welcome back welcome in this is countryroads confidential at ears sports.com it's a Paramount podcast I'm Mike cazza that is Chris Anderson Saturday night in Morgantown West Virginia still perfect against FCS opponents this one um I guess that's why we're here Chris deceiving 49-4 win you figure a lot of offense seven touchdowns on nine possessions really only stopped once on a punt was a fumble that they were on their way to score in there and yet a lot of people will talk about the other side of the ball for negative reasons wherein the game really does swing when that same side of the ball keeps Albany out of the end zone and the score remains 2814 and West Virginia rolls the rest of the way in the second half uh just another day at the office for West Virginia's defense I guess and um probably all and all this is but also isn't what you sign up for when you play an FCS team huh yeah I mean it it seemed to switch just like that it was 21 nothing West Virginia's offense didn't seem to have any issues at all moving up and down the field first drive was a little more methodical which is fine I mean if you want to it wasn't as explosive but 21 nothing they're stopping them they're moving and then they get stopped and then they give up a score and then they fumble and then they give up another score and all of a sudden it's you're looking oh wait it's 2114 with fewer than two minutes to go in the first half and Albany gets the ball to start the second half yikes um so I think that was a big touchdown by West Virginia right before the half um and like you said then getting a goal line stand after that and then kind of going from there and just putting it away so good and bad to take from this again the first stat that stands out to me is all those passing darts that West Virginia gave up the most by an FCS opponent against West Virginia in school history um I believe there's only been twice where nfcs opponent had gone over 250 yards pising and one of those was 2015 Liberty when Flames were I think two years they' already announced that they were moving up to FBS so they were FCS in name only basically and they got 280 yards tonight 306 of the great GES um and that was that was the talk of the post game right with with the coaches with Neil Brown I heard Jordan Leslie hop on for couple minutes with the postgame radio he talked about it too let's stop there for a second what the hell is that we don't get to talk to the coordinator after a game but the he does the radio or yeah it was the postgame radio with kedi and Wallace and it just we're going into the locker room for just quick minute and there's Jordan Leslie and that that's where I guess we can get into this too all of a sudden they're like oh yeah how'd you get stitched up and I'm sitting here like stitched up what what and they relayed the story and I kind like yeah I remember seeing some Stafford getting laid out there in the second quarter and that person was Jordan Leslie and uh got stitched up had to said he busted his eye socket open like around his eye socket I haven't seen it it wasn't visual was radio um said he had to get stitches at halftime was bleeding a lot so had to had to hand off the play calling duties on defense for the remainder of the first half um quite a lot going on there that I don't think I was aware of as it was happening yeah I saw that happen I knew somebody got hit and I I had my binoculars and I was peing that just the scenes you could tell there was some concern I was pretty sure it was him um I I didn't I just figured like like leg or hip or knee or something like that and he was up walking around so I didn't think much of it but like I just I just kind of like jokingly asked in the press conference I was like can we get an update on Jordan Leslie like injury report because we got a pretty significant injury report about somebody else we can get into and like Neil wasn't like in a cheery mood about that and it turns out like it was pretty serious and and Shawn Martin said he thought that Leslie was gonna have to go to the hospital at halftime because it looked that bad so uh yeah Jordan I'm sorry I didn't know it was that big of it I didn't know it was so serious I just saw it get rolled up and I figured like knee ankle or whatever it' be like a funny question at the end of a press conference but everything was pretty serious there too and you know um I mean good to hear that he can make the radio appearance after the game that's good um but yeah I guess he'll be on the sideline in practice and then probably have a lot to work on here um I don't I don't know where to begin on this Chris I just this again doesn't feel like an FCS Game This was um you know I think a few probably fewer than 60 plays they get some superlatives out of it good yardage for Garrett green the two running backs who 100 yards but like man this is when you want to have like like Jaylen Anderson get you 80 yards and N Mario through two touchdown patches get a lot of guys second third quarter action Chris people are talking about man how much will Ryder Burton play not even close because this game was close for a while too this this just feels weird and I don't know that it has anything to do with last week or next week or just West Virginia in general in 24 we'll tell sometime soon about this which kind of leads me to while we're heing the extension of the conversation we had on Thursday which was FCS game and you usually have all these exploits offensive and defensive players that you haven't heard of players you expected to see something out of them you got it and you have takeaways what can you expect from here on out what conclusions can you draw Chris I'm drawing conclusions in pencil on this one just because I'm not sure who or what I learned about here in a negative or positive way that I would project going forward um maybe on offense maybe on defense just seems like a lot of TBD out of this one right now yeah I mean the thing that we did on Thursday was we went back and looked at the previous FCS games and the things that stood out from those games and those games alone that maybe were not true or were only kind of true beforehand um I got a couple here and again I think it'll be a fun exercise for us to kind of debate discuss whether we think any of these things are they can be again replicated if they can last uh for you know FBS opponents because I wrote down I got four I I got three and then three and a half like yes here so you have a couple that you uh have a couple yeah Dole down okay you want to go first you want me to go first um I just want to start with like the cat in the bag here secondary's got to get fixed yeah I know that's not that's not dramatic it's not why people tuned in right like they know the problem they want the the resolution I don't have it just has to be better than that which that's either Personnel or play calls and it might be like in front of the defensive backfield too that's different had to find better ways to pressure the passer and not give a quarterback so much time and comfort they played the ball in the air extremely poorly tonight and those are players that they count on to be good it wasn't like they had their second and third string in it it does read like from Jordan Leslie's postgame explanation to the radio they played very simple and this is similar to last year Chris and they changed some things in between Penn State and pit and didn't really tell anybody or didn't show it because they were so bad in that first game Chas chasing people and playing off the ball maybe something of that was a foot this time they're working in practice in between game one and game two four week three and Beyond and yeah if you play cover three and you're soft by that you can split the middle and hit the rails and things like that and a lot of Alban stuff was just posting in the middle and getting open and just throw between the two or three layers that's fine but there were some plays up the sideline where the ball's in the air and like someone's got to do something and they're going to see better receivers soon like ke Keon mfield is a good player who had two touchdowns today and gave Cincinnati in trouble they're going to see good receivers throughout the Big 12 and if they play like that they're not going to win games they're not so yeah they'll be more complex they'll probably have different coverages and maybe they'll be better maybe they won't Chris maybe they can't handle different coverages and more complex defensive calls and maybe with the ball's in the air or you're chasing a guy in a route and you're just not good enough at it it can't continue like this because it's not going to be a good outcome for anybody involved again bold I know but it feel like it does have to stated no top on my list too and I think it obviously has to be discussed it's everything being asked about it's everything the coaches are talking about and you look at it and I don't know you want to go ahead and make a ruling on this right now like because I wrote down getting rid of a safeties coach and not replacing him might not have been a great idea um was my big Takeaway on that I don't know if that has anything to do with you know the back end of that defense being ready to handle you know the fundamentals I mean Jordan Leslie just hammered fundamentals fundamentals fundamentals over and over and over again in his brief talk with the radio um is this something that can truly get better because I I I understand what Jordan Leslie said about how hey we're not going to show you the changes we made because we're playing a team that we think we're so much better than that we don't need to and they said that last year and then they were so much better against pit in and like genius yep not genius but yeah that makes sense you hold it off you did it against pit it worked in hindsight pit was terrible their quarterback was terrible their offense was terrible so did they change that much did they improve that much statistically a little bit not much a little bit can they improve this year I don't know I think this is going to be a year long problem I'm I think this is one of the things that shows up in this FCS in the annual FCS game that ends up being real and lasts all year long yeah I'm I'm watching Aubrey Burks I just I don't H I don't want to get I don't want to get instant in the Rodney Gallagher trap but I don't know what's good for the defense when you put him on the field and you take Aubrey burgs off the field I don't know how that makes your 11 better like I'd have to sit down and look at that and I saw that a couple times tonight and I thought that's weird because that's definitely one of your best 11 guys and the idea was when he's not playing spear he's going to go back to cat and you're you're in between a cat right now Jim Joseph seems certainly like a better player than taru I get that is he better than Burks I don't know and is Burks like a guy that you can have off the field could he play safety can he play nickel can he cover people don't know I'm not sure he's playing corner and making any of the plays the guys didn't play tonight but there is certainly some confusion in in like one of the touchdowns the the long one uh where Wilson and Joseph took an underneath route and they left I believe it was Hollis one on one and he's supposed to have safety help and he realized the ball's in the air and the corner goes oh no there's no one B there not that he releases him to him but he knows he has a safety so you know the inside release is gone that's probably not going to happen with Burks back there he's better so I wonder if he's a solution somehow or another either he can still play spear but he could also move back to the defensive uh deep end at some point or is he just there all the time now and you make that spear a corner um maybe it is Joseph because he's played like that before he's played the nickel before but like the some of your parts how do you get the best of out there I I wonder how he factors into it and that that's something I think about tonight that maybe two three weeks from now we're like yeah you remember what Mike's said to the game uh idiot or he was right one or the other probably know in between I like that you brought up that play I think that's the exact play where I wrote down the hey maybe might need a safeties coach because I feel like the issue I know they're pointing out fundamentals and they're right like they're doing the defensive backs as a whole safeties Corners are doing a poor job of playing playing the ball in the air whether it's not finding the ball whether it's mistiming jumps whatever it's all of the above and it's a lot of different players but it also sure seems like these opposing teams Ben State okay yeah they're talented they got a a great offensive coordinator and Albany like they're scheming their way or I don't even know if it's scheming their way but they're ending up with a lot of one-on-one situations deep and I feel like that's abnormal like that's not normal to have that many one-on-one situations deep against West Virginia's defense and I think that's that's a bad sign and I'm glad I think that was the exact play where I wrote that down like oh might need a safety coach because I think there should be a safety back there all right you ready for my my pick TJ Jackson is a top two defensive lineman on this team at worst yeah let's get into this right now do you start him now I I think have to obviously with Edward V sterin out right is that what in his spot is that what you're talking about I mean you put him at end and Martin at tackle I mean looks like jackon could play Anywhere But when you do that do you lose your best sub in the defensive line so now like your first line is going to be weaker without thein and all due respect to TJ Jackson but when you put him up there probably not going be the same he's just not suited for that position he doesn't bring you the same stuff that that bester does there and then you make you make your second line which isn't especially strong or deep right now weak or two I don't know about that I wonder if they don't put a redwood there um we'll see it's a great question right now I don't know but like he's who's better than him up front Chris I don't know anybody is right now top two yeah top one maybe feel like he's bringing a lot of energy he certainly did early in the game technical sack tackled for loss and again it was ingame with some you know ingame midgame adjustments against an FCS opponent and they did go with redwood um you know to start the second half and so I don't know if that's a sign of what's to come or if they might switch over to Jackson or like you said slide Martin over put Jackson in Martin's spot we'll see um is this a snake draft do I get to go twice you want to sure is Red Zone success real I think they have good ideas down there I do okay I just I watched it in a bunch and I thought that was that was good this is good they should have had probably more success last week than they did if they just get the fourth and one then that drive continues there I know that they were ofer on a couple of those Red Zone drives that count but like they're counting the field goal snap as a Red Zone drive as a Red Zone like that's you only got like one snap in the Red Zone that's kind of misleading there I'm not being Neil Brown and couching all the statistics but that is true like two of those Red Zone possessions they got one snap in the red zone They had to kick field goals from like I for at 34 36 yards so um I I think that they have good ideas and it's going to have to work better but it looked better tonight too they had good stuff they went to formations they used Personnel they had their skyscrapers out there they had their tight ends out there they ran the ball inside I think they have good stuff there so is it real I think we're going to look back and say you know what they were better in the Red Zone this year and not the five or five of five touchdowns doesn't have a lot to do with that I think he'd be encouraged by what you saw tonight I think that was probably the most most important thing again seven touchdown drives they got in the Red Zone on five of them that's pretty good and that's what they do they they possess the ball like they are explosive at times but they generally move the ball inside the 20 they had a ton of Red Zone possessions last year yeah and that that's what I was getting at because like last year I remember when I was doing the pregame or preseason stuff like hey they actually like their rate their touchdown rate was below average 72nd in the country but it was just a numbers game they got into the Red Zone like you said more often than other teams and so we just kind of you score more you get there more you score more period um but 60% I'm wondering you know five for five five touchdowns that's an FCS opponent you should be doing stuff like that against an FCS opponent but with you I I think this one might be true I do think they might be better in the red zone for reasons you said it looks better even last week against Penn State um a couple of those were like the plays that we talked about right after the game where he threw to Cole Taylor gar green threw to Cole Taylor when you could see I believe it was tray and Ray that was open and you called it out that's the play they've Run 100 times in practice yeah he should know and it was schemed up properly play was there so I'm with you between these two things I think this might be replicable yeah sure repeatable replicable replicable moving forward um got anything else I'm gonna I'm gonna say in the end of the season we're going to agree that this is their best group of linebackers um and then that it's probably why they're going to be good against the run if they're good against the run so I'm leaving myself a lot of wiggle room there I just I'm not sure the defensive line is engineered especially that the now for at least a couple weeks it sounds like for them to be great against the Run by having a three-man wall up front I do think that Trotter hero cutter lean those guys can be plus run Defenders and there were times tonight where tyon Bradley looked like he was going to be a I was like man if that guy stayed in the FCS he'd be an All-American and probably like a top three round draft pit because he was just running through and running around Aly guys um I just think that there's something there with those guys and the way they can they can put together lineups so they can be good against the run so um you know yeah this will be their best grer linebackers I think even right now that's hard to dispute absent results do think that if this defense doesn't completely crater and every wheel falls off over the next 10 games that that it has a chance to be like a plus run defense and what's that mean I don't know I'm not saying top 10 of the country but like top 10% maybe um could they could they find a way to wa that would be top 10 wouldn't it like top 13 um like top 30 let's say I think there's a chance they could be good against the Ron Grant that might be because everybody's passing the ball against them because the secondary is so I understand that too still counts but I think that the the linebackers would have a way to you know fill gaps and and get stops on their own and not have to give them help they could help the secondary keeping a safety back or or not having to cheat so much down to to stop the run I'm actually G to amend this last one I have on the Fly here because my question was going to be or observation and see if it was going to continue was then Garrett green pass like for real pass all over the field because he had statistically a great night a 17 of 23 for 236 three touchdowns zero interceptions pass a rating of 203 um highest since last year's FCS game against duaine 33 four touchdowns on 10 completions um still felt like he missed a couple which then got me thinking wait are the wide receivers real especially after Neil Brown's comments in the post game where he said and I'm paraphrasing here that the receivers are getting open and they beat man coverage and they beat man coverage they won their one-on-one battles with Penn State again paraphrasing Neil Brown in the 17 of 23 for Garett green they were wide open receivers were open all day again the FCS opponent understand that and out of those six incompletions I would say like three or four of them I remember thinking o green missed that one like that was there the receiver had gotten open so I want to amend mine to are the receivers real do we feel like maybe they are a group that can beat opposing teams one-on-one and make things easier for green yeah I have more is more written down so so what I mean here is um there's this Obsession as to who is the lead running back is it is it white is it Donaldson I get that that's fun it does not matter to either one of them never mind their teammates and then who is their Alpha receiver I don't even know who's in the conversation Chris maybe it's not maybe they don't have a clear-cut one they have a nice compliment and maybe they have um a tight end who is probably better suited to not be blocking people on the line his touchdown today came as the outside tight end in a bunch where he got a free release and just ran through and around some people and then I'm thinking here Clement had four catches Ray had three Gallagher had three Fox had three uh actually did Fox even have three maybe not my point is that it was spread around listen this is not a Kevin White offense this is not um you know a lead back offense this is not an offense that's going to find and Hammer a mismatch like a tight end in the slot or uh an X who just keeps running by the corner so the challenge here and this will be maybe the legacy of the offense and the coaching staff can they make more out of more can they spread around can they get two running backs 12 to 15 carries maybe can they get six or seven receivers two or three touches can they throw touchdowns at three different people Chris seven people scored seven touchdowns tonight I don't know if they'll do that or not but I think the best approach to this offense is to spread it around and not lean on somebody not sure that they have that Dynamic playmaker who can be durable and do this there are moments where white and Donaldson the great running the ball you stretch them out like that over three and four quarters you probably shouldn't and they don't have a guy who's going to just consistently move the chain as a receiver so why even try that can they make it work and then I bring this up because like what was most impressive and most important was that 99 yard 14 playay drive and they did a little bit of everything Chris like when they ran the ball they hammered inside with Donaldson and they ran outside Zone with white um they had some draws for green they went Tempo because they had Albany rolling a little bit backwards and they went to different receivers they did a little bit of everything they kind of got in their bag right there there so never mind the Personnel Chris they did more ideas more plays more formations they messed with Tempo um they did different types of runs and different types of passes they move the pocket Chris more is more and I think this is something where if this offense does have a good a good thing going in a couple of weeks a couple of months is because they lean into this there you know this idea that you shouldn't be a team that tries to be good at eight or nine things when you only have business being good at three or four maybe that's not quite true maybe West Advantage is the fact that it has the potential to be good at six or seven not very good six or seven different things as opposed to three or four and you can kind of raise that bar I just think that more is more which sounds obvious but I think they can do more by just being versatile and and spread out and just Distributing the ball in different ways to different parts of the field with different people in different manners um when they got going tonight that's that's kind of what I realized it wasn't like Penn State where you're thinking well they're really trying to do something here and then the criticism at the end of the game was like what are they doing they just they were very simple very vanilla it seemed and we found out why later didn't see that tonight and I don't if that was a coincidence or if that was an extension of their being handcuffed last game or if this is something they takeen today and go you know what let's just throw the paint all over the canvas and we're going to move it around and we're going to get as many people involved as much fingering on the uh easel here as we can and and make this this weird looking picture that only they can appreciate and no one else can really predict all right two weeks one win one loss I would say 95% of neutral observers assumed that would be the case for West Virginia after two weeks but I think it's also safe to assume that maybe not in the manner they expected how much has your opinion changed about this team after two weeks just concerned about what happened offensively in the first game and then defensively in the second game that's just two things I can't get by I didn't think their defense is terrible in the first game um I don't think it was quite as close as maybe some of the the attempted aquid tried to make it to be but I didn't think it was terrible in the first game not gonna say that tonight and it's just concerning because Albany went to certain things this is a team that has one of the best FCS running backs and does not have one of the best FCS quarterbacks or receiving games and just kind of said you know what screw it spread them out we're going to run past play and we're going to get one-on ones we're going to get in the space and they did that that concerns me um because you're going to find better offenses better offensive coordinators better quarterbacks up and down the board and then offensively last game I just don't like the fact that everything got unplugged because the quarterback got The Yips on the snaps early in the game that's that's not great I don't think like there was no listen that's going to happen but they went away from it really fast and they never had anything else baked into their game plan to supplement for what they lost and by the time they got it back it was too late like also when it got to be 20 to6 it felt like that game was over um that was to game just like from the offense you saw tonight how can a 14-point deficit be insurmountable but I think when you went to halftime that game you're thinking well that's probably it because the offense had no punch so probably pretty even Chris like just not impressed by both sides in both games which you figure you probably feel better about that after an FCS game or you wouldn't feel so defeated after you know playing at home in an opener that's kind of where you're at right now though yeah I'm with you I think I'm a little lower on the team than maybe I was two weeks ago for the exact reasons you said like I just think the secondary was already a concern of mine in the preseason and now it's alarmingly bad I don't know how much can change we said it before this game even started we said it earlier how much is going to change from this game from an FCS game to make it better there really was no way to make it anybody feel better about the team because it was a you beat you beat the heck out of Albany you're supposed to done and done end the story move on but it could get worse and I think it got worse tonight because of the secondary thing because of a record setting in a bad way performance by the secondary against an FCS opponent so um a little little more concerned about this team after two weeks than maybe I was in the preseason but for similar reasons I I'm with you on the man this is the whole offense is just off because green got too excited like again you know Neil Brown talked about it again tonight after the Albany game just like he just got too too revved up for that game and that that was the end of the explanation more or less and it's like man can't be that easily off track like you were talking about there I would AC said the same question at pit Chris like if people are looking at pit and like oh haha pit bottom dweller of the ACC they see they have a passing game they a quarterback running back over 130 in both games um they came back from 27 to six today at Cincinnati so again that's not World beaters but not Albany either I think people are going to be a little bit surprised maybe um a tune to a different pit than they expected once they roll up their sleeves and get to figure out who they are and what they've been the first two weeks of the season because they um they've answered some questions I think in the first two games not emphatically but the things you didn't know about them looks like they've probably um Coss some things out her check some box that people wanted to see or wanted to know about with them which we'll know more soon right imagine we will do let me ask you this I'm trying to also listen here on the side to this one last thing one last thing I want to ask you because it was it was the question you ended the press conference with this evening asking if Jordan Leslie was all right and during that Neil Brown says you know yeah he got busted open stitches had to give up the play calling went back and checked the moment that he went out West Virginia was up 21 to nothing he went out had to give up play calling immediately they gave up a touchdown gave up a touchdown on the very next drive and then he comes back in the second half and the Albany doesn't score again so the whole time that Jordan Leslie is calling the defense West Virginia pitches a shut out now I'm not saying it was perfect not by any means but does that change change your perception of what happened tonight at all no okay I don't know if it really does for me either like maybe that tiny teeny bit but yeah like I said different those defensive plays look different when they blitzing or they playing like cover zero like it wasn't out of character I imagine that shadon brown was just like man let me tread water and not mess this up I'm I'm pretty sure he didn't say you know what Screwed Les I don't like what he's doing I'm going to do something different that'd be my guess yeah um I just it's a good observation I think that'll be something that people I'm sure that nobody will go overboard with that anecdote of yours um not anecdote of mine that Neil Brown who said Neil Brown said he had to give up play calling not me so but yeah I'm with you you're right he didn't just teed all the play calls and completely go something different like it was a vanilla night all along it was a vanilla KN during those two drives it was Vanilla KN the rest of the drives so you buy that yeah I do I mean okay for the most part I I figured that was the explanation that was going to come out of this like oh we were just gonna be very vanilla but like Chris like what happens if like Gavin Bartholomew gets like a you know a tunnel screen or a tight end screen to the outside and just rolls up Jordan leslee on Saturday you got to have a plan B well time to turn to pit week Mike are you ready yeah I'm gonna leave now I think I hate that trip traffic's going to be bad they've already they've already told us like traffic's bad because of the Pirates game and the construction so leave a little earlier than expected so I'm like Sunday maybe we'll see yeah should be fun 3:30 are we gonna are we gonna put up a Q&A for the for the pit game or for Monday morning yeah it's either that or a hot board I'm not doing the hot board what no not after a win right not after a win just a quick heads up for those that are going to listen and going to watch see this thing right over my right shoulder let me here one of these we're g to be doing one of those on a giveaway with starting with Monday's podcast so be sure to tune in listen if you're if you're watching it's right here you're listening go to YouTube and watch it um we're going to be giving one of those away on Monday morning from the podcast if you're listening it's a check for $500 from Chris yeah I gotta be careful about that just an open hey whatever's right here somebody's gonna green screen something crazy right here and we're gonna be in trouble get a call from CBS about that one plenty coming up the site Chris will have his power rankings he'll have the uh I plays to change the game unfortunately week one it wasn't worth doing because it never got above 20% I don't think and then today I don't think it ever got below 10 so yeah and it definitely swung back in West Virginia's favor on the goal line stand I'll have three things I think we'll have some snap counts and then see what else we can dig out of the post game here not a lot to say from the locker room in the Mountaineers a lot to talk about online on the boardsports dcom we will catch you there until then I'm Mike Caza and I'm Chris Anderson we will talk to you then