Quick thoughts...

[jakez4ut]

i learned a few things today.

1. i think i'm done going to September football games. it's way too freaking hot. and weather dealys in football are as bad as they are in nascar.
2. WVU's offense is really good.
3. we do, in fact, still have a ways to go.
4. i have reached the age where college studen debauchery is no longer entertaining. lol. good for them. i guess i've graduated from it.
5. our offensive line had real problems figuring out who to block. their front gave us problems early, and the early start was hard to come back from.
6. the drive in the 2nd qtr gives me hope for the future. that was a thing of beauty. just need more of it.
7. i'm not ready to crown JG, he has things to work on, but i think i saw enough today to say there's something there to work with.
8. MC was huge.
9. Tim Jordan is pretty darn good. Madre Hill impressed me at times.
10. the defense....i want to rail on the defense. i am not sure how i felt about us lining up so far off the WR's, really thought we'd be more aggressive at the line with them. but i have to give credit. Grier dropped some dimes.
11. i really want to win a game like this. make a statement. Jeremy Pruitt inherited what he inherited. but this whole football thing is a lot more fun when you win.
12. i'm a sore loser.

all in all, i've definitley had better opening weekends. i'm not sure what there is to be gained for a team like ours to play a team like WVU in week one. will we get better? yeah, i think so. tough match up on both sides. but count me in the group that is fine with opening up against inept tech and having a couple cupcakes before we open SEC play with FL. we can play another P5 team later in the year.

lastly, i'm just tired of losing. period.

GBO.

 

[Smokey X]

I now dislike Butch Jones even stronger than before. And if anyone sees Dave Hart please smack him once for me.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

To the OP...


1. Madre Hill is out of eligibility. Madre London didnt impress me..

2. Our lines are soft. Thats what 2 yrs of no S&C does for you (Butch's last 2). WVU whipped our ass in the trenches.

3. No impressed with our offense at all. WVU is terrible on D and we only scored once while the game was in doubt.

4. Got an urge to kick a mule..jk

 

[DiehardeffingVol]

I figured WVA would put up some points but i really thought we would score a lot more than 14 on that defense. Watch Youngstown St. hang 30+ on them next weekend.

 

[Brillovol]

2 yrs of no S&C does for you

It will take almost a year to get the S&C back up to where it should be. I expect to see progress by the end of this season.

 

[jakez4ut]

To the OP...


1. Madre Hill is out of eligibility. Madre London didnt impress me..

2. Our lines are soft. Thats what 2 yrs of no S&C does for you (Butch's last 2). WVU whipped our ass in the trenches.

3. No impressed with our offense at all. WVU is terrible on D and we only scored once while the game was in doubt.

4. Got an urge to kick a mule..jk

madre, madre...what's the difference lol. agree about the lines in general....both flashed at times, neither are consistent enough right now to matter to the outcome of the game. no one should be impressed with the offense right now. aside from that drive in the 2nd qtr, there wasn't much to write home about.

don't kick your's, find a neighbor's.

i think the most disappointing thing about today is that we really needed a quick start to this season. Bama, GA, Auburn look awesome.

no idea on FL or USCe, but at least they feel good about themselves right now. that FL game now has to be circled. we lose to FL, and this season is really basically over. no pressure.....lol.

 

[Jackcrevol]

not sure why y'all were expecting us tobeat a top 15 team on the road with a new coach and new scheme?

We have one if the youngest O's in the SEC. WVU's offense aint that great, the D needed to play better. We are young, were gettimg there.

lets play some cupcakes.

 

[TuVol4u]

no idea on FL or USCe, but at least they feel good about themselves right now. that FL game now has to be circled. we lose to FL, and this season is really basically over. no pressure.....lol.

Disagree. UF is no longer a litmus for how our season pans out. Look at what we did in 2016 and still couldn't finish out with the wins we needed.

Beating UF this year won't matter if we don't even get a whiff of success against any of the 3 (UGA, BAMA, AUB).

 

[jakez4ut]

not sure why y'all were expecting us tobeat a top 15 team on the road with a new coach and new scheme?

We have one if the youngest O's in the SEC. WVU's offense aint that great, the D needed to play better. We are young, were gettimg there.

lets play some cupcakes.

i think most of us just allowed ourselves to believe that it wasn't a foregone conclusion that WVU would win, and that the "blowout" possiblity was a farce. the usual off season/pre season excitement.

then you hit the wall of reality.

it is what it is. "expected" is probably not the right word. i don't think anyone just "expected" to win. i think most, self included, saw a path that could lead to a W. that path was blocked pretty early on......no one thought we'd be coming from 2+ scores behind to beat that team. there was a specific path that would lead to victory for us. we didn't stay on it very long. and by the time we got back on, it was too late.

the thing that sucked, is after that drive in the 2nd quarter, that was the formula. it was just 12 minutes too late. we got the score, but immediatel let WVU get points before the half, and they got a TD on 1st possession of the 3rd qtr. game was over then.

 

[jakez4ut]

Disagree. UF is no longer a litmus for how our season pans out. Look at what we did in 2016 and still couldn't finish out with the wins we needed.

Beating UF this year won't matter if we don't even get a whiff of success against any of the 3 (UGA, BAMA, AUB).

depends on what you expect. in 2016, a trip to ATL for the SEC title was on the table legitimately.

it's not this year. we lose to FL though this year, we're probably staring 2-5 heading in to USCe game right in the face.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

Disagree. UF is no longer a litmus for how our season pans out. Look at what we did in 2016 and still couldn't finish out with the wins we needed.

Beating UF this year won't matter if we don't even get a whiff of success against any of the 3 (UGA, BAMA, AUB).

For recruiting and player/fan morale purposes, beating Florida matters......

 

[TuVol4u]

depends on what you expect. in 2016, a trip to ATL for the SEC title was on the table legitimately.

it's not this year. we lose to FL though this year, we're probably staring 2-5 heading in to USCe game right in the face.

I don't think we catch Florida this year. Even though its Mullens first year, he has better caliber players, at least on defense. He will have that team ready.

 

[BeecherVol]

madre, madre...what's the difference lol. agree about the lines in general....both flashed at times, neither are consistent enough right now to matter to the outcome of the game. no one should be impressed with the offense right now. aside from that drive in the 2nd qtr, there wasn't much to write home about.

don't kick your's, find a neighbor's.

i think the most disappointing thing about today is that we really needed a quick start to this season. Bama, GA, Auburn look awesome.

no idea on FL or USCe, but at least they feel good about themselves right now. that FL game now has to be circled. we lose to FL, and this season is really basically over. no pressure.....lol.

I thought going into the season we needed this game or UF before the midseason run. Hopefully WVs O is just that dam good and the staff now sees we can throw it some without establishing a run first.

UF is not one of the best 4 teams we ll play this year, but it's a really, really big game now.

How much improvement can be made in 2 games and 3 weeks of practice? After today it needs to be very efficient.

 

[jakez4ut]

For recruiting and player/fan morale purposes, beating Florida matters......

 

[Matt2496]

depends on what you expect. in 2016, a trip to ATL for the SEC title was on the table legitimately.

it's not this year. we lose to FL though this year, we're probably staring 2-5 heading in to USCe game right in the face.

I agree. No way we beat Florida with Dan Mullen, a seasoned HC and QB guru, at the helm this year.

I'll be ecstatic to be 6-6.

 

[jakez4ut]

I thought going into the season we needed this game or UF before the midseason run. Hopefully WVs O is just that dam good and the staff now sees we can throw it some without establishing a run first.

UF is not one of the best 4 teams we ll play this year, but it's a really, really big game now.

How much improvement can be made in 2 games and 3 weeks of practice? After today it needs to be very efficient.

the only thing i know for sure, we're gonna find out.

i do think the next two weeks will be good for this team, and this staff.

not even gonna try to predict what kind of impact it has on results going forward.

 

[jakez4ut]

I agree. No way we beat Florida with Dan Mullen, a seasoned HC and QB guru, at the helm this year.

I'll be ecstatic to be 6-6 this year.

i think we need to probabl beat FL to get to 6-6. despite what happened today, and it did suck, the FL game is 3 weeks from now.
teams in this kind of situation grow a lot week to week.

we'll see how much it matters by then

 

[TuVol4u]

For recruiting and player/fan morale purposes, beating Florida matters......

Depends on which side of the UT fanbase you come from. Beating UGA or Bama is more prestigious in the current climate. UF is now constantly battling for second or third place now in the east. It just doesn't have the same clout as it used to.

Until both programs (ours and UFs) get back in the national conversation each year, this game is second fiddle to UGA.

 

[jakez4ut]

Depends on which side of the UT fanbase you come from. Beating UGA or Bama is more prestigious in the current climate. UF is now constantly battling for second or third place now in the east. It just doesn't have the same clout as it used to.

Until both programs (ours and UFs) get back in the national conversation each year, this game is second fiddle to UGA.

no disagreement on the national relevance angle.

that said, neither FL or UT are there. and a step toward that relevance is beating the teams in your "tier". and right now we're not in that upper, top tier.

neither is FL.

so it still matters, on any level, relative to what you currently are.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

Depends on which side of the UT fanbase you come from. Beating UGA or Bama is more prestigious in the current climate. UF is now constantly battling for second or third place now in the east. It just doesn't have the same clout as it used to.

Until both programs (ours and UFs) get back in the national conversation each year, this game is second fiddle to UGA.

Im the realistic side. We dont have the horses to compete with AUB, Uga, and Bama. From a recruiting perspective, the best remaining opponent to make a splash is UF. We need to stack as many Ws as we can to get more players in here so we can compete with UGA...

 

[BeecherVol]

the only thing i know for sure, we're gonna find out.

i do think the next two weeks will be good for this team, and this staff.

not even gonna try to predict what kind of impact it has on results going forward.

Oh I'm not going to project either but going in I felt like we needed to split WV and UF before the midseason gauntlet just from an emotional standpoint.

 

[jakez4ut]

Oh I'm not going to project either but going in I felt like we needed to split WV and UF before the midseason gauntlet just from an emotional standpoint.

agreed. unfortunately a split is still possible....lol.

 

[jakez4ut]

Im the realistic side. We dont have the horses to compete with AUB, Uga, and Bama. From a recruiting perspective, the best remaining opponent to make a splash is UF. We need to stack as many Ws as we can to get more players in here so we can compete with UGA...

was talking about this last night w/someone.

we say that like it's just around the corner. throw Bama in that group too.

the reality, we weren't competitive with a top 15 team, much less a top 2-3 program.

this team will get better this year. biggest gains are usually made in weeks 2 and 3. we'll see how that translates against FL.

but i think people are going to have to realize, that for this season, we're gonna have to show we're competitive with the november schedule. most of the Sept and Oct opponents...we're not there.

 

[allvol123]

I figured WVA would put up some points but i really thought we would score a lot more than 14 on that defense. Watch Youngstown St. hang 30+ on them next weekend.

It would be irrelevant if YSU did post 30 plus. Transitive property does not work in football.

They were never going to ask JG to make explosive plays in this game. Once this game had WV up by more than 14 then our game plan was toast. Anyone with any knowledge knew that up front.

 

[jakez4ut]

It would be irrelevant if YSU did post 30 plus. Transitive property does not work in football.

They were never going to ask JG to make explosive plays in this game. Once this game had WV up by more than 14 then our game plan was toast. Anyone with any knowledge knew that up front.

bingo. the 2nd and longs that led to 3rd and longs on those 1st two series, were killer. once we were down 2 scores, i knew it'd be tough.

and even though i was fired up about the 2nd qtr, the reality was they got the ball back with 5 minutes to go, got a FG, still one score game at that point (i thought holding them to that FG was a game saving stop to be honest)...but in the back of my mind, kowing they'd get the ball at the half, that 1st possession was gong to be huge. down 20 to 7 before we got to touch the ball in the 2nd half really put our offense in a bad spot.

two good things to take away from that...we allowed only 1 sack and didn't turn it over. if anyone wants a silver lining, that's probably it.