It's been two consecutive weeks that we have witnessed an innovative spread offense take an Air Raid offense to the woodshed. Its looking like a major mistake that we went away from this. The Kansas offense would be a perfect fit for Wvu. We had success with this for many years under RR. The Kansas offense has enough of a passing element to keep opposing D coordinators off balance. You don't need as much NFL talent to run this offense. This type of offense also helps mask the deficiencies of your own talent. Houston D coordinator Doug Belk said he had seen nothing like this. Our D coordinator Jordan Lesley looked lost as well. This type of offense led us to new Heights. We found ways to close out games. We also had more trickeration in the offense. As some have previously mentioned Urban Meyer won a national championship with a spread option. Oregon one of the more successful non blue bloods has played for two national championships with this style of offense. When Neal Brown came to Wvu he stated that he wanted to establish a better running game. He should have installed an innovative rushing attack instead of a more conventional run game. The Problem with the Air Raid is you have to always have a QB that can make all the throws and a good oline that can hold down the fort. We rarely get that. Mike Leach has been the most successful of the Air Raid coaches, but he has never won a major bowl game. People say the Air Raid is exciting but with a few exceptions we haven't really won that much with it over the last decade. When we were running the spread, we talked about what we accomplished. Under the air raid it's been woulda coulda shoulda and a bag of nuts.
Been SCREAMING this from the rooftops to anyone thatll listen for the past X Years.... Almost verbatim... Far easier for us to recruit, because we arent competing for the same kids in the same "traditional" pool...
Kansas has found the perfect combination of introducing enough of a balanced & diverse attack to eliminate predictability and keep opposing def honest.
Not just that, but Speed & Shiftiness are the two skillsets that will make a 5 star DB look stupid.... Its terribly difficult to scheme against, and when combined with creative schemes, and a "blue collar" mentality its very hard to beat.
Its the easiest path forward that will allow a non-blueblood to compete at a higher level... WVU will NEVER be able to consistently compete deploy the same concepts, same methods, which require the same types of players as programs who can outplay us in that recruiting pool and by a wide margin...
Once Lance has a few years to increase the overall team talent level, that team will be a real force.... Shit they are close now, with low 3 star players..... The ole "Yeah but kids wont wanna play there because they wont be drafted", which is BS, as the NFL has now adapted and willing to run unique schemes....
Its sad that use to be OUR BRAND...... But in all likelyhood, its probably to late to pursue, because those things cycle in and out of the game and by the time WVU would find the right staff, players, development, etc to deploy it, the game would have already caught up and Kansas would have already held that ticket...
At least, until it cycles down again.... As the leagues are copy-cat, so DC's will mitigate their deficiencies to it...
That doesnt mean we cant make it our own, and put our own spin on it.... While similar philosophically...
Our roster just isnt good enough to compete this year.... We are to damn young at to many positions, and while they may be talented, thats like playing & relying on Sam James when he was a freshmen.... Even tho they are talented, they should not be depended on for another couple years.
The sad part is this is the first loss of the year where WVU was soundly beat.... but because of that youth and inexperience playing together, or absolutely boneheaded mistakes, we are 2-3....
Texas just manhandled us at every phase.
Sam James should switch to DB..... I mean that with every ounce of my soul... He seems like a good kid, but my goodness, Ive never seen a team or a few players have as many drops as WVU the past 3 years.
They need to buy a tennis ball machine, buy about 20 Brown magic markers and paint every tennis ball brown, then have WR's catch brown tennis balls from the machine to help with hand&eye... In addition to the jugs machine.... If they are going to deploy an offense, that relies on and puts the game in WR hands, than those hands need to be consistent. At least not consistently ranked in the top of the league for drops... Ill settle for average after the ridiculousness Ive seen the past few years. I mean, every WR is gonna drop a pass every once in a while, but this is just deviated..... EVERY YEAR.... The part that pisses me off about is Brown was a bit of a smart ass a couple weeks ago when someone asked him about it. He later corrected himself, but fans are tired of seeing the same fkn mistakes, errors, penalties, lack of execution, this team just did not show up tonight. It was a bad, a very bad look....
Ive been far more patient & understanding than most on here, and I know the Big12 is a very strong conference this year, BUT..... at this point in Browns tenure, we should be competitive in every game. I dont like it when we lose, but if its very close and due to a player ding something stupid, I get it.... But the times of being ok of being DOMINATED is OVER.....
