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COMMITMENT WVU baseball picks up a big commitment

West Virginia just received a commitment from Zahir Barjam. He's an infielder in the 2025 class and playing at P27 Academy in Lexington, SC. Perfect Game rates him at 9.5. That's incredibly high, between a top 10-round pick and "very high draft pick".

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WVSPORTS.COM West Virginia head coach Neal Brown press conference summary

--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said he is proud of how his guys competed. It was a weird game but they turned three turnovers into 17 points. Special teams when you look at it, they've played a solid special teams other than the play at Pitt. When you look on Saturday Oliver Straw had a great game. The operation is really good. Preston Fox had a great day. They blocked them well too especially on kickoff return with two explosive returns. Punt return, Preston Fox has a knack for it and has a lot of courage. He averaged over 15 yards per return which is hard to do with how the game is played with the spread punts. The kickoff coverage was good. Ben Cutter, Reid Carrico, Treylan Davis are all doing some nice things on those units. Defensively, the fourth and one should never happen and the three penalties they had were all procedure penalties. They didn't tackle as well as they have. They lost contain and it hasn't been an issue since Pitt. They had three takeaways and held them to 3.3 yards per rush. It was a really physical game and West Virginia met that challenge. They were 7-16 on end of possession downs and really good on the first play of drives. Offensively it wasn't good enough and too many errors and lack of discipline. They only played 42 snaps which is unique. End of possession they were 3-11 and it was a lot of fundamental stuff. Route fundamentals it just wasn't very good overall. But they did take care of the ball for the most part and the red zone they did a nice job there and the two go-balls were critical. They don't give you a whole lot of opportunities but on third down they do and they took advantage of that.

--Brandon Yates was offensive lineman of the week. Special teams was Preston Fox. Defensive player of the week was Fatorma Mulbah. Offensive player of the week was Jahiem White. Blue collar award was Sean Martin and Anthony Wilson. Preston Fox on offense. Developmental guys on offense Colin McBee and defense Keyshawn Robinson and special teams was Judah Price.

--On the injury front: WVU CB Ayden Garnes and S Aubrey Burks are out. WR Jaden Bray is out. QB Garrett Greene practiced today and they'll see how he does against 11-on-11. Brown won't comment on quarterbacks. WR Hudson Clement ran today.
--Baylor has a transfer kid that has done a nice job returning kicks. Their special teams coordinator last year was at Houston. That's the most improved aspect on their team but this will be their biggest test of the year. Punt return they've done a nice job. Baylor is running the ball well and they're playing as well as anybody in the league. They mix up coverages as much as anybody they've played on defense and Dave Aranda is one of the best defensive coaches in the league. He has a lot of respect for that group.
--Brown said there is a couple different ways they can call defense you can do it by formation or check with me. There are multiple ways of doing it and they have called it once the teams have lined up. The kids are playing more confident and faster. They are getting the calls in quicker.
--The test this weekend will be the tempo piece. They're going to line up fast.
--Burks and Garnes have played too many games at this point, but there's no potential for a medical redshirt. Highly questionable for any regular season game for the rest of the year.
--Brown felt his defense played really confidently and it helps when the ball bounces their way. They gave up some yards late that they typically wouldn't due to the situation. But they were physical. They used their hands well and struck with their hands and Josiah Trotter was physical in the run game and they set the edges and there were some collisions with Anthony Wilson.
--Brown felt that the corners played as well as they have all year. The coverage was tight. The corners did a nice job and Keke Tarnue and Zae Jennings played well at spear.
--The defense isn't built for your nose to get tackles. You have to win one on ones. Fatorma Mulbah won his one-on-ones and remained in his gap. If you prepare the right away and play fundamental football the ball will find you.
--Baylor has been able to get their run game going and their offensive line is playing better now than earlier in the year. They are more comfortable and they had a switch at quarterback. Jake Spavital has figured out what they're good at and the young running back is playing well. How their offensive line has played, settling in on a running back and running the football. Defensively they have some really good players up front and been able to create some takeaways.
--Justin Robinson is really, really talented from a size perspective he's 6-foot-4 plus and he runs well. It's about being consistent. He is good when the ball is thrown to him but he needs to be better when it isn't being thrown to him. He has Sunday ability but he just has to be consistent.
--Brown said that since the Kansas State game Greene hasn't done anything outside a little 7-on-7 work last week. Tomorrow will be the first 11-on-11 work and he needs to see Greene to determine if he is ready to go for this week.
--Brown said they have to do a good job eliminating the distractions. A lot of people coming into town and there are more things surrounding the game. They have to do a good job tuning those things out and making the main thing the main thing. Brown is glad they've got two games at home and the plan is to put a much better product out there.
--Brown said that Yates has played well he just hasn't snapped the ball well. Over the last two years, he's played at a high level but he just struggled with the snaps and struggled in practice. Yates has really worked at it since his struggles and he put in the work.
--Marchiol played really well against Arizona and not this past week. He just has to be consistent with his fundamentals. It's all correctable things and it's little things. If he got his eyes on the backside safety, they had an explosive play to Traylon Ray. Another time his drop was off. He did have some positive things but he wasn't consistent with his fundamentals.
--Formations they used in the game he got consistent looks. Things weren't going well and it's hard for a young player. What they do defensively isn't necessarily standard but he doesn't feel like Marchiol was confused.
--It's not easy to snap and Brown thinks Yates has really worked at it and you have to be careful of making it a bigger deal than what it is. He wasn't on him a lot about it but they put him in a situation to work it and he found a solution. He is a mature guy and credit to him and not being too proud to get some help.
--Brown wants Baylor to have to prepare for both quarterbacks. They're not drastically different but they're different.

Where’s BamaTard, dedhoops, CpEER, country roads?

Where are these idiots? sammyk seems to have disappeared since he was reported to the authorities for making threats. The only libtard that’s had the courage to show up after Trump destroyed Kamala is moetard. I think dedhoops told us the demographics had changed and Americans were going blue. What do you say now bedpoops? Thoughts? And where is that fatass CpEER who showed up after 2020 to gloat? What’s your thoughts now?
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What winning percentage is realistically expected for a WVU head football coach? Maybe HCNB ain't so bad.

This is going to be in favor of considering keeping HCNB around, which will annoy some people, but hear me out.

Overall he is 36-33 (0.521). Okay, not so good, but I'd say the further back you go the less relevant it is because we're living in the present.

WVU went 9-4 last year and is 5-4 now. That's 14-8, (0.636). That ain't bad.

You could say that's better than it looks because the luck of the draw made the conference schedule easy in 2023 and plus a bunch of UNC players, including their star QB, skipped the 2023 bowl game. But OTOH, the 2023 loss to Houston was basically a fluke and 2 of the 22 games of this year and last year were against Penn State, and games against teams that quality are going away. And plus the harder games in 2024 were earlier in the season. So with all that, 14-8 ain't bad at all.

If WVU wins out that's 18-8 (0.692). No way you can fire someone after that.

3-1 for the rest of the year is 17-9 (0.654). Can WVU fire a coach after two years of that? What are we, Texas A&M?

Even 2-2 for the rest of the year is 16-10 (0.615). That ain't great, especially considering the worse (7-6) year will have come most recently, but it ain't bad either. For comparison, Don Nehlen was 149-93-4 (0.614), or if you eliminate his first season (6-6) he's 143-87-4 (0.620).

I understand that some of the losses have been by large margins or else by small margins but really annoying (2024 Pitt to be specific) but at the end of the day, the point is to win (and to conduct the program in a respectable manner, which by all accounts is happening).

I think people have completely psyched themselves out on this issue. WVU won this weekend and people are still po'ed. We need a reality check. WVU had a good team last year and may end up with a good record this year if the wins keep coming, and the upcoming games do seem winnable. And it looks like WVU has a decent QB in place for the next two years and potentially more than just decent if Nicco keeps developing.

Okay, that's all. Have at me.
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