

Oklahoma State held its first scrimmage Sunday morning, and head coach Mike Gundy addressed the media afterwards about the team’s progress.

The head coach, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, said he likes where the team is at, but there are still decisions to be made at backup quarterback, running back and, “we’ve got to decide who’s going to be out there first in the secondary.”

 

Texas RB sustains injury

Chris Warren, the top returning running back for the Texas Longhorns, sustained a concussion during last Thursday’s practice, the latest in a history of injuries for the junior.

“He was having a good camp,” Herman. “He’s alert. He’s in the protocol. If he’s still out this time next week, yeah, that would be concerning. But right now, I’m not too concerned.”

Warren missed most of last season with a year-ending knee injury. He rushed for 366 yards through the first four games of the season before suffering the injury.

This is just the latest in a slew of injuries felt in the Longhorn camp. Right tackle Elijah Rodriguez, who was battling for a starting spot, underwent surgery on his right ankle Thursday. There is no timetable for his return.