Mountaineer Postgame Show: WVU 49, UAlbany 14

Hello everybody welcome into the mountaine postgame show I'm Sky Calli and that is Eugene Napoleon West Virginia picking up their first win of the season 49-14 over U Albany the great danses out of the FCS and before we can dive into our analysis go and take a look here at the numbers Garrett green had a nice bounceback day as expected 17 to 23 23 6 yards three touchdowns through the air one with his legs which was a 40 yard Scamper Jem White had 100 yards CJ Donaldson had 125 yards as a team the MERS rushed for 305 yards on the day but the big issue in this one was the Deep downfield passing by Miles Burkett he had 306 yards uh for the Great Danes and it seemed like they just were able to complete deep shot after deep shot Jean initial thoughts on this one uh 35o win they they get out to a great start 21 nothing lead looks like they're going to Coast all the way and maybe have the backups in before the half and then things kind of went a little sideways there for a while and and all of a sudden you let Albany back in it and they kind of hung around a little bit longer than you would have liked well let me be clear 4914 Victory it's exactly what I expected but as to your point I didn't expect two back-to-back scores by ory at all um which at certain given points you start to understand that it's those type of things that happen every now and again that really bothers I think all of us when it comes to the consistency of where we need to be no disrespect to aubony I'm not taking anything away from that program they going to they they should do very well in their conference play in the at the FCS level let let me say that but that being said it's not so much about them as much as it's about West Virginia being able to play consistently at every phase of the game special teams offense defense when you do that it kind of shows you know we go to Pittsburgh next week right yeah it kind of shows them that we have Tendencies to lapse at certain points in the game you cannot do that against a formidable foe no absolutely not I'm happy with the outcome but we really have to Horn in on getting that stuff cleaned up we we just have to yeah uh you know defensively you know I I think I have mixed feelings about it um I mean you look at the overall numbers 14 points it's it's really not that bad uh even against an FCS team but they there were several opportunities for them to add more than just 14 I mean they they went for it a couple of times deep down in the end Z or the Red Zone the one uh earlier in the game where the guy just literally tripped over his own feet who knows he never had a chance to make a play because of it um and then they're also at the end but you know the run the run defense was much better I think I think that area of the defense was night and day better than it was week ago I understand it's you Albany I get it's not Penn State it's not going to be pit but you still have to go out there and execute regardless of who you're playing they did that they only allowed 68 yards on the ground on 35 carries it's an average of 1.9 per carry that's that's exactly what you want uh guess especially against a team like this pass defense though uh yeah I I don't know what to think about that because we saw some explosive plays last week against Penn State particularly at the end of the first half where they added on to their to their lead and then here in this one I I just it just felt like every time they chucked it deep they were coming down with it and and you can't have that happen in these types of games I mean Garnet Hollis comes over from Northwestern he's a coveted transfer very well thought of you know around the league and around the country and just had a really bad day I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom for him and that he's going to be you know somebody that's going to be a liability for Jordan Leslie's defense but he can't play like that well I'll say this when you give up 300 yards passing it's a collective thing for sure right but I don't care who it's against the point is that's 00 yard passing okay so just imagine if you of was able some s similar of a running game going now you're okay because that elongates the game for you to do different things offensively if you're getting first downs on the ground and you can get big chunk plays in the air that's a problem so I'm looking at it from that perspective we have to clean that up and just like I say about green not calling his own plays well these defensive players don't call their own defenses either so with that being said it comes to a point of if if you consistently give up a big chunk play here or there in the air against any team it's going to put more pressure on your defense sooner than later and then you get a situation to where if you play against a really good team and a really good offensive coordinator he's going to box and one you meaning that single out that weak area and we're going to either formation in into plays where we can get that guy locked in one-onone with our best receivers or slots or tight ends or whatever the case may be or we're going to just pick on him consistently that's what the good teams do at every level including the NFL level right when not pop warner coach and in the pop warner yeah okay exactly that's just mentality I'm hoping that we can get that stuff cleaned up and we have to get it cleaned up rather quickly because where we don't have any more ues on our roster I mean excuse me our schedule not at all it it's the Backyard Brawl and then it is a gauntlet to start the Big 12 with five really tough games out of the shoot and that's right you know you know Jean like I get there's a lot of feelings that go into these games as they go on all day Saturday whether it was Penn State and them playing really close with Bowling Green and Bowling Green was up on them in the third quarter or whether it was pit being down 27 to6 and they come back and win to beat Cincinnati and then it's this game where West Virginia jumps out by three scores and all of a sudden they keep it close for a while and there's always these these feelings that kind of come up of frustration and anger all I'm going to say is just like just let's just relax like I I understand you you everybody wants to fire everybody but the the point is this is your team like like it or not this is the the team that you are going to be watching from now until the end of the season you can get upset with them short you can criticize them you can get upset with the coaches and you can criticize them as well but this is the group players and coaches that you're going to have from here until the end of the year there's no reason to get that upset about it's 49 to4 you found a way to win comfortably wasn't pretty but there's other uglier games out there Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois today there's last week NC State strugg like crazy against Western Carolina they pulled away so I I don't think that there's a need to overreact however I do think there is a a reason to be concerned for sure especially on the defensive side of the ball I think and and I'm I'm saying this a hundred times but I get it's Albany but it looked like you're gonna be okay running the football last week it was Penn State and I can make an excuse for Penn State you play a big game like that week one on the road and you find a way to win you come back home you look at both green go h i we're just going to walk through this one right that's that's the feeling and that kind of was like the feeling for West Virginia tonight when they got up three scores so I'm not concerned about Penn State playing a close game with Bowling Green I'm not that concerned with how some things Shake shook out tonight but I do think there is some things you need to be worried about secondary being the number one thing well here's the thing when you look at the film the film don't lie right so and I agree with everything you just said it's it's it's very well stated here's the thing the film don't lie I would rather go into the locker room at halftime make my adjustments see where we are and go from there versus the whole Doom and Gloom thing oh my God and panic you can't do that the same way you can't Panic after week two with us being one in one because you played somewhat it wasn't mistake free football and it will never be mistake free football that's what it is that's why we play the game so I agree with you let's relax and settle down all right you know 4914 we get a big win a much needed win going in the pit so let's relax a little bit howsoever like I said I'm glad going in and saying we have to clean some of this stuff up fellas okay we have to get a little bit more sound in our Technique we have to make sure that we're taking the proper angles we have to make sure we get people to the ground we have to make sure when the balls in the air we can contest it without you know without penalty these are things that we can control the better thing I'll say this to all Mountaineer Nation right we have the talent it' be different if we didn't have the talent and we're kind of picking at straws to figure out who's going to play week to week we have the talent exactly just a matter of making sure that that Talent is playing consistent week in and week out and I think once we settle that down we'll be fine and the one thing I I really do want to mention here too about the secondary I this was one of my biggest concerns about this whole team going in and again like you just said I I do believe there's talent in that cornerback and in that safety room I don't think there's a shortage of that it's just going to take some time for this for these guys to understand what their role is understand how to play off of one another that's a lot of transfers that this that this defense brought in so it's going to take a little bit of time even against Albany it's gonna happen so yes you can be concerned you can get mad I'm just saying just take a breath things could could have got a lot worse today and you'd be going into pit feeling really really on edge so just let's just let's just go into this Backyard Brawl uh with with some some open minds and and see what happens but that pit game is a massive one we'll talk about it next week on the walkthrough game day show will break it down uh both sides of the ball and even take a look at kind of like what pit did against Cincinnati today but yeah that's a jean you know more than anybody if you want to compete and and I get I get that this isn't the Big 12 but if you want to compete and have a special year this is the type of game you got to win you got to go on the road you got to find a way to win absolutely listen pitz they found they found an answer at quarterback okay they seem to be a little bit uh probably more sturdy in the middle than what we thought defensively okay they're grimy where they need to be okay all that all that being said you're 100% right you have to these are the games that you kind of understand where we are it's like a early gut check yeah right and I love these type of games early to be honest with you I love opening up against a Penn State you know to be honest with you I wish it would have been a Penn State a pit and then into all freaking Big 12 schedule personally but I get it I'm not too concerned about what we saw today because I also know West Virginia in my in my history of playing there as a player as well as playing at pit these are the games where everybody you get up for these games so I'm sure our Mountaineers will be ready to go they'll be flying high and they'll correct some of this stuff but I do agree with you going in the week three usually you start jelling defensively when you have again this many transfers you will start jelling anywhere between week three and week five you will start jelling you start to hit on all cylinders you start to learn how to play each other and all that good stuff I really believe this is we're heading into that we're getting to that point where the defense will start jelling in in in the back end of at the secondary level and I I think we'll be fine I'm not I'm not at all concerned that we're going to have this type of inconsistent play in the secondary as we've had the last two week uh weeks I'm not really that concerned yeah 300 yards plus passing I believe that set the most uh for an FCS team against West Virginia through the air so it is concerning 1,000% um but who knows a week from today we may be saying H they made some improvements and things are going to be all right so we'll see how it all pans out again West Virginia gets their first one of the season 49-4 over you Albany and West Virginia goes for 225 just between CJ Donalds and Jem white very much needed to get that ground game going you're going to need it against pit you're going to need it in the Big 12 schedule so that's going to do it for us here tonight thank you guys for tuning in to the Mountaineers postgame show I'm Sky count that's Eugene Napoleon make sure you hit that subscribe button on our YouTube page at West Virginia on SI follow us on X siore WBU we'll be back tomorrow morning with an episode of between the ears for the morning after we'll be back on Tuesday and Wednesday as well before Jean rejoins me next Thursday to break down the Backyard Brawl on the walkthrough game day show thank you for watching we'll see you back here in the morning