THE SHOTGUN THROWDOWN: West Virginia tasked with preparing for a Terrapin team that’s breaking in three new coordinators

Welcome, By-Godders, to The Shotgun Throwdown, WVU’s best place for sports links, information, sophomoric humor, and daily distractions.

We’re extremely light on news on the West Virginia sports front today, so let’s just get into it.

PREPARING FOR THE UNKNOWN

How does one prepare to face a team that’s breaking in three new coordinators and only played in a handful of games last season? That’s the challenge that Neal Brown and the Mountaineer coaching staff have been tasked with as they prepare to face Maryland on Saturday. While the Terps are entering year three under Mike Locksley, they’re breaking in an all new cast of coordinators with Dan Enos (offensive coordinator), Brian Stewart (defensive coordinator) and Ron Zook (special teams). Neal Brown touched on the challenge in his regular weekly press conference yesterday.

“They have one of the highest return rates percentage wise on offense and defense, but there’s not a whole lot to go on...We’re guessing at best what they’re going to do defensively. How they played last year and what he’s done in the past when he’s called it, it’s just a guess. We don’t have 100 percent knowledge in what they’re going to do. So we have to focus on our players and schemes that we have the most confidence in and that we’ve had the most success in, and that’s what we’ll use going into the first contest.”

WEST VIRGINIA ROUNDUP

• Yesterday was the deadline for NFL teams to finalize their 53-man roster, and several former West Virginia Mountaineers were among those that received unfortunate news from their team. Most notable among the releases was the now former Carolina Panthers backup quarterback Will Grier and Las Vegas Raiders safety Karl Joseph. While being cut sucks, it’s shouldn’t be the end of the road for most of these guys. I imagine most will end up on at least a practice roster, but there’s always the chance that they’ll end up back with their team.

• Speaking of former Mountaineers, Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz named Austin Kendall as their starter for this weekends game against Mississippi State. Should Kendall hang on to the starting job throughout the season, he’ll meet up with fellow former West Virginia quarterback Trey Lowe when the Bulldogs take on Southern Miss on November 19th. Riveting stuff here.
• While we’re talking about Louisiana, Louisiana Monroe named one-time Mountaineer commit Rhett Rodriguez as the starter for their game against Kentucky on Saturday. If there was ever a team that appealed to the real sickos like myself, it’s a team coached by Terry Bowden with Rich Rodriguez as offensive coordinator and his son as the starting QB. FOOTBALL IS BACK, BABY.

ODDS AND ENDS

• If you’re not caught up on the bizarre Bishop Sycamore story, the mothership has a nice article about how the shady high school football team faked their way onto ESPN this past weekend.
• Our friends over at The Shutdown Fullcast appear to have something cookin’ with Dan Le Batard and Meadowlark Media. If you’re not already a regular Fullcast listener, now is as good of a time as any to jump in on The World’s Only College Football Podcast.

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