My fiver on WVU's loss to Iowa State this past Saturday...
***Over the past 10 quarters, Iowa State's offense has outscored WVU's offense 81-14.
1. Big boy football'd. That's two games in a row where we just got mashed up front. The lines. The trenches. Big boy football. Whatever you want to call it. Iowa State's freshman RB easily gained his 132 yards - sometimes not even being touched until 3-4, maybe 5 (or more) yards past the line of scrimmage. His long run was 18 yards. So, that 132 yard total was just a garden variety of relatively easy 6-yard & 8-yard type of runs. It's too easy. Dante Stills, for the second game in a row, was erased by the opposing OL. Four of our top 5 tacklers were defensive backs. Our OL was completely unable to give Leddie Brown and Kennedy McKoy room to run. However, some of the issues there are schematic...more on that in a second. But, if we're going to Trust the Climb, we're going to need to trust that this staff will provide more talent, more strength, better coaching and better depth on our offensive and defensive lines. We are getting steamrolled in the trenches right now, and we don't have the glitz and glamour we had last year to mask it.
2. Why are we running RPO with Jack Allison? If our backup is going to be a 6'5" immobile statue, with a strong arm, then scheme the offense to favor his strengths. I don't need to see Jack Allison ever run a strong side option play again in my life. He is not Major Harris for Pete's sake. If Austin Kendall's backup is truly Allison, then set him up to succeed. You would want to put him under center, give him a fullback to aid in protection and in blocking for the backs, and utilize play action. Why run RPO??? The term "RPO" itself innately assumes that "running" the QB is an option. It's simply NOT with Jack Allison. Matt Campbell is not stupid. He told the defense to go after our running backs with reckless abandon on our RPO plays because he knew damn well Allison wasn't tucking the ball and running. Leddie Brown and Kennedy McKoy didn't have a chance with Kendall out. (As an aside, I liked Kendall's start to the game. It's a shame he was injured). If we want to keep running RPO and option vs. Oklahoma, then we should use Trey Lowe and tell him to take off - run him recklessly, to at least give OU something to think about.
3. Nicktroy Fortune is going to be a player for us. I was really impressed with him Saturday. I was worried that Brock Purdy would go at him all day and light up the airwaves. Fortune really held his own. That was one nice storyline which came out of Saturday's loss. Fortune better buckle up his chin strap for Saturday in Norman though, because with Keith Washington out and Hakeem Bailey sitting the first half, all of the sudden Fortune is the veteran back there. Any chance we slide Josh Norwood back to corner Saturday and let Tykee Smith and Kerry Martin Jr. work with Sean Mahone at safety? Just a thought...
4. Mistakes are killing our momentum. For the second week in a row, we are fighting like hell in the first half, and just kill our "Mo" with stupid errors. Leddie Brown's fumble was just a killer. Game tied at 7 a piece, we are driving again in ISU territory, three straight first downs. And, Leddie drops the ball on the turf on a first down play. ISU takes over, and we force a three-and-out by forcing a bad Brock Purdy throw on a third-and-14. However, that's when Mistake #2 came in - enter one VanDarius Cowan. The blatant personal foul hands-to-the-facemask on his bull rush gives Iowa State a free first down. #!!$#@%$@! They of course go on to score a touchdown on the drive to take a 14-7 lead, and thwart our "mo". (In fairness, our offense put together a nice drive before the half to tie it up) But, our margins for error now are nil. We need to cut out the mistakes. Force the other team to make errors. But, we can't have these lapses.
5. Trust the Climb. We are still a better team now than we were against JMU and Missouri. We are getting better, and we have a wide variety of young guys - Jordan Jefferson, Fortune, Sam James, Ali Jennings, Tykee Smith, Kerry Martin Jr., Dante Stills, VanDarius Cowan, Winston Wright, and a few others, who are getting valuable time. These experiences will pay dividends in the future. However, I want to see us out there competing to the end. It does bother me that we allowed these last two games to get away from us. What I want to see from Saturday's game at Oklahoma is a team who comes out, fights like hell, gets down and dirty in the trenches, and makes a game of it. Get to halftime still in it, or in the lead. Hakeem Bailey will come back for the second half, and we'll have the time to make adjustments. But, progress is the key here. Progress and effort. I don't like the new trend of the "fourth quarter fade away". It's a marked change from our first few games where we were better in the 2nd half every game. We have talent. We just need to utilize it a bit better right now, get some breaks, avoid injury, and quite making unforced errors...
***Over the past 10 quarters, Iowa State's offense has outscored WVU's offense 81-14.
1. Big boy football'd. That's two games in a row where we just got mashed up front. The lines. The trenches. Big boy football. Whatever you want to call it. Iowa State's freshman RB easily gained his 132 yards - sometimes not even being touched until 3-4, maybe 5 (or more) yards past the line of scrimmage. His long run was 18 yards. So, that 132 yard total was just a garden variety of relatively easy 6-yard & 8-yard type of runs. It's too easy. Dante Stills, for the second game in a row, was erased by the opposing OL. Four of our top 5 tacklers were defensive backs. Our OL was completely unable to give Leddie Brown and Kennedy McKoy room to run. However, some of the issues there are schematic...more on that in a second. But, if we're going to Trust the Climb, we're going to need to trust that this staff will provide more talent, more strength, better coaching and better depth on our offensive and defensive lines. We are getting steamrolled in the trenches right now, and we don't have the glitz and glamour we had last year to mask it.
2. Why are we running RPO with Jack Allison? If our backup is going to be a 6'5" immobile statue, with a strong arm, then scheme the offense to favor his strengths. I don't need to see Jack Allison ever run a strong side option play again in my life. He is not Major Harris for Pete's sake. If Austin Kendall's backup is truly Allison, then set him up to succeed. You would want to put him under center, give him a fullback to aid in protection and in blocking for the backs, and utilize play action. Why run RPO??? The term "RPO" itself innately assumes that "running" the QB is an option. It's simply NOT with Jack Allison. Matt Campbell is not stupid. He told the defense to go after our running backs with reckless abandon on our RPO plays because he knew damn well Allison wasn't tucking the ball and running. Leddie Brown and Kennedy McKoy didn't have a chance with Kendall out. (As an aside, I liked Kendall's start to the game. It's a shame he was injured). If we want to keep running RPO and option vs. Oklahoma, then we should use Trey Lowe and tell him to take off - run him recklessly, to at least give OU something to think about.
3. Nicktroy Fortune is going to be a player for us. I was really impressed with him Saturday. I was worried that Brock Purdy would go at him all day and light up the airwaves. Fortune really held his own. That was one nice storyline which came out of Saturday's loss. Fortune better buckle up his chin strap for Saturday in Norman though, because with Keith Washington out and Hakeem Bailey sitting the first half, all of the sudden Fortune is the veteran back there. Any chance we slide Josh Norwood back to corner Saturday and let Tykee Smith and Kerry Martin Jr. work with Sean Mahone at safety? Just a thought...
4. Mistakes are killing our momentum. For the second week in a row, we are fighting like hell in the first half, and just kill our "Mo" with stupid errors. Leddie Brown's fumble was just a killer. Game tied at 7 a piece, we are driving again in ISU territory, three straight first downs. And, Leddie drops the ball on the turf on a first down play. ISU takes over, and we force a three-and-out by forcing a bad Brock Purdy throw on a third-and-14. However, that's when Mistake #2 came in - enter one VanDarius Cowan. The blatant personal foul hands-to-the-facemask on his bull rush gives Iowa State a free first down. #!!$#@%$@! They of course go on to score a touchdown on the drive to take a 14-7 lead, and thwart our "mo". (In fairness, our offense put together a nice drive before the half to tie it up) But, our margins for error now are nil. We need to cut out the mistakes. Force the other team to make errors. But, we can't have these lapses.
5. Trust the Climb. We are still a better team now than we were against JMU and Missouri. We are getting better, and we have a wide variety of young guys - Jordan Jefferson, Fortune, Sam James, Ali Jennings, Tykee Smith, Kerry Martin Jr., Dante Stills, VanDarius Cowan, Winston Wright, and a few others, who are getting valuable time. These experiences will pay dividends in the future. However, I want to see us out there competing to the end. It does bother me that we allowed these last two games to get away from us. What I want to see from Saturday's game at Oklahoma is a team who comes out, fights like hell, gets down and dirty in the trenches, and makes a game of it. Get to halftime still in it, or in the lead. Hakeem Bailey will come back for the second half, and we'll have the time to make adjustments. But, progress is the key here. Progress and effort. I don't like the new trend of the "fourth quarter fade away". It's a marked change from our first few games where we were better in the 2nd half every game. We have talent. We just need to utilize it a bit better right now, get some breaks, avoid injury, and quite making unforced errors...
