Answering #WVU fan questions - hoops roster addition, football standouts, young stars rising?

welcome back welcome in this is country roads confidential at earport dcom this is a Paramount podcast I am Mike cazza joined today by Chris Anderson to um dip into the mailbag Chris not quite yet a week into practice for football at West Virginia four practices a day off two in spider pads two in shoulder pads a couple of news conferences with the head coach coordinators and players as part of that a lot of questions and a lot of answers but it seems that man there's just so much interest now Chris because the optimism is up that it didn't take very long for people to fill up the mailbag in the VIP side so what better time than right now to take some questions provide some answers and remind you you want to get in on this or anything else that we do over on the VIP side last day to sign up Chris 60% off for the annual membership price one of the perks I guess as you have access to the Q&A you can ask questions things that are on your mind itches that you want us to scratch hey small price to pay for a big return like that 60% off Chris it makes me mad every time like pennies for everything that be right but hey good for you um yeah I don't know if we get I don't know what the what's which way to look at this but I think I did the math on it and it's the equivalent of the entire year of this coverage and access and everything for the cost of like a family of four to go to McDonald's and I don't know if that says more about what the price McDonald is doing right now or how good of a deal we got going so either way money better spent at ears sports.com yeah McDonald's a moderation get the app ear Sports no moderation when do we get the app Chris that's right yeah oh God please don't start that well let's start then the reason that we're here Chris what do you say we pull out a question and get to the answer let's do it I'm just going to roll right down the uh the old Message Board as came in skipping a couple because we're going to save those for the three minute videos later in the week by the way Mike did you see my uh post on the message board asking people you know do you like the three minute videos should we do more of them um they exactly even split at the moment between yes I watch them please do more than twice a week and no I can't even stand to see your and Mike's face on the Pod as it is so surprised hting 50% that's good somewhere in something right oh well what anyways moving on V Kito asks with the early Buzz of Nico's Improvement is there a better starting QB and backup QB combo in the conference than Gigi and Nico I'm struggling to think of one and the only two that come to mind would be Sanders and stab at Colorado I think people kind of forget that the backup has has played and played well there at times in the past think he had over 300 yards in his one start last year but because Sanders is so good it's a bit of a drop off there you figure just and that's really not the backup's fault but that's one where the guys played and they really like him and then this one is is maybe a little bit different but Robertson and Finn at Baylor is pretty interesting too but those are two very different quarterbacks and they're going to go in an offense that um I don't think it's a perfect fit for Finn maybe more for Robertson that's Jake badal's aay but it does sound like that Finn's going to be the starter there but again one really good player from the Mack and Finn and a guy who kind of intrigued with Robertson at Baylor and that might be it Chris like and I would probably in this situation given I think how close the two are but also it doesn't seem like the offense is going to really change at all when Mario comes in um boy it's it's hard to have a backup quarterback these days so it'd be hard to think there's a better Arrangement right now in the Big 12 than what they have here a lot of continuity for those two and again not far from the leftand and right-handed thing and the fact that one's faster than the other um I'm not sure there's a great difference between the two as far as what they want to call how the plays look yeah sure a little bit different why one's a starter but I think they would probably roll out much of the same offense couldn't say that last year yeah I'm with you you know I think when Nico had to start last season was it play mostly it was 20 points and 17 points and like woof that offense really slowed down oh the offense was a little slow to start the year as it was even with green at quarterback and two to your point how many other teams have quarterbacks backup quarterbacks that actually have experience that actually have starts um so credit to Nico here again he does more things with his feet as well that Texas Tech game not pretty passing the ball uh 78 yards on 21 attempts but 72 rushing yards he kept the offense moving enough to get that win so I'm with you it's not pretty or it wasn't pretty maybe it will be prettier if he has made the improvements of the coaching staff alluded to um and I'm with I think you just kind of I want to say by default they have the best onew punch but it's pretty up there can I ask you a question yeah what if Nico doesn't roll his ankle on Wednesday before that TCU game last year and he goes out and he plays better essentially his third start let's say but second start third really prolonged a period of playing time in a row and they go out and they win that game they still win the game with with G GRE but remember green would not supposed to play Mario gets hurt they have to see if green can play and they get him ready and he can go and really they don't even start opening up the Playbook until half time because they're like okay Green's actually good what if Mario doesn't get hurt green doesn't play they go to TCU they win like green comes back like hey I'm healthy what if it's still green I I know and some of that might be influenced by hindsight here now that we're a full year removed from that and you saw what green did for the rest of the year but I think the coaching staff felt pretty comfortable with or or felt that green had a pretty comfortable lead in that race between the two quarterback and I'm not sure that game is going to change anything even if it would be impressive to go on the road and beat TCU so I think what's most interesting about that is that the TCU game is Then followed by the open week so yeah Green has more time to get healthy but you have a period of of time to really look at your cards with Mario and say boy we really like this guy before and he's starting to come along green was not yet green he just wasn't he became green and it really did in that TCU game too but sometimes I think about that too they had you know idle time on their hands sometimes things are a little bit crazy in open weeks and who knows maybe they double down and they go Nico all the way and again who knows where things are right now luk Zoolander 01 asks How likely is it that devise Dev and WVU will add a center by the portal before the season starts oh I think it's highly likely they're going to have a big guy on the roster before the season starts I don't know if it'll be like a four or a five and and then who knows but like there's there's writing on the wall here this is going to happen sometime soon there's been different identities and that I've heard about but like it's I would be very surprised they don't have one person a lot of talk about a foreign big man those those the foreign players are the types of players that get added last minute um so yeah definitely keep an eye on that um GD F says who are we not talking about now back to football here who are we not talking about now that we will be talking about after fall camp or the Penn State game it's a great question because so many players on this team are known or have been talked about because they have been needed to fill one of the few spots where there isn't a known I think it's a really good thing for the program so you're kind of reaching there and you're thinking like man people really haven't seen Josiah troter but boy people have talked about Josiah troter I think that's an interesting one um probably too easy of a pick like all right well what about someone else maybe that spot re Caro has gotten early compliments from different coaches too that's an interesting because we haven't seen or heard about him too but go to the offensive side Chris and I don't know what it is maybe it's just the appeal and it's the new the shiny new toy but when you watch Greg jros um play the the same drills at receiver it's not the same as obviously Tayon Davis and will Dixon it's not even the same as like Cole Taylor Taylor's a little taller but Jos looks like he um is just a really smooth receiver and they were doing stuff and I don't want to freak people out but it was a drill and it was essentially throwing screens to tight ends where like the one other guy goes out and blocks another guy comes in and blocks from the edge so it was more of a blocking drill for tight ends and receivers and it was just fun to watch jenos catch the ball and Scoot around like on a screen and get like through the tunnel and up the field um they don't have that that swiftness and that acceleration that fluidity of that position they have a good blocker and Davis they have a good all-around tight end and Taylor but like a receiving weapon a guy who can run out the scene um I have a hunch he's going to be involved in the pass game somehow and you've seen different things where it's him and Taylor but it's also him and Davis early on in formations that's toll Personnel that's a way to make sure there's a good Blocker on the field even if it's not gen Ros um maybe it's my infatuation with tight ends maybe it's like again recency biased but there's something there with him and one of those things you go back to Chris and I was looking at the reporting on him was like why the heck would you add a tight end when they were in the roster Straits they were in and when they were recruiting and developing tight ends like they were well why not if he can do certain things that maybe he's on track to do well I like that pick by the way I do I really I'm gonna go to the other side of the ball and I'm gonna say TJ Jackson um because I'm with you I was thinking Caro because yeah in the spring they never mentioned him but all of a sudden couple of these press conferences with the assisted coaches lately uh Jordan Leslie talked about him some so I think maybe he's disqualified from this conversation since he's now being talked about but TJ Z Jackson is a guy who was an allconference type defensive lineman and West Virginia lost to lot of their depth from last year still have some starters returning still got some good players still got some high potential guys but maybe I'm looking too much into this but I believe it was Leslie the other day who was talking about bed Vin and said called him a nose a nose tackle a nose guard instead of a defensive tackle you know he's typically listed as a defensive tackle one of the guys on the outside is there a world where and this is not to take anything away from Fator MOBA who has been playing well in the brief stance that he's played but is there a world where maybe he keeps the same role of 20 to 25 snaps binin plays a little more inside cuz even Neil Brown was like Hey we got some versatility mrin can play inside or the boundary or uh field uh boundary side yeah excuse me and then Jackson gets some of that time over a defensive tackle or Martin gets some of that time I feel like Jackson's going to be if not at least the fourth defensive lineman maybe even the third defensive lineman uh in this group and in that room in it maybe not week one maybe week two week three he's the guy that we start talking about has pushed his way into more of a role with this team yeah I think early on especially maybe not against all many but Penn State and pit you're probably not going to see a lot of Nick Gabriel and Elijah Kinsler and Makai byerson maybe later in the season fine but like if they're getting into a spot where they need to move somebody around and stay strong yeah you could put bestan in the middle give him Mula and maybe even Hammond Russell will break perhaps ferin is better in the situation at knows um and then you can put Jackson and Martin on the edges and keep a pretty good line out there PCAT F14 asks is WW able to willing to pay the full amount of the cap for the house settlement so with the revenue sharing cap I take it that's what it means yeah I they better be um or or better be on track to and find ways because that's that's going to be a competitive disadvantage it's going to be used against you like and you know these tals from recruiting Christ of I mean what one coach will tell a player about the school that the other coach at the school recruiting him won't tell him um whether it's true or not that gets in that player's head and like it's going to be a leverage piece now and it's going to divide and again you're not going to have a division between the Hales and Have Nots that already exists you're going to have a division between the Hales and a division between the Have Nots and how do you create that separation and exploit it it's going to be with with situations like this and the cap and how much revenue do you have to share or will you are you willing to share if it's it's going to be hard for a lot of schools to do it right away and West Virginia might be one of them and that's not not West Virginia's fault or those schools fault um this is really thrust upon this takes years and years of planning to divert 20 some million dollars um to expense it but also account for it in other ways um if they don't do it right away then remember when they came in the Big 12 and it was like 50% 66% 85% maybe there's something like that like you know what we're not going to be there right now we will be there before long but that is a great question to ask and answer and that haven't seen heard a whole lot of that yet when it comes to West Virginia or even specific schools because this is still so new making bacon says I understand that the basketball team is overseas but am I am I insane for thinking they should have some sort of medium to watch the team excitement Michael I don't want to I don't want to complain about this because I think they're pretty good when it comes to I think they're very good when it comes to um memorializing things of social media and graphics and all that stuff and if there was a way to do it you'd like to think that they could I don't believe that you're going to find their non-conference team pouring over footage of a July game or an August game against a Lithuanian Club team or two youthmy in Italy and be like oh boy we have an unfair Edge how silly of West Virginia to share that video online from their three- game tour of it I don't think that is real that's just me so why wouldn't they do it there might be a reason it may be a man Manpower thing but they've got someone over there doing photos and videos it's weird and I don't know why so not to be critical I didn't ask beforehand I kind of figured there would be some availability that you could watch a stream um you know like you could have um like flowmap maybe something like that you could find access to it but then I was thinking who's doing that over there in Florence or in in the cities that they're in so maybe that's not possible but there's probably a reason why and I just don't know it but my whole thing is I'm sure they got a video coordinator over there actually they just hire their video coordinators maybe he's not over there they probably have somebody over there who is recording the game for practice Purp purposes and like like the team sits down to watch film here's how we looked hey we need to do this better that's extremely natural couldn't I just upload that to YouTube we'll see why not truncate it I mean yeah cut out Parts maybe you don't want like if you don't like if they they zoom in on the Huddle and you know it gets really tight and they're okay that's stuff that we don't have to see but people want to see the game do that um I think I like those NFL replays where you can watch a whole game in like 30 minutes just cut out everything between this snap could you do something like that maybe but again like why aren't there there might be a reason I I wish there was I'm I'm sure there's a reason I don't think it's like you said I don't think it's you know gamesmanship to make sure that some you know team with an RPI in the 300s is watching West Virginia play like you said like a second rate Lithuanian Club team in like a y dimly lit YMCA of Italy it's nah but I thought they're follow-ups you know putting in the pictures putting up the stats uh sharing some of those stats sending out a press release with some with some comments from coach de that kind of stuff is helpful and again there's part of me that's like oh you don't really like that because you know they're controlling their own message so they're getting you know just as a independent thinker and I guess a media person don't like entities putting out their own spin of how things go but of course it's just a fun exhibition so who cares on that part and that goes to your point about the video you can release your own video you can make it look however you want to look you can release a 30 minute video of that game and pl of it is the bench guys getting in at the end to blow the game out so I wish there was something else I thought they did a nice job doing what they did if they were limited to that but it is what it is at this point I think there's there's more pressing concerns than being able to watch that uh for this team yep um ww germ uh says whatat preseason grade would you give Ren Baker for his work on the football program for 2024 is there a link between his efforts and the preseason excitement among fans I thought about this and like I just I I know he's like chetto and pulls the strings and all this stuff but I just I just don't know how much you can credit him for the stuff that really matters I think that there's a good amount of of Goodwill and we've been over this that comes from the contract exension and that's by large him I get that but that's also Neil and his people too so it's not like one got an A and one got an F there but it's also better than a c for both of them so it's difficult for me to give him a ton of credit for that but he did get what had to be done done I think at least to satiate people because had a good season address the extension while doing that go to work in the bout a little bit I just think like holistically though everything that brown wanted to do shortterm to long term that that you like that you've seen so far this offseason you know so those are things that he maybe implemented at the end of the season or years ago but you like it right now because it's in place and it's seems like it's working again off the field stuff I understand that but it still has to be in place to jump off that's by and large brown and you can credit Baker for diverting some of the salary that brown forfeited to the assistant coaches to making sure that they have a better staff or like a staff that's not going to wander perhaps as eagerly because they're making good money now um but again that was brown kind of forfeiting that money too so I get the point and I I kind of even think Baker would say thanks but the other guy had a lot to do with that um how about this though the conditions to be hospitable um it's kind of Baker's house so you kind of give him credit for making sure that the roof doesn't leak and that they can do these things but um can't give him a ton of credit for it but does it happen without him does it happen if it's a hostile environment probably not so credit to him for that the group effort you know he helped set things up he laid out the groundwork he helped with you know furthering the nil push within the program and moving everything together but none of that matters if the team if the coaching staff if everybody else around the athletic department doesn't buy in and do their part as well none of it matters that the team doesn't win football games so I think you know going nine and four and coming back with a potential top 25 team this year also helps a great deal there and if it that wasn't the case it doesn't matter what Ren Baker did it wouldn't have made a difference so and you can also say hey he didn't fire him yeah in November of 22 so I mean good for you I guess you got an A for foresight there yeah so A's for lots of people around there um all right I'm gonna give you four players give me one sentence each because I think you've seen it in person uh at fall Camp two fall Camp practices in person so far sloy 03 is asking about new QBs and new running backs so quarterbacks Ryder Burton one sentence go competitive going to make a difference in that room uh khil Wilkins a year away from a year away okay Dior hubard running back kind of hidden right now because I like the other guy more Trayvon Dunbar the other guy uh he's big and and has good balance I think you're going to hear the word like um run balance with him he just he's low to the ground and he he does not get knocked off his line very much impressive he mcy says a lot of the offensive success is based upon or based on projecting steps forward with the receiver group in your all's opinion what wide receiver has the best chance of taking those steps forward the talent with Rodney Gallagher is is hard to overlook and then I know people are maybe down on his season last year but don't forget like it was so new to him that going through things a second time will probably help him a lot and then I know this is a lightning rod but it's it's kind of hard to look at some of Hudson Clement's I don't know saber metrics whatever you want to call it and think that there isn't something there like the guy makes contested catches he gets open um does have good run after the catch and again for a guy who was kind of confined to a couple of healthy games last year and the statistics came from one understand that there's something there though that you can work with and then again just keep that on track because also it was new to him too great High School career same as Gallagher different backgrounds obviously but there's potential there that is kind of in different stages of development and I think it could go somewhere with both of them all right um I want to come back to d sprads one because that one's going to be a little longer trying to get through some rapid fire ones here Salty Dog 8159 just how serious was the talk of Rodney Gallagher playing defense uh snaps on defense has he gotten any so far in fall fall cam I haven't seen any and I've asked about it and people just kind of went come on that um so I don't know and I even asked Jordan Lesley about it in the news conference on Saturday I guess and just said no it's one of those things we did in the spring in case we needed him but things look better now so no idea why sometimes spring can be pretty mundane and a guy like him you can only use so much receiver like you're not not going to you're not going to solve the problem and make all the advances at once so how do you keep a guy happy and make make it fun for everybody yeah let him spin around and learn a little bit about the other way to play which isn't a bad thing for a guy who's trying to cover people in the slot that may maybe helps you get open in the slot a little bit too but I would be very surprised and I would be probably concerned if you saw number 24 playing the slot and covering people in week three RBC WBU says various Outlets have wwu both in and out of the preseason top 25 best guess will the Penn State game feature two ranked opponents you see our 247 came out and doesn't have West Virginia even though West Virginia was in the post spring top 25 yeah some something happened over the summer that knocked West Virginia out of the top 25 over 247 Sports we've been we've been writing these stories about the the strength the weakness of the top 25 teams the West Virginia has been involved in every one of the ones so far the top 25 comes out and I was like oh let's see where they have them again nope got the I blame your take on linebackers or was that my take my take uh I I think it's I think you'll see I I think so I just think their offense their offseason has been strong enough and people know enough about their offense and just having voted in this once before and not wed to do it again um people look at the prior polls like okay who was ranked last season and you're going to knock out some people and you're going to keep some you're going to move some people in have had good off Seasons but if you see and again West Virginia was not in the media poll last year that was the coach's poll um but you're going to see teams like here's a team that was like 27 I don't like this team so much knock him out oh they lost all these people knock him out there's a way for them to pull themselves up into that top 25 um so here let me be bull Chris yes two ranked teams agreed it's all I got agreed Salty Dog 8159 asks if GG were to get hurt and Nico has to play SL start what would be your confidence level drop off in a game's outcome let's say your confidence in the offense with Garrick green is a nine where are you with Nico on a scale of one to 10 it's depending when in the season where and things like that because I I wouldn't feel great about him going in against Penn State but I also saw him come in and kind of rescue him on the road against Oklahoma State so that some of that's dependent but let's just say like if everything's equal here and it's a neutral side and it's you know not crazy conditions or whatever weather otherwise or like they're down by 30 points so you're you're probably at like a six and a half seven I just don't think the running threat is the same and that's why you rever and maybe even fear green so much is that if if part A of the plan doesn't work he's got a Part B and then Part B can also trigger part C so I don't know about Nico that I've seen him live with in the structure of plays and that was because they really didn't want him running a whole lot but maybe with Burton you can afford to have him be a little bit more Devil May car with the ball not with the ball with his leg so maybe that's maybe that's not fair but I wouldn't I wouldn't go nine but I wouldn't go in the middle either so probably not far from the middle but probably like that six and a half seven Forest hoston says how will the roster limit be implemented will wons be grandfathered in or will everyone over the 105 limit be forced to leave the team as soon as the limit takes effect I mean you've had more talks about this than I have Chris I was say I can hop in here because this was actually one of the things that I talked to someone about and they said you know one a lot of these the intricacies the little details which aren't that little still need to be figured out with this 105 man limit again I mentioned on the board um or in one of my stories split scholarships it's not out of the question you know giving again I give the example of you have 85 guys on full scholarship like always and then the last 20 spots pick up 10 scholarships 20 guys getting a half a scholarship and then you're spending 95 but 105 guys get money um the getting it down to 105 right away I mean you're being given some notice here and the belief slash slight concern is that the expectation is you start 2025 with 105 period end of story that is going to make things tough and that's part of the reason why I said my not expecting ww to all of a sudden start recruiting eight more high school kids and start adding to this class there is a very much a wait and see kind of thing going on in Morgantown everywhere really um to see what these final details are going to be like and how they should fill out the rest of their roster because if it's 105 hard cap starting next summer you know they may already be done like they're or they're going to have to push more guys out if they want to add in body else so uh it's kind of a wait and see thing right now here's an exercise for you too go to the the West Virginia roster and it's not it's not impossible to get from 120 to 105 I'm not going to do names here but like you can kind of go and tick some people off um cross some people off which might tick some people off but when you go from 105 to 85 like there's some people there like there are some players that that'll that'll be factors on special teams or or one day could have a scholarship and and it's not going to be like that but like you got to keep those 20 people somehow or another um if you're going to go that way so it's there's reverberations for sure and again I don't think people really realize that partial scholarship um that's new that's different NC Wayward here after one week of fall Camp practice I assume whose performance is sustainable and whose is fools gold man I just haven't seen a whole lot of stuff that makes me go oh this is they're on to something there so like when I'm I'm projecting about gen Ross like I I saw them do a tunnel screen drill of tight ends right and that was more for blocking for other people I'm not sure that that's a sustainable thing right um I like what they've had with Jahim white as running back one bu times I'm out there so could he sustainably be the number one running back or like onea and Donaldson's 1B and they're just a compliment to each other possibly Nico's had a good start so far the offensive line has been solid that's interesting to me but sustainable how about um aen gares and Garnett Hollis as starting quarterbacks I've seen that every day I have not seen a rush from people behind them I know Jacobi spells has been fun to talk about but he's still going be playing catchup a little bit and they love Garns as his versatility in the way he can run and that's a compliment to Hollis being a a tough physical player on the other side too I think it's sustainable those two can be your starters on week one all right you mentioned spells and that was the next question SG Taylor 24 Ball Camp hype or fin going to show out I don't know man like I watched the guy in green stick his nose in to the to the to the fan so to speak and and play in drills on a Thursday on the first week of practice and do the same thing on Saturday I'm thinking here's a guy who could be doing like Sprints in the sideline or riding a bike and he's not he's out there and he's working I was impressed by that and so I asked about it and Jordan Lesley gave a really good answer about it but it's not the first time that we've heard people say good things about spells and his recovery uh they were not sure he was going to be available for a couple of games now he may may start May start the season like on the field not start but like he may be there the first game of the year and when the media is out there which again is two and a half hours out of you know a couple of three-hour practice days so not even one practice right but we've seen him do stuff I don't know what he's been like behind closed doors the rest of it I would imagine pretty similar now the thing is when they go full contact they're going to have to cool him off a little bit because he's not cleared so he may lag a little bit there will he be the third corner I don't know but I think that if he has put himself in this position he's got a chance and that's the most you could ask for right now and he's doing more than you can ask for by being out there and being so involved in drills where he's in limited participation with the green jersey so signs are pointing to a better outcome for him Chestnut says who is this year's Nick Malone on the offensive line can play almost any position along the line and tight end don't know there's another Nick Malone out there once you add the and tight end I don't know about that all right so who can play all five spots on the offensive line Yates right that's not projected to start I'm going to keep limiting you no you're pretty much limited to guards you know now it's like can you play guard or can you play tackle uh I don't the center thing would maybe give Livingston a chance to be versatile because he's done it a little bit um I was trying to think like who's their veteran that was also taking Snaps would it be hubard I I I guess so I know mym is sna before I'm sure mm's good enough where he could play guard or Center but like if if something happened would I mean would it be so there there's Malone serviceable in a number of capacities and I think that that was a lecture they had they don't have right now but also and not against Nick Malone here they don't have to have that lecture anymore they've got a good second guard a good second tackle they don't have to be as um uh creative with how they build a dep chart that way yeah this is part of the reason why in the preseason or even back in the summer excuse me I discussed hey what about this right Tackle Spot do you almost not give it to Xavier Bosley but if it's close like really close do you let Bosley start and that way you have Malone capable of sliding all around although I guess it doesn't matter you just start Malone and if something happens elsewhere Malone slides over there and Bosley slides in at right tackle so um yeah he's a versatile lineman that this team needs and I think every team needs so key that he's there um Cole City year says the last 10 national championships Champions return three of the F four following head coach offensive coordinator defensive coordinator and quarterback who started at least four games among the Big 12 I'm assuming contenders WVU and Oklahoma State return all four why are the Mountaineers and Oklahoma State let's focus on Mount ear not expected to finish higher than seventh right was seventh yeah just haven't done it Mike gundy's done it you know he's he's won the Big 12 he's had double digit win seasons in a string um just haven't done it before here and again that doesn't mean it can happen or won't happen but if you're asking why they're not being considered um you know there's a passes prolog kind of a thing and if you've seen the team do it before you're much more likely to believe or endorse so they can do it again and Oklahoma state has that in its favor and this brings me back to a question that was earlier from dad says do you think this year's football team has the pieces in place to win the Big 12 for me that answers the question right there you know they got the Four Keys here I do think there's a couple things that would concern me um the one just what you mentioned there haven't done it before it's hard to do it for the first time it's hard to have a team full of guys who haven't had a lot of success go in and win those type games um believe it God was that was that bill connley on ESPN posted the stats and it was the big 12 basically half of the games are within a field goal or less or one score or less and so that's a lot of tight games you got to win and that usually takes experience that usually takes guys who've done it before so I think that might be my biggest concern about this year's team that and you know I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna say linebacker I think though what's interesting is West Virginia went through that last year and won a lot of their close games yeah and that's beneficial Houston shouldn't have happened did happen um we also saw them learn from that and defend a hill Mary much differently a much better into of the season season so my point being that they were going through those those rough stretches last year but they were winning and that's how they ended up with nine wins eight in the regular season the bll game wasn't really close but they they got through some of those tricky finishes and close games that are kind of custom the Big 12 and that's promising this year because they've been through that that experience has already happened with the team that's coming back and knows how to handle that um can they be on the right side of all those again but the schedule we'll see that's that's another thing too I think people look at the schedule and go this is pretty difficult um but why not I think do have the pieces to answer the question but pieces had to perform the performance part don't know yet but I think they've answered a lot of the questions as to how it had to look when they got to Spring football when they got to preseason camp when they get to August 31 is the next phase now which again early development working toward that um that's what they want to do yeah I muted myself again how much of a step back this is from Crowtown year does the offense take due to the offensive line repair replacing Nester and Frasier I don't think much um I try to break this down like the thing about Frasier I think Nester is a good player but I think he's more replaceable than Frasier they've got they got tackles we like Malone Bosley's good too they can do that there tackle would be okay um Frasier was just unique in that he could go do things that two offensive linemen had to do um he can go out and handle two defensive lineman on his own they didn't have to give him help if you just go back to what centers normally do if West Virginia big weaknesses that they're just going to be like a lot of other teams with a center that's not bad they just don't have an extraordinary Center who does unusual things that make life easier for the offensive line if they have a center who does ordinary things that makes life ordinary for the offensive line that's fine that's not a drop off and and if you know if he can't go on and take two Defenders by himself Brandon Yates if he doesn't demand double teams up front still five on three five on four the offensive line should be okay you add a tight end in there you should be okay I don't think it's devastating yeah big drop from Fraser to anybody but again if your drop off is from extraordinary to ordinary it's not terrible you can deal with that yeah I'm with you I think by years's end and I I should have pulled this up beforehand but pretty sure Nick Malone was rotating at right tackle with with Doug Nester um that's not to take anything away from Nester but again it goes to show the kind of depth and what West Virginia has coming back so I don't think it's that big of a drop off at least a tackle um going down to the last two minutes but I still love you Doug says predict the order of finish and rushing yards green white Donaldson give me an order white Donaldson green o white green Donaldson okay white all times huh yeah I'm I'm in on it especially seeing or hearing from you that you're seeing White is you know getting the 1A kind of snaps here and tells me that staff believes in that which is fine there nothing against Donaldson on that either um think that covered all the questions that were in the mailbag except for two of them and those two will be covering on the three minute videos on Wednesday and Friday Mike anything else congratulations to those two for making up the three minute video content there reminder again 60% off the VIP membership there pennies a story Big Mac medium coke fries sweet and sour sauce same price basically there too one better than the other leave it up to you last day to sign up take advantage now or else we'll do more three minute videos who knows until then I'm Mike cazza and I'm Chris Anderson we'll talk to you then