Like many on here, I thought we had the players to compete with Penn State this year and thought we might even be able to pull out a win. However, one thing that several posters have commented on about Neal Brown's coaching factoring into the loss is something I didn't see. Sure, I would have gone for the sure 3 points early on that would have given us a small, but early lead, but overall Coach Brown did not lose this football game. What I did see was a tremendous talent discrepancy between our team and theirs. To be sure, we do have some outstanding players, but not enough of them. I saw a Penn State team that was bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic, and deeper than we were. I thought we played hard and the effort was there, but simply were up against a team with bigger, faster, and more athletic players at practically every position. Like last year, this was a tough team to open the season against and will be by far the best team we will face this year...we need to put this game behind us and begin a new season starting next week! One loss does not ruin a season!
Just my thoughts after watching the game...
- Thread starter 4WVU
- Start date
True.
My thoughts are we better try to find out how to pay those bigger, faster, more talentaed players to get them to come to WVU. College football is only going to get worse.
My thoughts are we better try to find out how to pay those bigger, faster, more talentaed players to get them to come to WVU. College football is only going to get worse.
There are two areas we are really "behind the eight ball" so to speak.
Offensively, its our receiver corp. They aren't "bad" per se. They just don't have that guy who can stretch the field with elite speed. What we have are a bunch of possession receivers - solid guys who can make catches but aren't going to give you a lot of YAC against superior opponents like Penn State. For the majority of our schedule, they'll be enough. Just not today, as even their linebackers could run with our fastest guys easily.
Defensively, our linebacker corps is the weak spot. Most would say our line, I think, right now, but against the run, they are pretty stout. Just don't have that pass rusher that would require a double team to free up some blitzing backers. But, our backers are just too slow right now. Slow to where they need to be on the field. Not for sure if this is more due to experience then ability right now - still too soon to see. But, this is something that we'll have to watch as the season progresses. Last year, Kogba hid a lot of deficiencies. I guess we'll just have to wait and see but definitely concerning.
Last, I'm not for sure who thought we could match up with Penn State, but if they did, they were thinking more from emotion than logic. The pedos were more experienced, more mature, and that makes a world of difference. I'm not talking about which team has the oldest players or returning players. Its about who has "been there", faced hardships, and are mature enough to just go out and play the next play no matter what happened before. PSU won ten games playing some of the toughest competition last year - they aren't going to get rattled. WVU won 9 games against mehhh competition and when they got down, they stayed down, and let things snowball.
The biggest improvement usually occurs between games 1 and 2. Have an opponent that we should be able to work out some kinks on, try a few wrinkles, and get things battened down for Spitt in a couple of weeks.
Offensively, its our receiver corp. They aren't "bad" per se. They just don't have that guy who can stretch the field with elite speed. What we have are a bunch of possession receivers - solid guys who can make catches but aren't going to give you a lot of YAC against superior opponents like Penn State. For the majority of our schedule, they'll be enough. Just not today, as even their linebackers could run with our fastest guys easily.
Defensively, our linebacker corps is the weak spot. Most would say our line, I think, right now, but against the run, they are pretty stout. Just don't have that pass rusher that would require a double team to free up some blitzing backers. But, our backers are just too slow right now. Slow to where they need to be on the field. Not for sure if this is more due to experience then ability right now - still too soon to see. But, this is something that we'll have to watch as the season progresses. Last year, Kogba hid a lot of deficiencies. I guess we'll just have to wait and see but definitely concerning.
Last, I'm not for sure who thought we could match up with Penn State, but if they did, they were thinking more from emotion than logic. The pedos were more experienced, more mature, and that makes a world of difference. I'm not talking about which team has the oldest players or returning players. Its about who has "been there", faced hardships, and are mature enough to just go out and play the next play no matter what happened before. PSU won ten games playing some of the toughest competition last year - they aren't going to get rattled. WVU won 9 games against mehhh competition and when they got down, they stayed down, and let things snowball.
The biggest improvement usually occurs between games 1 and 2. Have an opponent that we should be able to work out some kinks on, try a few wrinkles, and get things battened down for Spitt in a couple of weeks.
Have to suggest that the team was not ready and fired up to play. Missed tackles (PSU QB in backfield on one play we missed two tackles and there were others) and absolutely no pressure on PSU QB I did not notice one blitz). When a coach gets paid $3-$4 million it is reasonable to expect the team to be fired up and ready to play,
I noticed a team that did not call a blitz on crucial down and distances, despite their QB having his way with us. I watched as simple as a slow rolling punt that allowed their players to get downfield go unnoticed and no adjustments in our side to speed the punter up and give our return game a chance. I noticed horrible 3rd down offensive play calls, screens to tight ends, or 3 yard passes to backup tight ends that effectively ended drives. I would completely scrap a tight end screen from the playbook. How much sense does that play make? Having small receivers try to block for a slower tight end, just schematically is dumb. For a head coach who was part of everyone raving about Greenes double digit accuracy increase, we waited far too long in the game to trust him, like he was playing with handcuffs on. Sure, I also noticed it appears he still has accuracy issues but again, no adjustments. I said before, players absolutely had an impact, but Brown hurt this team far more than he helped them.
