PSU-WVU: Keys to the Game and Game Predictions

why don't we go down the list start with you pat pat yeah I I'm very uh very much looking forward to watching our offensive line against their defensive line now you know we got some new guys up there some younger guys and Penn State has a pretty experienced defensive line so it's going to be interesting on um to watch that and you know keeping the quarterback off the ground and giving them some time to do things so I you know I think you know the the line play is going to be be really critical and then the other thing is you know the third down plays and actually first down I'll start with because first down we got to have some success on first down you got to have at least four four 4.5 yards on first down and then then you can you're able to do some things and and maybe get in a Groove um and staying at a third down third Longs you know managing third Downs is going to be critical you know Penn State's going to bring some heat most of the time and and your third six and plus so you got to try to stay out of those those situations but I think if we can do that and and you know manage the game control the game and punch them in the mouth up up front I think think we're in good shape you you also talked when we were talking Pat about about green at quarterback Garrett and U talk a bit about uh in fact we had conversation about um you know Kevin's play back in back in 84 uh and um you know Garrett uh sometimes gets to be a lot like Josh Allen uh you know to to to basically I don't want to say be a hero but perhaps to to to extend himself Beyond maybe my words uh what's needed at the time so could you talk about that yeah I and I I appreciate you know what he tries to do he's a believer in himself that he can make every throw and he can make every play in every situation um learning to he's learned to manage that a little bit you know throwing the ball away you know getting out of some some plays that he should get out of um but he's got people around him he's he doesn't have to go win a game by himself and I think he understands that now uh he looks you know in the spring he he looked to um his Playmakers you know getting the right people the ball making the right reads where he focused now he's when he takes off the Run he he can really stress the defense which which is great um but play within yourself play Within the team let your teammates win the game for you you manage them to win the game I think he's gotten better at that yeah that's that's really important uh Mickey well you know having played on the offensive line you know my number one concern is what how are our offensive line stack up against Penn State's defensive line and how much success can we have in the Run play and protecting Garrett uh in the passing play I I really think you know it's it's trivia but a lot of people always say it comes down to who wins the battle and the trenches and having played in that position I truly believe that and you know Penn State's got I think think 15 all Big 10 conference players coming back most of those guys are on defense so we've got a work cut out for us we got somewhat of a revamped offensive line but we have an very experienced offensive line as well and I think we'll do well on on the on the running attack and and the passing attack but a real key you know I watched the uh the uh Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game the other day I think they were playing uh the Buffalo Bills perhaps but I watched Zack Frasier in particular and that guy as a rookie did not miss a single assignment up through the third quarter so if we can execute our assignments and each individual line person do what they're supposed to do and play together well as a team then I think we can get a cleer cut Advantage both in in the running game and a passing game the other point uh that Frank you and I talked about earlier in the week is you know Penn State's got a new offensive coordinator and they got a new defensive coordinator and it does take some time for the players to understand and buy into whatever schemes those coordinators are choosing your run and Pat I'm sure you know that in your in your coaching days you have to win over the not only the minds but the hearts of the players that you know the scheme that you're talking about is actually going to work so I think that's going to be real key as well and then uh you know the third thing I would mention is adaptability you know how quickly if we find out something's not working uh or Penn State finds out something is not working how quickly those coordinators can change you know the schemes that they're running either at halftime or or before I think those going to be the three the three keys as well of course as Garrett managing the game if Garrett manages the game well and if he's improved with his passing as much as everyone says he has then we got a real shot I'm looking for an upset guys you know I watched the uh Georgia Tech Florida State game in over in Dublin on Saturday and if we have a game plan like that where Georg uh Georgia Tech just came out their offensive line took control of the game and they end up winning 24-21 and Florida State was was favored by 10 and a half Penn State's favored by eight and a half so yeah I think if we can get it done in the trenches we can win this game yeah well by the way Mick after you and I had that conversation I said to myself huh what about the Special Teams guy he's new to all three coordinators at Penn State this is their first year yeah yeah I I also learned that uh that uh the guy that uh uh who is the OC uh Andy Nikki who was at KU uh actually Neil Brown played against him and he said he it was very difficult was the last game that Neil Brown uh was head coach at Troy and Troy played Buffalo University of Buffalo in a bowl game and uh cotal Nikki was the uh offensive coordinator for the buffalo bulls and he said he was very very difficult because he's so talented uh and the other thing I think that really there's an advantage maybe for Penn State on the on the OC side is that he was at Kansas so he has familiarity with with h the Big 12 but just one La yeah one last Point Mickey on your to stack the box there because when you and I talked you talked a lot about that so just say a few words about that well you know if I'm if I'm the defensive coordinator on Penn State and I look at West Virginia I'm St in the Box I'm putting eight guys right between the hash marks you know and uh you're going to have to prove to me that you can run the ball against my eight best defensive players all stacked right behind each other with the singular focus of stopping the run and uh I think you know that's probably the strategy they come into the game with they're going to stack to box they're going to try to stop CJ Donaldson they're G to try to stop uh jaem and if they do that they of course Force us into passing game and then it becomes a matter of you know more times than not you're playing behind the yard markers uh and it's you know when you throw the ball three things can happen and two of them are bad okay you get a completed pass you get an incompleted pass or you get an interception so running the ball statistically you have a better chance of success because only one bad thing can happen to you and that's fumble uh so yeah I think they're going to stack the box and we're gonna have to as Pat pointed out I think we're gonna have to do some great play mixing uh throwing the ball coming out with some uh play action passes on first down and get that four or five yards on first down so it opens up the field to what we'll be able to do yeah you know related to that Pat you and I talked talked earlier this week you made some you made a point and I wrote it down you said Penn State will give you things yeah uh and that I that could connect to what Mickey is saying but could you talk a bit about that that they will they will give you something they they will they they will when they bring their pressure they're going to void zones whether it be the flat or the middle of the field the unders the under routes um which in my mind with what I'm looking at West Virginia's team those under routes with the little Speedy guys man you just got to get them the ball get rid of the ball get them the ball and let them do what they do um I I think Penn State their defensive line had been a little bit undisciplined so their Rush Lanes I think green can take advantage of those and run and pick up some first downs and really hurt them uh that that's the one area I know Penn State's defense of the line has worked hard in their Rush lanes and their discipline uh so you know Green may be able to exploit that I hope he doesn't make a habit of it but I think he can I think he can exploit that but you know their secondary coached very well at Penn State so you know when they play their manto man they're they're going to be they're going to be stuck to You Like Glue so I know some of the route combinations and and the concepts there for manto man or they've worked hard on there in Morgantown so um you know they give you man to man you got to make them pay you know we got to we got to find a way to make them pay if they're going to give you the flat we got to get those guys the ball quickly and let them turn up field and do some things with the football yeah that leads into your uh first line there Greg about the passing attack and one of the things that brown talked about in his uh his presser on Tuesday was uh two guys that that he's been losing sleep over those defensive ends Sutton and Carter are outstanding but you got to be creative so uh your thoughts yeah I thought you know following up on Mickey pointed about them stacking the line I think that's going to happen as well uh but on the bright side of that is that if you get through that first wave rushing the ball you're gonna have some big gainers against that stacked line because there's nobody else to tackle you once you get past the line uh and my point was about the passing was it doesn't have to be you know you're not talking about a whole game where we pass for 450 yards or whatever it may be you know we have to be able to to use um you know iies in the passing game where you're dumping the ball off screen passes short passes uh because that Blitz is going to be so heavy and I think that's going to be key uh to to how we um you know I wouldn't say disguise our passing attack but how we run our passing attack where we're hitting short hitters again dumping off to the Back Field that sort of thing screen passes because I think they're going to be coming I think they want us to pass and they're going to get up in in the in the line and and try to force us to pass but I don't you know I don't think it's necessary that if we come out and we see a a seven Man line that we automatically think we got to throw the ball because like I said if you can if you can break that line of scrimmage on a run play um you know there's a lot of open field after that if you got everybody up on the line you get through on that good run play You're Gonna you're going to be able to move the ball and uh you know I think I think that's going to be a big key I think our creativity on in the passing game uh our timely runs our blocking on run plays uh I think that's going to be key and I also mention of course the Special Teams you know last year we gave up several games we gave up long TD runs Returns on kickoffs and I think that's been a focus of practice this year I think our punter is very good I think kickoff guys probably improved uh we can't afford to give up any big plays on special teams because you know when you play a good solid team like a pen State you can't make mistakes and still win and uh so I think our special teams will be important uh in that area as well because you just you just can't give up those uh you know those touchdowns on kickoff returns and that sort of thing and we did that a few times last year we had some struggles with that um so I think that'll be key for us to keep him in check but I I really think that I think our defense is going to be fine I think our defense is going to be good and um you know Mickey mentioned too watching the Georg Tech Flor a state game and talking about the upset then he felt like West GM could win this game well I feel like they could win it too and the only reason these games are upsets is because you know they ranked Florida State number 10 based on last year uh they don't have Georgia Tech ranked they ranked Penn State whatever their rank they don't have W ranked so that's that you know an upset because the ESPN Talking Heads say it's an upset but I think West is good I don't know that if they beat Penn State it's necessarily going to be an upset I I think uh you know these teams are good and a lot of these teams are uh like I said Florida State and those type teams sometimes a little bit overrated and I think the the ESPN and the networks want them to be good they want Penn State to be good they want they want Michigan to be good they want Ohio State to be good because that's their money makers but I don't know that these games are necessarily upset this early in the season because nobody knows how good these teams really are uh so hopefully West un just come out play solid and win the game I think they're going too yeah you know you're absolutely correct and that's why and I've talked with a number of people about this the the predictions uh you know particularly before the season starts there's nothing really to base it on but we do know that we do know and this is in your second point there is you've got returning um running backs who have proven uh they can run against very very tough defenses and Nick Singleton and KRON Allen they're going to run uh and we can't let them run downhill um and I agree with you on this and I there's some data that I pulled together on kickoff coverage and this has been an issue and we covered this during spring ball we just you know the coaches said we just can't repeat this uh WVU was number 125 nationally on kickoff defense in 23 uh you know only 22 touchbacks and one of the things that Coach Brown has talked about in his press particularly earlier in the fall was how Hayes leg is getting stronger you you can't have 22 touchbacks and you can't give up 1100 yards on kickoff returns with three touchdowns 90 yards or more so um they've talked a lot about this uh I think you're right Greg on the other side uh kick kick return offense and punt offense punt return offense we've got real speedsters there and they they've been very pleased with that the last thing I would say is um Drew Aller may have had his best game of the year in the opener against WVU uh he had trouble against Michigan and Ohio State those are great teams we know Michigan won the National Championship but he had 75% of his passes uh three of those receivers feasted on us there was one long touchdown run and it was just he had too much time in the pocket and and so um we've got to put pressure on him we've got to have much better coverage yeah I don't think there any question about that you can't you you just get you know when you have a good team like this uh there's a lot of things that you know that make them a good team and you can't do things to make it easier on them to be a good team you know and I know it sounds sounds kind of silly to say that but you can't give up a 95 yard kickoff return you know you can't give up a 60 yard P return you've got to play those parts of the game solid and don't make mistakes like that turn the ball over that sort of thing uh you just can't do that against a good quality team and uh you know I think that's that's the key you gotta take care of the the simple things that you that you normally take care of and then play solid on offense and defense and you'll be fine I'll go first I'm G to shock it because I've been saying for over four months now we're going to shock the world basis fact that I really think that that Neil Brown is due for another upset you know he upset uh LSU in Baton ruse when he was at uh at Troy and he's got it in him to do it I think we're g to do it and I think it's going to be big I'm saying West Virginia 37 Penn State 24 I think it's going to be a highs scoring game guys there you go all right I'll make mine so we'll let Pat go last okay how about that good I I think West is going to win the game twoo and I don't think it's going to be an upset I think West is going to be better than they are and uh again I always say these upsets are only upsets because curb Street and people like that say they're going to be upsets and they're the ones who decide that I think we're a better football team I think we're going to win I think it's GNA be a little bit closer what uh what Mickey predicted I think we're going to go 3127 WVU uh I've got uh we're going to have Pat left I've got uh 2824 WVU I I got 2716 West Virginia I like that I like that all right yeah all right so we're all going Wu that sounds good to me oh I'll tell you that's great that's crazy I just think it's it's exciting and uh you know to see WVU back in the you know back to where we're expecting the win is is so refreshing because you know we've had several years now I even last year you know you went into games and you worried about can we win this game what are we going to do to screw up you know uh back when Pat was up there we knew we were gonna win we went in thinking how much we gonna win by you know so that's H that's awesome that everybody's excited about it and I don't think we're the only ones I think that's just a feeling I mean I'm in Morgantown every day uh you can sense a different vibe you know that's right that people are people are feeling it so we're hopeing hopeful that that uh Ro over into the game wait and see but man I can't wait