'18 Recruiting Forum: Official West Virginia Pre-Game/Game Thread

#103
#103
Glitch said:
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This did make me laugh.
 
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#105
#105
Heard on the radio up here today a short blip about the defense and how they will be much improved this year, and the DC feels really good about them. Went on to say they face off against Tennessee sept 1, and the get this, "the games that matter the following week..."!! Lmao
 
#106
#106
nicksjuzunk said:
2018 Recruiting Forum: Official West Virginia Pre-Game/Game Thread

Date: Saturday, September 1
Game Time: 3:30 pm ET
Venue: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC
Network: CBS

View attachment 163631
Through many dangers, toils and snares, we have already come...

The last time one of these threads was posted was November 25th, 2017. They were simple times. We were getting ready to beat Vandy to close out the season, and we had full confidence that Currie was about to land us a heck of a football coach. You know the story, and here we are... beginning the Pruitt era in Charlotte, North Carolina against a top 25 opponent. It's a season that has fairly low expectations, so I suggest buckling in loosely and enjoying it for what it is. Generally, I begin these threads a week in advance, but week 1 gets a little extra rope. Let's go.


Keys to Victory:

1. Smear the Grier: Ok, childish game reference aside, Will Grier is a very good quarterback. Possibly the best the Vols will face this season, though Drew Lock may have something to say about that. Grier was the slippery Gator the Vols couldn't seem to get a hold of 3 years ago in the swamp, as Florida turned a simple hook pattern into an impossibly long touchdown to win the game on 3rd and forever. Somehow, Jim McElwain thought it was best to drive Grier away soon after that when he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, and of course, we know how Florida QB play has been since then... and McElwain is now counting pennies in Ann Arbor for Jim Harbaugh.

Here is a look at how Grier performed last season:
View attachment 163630

The stats speak for themselves. Aside from a poor performance against Oklahoma State, he was remarkably good. He is not prone to turn the ball over, and has a blistering completion % of 64.4%. A veteran Tennessee front 7 need to keep constant pressure on Grier, and unlike the Vols of 2015, need to bring him to the ground, in order to help out the young TN corner backs. If Tennessee could hold him to below 300 passing yards, they would be only the second team to do so since his WV arrival. Tall order. Strangely, with such a great passing attack, West Virginia was terrible on 3rd and long situations. They gain their yards big chunks at a time, and if they are not able to pick up substantial yardage on 1st and 2nd down, they may have trouble converting on 3rd. Key Point: Grier passing below 320 yards.

2. Outrun the Gun: Tennessee is not about to out throw the Mountaineers, who are very talented in the secondary, but they very well may be able to outrun them. The Vols will likely be "running back by committee" with Ty Chandler, Madre London & Tim Jordan getting the bulk of the work. I expect Chandler to bring himself to the front of the pack with his undeniable big play potential. Most importantly, the Tennessee offensive line will be at full strength, barring any injuries over the next two weeks. The top 5 look pretty good, but after that, things get thin pretty quick. Being able to have a go at full strength gives Tennessee a needed edge and should help the Vols to control the pace of the game. They do NOT want a shootout. Last season WV allowed 204 yards per game rushing. Tennessee will need to get more than that to win. West Virginia brings in DT transfers from USC and Clemson, so it's hard to tell what they are going to have up front.

West Virginia does not bring much to the table in the running game. Their top returning RB accounted for 596 yards last season. This is good news... since Tennessee gave up 251 YPG in 2017. Key Point: Vols out rush WV by 100 yards.

3. Turnovers: Over the previous 5 seasons, Jeremy Pruitt led defenses have led the nation in forced turnovers, averaging 139 per season. When he has arrived at FSU, UGA, and Alabama, each of those teams increased their forced turnovers by over 10 in the following season. Tennessee was -3 on turnovers last year, with a total of 17 turnovers gained. If Pruitt could bring that total up by his standard 10 turnover average, that would be 27 forced turnovers... which is pretty high on the food chain. Turnovers will be key in this game. Key Point: Tennessee +2 in turnovers.

4. Working out the Kinks: Every new staff has to work out the bugs in their first season. There will be miscommunications, misalignment, missed assignments and other sorts of calamities. This is the inevitable lot that comes with being a brand spanking new head coach. Let's hope the preparations are ready for a smooth performance. Key Point: Do the things that good coaches do.

5. Battle on the Edges: West Virginia features a trio of wide receivers that terrorize opponents. Together, they logged 1.55 miles (or 2,739 yards, if that's your thing) last season. Jennings is their top WR in the slot, with one of the weirdest stat lines you'll see... 97 catches, 1096 yards and 1 TD. One touchdown in week one... on 97 catches, are you serious? I mean, is this like an intentional thing... run to the 1 and kneel or something? Does he have some sort of bet going on? Is he caught up in some sort of bizarre West Virginia moonshine mafia betting ring that won't let him score? Besides Jennings... who may or may not be under the thumb of the mountaineer mafia is former QB superstar turned pretty dang good WR David Sills and Marcus Sims.

Tennessee expects to start true freshman Alontae Taylor on one end, and unless things change, Baylen Buchanan in the other CB position. While Taylor is immensely talented, few true freshmen shine in their first start... especially against WR's of this caliber. Taylor may end up taking some lumps, but hopefully, his talent shines as well and it is a good sign of things to come. If he has an outstanding performance, Vols fans have plenty to be excited for over the coming 3 years. Baylen has had an inconsistent career so far but this will be a chance for him to display the growth he's experienced and the quality of coaching each have been under. Key Point: Limit the big 3 WR's to under 250 yards receiving.

6. Display of Strength: The bad news is Tennessee has been tremendously underdeveloped in the strength and conditioning program over the last 3 years. The good news is that the less developed you are, the quicker you make progress. This means that our opponents who have had decent S&C programs will only marginally improve, or maintain their program in S&C from season to season. For Tennessee, the underdevelopment means there is a much larger room for progress over the next 3-4 seasons... with season 1 likely being the biggest, but not the most important change. What does this mean? If the S&C department has done the work that we all hope they have done, this team will look dramatically different than they did last year... though not as strong as they will from season to season over the next 4 years.

Now, ChattaTNVol pointed out a few weeks ago that the composite 247 star rating of the top 40 players for each team are .8475 for West Virginia and .9287 for Tennessee. Aside from HS performance, ratings take into account the existing development of the players and also the expected genetic potential "has room in his frame..." for the players. Frankly speaking, Tennessee started with the higher potential players, but they haven't been developed. West Virginia had less to work with, but has likely developed what they had to a higher degree. I would say this is likely a wash at this point, but it will be a very interesting thing to see... has Tennessee finally developed their 4-5* talents to perform as such or will a bunch of 3* players with proper development be too much to overcome? It will tell a lot about how this team will do in SEC play. Key Point: Perform like you "even lift, bro."

Prediction: The Vols come out and look like a team that knows how to play football. Fundamentally, they are sound, but the offense is inconsistent on their drives and the defense has trouble slowing down the West Virginia Air Raid.

TN 17
WV 31
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Love the write-up! Really only on the other side of a couple things you mentioned. Grier can be turnover prone at times as can W.Va, especially when he's not throwing against E.Car, Baylor, Kansas and their bad non conference games. He was tied for #14th worst in the country in Int's thrown. I saw W.Va was #104 in the country in turnover margin per game. Will Pruitt's history that could be a huge advantage for TN in the game. They were #90 in defensive points per game and an average SOS #50. Their secondary was #90+ in passing yards given up per game and even worse #104 in yards per completion. They are equally bad at stopping the pass and are an average at rushing the ball. Grier is going to get his yards and points. Stealing a few possession's with turnovers would be huge.

I'm just not as enamored with W.Va as some fans and media are. Not sure how they are ranked in the top 20 coming off a 7-6 year, one dimensional on offense and live and die by it, were one of the worst teams in the country in turnover margin, run defense, pass defense, scoring defense and the #50 SOS. I don't see them even ranked by time the season is over. They are this year's version of most over hyped team and no merit to back up their hype. But a QB who can put up numbers and score some points gets the attention and takes focus off what they don't do well. I'm by no means saying we are a a good team because truthfully we don't know how we will look with coach's who actually know what they are doing. There will be early season mistakes made by players and Coach's, but hopefully they are few and far between. Catching them game 1 is a benefit too. Offense's don't click game 1 like they will weeks 2 and beyond. Especially a passing offense like theirs where timing is always off in the 1st game of the season. So that should help offset the first game mistakes our Players and Coach's will make. If we establish a run game, which we should against their D, then we keep Grier on the sidelines control time of possession.

But again I loved the write-up and info you listed. Some really great info! I'm probably in the minority on W.Va but I just don't see the hype they are getting. For the one thing they do really well, they do many more things not very well or very badly. I think we beat them by 7-10+. 38-27 Vols! I'll be the first to admit it if W.Va prove s me wrong though. The season can't start soon enough! Go Vols!
 
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#108
#108
ChattaTNVol said:
On one of the WVU fan sites they asked their readers which game on their schedule this year scared them the most. Here are the current poll results. (Full disclosure: some of our posters from here on VN may have accidentally hijacked their poll)..

View attachment 164162
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Weelll. I mighta voted.....
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#112
#112
Darth_Shiveman said:
I’d feel pretty good about this game if we got them later in the season. Lack of continuity will hurt our chances big time here. I’m hoping we’re able to punch them in the mouth so hard it doesn’t matter, but skeptical that will be the case.
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That is how I feel about too. I have no idea how this game goes. We have nothing but hope, and confidence in the staff doing the right things to go on.

I hope all my concerns are misplaced, and they make me look like a fool.
 
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#117
#117
I think WV is going to move the ball on our defense, and I think there are two keys to this game; turnovers and field goals. If we can be +1 in turnovers and force them into at least 2 FG attempts, I think we win. I think they will probably have a lead at the half, but our staff is supposed to be good at in game adjustments so hopefully they can slow them down in the 2nd half. In addition, our running game will start to take a toll in the second half and we will be controlling time of possession. The defense will find a way to force at least two FGA while our offense is scoring TD’s. Prediction: Vols win 30-27!
 
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#120
#120
nicksjuzunk said:
Need this game to get here. I’m already at Vols by 3 and it’s been like 5 days since I called 31-17
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i love the off season. by next wednesday most of us will have just flat out ignored all the "stuff" we think we know, and it'll be TN by 14+. lol.

then we can reconvene on Sunday and start it all over....lol. i'm excited about the game. i'm cautiously optimistic, if i have to pick a winner, i'm probably still gonna pick WVU; i don't think it'll be a blow out by any means.

but, i'm playing golf next friday, we're doing a pretty much all day tailgate saturday for the game, going to the game...should be a helluva weekend and i'm really looking forward to it. GBO!!!
 
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#121
#121
jakez4ut said:
i love the off season. by next wednesday most of us will have just flat out ignored all the "stuff" we think we know, and it'll be TN by 14+. lol.

then we can reconvene on Sunday and start it all over....lol. i'm excited about the game. i'm cautiously optimistic, if i have to pick a winner, i'm probably still gonna pick WVU; i don't think it'll be a blow out by any means.

but, i'm playing golf next friday, we're doing a pretty much all day tailgate saturday for the game, going to the game...should be a helluva weekend and i'm really looking forward to it. GBO!!!
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Some of us are already there.
 
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#122
#122
jakez4ut said:
i love the off season. by next wednesday most of us will have just flat out ignored all the "stuff" we think we know, and it'll be TN by 14+. lol.

then we can reconvene on Sunday and start it all over....lol. i'm excited about the game. i'm cautiously optimistic, if i have to pick a winner, i'm probably still gonna pick WVU; i don't think it'll be a blow out by any means.

but, i'm playing golf next friday, we're doing a pretty much all day tailgate saturday for the game, going to the game...should be a helluva weekend and i'm really looking forward to it. GBO!!!
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Are you playing in the volunteer open they're having?
 
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