My Fiver from Saturday's victory over the Jayhawks in Morgantown>>>
1. Back when we hired Rich Rodriguez, there was an article on his then-coaching philosophy surrounding his no-huddle spread offense, which was novel at the time in 2000. He mentioned that he had watched a ton of football, and he noticed that at all levels of football, an anomaly of sorts would occur: A team's offense would be stuck in the mud all of, or half of, a game, until they were in a two minute drill. Once that struggling offense went into the two minute hurry up, all of the sudden they were moving the ball at will, marching down the field to score. So, he built a permanent two-minute drill no-huddle offense at Glenville State, and QBs like Jed Drenning and Wilkie Perez put up insane numbers, as did WR Chris George. When I watched the events unfold Saturday, Rich's quote echoed in my head. WVU's offense was stuck in the mud, just managing a field goal, an interception, and two punts in its first four drives of the 2nd half. This included a listless 3 & out after the storm delay. KU stormed down the field and took a 28-17 lead. Then, Neal Brown & Co. simply flipped a switch into berzerker mode. 16 plays, 142 yards and two touchdowns with one two-point conversion later...WVU takes the lead 32-28 with 26 ticks left on the clock. We won this game because over the final five minutes, we were the aggressor. Kansas laid down on their final possession and hoped that they could bleed clock, just like we did in Pittsburgh last week. Garrett Greene and the offense could not wait to get the ball back and get back down the field, just like Eli Holstein and Pitt last week. We won this time around because we had the psychological edge down the stretch, and there's a lesson in there somewhere.
2. Thought Kansas's DL whipped our OL for most of the game- they had 3 sacks, 5 TFL and held CJ Donaldson and Jahiem White to a combined 53 yards on 12 carries (4.4 ypc), which included a 27-yard run by CJ. It appears that we really, really miss Zach Frazier and Doug Nestor. We are not going to make the Big 12 Championship game on Garrett Greene's improvisations alone. This OL needs to be better.
3. Back to the psychology of the game. WVU comes out and takes a 7-0 lead. Then, we pick off a Jalon Daniels pass and take the ball down the field into KU's red zone. But, once again, we squander the opportunity, and for the 2nd time this season, we manage to turn the ball over on a possession after a take away. This was a key moment in the game. If we can get into the end zone on this drive and go up 14-0 to start the 2nd quarter, I'm not sure that KU bounces back from that. They looked listless to start, almost asking us to go ahead and put them away. And we just couldn't, and this has been a problem for years under Neal Brown. Very rarely do we get that two touchdown+ cushion in conference games. There seems to be a psychology of "let's just keep plugging away" as opposed to "let's put this game away now". You look at the Baylor game at the end of last season, the Houston game, the Texas Tech game...I could go on and on. What is it going to take for Neal Brown to permanently flip the switch and step on the gas full throttle from the jump? I would prefer to see Neal go full berzerker to start the game in Stillwater, leading the team onto the field by sprinting out of the lockerroom dressed like the Ultimate Warrior, face paint and all, hopped up on Mountain Dew or whatever his stimulant of choice may be.
4. WR Room - Huddy Clement is the real deal. He played a fantastic game, and is very reliable - if the ball is thrown anywhere near him, he's going to snag it. Traylon Ray had two fantastic catches as well. There's still a chance that this WR room could be really good, and I include Kole Taylor as a pass catcher here as well. The emergence of Rodney Gallagher III down the field in this game was something we've all waited to see. You still have Preston Fox, Justin Robinson and Jaden Bray, who have all shown promise at times this season. We still need to be a team who can rely upon the run game. But, if we truly want to embrace this berzerker football game philosophy, I do believe that we have the weapons on the outside to do it.
5. 2-2, 1-0 Big 12. Pre-season, pretty much anyone on this Board would've said "alright, I'll take it" to 3-1 through the first 4. 2-2, however, not so much. It's still been a disappointing start, given our faceplant on a major stage vs. PSU, and our second rake-handle to the face in Pittsburgh a week ago. Watching the team come back and secure the win vs. Kansas gives our fanbase a reason to exhale a bit, take respite from the pitchfork parade to Cheat Lake and Neal Brown's residence, and focus on this upcoming three game stretch vs. ranked opponents. Neal Brown has defeated every single team left on our schedule, save for Arizona the newcomer. WVU can win each of these games. However, history teaches us that, under Neal Brown, that ain't gonna happen. We had a four-game win streak last season, but other than that fun run, we have never had more than a 2-game win streak in Neal Brown's tenure as HC. Each of these games is "big" from here on out, so no real reason to talk about how important this Oklahoma State trip will be. However, I love the scheduling quirk where we come off of a bye week with some positive vibes, while OSU will be playing their sixth consecutive game, after facing Utah-Kansas State back to back weeks. This is a game we can win. The question is: Do you trust Neal Brown and Jordan Lesley to pull it off?
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