WVU @ USF Postmortem -- Usually, Discretion Is The Better Part of Valor

by Dr. Charley West on Oct 31, 2009 12:09 AM EDT in Mountaineer Football

Shakespeare may have said it, but even he would have shook his head at some of the calls tonight. I certainly don't want to pile on, because ultimately I want to believe that this staff can get things done, but tonight was simply not a good night.

There were mistakes, miscues, and every other adjective for "fuck up" on both sides of the ball tonight. Again, in one of the understatements of the year, it wasn't a good night.

I wouldn't have posted anything, because frankly, I would like to sleep on this horrific loss. But still, the last thread was getting too bloated, so you have my reserved, conservative thoughts. Truthfully, I want to throw many large objects, but I will refrain.

Comment away.............

This is how I feel, though a little taller.

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FML

One remote broken, one scared dog and a bottle of soco later I want to wait by the puskar center for the team to get back so I can ask mullen and JB if he forgot about noel devine. Not enough touches.

Stew lost the game by showing no guts, punting twice inside our 40. Any kickers in this stellar recruiting class?

This was an embarassing game by everyone except our punter.
Fuck

Leave no doubt tonigt! Leave no doubt tonight! No doubt! They shouldn't of played the Old Gold'n Blue.

by 5th Year Senior on Oct 31, 2009 12:24 AM EDT via mobile reply actions

Thanks for the CK Award, Charley

You’re the best…around.

by bicklefischerkane on Oct 31, 2009 12:29 AM EDT reply actions

I don't know where to begin

We had a chance to make a statement tonight. Instead we looked like we forgot our jock straps in Morgantown. We literally didn’t do anything right tonight. JB made stupid decisions. We have no WRs who can get open. Our pass defense sucked yet again. We made BJ look like TIm Tebow even though he is fucking terrible. Where was the pressure on the QB? Can we please let Scooter back on the team? Did our stupid fucking kicker really kick the ball out of fucking bounds and let them get the ball on the 40? I had hope after our first drive and then after the start of the second half….but other than that…we were total junk tonight. I was hoping that the few big pass plays and big run plays would eventually catch up with them but we couldn’t do anything right tonight. Terrible adjustments, terrible play calling, terrible effort. I fucking hate USF and that retarded looking visor-wearing “coach” called Jim. We are now 2-3 against those fools.

My prediction the rest of the year? Pain. Beat Loserville, miraculously split Pitty and Cincanasty and split RU and whatever lame bowl we go to.

by WVU-Atlanta on Oct 31, 2009 12:33 AM EDT reply actions

15 People who suck

1. Keith Tandy
2. Bill Stewart
3. Jarrett Brown
4. Donnie “Osmond” Barclay
5. Selvish “massive potential” Capers
6. Keith Tandy
7. Jeff Mullen
8. Keith Tandy
9. The entire defense
10. Keith Tandy
11. The offensive line
12. Pat “how do you tackle?” Lazear
13. Keith Tandy
14. Anyone responsible for outside containment
15 Keith Tandy

by Beamer'sGoiter on Oct 31, 2009 12:38 AM EDT reply actions

LMFAO

Goiter – well put. I forgot to mention all the missed tackles, Keith Tandy, our offensive line, our defensive line…..

GOD DAMN IT I am so fucking pissed right now. This is a tough loss. We suck so bad! USF called us out- " Yeah…um…you guys go ahead and pass all you want…nothing has changed…you still can’t pass….your QB still sux…..we are still going to shut down your running game…."

by WVU-Atlanta on Oct 31, 2009 12:41 AM EDT reply actions

P.S. Can we please retire the sweater vest now!?!?!?!

One last thought and then I am done for the night…..Billy Stewart better kick some fucking asses this week in practice. I know its only our first conference loss but it doesn’t get any easier. I’ll be at the Cincy game and I better not leave there disappointed or I will kill some people in Morgantown.

by WVU-Atlanta on Oct 31, 2009 12:43 AM EDT reply actions

I don't believe Bill Stewart knows how to kick ass...

Somewhere in the 2nd quarter after another series of awful decision-making from Jarrett Brown, JB when to the sidelines and BS gave him a nice pat on the back. What the fuck? How bout a kick in the ass? Bill Stewart doesn’t know how to be the mean coach unless the players fuck up off the field….

by RichRN on Oct 31, 2009 4:36 AM EDT up reply actions

IT WAS ONLY

a matter of time till we imploded.

God Bless America
WVUD

by WVUD on Oct 31, 2009 7:06 AM EDT reply actions

I've slept on it

This one was painful. And I’m now preparing myself to hear the entire country call for Stew’s and JB’s heads. But there were some things I saw last night on a positive note.

JB protected the football—he tucked it away when he needed to. And he had some good runs for us. He just is not a quarterback we can rely on to throw the ball down the middle of the field. His vision is not good enough nor is his decision making. Geno is definitely the future of WVU football, but from what I saw, JB did pretty much what a lot of us had been asking him to do.

I can’t put any blame on Stew for this one though. He didn’t play risky football. He played smart football. He only made on mistake—leaving Tandy in the game (or allowing him to have a position on the team in the first place). After we punted and pinned USF down inside the 3, we stopped them the very next play for a safety (almost a TD). The way our offense was playing, why wouldn’t you punt in the situations we were in considering the results it had yielded?

We got beat last night simply on 2 plays—both blown coverage by Tandy (who looked like a top spinning in a circle trying to figure out what a football looked like). Take those 2 plays away, we win this football game. If USF had never discovered Tandy was a worthless DB, we would have won this game.

Mistakes were kept to a minimum this game—huge improvement over what we had been seeing. Yes, we did make mistakes. They’re going to happen every game. We can’t expect perfection. We win as a team, we lose as a team, but I have to put a lot of blame here on Tandy. If you want to be a DB in D I-A football, you better know how to play the game. I like to watch MMA. But I don’t know how to do any of it. So I don’t get in the fucking octagon!!!! Get my point?

by wvdiehard on Oct 31, 2009 8:45 AM EDT reply actions

true, but

our O-line looked abyssmal, so if you took the two Tandy passes away, I still don’t see our offense doing any better.

by phucoffaholic on Nov 2, 2009 8:04 PM EST up reply actions

Some of the reactions on here are a little ridiculous

and make me wonder whether you guys have been watching this football team this season. If anyone’s been paying attention to our games none of what we witnessed should come as a shock to anyone.

- The oline has been bad all year, only prior to this game (save for Auburn) we’ve been able to overcome it.

- The defense has been questionable against the pass, even downright atrocious at times. Keith Tandy did nothing different last night then he’s been doing all season. I see people piling on Keith, but the truth is that he might be the best we have right now. Our recruiting has been so offensively focused for the better part of a decade that we’re paying for the sins of our former scheme.

-The offense has been misfiring, dropping balls, turning it over, and only showing flashes of execution while generally tripping over its own feet.

- The coaching was fairly decent last night. On defense we could’ve put a spy on Daniels, but that would cause us to lean on our DBs even more which as we know won’t work too well. On offense its fairly difficult to move the ball when your line can’t open any holes or hold off the rush. Sure there were some bad calls last night. Not going for the 1st down those two or so times were questionable, but the real issue is that our players are either lacking in talent or common sense. Even Brown still carries the football like a loaf of bread.

I see alot of angry people making knee jerk comments in these threads. Makes me question how much some of you really understand football and enjoy the game for what it is, vs using it as something to talk trash to others about.

by Q-tip Motha on Oct 31, 2009 10:01 AM EDT reply actions

So being bad all the time is acceptable?

Yeah we all knew this team had flaws. They were at least able to scrape out a win previously, save the Auburn self destruction.

We’ve been shouting about Tandy all season, saying he’s going to cost us. We were right. Yet he stays in. At least Pat Miller can get some experience and improve. Tandy is a lost cause.

Everyone says Mullen is some great QB coach, yet JB just gets worse and worse with his mechanics and fundamentals. We hardly ever use his legs to our advantage by rolling him out with a blocker/receiver option in front of him. We haven’t used play action all damn season.

There is no sign that this is in any way a well coached team. We know we have talent as good as anyone in this conference. Yet we continue to play sloppy and uninspired week after week.

by Beamer'sGoiter on Oct 31, 2009 10:34 AM EDT reply actions

“So being bad all the time is acceptable?”

Not at all, but is it expected midway through the season…yes.

I’m not sure about Mullen as a QB coach, but his play calling has been solid. At times yes I don’t care for his decisions (like running JB on a 3rd and long last night against USF’s fast front 4), but I didn’t care for Rich/Magee’s playcalling at times in the past either.

We’ve rolled JB a fair amount this season and taken advantage of play action more than you’re giving our coaches credit for.

I’m not so sure about our talent. I think we were a system offense that required a great deal of our recruiting to be focused on providing for that side of the ball. Now we’re transitioning to being more of a balanced team, but are experiencing some personnel hiccups because of it.

by Q-tip Motha on Oct 31, 2009 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions

It's not playcalling

it’s philosophy. We don’t have an identity and there is absolutely nothing that we do extremely well. We need to be capable in all aspects, but we took away our strength.

A “system offense”? Every offense is a system. Good coaching will play to your players’ strengths. Not try to fit square pegs in round holes over and over. I don’t care about a “fair amount”, we have a fast QB, but we don’t force the defense to honor that. Instead we keep him in the pocket way too much which he is obviously not comfortable doing. He panics as soon as the pocket starts to form.

If our WRs aren’t good enough, then why do we try to pass so much?

It’s always going to be wait until next year with this offense, because it has no purpose. We always “take what the defense gives us”. Sometimes you have to impose your will upon a defense by doing what you’re good at. Good offenses run against good run defenses and pass against good pass defenses. Mullen calls some good plays from time to time, but he lacks a direction and purpose. He’s all over the map, and it shows in the players. It doesn’t matter if they know what’s coming if they can’t stop it anyway.

by Beamer'sGoiter on Oct 31, 2009 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions

It all starts up front

I wonder about our offensive line’s strength, conditioning and talent. Their play last night was atrocious. Everyone agrees that Devine needed more touches, but if we can’t keep the defense from blowing up the play in the backfield, we’re going to see exactly what we saw last night. I only saw one play where I thought he might have a chance to break a long run, but a missed block by the wideout and a great tackle stopped that one.

Sanders was non-existent in the game plan last night and although JB has a great arm, he rarely had time to find anyone open for more than a five yard catch down field (assuming our wide receivers could have caught it). But it all starts with front line play and last night they got handled.

I agree with Q-tip. Our defense has played like this all year. The type of defense we play puts immense pressure on the corners and safeties to cover and we just do not seem to have the talent this year. Tandy was bad, but he must be the best we have.

I still get nervous on every kickoff and although they are better than early on, kickoffs are still a major concern because we give the opponents such good starting field position. Again, we lack talent to kick it deep.

Punting and field goal kicking remain as a few bright spots

Aside from the calls mentioned above, I don’t think play calling was that bad considering what they were doing to us up front. The one complaint I have is that I sensed a lack of intensity or effort or whatever intangible you want to call it from the players last night and I do believe that flows from the coaching staff. For whatever reason it wasn’t there last night. That needs to change or we will see more embarrassing loses this year.

by dawg'eer8488 on Oct 31, 2009 10:36 AM EDT reply actions

Good point on the lack of intensity. I’ll further that by saying that we aren’t as physical as we used to be.

That in and of itself may be the biggest change from our defense of 2005. We had Addai and Lorello who were decent in coverage, but who also knew how to bring the hammer.

Perhaps our biggest loss in the coaching change was Barwis. Though he might have been a lunatic who bent the rules, his conditioning regimen seemed to produce players who were well prepared physically and mentally for most of our games.

by Q-tip Motha on Oct 31, 2009 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Scary thought

The inability for our coaching staff to make adjustments thru out the game, & not being able to put our players in the best possible situations that fit there talents.
Devine is your best offensive player, & Sanders is not far behind, yet Mullen can’t get creative enought o get them the ball in open space or bubble screen, with the Oline not blocking for Devine, If Geno Smith were out there, making the mistakes that JB has made, chalk it up to being a freshmen & inexperienced, but JB, has experience, & shouldn’t be making the mistakes he’s making, he’s a 5th yr SR… Stu is loyalty to a fault, IF PITT wins the Big East, I"m gonna puke my brains out,

by cmypath78 on Oct 31, 2009 11:35 AM EDT reply actions

How would you propose that they adjust?

If you attempt to get Tandy some help you put LBs in coverage (not good) or put Hogan on an island. Either way you limit what you can do to get to get pressure on or contain their QB.

If you focus on getting pressure on Daniels you chance having Tandy and Hogan on an island which as we know is a really bad idea.

On offense you can’t run the ball behind a line that has struggled to get a push all year without using misdirection, counters, or attempting to spread the ball out. Even then our speed is negated by the speed of USF’s athletic front four.

Likewise your QB’s speed is negated by that front four, and he can’t focus to get the ball down field because they’re breathing down his neck on every play.

The coaching didn’t lose this game for us, our offensive line and defensive secondary did. If you think you’ll feel bad should Pitt win the conference, you should put yourself in the shoes of us who live in the Burgh. Its complete horseshit to hear smack from “fans” of a program who refuse to even pay for season tickets that are cheaper than $100 and generally won’t drive 2 miles to watch “their” team play.

by Q-tip Motha on Oct 31, 2009 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Very smart and dedicated fans

West Virginia has by far the most passionate fans in the Big East. This thread is all the proof you need.

I was not so surprised by the outcome, but definitely surprised that Devine didn’t have a huge homecoming game. Thought USF might win a shootout in the high thirties or forties. Once USF’s defense established control after the first successful WVU drive, the game was pretty much over.

btw, BJ Daniels (redshirt freshman) is very real..he will prove to be much better than Grothe and not so dissimilar to the great Pat White.

by max1mark on Oct 31, 2009 5:05 PM EDT up reply actions