ITG 95 - Big Daddy Kicks Off WVU Bye Week - video Dailymotion

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ITG 95 - Big Daddy Kicks Off WVU Bye Week

Transcript

00:00:00 (dramatic music)

00:00:02 In the Gun, episode number 95.

00:00:07 It's time to recap the victory down in Fort Worth

00:00:10 against the Horned Frogs,

00:00:11 and maybe do a little reset here,

00:00:13 look ahead to some things the team

00:00:15 will be doing during this bye week.

00:00:17 You are In the Gun, this is ITG,

00:00:19 I'm Wesley Uler with the best teammates in the business.

00:00:21 We got the signal caller, Jed Drenning,

00:00:23 and the runaway beer truck down the sideline,

00:00:27 big Owen Schmidt, and as always, this episode of ITG

00:00:30 brought to you in part by our friends at BetOnline,

00:00:32 where the game starts.

00:00:35 Headlines is always to get us started.

00:00:37 And if you're watching on YouTube, hey, we get it.

00:00:40 We love our audio listeners as well too.

00:00:42 That's important, it is a podcast at its core, right?

00:00:45 But you get a lot of cool bells and whistles

00:00:47 if you watch the visual element of what we do on YouTube.

00:00:50 Our guy Skyler, amazing stuff with the graphics,

00:00:53 a lot of different, just graphics, I guess,

00:00:57 is the word that I'm looking for that we use in our videos.

00:00:59 Well, you also notice that today,

00:01:01 Jed is wearing a pink t-shirt.

00:01:03 It is the beginning of October.

00:01:05 And Jed, we all know that the Breast Cancer Awareness Month,

00:01:08 obviously in October, means a lot to you

00:01:11 and your family and your wife.

00:01:13 - Yeah, absolutely.

00:01:15 It means a lot, and I always start with this.

00:01:18 I love the bagels at Panera, the ribbon bagels.

00:01:22 - That's where you start?

00:01:23 - They're hard to come by.

00:01:24 My wife and my family and my mom, they all expect them

00:01:28 the first couple of weeks of October as I'm out and about.

00:01:31 And I'll tell you what, you better get by Panera early

00:01:34 'cause they sell out early,

00:01:35 their breast cancer awareness bagels.

00:01:36 But yeah, it's cool to dedicate a month

00:01:39 to create awareness for something that most people

00:01:42 on some level are touched by if you reach out,

00:01:44 whether it's a first connection, a second connection,

00:01:47 or a third connection, family, friend, whoever it might be.

00:01:50 And it's afflicting people at a much younger age.

00:01:53 I mean, that's what I try and create

00:01:55 the awareness a portion of.

00:01:57 My wife was kind of for a year and a half,

00:02:00 she had this growing in her breast

00:02:02 and she was told, "Oh, it's fibrocystic breast disease.

00:02:04 "Just stay off caffeine."

00:02:05 No, not so fast.

00:02:07 They thought just because of her age,

00:02:08 it was nothing to worry about.

00:02:10 Little did they know,

00:02:10 she was 29 and pregnant with breast cancer, right?

00:02:13 So it's something to stay on top of.

00:02:15 So first and foremost, mammograms save lives

00:02:20 without getting preachy on a soapbox here.

00:02:22 So understand the guidelines, be talking to your doctor,

00:02:24 depending on what your age might be.

00:02:27 Typically, 45 to 54 years old,

00:02:30 you're gonna be wanting a mammogram a month over 55.

00:02:33 If you're of ordinary risk,

00:02:35 it's gonna be every other year.

00:02:36 But if you have higher risk,

00:02:37 you're gonna start it earlier than that.

00:02:39 So by all means, be talking to your doctor.

00:02:41 Hey, when do I need a mammogram?

00:02:42 When's my wife need one?

00:02:43 When's my mom need one?

00:02:45 When's my aunt need one?

00:02:46 When's my sister need one?

00:02:47 So just spread awareness like that.

00:02:50 You can learn some of the risk factors, that's great.

00:02:53 But it depends on who you are.

00:02:55 It depends on the level of interest you take in this.

00:02:58 But, and then it's also cool

00:02:59 to kind of share survivor stories.

00:03:01 Because I always tell my wife all the time,

00:03:04 I was like, you know why they have survival rates?

00:03:06 Because people survive, right?

00:03:08 I mean, that's why they have these survivor rates.

00:03:10 And survivor stories can kind of raise awareness

00:03:13 in terms of what to look for

00:03:15 and how did you know you had it and that kind of thing.

00:03:16 So it's very cool that an entire month is dedicated

00:03:21 to creating awareness about this disease,

00:03:24 which as we talked about afflicts so many people,

00:03:27 breast cancer.

00:03:28 And so I just wanted to kick things off

00:03:30 and do our little tiny part

00:03:32 in trying to help create that kind of awareness.

00:03:34 So yeah, absolutely.

00:03:35 Have conversations, talk to people about it.

00:03:37 Certainly make sure that the women in your lives

00:03:39 and the loved ones in your lives

00:03:40 are talking to their healthcare provider

00:03:42 about whatever personal situation they might be in

00:03:45 and what kind of role a mammogram may play for them.

00:03:47 - Well, Jed, I need to know, and well said by you.

00:03:51 Great stuff, brother.

00:03:52 And I'm so glad that you wanted to start with that

00:03:55 and use what platform we have here

00:03:57 to spread a message that I know is near and dear

00:03:59 to your heart and so many others too.

00:04:01 I need to know though, you got a little FaceTime

00:04:03 on Saturday night on ESPN.

00:04:05 The camera's catching you talking to Neil after the game.

00:04:08 Right, we had a couple of listeners

00:04:09 tweeting us the pictures and everything.

00:04:10 We were all laughing.

00:04:11 - Yeah, we sure did.

00:04:12 - Do you have a pink WVU polo

00:04:14 that you're gonna wear on the sideline at some point?

00:04:16 - No, I need to get a hold of one.

00:04:18 I need to get a hold of one.

00:04:19 Otherwise, it's just what I grab off the rack.

00:04:22 You know, that's kind of like this one.

00:04:24 You know, sometime, I don't even know where we were

00:04:27 in the past, but I picked this thing up.

00:04:29 And that's a very good question.

00:04:31 I wouldn't mind doing that.

00:04:32 - There's gotta be somebody out there

00:04:34 who can make you one or you got some somewhere.

00:04:36 - Hook me up with something.

00:04:37 Hook me up with something, yeah.

00:04:38 I mean, you see the NFL, obviously.

00:04:41 During October, the wristbands, the socks.

00:04:43 - Crucial catch of the NFL calls.

00:04:46 - And you know, some people say,

00:04:47 "Oh, I get tired of seeing this pink."

00:04:48 Well, that's the point.

00:04:49 You're supposed to reach the point

00:04:50 that you do get tired of it.

00:04:51 So maybe mention it to somebody, right?

00:04:53 I mean, the word awareness means something.

00:04:55 And again, there's other stories out there

00:04:58 and we've got a lot of listeners.

00:05:00 So if there's one person out there

00:05:02 that's ready to rule it out as maybe nothing

00:05:04 just because of your age or whatever it might be,

00:05:06 that was us.

00:05:07 That was us.

00:05:08 So if we can catch one more case early enough

00:05:11 to do something about it, absolutely.

00:05:13 If you've got a platform like this,

00:05:15 we'd be remiss if we didn't do it.

00:05:16 So sure thing.

00:05:18 I like your idea though.

00:05:20 - Love it.

00:05:21 Well, we'll get on it.

00:05:21 If anybody out there knows where Jed can hunt down

00:05:23 a pink WVU polo, you let us know in the comments

00:05:26 or on Twitter, wherever you get at us.

00:05:28 From a cause that is near and dear to Jed's heart,

00:05:32 to a man who is not so near and dear to Jed's heart.

00:05:36 Jed, you came in here all steaming and honked off

00:05:40 ready to talk about what James Franklin did out there

00:05:43 in Northwestern this past Saturday.

00:05:44 All right, Jed, get it off your chest.

00:05:47 Speak in a chest, get it off your chest.

00:05:48 What did James Franklin do this time?

00:05:50 - Now I'm tracking the game

00:05:52 as it's being played out against Northwestern.

00:05:55 And look, we've given Penn State a lot of love

00:05:57 'cause they earned it.

00:05:58 They're a daggone good football team.

00:06:00 In my estimation, yes, a top 10 football team.

00:06:03 - And their fan base really loved our podcast,

00:06:06 I'll tell you what.

00:06:07 - And they did, sure.

00:06:07 Yeah, they sure did.

00:06:08 Great point on your part.

00:06:10 But, dude, what are you doing?

00:06:12 First of all, the touchdown was six seconds

00:06:14 to go against us.

00:06:15 We had our debates about it.

00:06:17 I kind of like it because it's one more reason

00:06:19 to hate you that's unnecessary, all right?

00:06:22 I don't know if you're trying to chase Pat Narduzzi

00:06:25 as the deep bag of the year among coaches in Pennsylvania.

00:06:27 You're not gonna catch him.

00:06:28 So let's first establish that.

00:06:30 You're not gonna get our vote.

00:06:31 He's got our vote going away running.

00:06:34 But I tweeted out, I thought I was kidding,

00:06:37 with four minutes to go in the game.

00:06:40 Penn State, first of all, hats off to Northwestern

00:06:43 because they brought it.

00:06:44 That was a hard-fought football game,

00:06:47 much closer than Penn State wanted it to be

00:06:49 because he really seems invested in these style points.

00:06:52 Like it's 1982 and the only thing that voters know

00:06:55 about him and his football team

00:06:56 is the score the next morning in the paper.

00:06:58 It's not.

00:07:00 You're not gonna have an impact on the committee.

00:07:02 All you're doing by trying to run up a score

00:07:04 with these late touchdowns is earning a reputation

00:07:07 as a guy who tries to run up the score with late touchdowns

00:07:09 so people can't trust your scores when they see them.

00:07:11 But what happens is four minutes to go in the game,

00:07:14 they score to go up by three touchdowns

00:07:16 in a game that really didn't feel

00:07:18 like a three-touchdown game.

00:07:19 And I think that Penn State and Franklin

00:07:21 kind of sensed that too.

00:07:23 So I put a tweet out, just half joking,

00:07:24 at least I thought I was.

00:07:26 Hey, if Penn State gets the ball back,

00:07:28 what are they gonna try and do to score again?

00:07:30 And I put some gadget play by Auburn on there,

00:07:32 double reverse pass or something.

00:07:33 Little did I know that Penn State

00:07:35 was gonna get the ball back,

00:07:36 up by three touchdowns against Northwestern.

00:07:39 And with two minutes to go,

00:07:40 run a gadget play to try and score.

00:07:42 And they did score to go up by 28.

00:07:44 You're not impressing anybody.

00:07:46 You wanna do that, do it in the first half

00:07:48 against a team like Northwestern.

00:07:49 You're not impressing anybody.

00:07:51 Now, I still, Wes, and I'll say this,

00:07:54 when we traveled back from the TCU game,

00:07:57 we had crazy arrangements.

00:07:58 You and I both went through that this weekend.

00:08:01 We couldn't land in Bridgeport,

00:08:02 even though half of us were part of Bridgeport.

00:08:04 We landed in Pittsburgh because of the fog in Bridgeport.

00:08:06 So we landed in Pittsburgh at 4.30 in the morning,

00:08:09 got on a bus.

00:08:11 The bus took us to Bridgeport.

00:08:12 We got to Bridgeport at 6.30 in the morning.

00:08:14 So I finally got home at 8.30 in the morning.

00:08:16 Well, one of the first things I did to entertain myself

00:08:18 and to wake myself up on my drive home,

00:08:20 I plugged my phone in, I hit YouTube,

00:08:22 and I listened to the audio of Pat Narduzzi's excuse-making

00:08:25 after the loss to Virginia Tech.

00:08:27 I can't help myself.

00:08:28 - It's adult content.

00:08:29 It's adult content for guys like us.

00:08:31 - Absolutely.

00:08:32 Anytime Pitt loses, I now must, by law,

00:08:35 listen to Narduzzi crank the excuse machine.

00:08:37 And I love every second.

00:08:39 - He called Virginia Tech a really good football team,

00:08:42 just for those of you keeping record at home.

00:08:45 - And I think it's because I punished myself.

00:08:47 - They won two of their last 11 games

00:08:49 against Power Five opponents, a really good football team.

00:08:51 - The last two off seasons,

00:08:53 I've punished myself studying Narduzzi

00:08:55 and listening to his clinics.

00:08:57 I've listened to countless hours of Pat Narduzzi

00:09:00 during clinic talks.

00:09:01 And I think just to counter that,

00:09:03 I enjoy listening to his six to nine minute

00:09:06 excuse-making sessions after he loses these games.

00:09:08 So that's my thoughts on it.

00:09:11 Owen, did you see what Penn State did?

00:09:12 Did you catch that?

00:09:13 - I caught the box score.

00:09:16 I didn't catch the end, but now that you brought it up,

00:09:20 I mean, it is what it is.

00:09:22 I mean, here's what's crazy.

00:09:24 You know, it only catches up to you

00:09:27 when it catches up to you.

00:09:29 - Yep.

00:09:29 - These days, you know, it might be something

00:09:32 where somebody gets hurt doing something stupid like that

00:09:35 when they should have just been taking a knee.

00:09:37 And, you know, I never wish, you know,

00:09:40 that upon another player ever, but it does happen.

00:09:45 - Yeah.

00:09:46 - It sure does.

00:09:47 - Listen, and it's one of those things too,

00:09:48 it's like the cliche,

00:09:49 but there's always a bigger fish out there.

00:09:52 And, you know, maybe Penn State finds themselves

00:09:55 in the playoff and Georgia does that to them

00:09:58 and embarrasses the crap out of them.

00:09:59 You know what I mean?

00:10:00 So something like that,

00:10:01 someone runs up a score on them in a big game,

00:10:04 Michigan or Ohio State at some point this year, I just.

00:10:07 - I think it's already hurting them

00:10:08 in that it's backfiring.

00:10:11 They've developed a reputation

00:10:14 as a team that runs the score up.

00:10:16 So a lot of sports writers are looking at this,

00:10:17 I can't trust the final score at Penn State.

00:10:19 They probably ran it up

00:10:20 and made it look worse than it was.

00:10:21 So they're trying to make it look worse than it is,

00:10:24 but they've earned the reputation of the team,

00:10:25 reputation as a team that's trying to do that.

00:10:28 So it's almost on some level,

00:10:29 - I will say this.

00:10:30 - We'll study every snap, doesn't matter either way.

00:10:32 - The one time we enjoyed it

00:10:34 and really appreciated it from James Franklin was 2000

00:10:37 and what would it have been?

00:10:39 17 or 18, when they beat Pitt 51 to six at Heinz Field.

00:10:44 - Yes.

00:10:46 - James Franklin running up against those guys.

00:10:48 - Well, in defense of Pitt,

00:10:51 Narduzzi was still just a few years in,

00:10:53 he was building toward this one and four type of program

00:10:56 that he now has.

00:10:57 - Ha!

00:10:58 - Oh, wow.

00:10:59 - Yeah!

00:11:00 I love it.

00:11:01 All right, enough about those D-bags of the year.

00:11:04 It's time to get into some TCU talk.

00:11:07 The Mountaineers go down to Fort Worth

00:11:09 for the third straight time there

00:11:11 at M&G Carter Stadium, Jed,

00:11:13 and get a W on the road.

00:11:15 I want your guys' thoughts, but here was,

00:11:18 you know, you guys will appreciate this.

00:11:19 I got home from work a few hours ago.

00:11:21 I went outside to cut the grass, right?

00:11:22 And that's kind of, I think all men,

00:11:25 they have two times where they really,

00:11:27 two scenarios where they really contemplate life

00:11:30 and do deep thought.

00:11:30 That's one in the shower, right?

00:11:32 And two is when you're mowing the lawn.

00:11:33 Like those are the two times that men really get in touch

00:11:37 with their thoughts and everything that's going on.

00:11:40 And I'm thinking about the show tonight

00:11:42 and what do I want to make sure I mention?

00:11:43 And I'm recapping the game in my mind

00:11:45 and all those different nerd things that I do.

00:11:47 And, you know, we talked before the season started,

00:11:50 leading up to Penn State week,

00:11:52 to bring this back full circle,

00:11:54 about how September felt like, it's a long season,

00:11:58 but September felt like such a make or break month

00:12:02 for this Mountaineer team and just their morale,

00:12:05 the morale and the investment of the fan base

00:12:07 and all these different things.

00:12:09 You know, you start with the old school rival, Penn State,

00:12:12 that you hadn't played in 30 years.

00:12:13 You get pit at home for the first time in 12 years

00:12:15 and a team that, you know,

00:12:17 you felt like you let the game get away from you last year

00:12:19 and they beat you in crazy dramatic fashion

00:12:22 in the return of the rivalry.

00:12:23 You get Texas Tech at home,

00:12:25 a team who Neil Brown had never beaten before.

00:12:27 Three straight home games there,

00:12:28 five games in total in September,

00:12:30 ending with a road trip to the defending,

00:12:33 well, I should say the national runner up in TCU.

00:12:37 - It feels like we're defending big 12 champs, doesn't it?

00:12:41 - It does, yeah, you're right.

00:12:42 But it was actually Kansas State.

00:12:43 September was a gauntlet.

00:12:46 You know, you had the three straight home games in there,

00:12:48 which was nice, but book ended with Penn State and TCU,

00:12:50 two teams that came into the season ranked,

00:12:52 one of them with national title aspirations in Penn State.

00:12:56 We talked a lot about in the buildup in August

00:12:58 to this season, about how big of a month September was

00:13:00 for the program, for Neil Brown, for the fan base,

00:13:03 for the whole kit and caboodle, right?

00:13:05 The morale and just everything.

00:13:08 Realistically, I think four and one

00:13:10 is about as good as you could expect.

00:13:11 Maybe someone's sitting there and saying,

00:13:12 "Ah, we should have beat,

00:13:13 we could have beat Penn State, should have beat Penn State.

00:13:15 We could be five and O and all these things."

00:13:16 But I think if you would have said to any of us

00:13:18 back in August, this team starts September four and one.

00:13:21 They get out of September four and one,

00:13:24 almost half of their games,

00:13:26 and you're able to navigate that month

00:13:28 and you win all three at home

00:13:29 and you go on the road down to TCU and get a victory.

00:13:32 I mean, guys, this is, I think realistically,

00:13:35 about as good of a start to the season.

00:13:37 And what was a crazy month is, you know,

00:13:40 realistically, again, someone would have hoped for.

00:13:42 I'm very impressed with where we're at right now.

00:13:44 There's a lot of concerns.

00:13:45 We've got some injuries to talk about.

00:13:47 It hasn't been a Mona Lisa.

00:13:48 It hasn't been a work of art,

00:13:50 but you're four and one after a gauntlet month of September.

00:13:53 - Owen, Tony has said many times,

00:13:56 my partner in Learfield crime, Mr. Caridi,

00:13:59 41% of our regular season has been played.

00:14:03 - Yeah, that's crazy.

00:14:05 It's crazy.

00:14:06 - Go ahead, Owen.

00:14:07 - No, I mean,

00:14:09 just with everything that was surrounding the team

00:14:15 coming into the season, you know,

00:14:20 I don't want to be that guy that says,

00:14:22 "Hey, look who's laughing now."

00:14:26 You know, not yet.

00:14:27 You know what I'm saying?

00:14:28 Not yet.

00:14:29 It's not there yet.

00:14:30 It's like, I like the sense of

00:14:33 feeling scared, like when we play,

00:14:39 because that's the mentality

00:14:43 I feel like an underdog goes into with each game.

00:14:47 Not so much scared, you're prepared,

00:14:49 but anything's possible.

00:14:51 Anything could happen in the game,

00:14:53 but we've been getting it done.

00:14:54 And honestly, I can't deal with the people

00:15:00 that are saying, "Man, oh man, it's ugly football."

00:15:03 I said, "Ugly football?"

00:15:05 I'm like, "What is ugly?

00:15:06 Please tell me what ugly football is.

00:15:08 I played for 15 years.

00:15:10 What is ugly football?"

00:15:11 - Would you rather lose 35 to 31?

00:15:14 - I'm like, and complete all your path?

00:15:18 I get confused.

00:15:20 You know what I mean?

00:15:21 We're playing tough.

00:15:23 This is what football looks like, okay?

00:15:25 We're playing great defense.

00:15:28 All right, our offense isn't really chumming

00:15:29 on all cylinders right now,

00:15:31 but we're getting the job done.

00:15:33 The wins are compiling.

00:15:35 We're starting to gain confidence.

00:15:37 You know, and I've been kind of jumping on this,

00:15:40 Jason Kelsey saying, you know, underdog is a hungry dog.

00:15:44 - Hungry dogs run faster.

00:15:46 - You know what I mean?

00:15:47 Yeah, absolutely, hungry dogs run faster.

00:15:49 And it's like, you know, when an underdog starts

00:15:51 to gain confidence and starts building that up,

00:15:55 that self-esteem, now you got something that's really,

00:15:59 you know, tangible to take in to these matchups.

00:16:03 And, you know, then you got the Charles speech.

00:16:06 I mean, there's just been so much, you know,

00:16:08 disinformation, I guess you could say,

00:16:12 about everything that's been going on.

00:16:14 And now look where we're at.

00:16:15 Yes, we're banged up.

00:16:17 Bye couldn't have happened at a better time right now.

00:16:19 - Amen to that.

00:16:20 - We need these guys to get healthy.

00:16:21 - Amen to that.

00:16:23 - But we see what happens in that game and guys step up.

00:16:28 Right, guys step up to make it happen and get it done.

00:16:33 So I'm ecstatic with where we're at.

00:16:36 I don't want to be that guy who's jumping for joy

00:16:40 because I want us to have the success.

00:16:43 I feel like we should have the success.

00:16:45 You know what I mean?

00:16:48 But I'm stoked as far as we are in the season, four and one.

00:16:53 - There's a wounded desperation that this team plays with.

00:16:58 And, you know, in an age when coaches are so desperately

00:17:03 trying to bend over back backwards

00:17:06 and manufacture disrespect.

00:17:09 Neil Brown was standing over some burning embers

00:17:13 hoping to start a fire and somebody handed him a hose

00:17:17 with an endless supply of jet fuel.

00:17:20 Guys, I can't tell you this 14 mantra

00:17:24 that we've heard so what much about.

00:17:26 Those listening and not watching, I'm using air quotes.

00:17:29 The fact that we were picked 14th in a 14 team, big 12,

00:17:34 behind all four newbies by the media

00:17:38 to finish dead last in this league.

00:17:41 I hear it at every turn by every coach, every player.

00:17:45 They have taken it personally as they should.

00:17:48 And Neil even put an extra spin on it with the number 14.

00:17:52 I don't know if you guys heard the broadcast

00:17:54 but I mentioned this in the locker room,

00:17:56 what he told the kids.

00:17:58 He said, "Tonight, 14 plays a big part of it.

00:18:02 "They picked you to be 14th."

00:18:04 You know what that means, we've talked about it.

00:18:07 You respond by winning three straight games.

00:18:10 You know what they think of you now?

00:18:12 You're 14 point underdogs.

00:18:14 That's what they think of your three straight wins.

00:18:17 Guys, he knows the buttons to hit with this football team.

00:18:20 We're gonna talk about this game.

00:18:22 And if you're listening, we do all these metrics on YouTube,

00:18:25 how long you listen to the show, when you bail out,

00:18:28 what the average, stick around.

00:18:31 This is gonna get juicy.

00:18:33 It's gonna get fun.

00:18:34 Big daddy's gonna bring it.

00:18:36 I mean, he and I were talking on the sidelines

00:18:38 about what he's gonna be talking about.

00:18:40 He spent a half hour with Tavon.

00:18:42 So much cool stuff happened in Fort Worth

00:18:45 at that building, at that field Saturday night.

00:18:48 And I couldn't help but think, guys,

00:18:51 and to some extent we talked about it in previous episodes.

00:18:54 I know Owen, you and I talked about it one-off.

00:18:58 When you look at how this season had unfolded,

00:19:01 the first four games of the year,

00:19:03 we opened the season in front of the biggest crowd

00:19:06 we've ever played in front of,

00:19:07 taking a top 10 team's best shot on the road.

00:19:11 We bounce back from that, come back home for our easy game.

00:19:15 Our easy game is cursed by a two and a half hour

00:19:18 lightning delay.

00:19:19 Nothing's easy, right?

00:19:22 Nothing's easy, even when it's supposed to be.

00:19:25 So we get our act together,

00:19:26 that thing ends the way it should.

00:19:28 Week three, here comes, do I need to say anything else?

00:19:32 What that pick game means to us,

00:19:34 what that pick game takes out of us,

00:19:36 what that pick game was circled for so many reasons,

00:19:41 such an emotionally charged game.

00:19:43 Bam, you beat Pitt by double digits.

00:19:47 You own your rival, no time to recover.

00:19:50 A week later, here's a team that embarrassed you

00:19:53 48 to 10, 12 months ago.

00:19:56 They've owned you for four straight years,

00:19:58 a million and one reasons

00:20:00 that you have to be ready for that one.

00:20:02 So what are you doing that one?

00:20:04 What are you doing that one with your backup quarterback?

00:20:07 You find a way to circle the wagons,

00:20:09 take care of business and beat that team

00:20:11 that's had your number.

00:20:12 So now, after all that,

00:20:14 and all that emotional energy being spent,

00:20:18 you're asked for the fifth time in five weeks

00:20:20 to play another football game.

00:20:21 But this time, you've got to hop on a plane,

00:20:24 fly halfway across the country

00:20:26 and play a team that just a handful of months ago

00:20:28 was playing in a national championship.

00:20:30 Guys, if any game ever had all the hallmarks of a letdown,

00:20:35 this was it.

00:20:37 This was the game that truly, beyond anything else,

00:20:41 was going to test the emotional maturity

00:20:43 of this football game.

00:20:44 And I thought, you know what?

00:20:45 I'm not so sure we can bring it in this game.

00:20:47 We're just so spent.

00:20:49 And I still think we can have a good football team,

00:20:51 even if we don't play that Wellgans TCU.

00:20:53 It's a lot to ask.

00:20:55 They're really good.

00:20:56 They're really talented.

00:20:57 We're going on the road after what we've been through.

00:20:59 It's a tall ask, but it'll tell us so much

00:21:02 if we even play well against them.

00:21:04 When not only did we play well,

00:21:06 we faced adversity the likes of which

00:21:08 I haven't seen in a long time.

00:21:10 Guys, in that second quarter,

00:21:12 when we're out on the field,

00:21:15 watching Aubrey get loaded up,

00:21:17 we were all 20 feet from him.

00:21:19 I was surrounded by 19-year-old kids wailing like babies.

00:21:24 It was emotion.

00:21:27 It was tough.

00:21:28 It was tough.

00:21:29 And then, Owen, you know the deal.

00:21:31 They blow the whistle, back at it.

00:21:33 Your buddy's going to the hospital,

00:21:34 worry about him later.

00:21:35 That's the nature of the game.

00:21:38 There were so many tears.

00:21:39 I'm looking in that group of kids.

00:21:42 Holy cow.

00:21:43 I mean, I could barely do a hit for Tony,

00:21:45 walking him through what we were looking at.

00:21:46 It was hard.

00:21:47 It was hard.

00:21:48 And the heat was oppressive.

00:21:51 It was everything we thought it might be.

00:21:52 Their tempo, war on us.

00:21:54 Guys, I've said many times in the last couple of days,

00:21:58 I've watched countless games in my lifetime.

00:22:01 And so often, when I see a team

00:22:05 take the opening kickoff and make short work of it

00:22:08 and march right down and have a quick score,

00:22:10 one of two things happens.

00:22:11 About 70% of the time, this isn't a hard number.

00:22:14 It's not studied.

00:22:15 It just feels like it to me.

00:22:16 About 70% of the time, they find a groove.

00:22:19 It is what, it's exhibit A,

00:22:21 you're in for a long night

00:22:22 'cause they're about to bring it, right?

00:22:24 About 30% of the time, it doesn't work out that way.

00:22:27 So I've seen teams lose 38 to seven

00:22:28 after scoring on the opening drive.

00:22:30 Sometimes what happens is it was well-scripted.

00:22:32 It was well game-planned.

00:22:34 They gave you their best shot.

00:22:35 You withstood the salvo, you bounced back,

00:22:37 and they don't look the same after that first drive.

00:22:40 Rarely do you see something in between those two things.

00:22:43 Well, I watched TCU.

00:22:45 And you know what?

00:22:46 For the better part of the first half,

00:22:47 they looked like they were continuing to play the role

00:22:50 of the team that's gonna bring it all night, all night.

00:22:53 And they forced us to take their best shot.

00:22:55 They pounded us in that Texas heat

00:22:57 with 49 snaps for 312 yards.

00:23:02 Guys, if this was a "Rocky" movie,

00:23:03 it's when Apollo dumped him in the corner

00:23:05 and he was on his can.

00:23:07 That's what this was.

00:23:08 That's what this was.

00:23:10 We were physically, I mean,

00:23:12 normally when tempo starts to impact you

00:23:16 and you get worn down,

00:23:17 I'm telling you, those conditions were rough.

00:23:19 It was hot.

00:23:20 - I was a couple hundred miles away,

00:23:23 so I can concur.

00:23:25 Yeah, it was miserable hot in Texas.

00:23:29 - When that impacts you, at worst,

00:23:30 it's late in the third quarter, early in the fourth.

00:23:33 We were seeing technique disintegrate

00:23:36 late in the first half.

00:23:37 And all I could think in my mind's eye,

00:23:39 wow, they're approaching 50 snaps.

00:23:42 They get the ball first to start the second half.

00:23:44 And then it looked like they almost broke our back

00:23:47 with that crossing route for the touchdown

00:23:48 in the final seconds.

00:23:49 And I thought, how do we bounce back from this?

00:23:52 How do we dig down like "Rocky"

00:23:53 and climb back to our feet and keep this thing going?

00:23:57 And I heard what the coaches said to him at halftime.

00:24:00 And I heard what Jordan Leslie talked to the defense

00:24:02 about at halftime.

00:24:03 It was about missed opportunities.

00:24:04 Those opportunities are behind us,

00:24:06 but the good news is there'll be five or six more

00:24:08 in this half.

00:24:08 And he said, "We're going to change it up."

00:24:10 He said, "I'll take the head-and-leg touchdown.

00:24:11 I should have heated him up.

00:24:13 I didn't.

00:24:13 The one's on me."

00:24:14 Okay?

00:24:15 So, and then Neil talks to the team.

00:24:17 And Neil's telling the team,

00:24:19 "Guys, I'm going to tell you right now,

00:24:20 we're a better team than them.

00:24:22 And you know it.

00:24:23 You know it.

00:24:24 And pretty soon, they're going to know it

00:24:26 because deep down, they kind of already do.

00:24:28 So keep leaning, keep leaning,

00:24:29 and keep hitting and keep punching."

00:24:32 And I'm thinking, "Man, I hope this works out.

00:24:33 Man, I hope this works out."

00:24:35 Well, wouldn't you know it?

00:24:36 But look what's happened.

00:24:37 They get the opening kickoff to start the second half.

00:24:40 They ran into a brick wall.

00:24:43 After 312 yards on 49 snaps in the first half,

00:24:48 we were gashed.

00:24:49 We were tanked.

00:24:50 We were beaten.

00:24:52 We somehow, and this number shouldn't live

00:24:56 in the same universe of the numbers that I just gave you.

00:24:59 49 snaps for 312, first 30 minutes of the half.

00:25:02 Third quarter, we outgained them 129 yards to one.

00:25:07 They had three feet of offense in the third quarter.

00:25:12 I can't count on two hands.

00:25:13 I can count on two hands in my life

00:25:16 the times I've seen an offense

00:25:19 held to a single yard in a quarter.

00:25:21 And I'll promise you,

00:25:22 the rest of the games I saw that happen,

00:25:24 the rest of the game, the times I saw that happen,

00:25:27 didn't look like the rest of this game.

00:25:29 It looked nothing like this.

00:25:30 Somehow, some way, they dug down

00:25:33 with their emotional leader, the defensive captain,

00:25:36 Aubrey Burks, in a hospital across town.

00:25:38 They found a way to dig down,

00:25:40 and guys kept dropping, whether it was trade,

00:25:43 whether it was guys cramping up, they kept dropping.

00:25:45 Owen, I'm telling you, that felt to me

00:25:49 like the teams that you played on,

00:25:51 the teams that I was fortunate enough to play on,

00:25:54 the tough badasses that surrounded me,

00:25:56 the tough badasses that you were one of,

00:25:59 that surrounded you, it felt like that.

00:26:02 I mean, I told you on the phone yesterday,

00:26:03 and I hate to go on about this, but I'm fired up, guys.

00:26:07 I told you yesterday, Owen,

00:26:08 what it told me about the team,

00:26:09 you know the most telling moment or experience

00:26:12 I had on the whole night, Saturday night?

00:26:15 Late in the first half and the second quarter,

00:26:17 I think was cheap, but Wyatt Milam gets his eye gouged,

00:26:22 and he got it gouged bad, bad, okay?

00:26:25 And Big Daddy will tell this story, too,

00:26:27 when he comes on here,

00:26:28 but we're in the locker room at halftime,

00:26:30 and Wyatt's over there with the O-line, okay?

00:26:33 And I'm telling you, his eye is, you can tell,

00:26:35 there's no way, like Neil said today in his press,

00:26:38 he looks like Rocky.

00:26:40 - He said if it was a boxing match, they'd have called it.

00:26:43 - You gotta cut me, Mick.

00:26:44 - He couldn't see, okay?

00:26:46 So I hear Matt talking to him,

00:26:47 they're trying to figure out if he can go,

00:26:49 and he's like, "I can't see, but I'm a left tackle.

00:26:51 I can see on my left eye, I can fan,

00:26:53 but I can't see inside at all."

00:26:54 So they're having these big debates,

00:26:55 and he's just, his eye's all swollen.

00:26:58 Well, guess what the rest of the O-line's doing?

00:27:00 And Wyatt's telling a story

00:27:02 about the guy that did it to him.

00:27:03 And you look, you can tell this guy,

00:27:05 he's probably not gonna play the rest of the night

00:27:06 in this huge, critical game.

00:27:08 Maybe one of your best players on the entire side

00:27:11 of the offensive football,

00:27:12 and he might be lost for the rest of the night.

00:27:14 He's gonna try, but it doesn't look good.

00:27:16 And you know what the rest of the O-line's doing?

00:27:18 Making fun of him.

00:27:19 Making fun of him.

00:27:21 I mean, that's how they spent the half hour.

00:27:23 You get what I'm saying, though,

00:27:24 and I see the smile on your face.

00:27:25 Dude, that says more about a football team.

00:27:28 Like, dude, we got you, we got you.

00:27:31 Go be hurt, that's what we're here for.

00:27:34 We got you, look at your damn eye.

00:27:35 Your one-eyed gizzard.

00:27:37 I mean, they just, they wouldn't ease up on him.

00:27:39 And he's like, you know, screw you guys.

00:27:40 I mean, it was just back and forth.

00:27:42 It wasn't like, oh my God, our left tackle,

00:27:43 our all-American left tackle was hurt.

00:27:45 None of that, none of that.

00:27:46 They were all just making fun of him,

00:27:48 having fun with it and poking each other at it.

00:27:50 And it was just, I was like, that, oh my God.

00:27:53 That's the tough guy way of telling it.

00:27:55 It's like shorthand football ease, isn't it, Owen?

00:27:57 It's like, without coming out and saying, dude, we got you.

00:28:00 That's how you'd say, dude, we got you.

00:28:02 We got your back, man.

00:28:03 You'd have ours, we got yours.

00:28:05 I was like, that was awesome.

00:28:08 - That's a family, man.

00:28:09 - Yep.

00:28:10 - That's a family.

00:28:11 These guys love each other.

00:28:13 And it's apparent seeing the tears when Aubrey went down.

00:28:17 I mean, it's, football is an emotional game

00:28:20 and a lot of people will kind of misunderstand that with,

00:28:24 oh, they're tough guys.

00:28:25 You know, they don't show the raw emotion.

00:28:28 That's not the truth.

00:28:30 They feel more than probably everybody does.

00:28:33 I mean, they get goosebumps when the crowd cheers.

00:28:38 Okay.

00:28:39 I mean, there's an energy there that they understand.

00:28:42 And like you were saying about giving each other

00:28:45 a bunch of crap.

00:28:46 I mean, that's true love, man.

00:28:50 - That's true love.

00:28:50 It's like, what's the old saying, Owen?

00:28:52 You know, guys say the good stuff about our boys

00:28:57 when they're not around.

00:28:59 - Yeah.

00:29:00 - We send the bad stuff to their face.

00:29:01 - That's right.

00:29:02 And that was so true that I was just like, man,

00:29:05 all I knew walking away from that

00:29:07 is a guy who spent his life in locker rooms.

00:29:10 They got Wyatt's back and he knows it.

00:29:12 And he's punching right back at them.

00:29:14 They're all having laughs about it.

00:29:15 And they're all, it's just the thing.

00:29:16 Hey, next man up, man.

00:29:18 You know, he tried to go in the third quarter.

00:29:20 They put a screen on him, visor on him.

00:29:21 Just, it wasn't going to work.

00:29:22 But to march into that environment against that team,

00:29:26 that's a good football team.

00:29:28 That quarterback is a baller.

00:29:31 I'm telling you that those receivers, no joke.

00:29:33 They got players, man, that running back.

00:29:36 But to look at how we beat them.

00:29:38 And Owen talked about it.

00:29:39 People were calling it ugly.

00:29:40 Well, guys, this just in.

00:29:42 Things built for an alley fight

00:29:44 usually aren't very pretty.

00:29:45 - Yeah.

00:29:46 - That's what we're built for.

00:29:47 That's what we're built for.

00:29:49 Look at what TCU was good at.

00:29:51 They led the Big 12 in sacks.

00:29:53 They were among the national leaders.

00:29:54 Guess how many they had?

00:29:56 Zero.

00:29:57 They led the Big 12 in rushing.

00:29:59 Top rusher in the Big 12.

00:30:01 Okay, Imani Bailey.

00:30:03 What'd he do?

00:30:04 19 carries, 55 yards, 2.9 per carry.

00:30:07 - Less than three yards per carry.

00:30:09 - Less than three yards per carry

00:30:10 against an elite NFL back

00:30:13 who leads the league in rushing.

00:30:16 They were among the national leaders,

00:30:18 defensively against the run in yards per rush.

00:30:21 They were among the Big 12 leaders.

00:30:22 That was the strength of their football team.

00:30:24 We ran for 201 'cause we had to.

00:30:27 I mean, we blocked two field goals, not one, two field goals

00:30:31 and don't look now, Preston Fox is 14th in the country

00:30:35 in punt returns.

00:30:36 Neil said it best.

00:30:37 He steals a first down every time he returns a punt.

00:30:40 That's the hidden yardage that stacks up so much

00:30:43 in games like this.

00:30:45 I told you about this yesterday

00:30:47 and I want you to expand on these tiny little things,

00:30:50 the cracks between the keys

00:30:52 that really stack up and start to matter.

00:30:55 One of the things that I couldn't help but notice,

00:30:58 unless you're an absolute crazy insane

00:31:01 400 level football geek,

00:31:03 you probably won't pay much attention to it,

00:31:04 but I noticed because Rich used to do it at Glenville,

00:31:07 there's a thing for tempo teams, no huddle teams,

00:31:10 like Neil traditionally, that's what he is.

00:31:12 It's called a sugar hut, okay?

00:31:14 And it's kind of the best of both worlds.

00:31:15 You get your O-line, your backs and your quarterback

00:31:18 in a huddle, by and large, your wideouts don't need to be.

00:31:21 They're formationally kind of ready to go

00:31:23 where they need to go.

00:31:25 We were running more sugar huddle than we typically do.

00:31:28 And I couldn't help but notice that.

00:31:30 And it seemed to be having an impact on TCU defensively.

00:31:34 You couldn't articulate the why.

00:31:36 So in the post game, I asked Neil,

00:31:38 I said, I couldn't help but notice the sugar huddle.

00:31:39 What was going on?

00:31:40 Well, we kind of noticed that we got a sense

00:31:43 through the week and it was confirmed early in the game

00:31:46 that a lot of what Gillespie does is he makes his calls

00:31:48 based on not just your personnel,

00:31:50 but your setup and your formation.

00:31:52 So if we could reduce his time to make his call

00:31:54 from a full 40 seconds down to 12 to 15 seconds,

00:31:57 he's pinched.

00:31:59 And you know what?

00:32:00 Early in the game, we weren't doing that.

00:32:02 When did TCU play its best defense early in the game?

00:32:05 Tiny little things like that to give yourself

00:32:07 the slightest of advantages.

00:32:09 Owen, that's the tiny kind of little things

00:32:12 that most people don't even pay attention to

00:32:14 that add up to make the difference in a tight football game

00:32:17 against a good team on the road.

00:32:19 - Yeah. And the details win the games.

00:32:21 All those minute things.

00:32:24 And when you think about, here's what's crazy, man.

00:32:28 The adjustments we made from the first half

00:32:32 to the second half were absolutely extraordinary.

00:32:37 - Absolutely.

00:32:39 - Right? And it's those little things

00:32:43 that those guys get together.

00:32:45 It's a speech.

00:32:46 It's a thing Jordan said.

00:32:49 It's a thing Neil said.

00:32:51 It's a confidence you give your players.

00:32:53 It's what was it like at halftime?

00:32:57 Was it more relaxed?

00:32:58 Was it, I mean, obviously they weren't in there saying,

00:33:01 hey, screaming at them like scolded dogs in there, right?

00:33:05 It was a relaxed approach.

00:33:07 Like they got their guys confident.

00:33:08 They got them feeling good, right?

00:33:10 Going in, hey, we're gonna make minor adjustments

00:33:12 here and there based off of what they're doing.

00:33:14 All that stuff plays a huge role.

00:33:17 And like you said, Jed, to somebody

00:33:20 who just watches the game, and I'm not saying

00:33:22 that they don't know the game of football,

00:33:24 but like you said, a 400 level,

00:33:26 your 400 level IQ football guy

00:33:30 is gonna notice things like that.

00:33:33 And I guarantee that was something I didn't even know.

00:33:37 So as soon as you said that, I'm thinking to myself,

00:33:40 well, man, that makes a ton of sense

00:33:42 because now you're cutting that in half

00:33:44 and that play sheet of his went from here to,

00:33:48 now I gotta suck it down and this is all I can cut.

00:33:50 This is here, this is bread and butter

00:33:52 off of what I know right now,

00:33:54 instead of being able to give them the time

00:33:56 to look at all that stuff to make those adjustments.

00:33:58 And in real quick, the guys that we have,

00:34:05 it's hard for me to go unnoticed is

00:34:13 the amount of toughness these kids have, man,

00:34:19 is unbelievable right now.

00:34:22 It's unbelievable.

00:34:23 And that kind of sometimes goes unnoticed, I feel like,

00:34:28 of football teams, 'cause people say,

00:34:31 "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, tough guy,

00:34:33 you know what I mean, whatever.

00:34:34 Hey, we gotta play tough this game, you know what I mean?"

00:34:38 But you're seeing that really take shape and happen.

00:34:41 Yes, man, mentally.

00:34:43 - Mental tough.

00:34:44 Football players are all physically tough, right?

00:34:46 Mental toughness is what separates you though.

00:34:48 - It's like, you see guys, you know they're banged up.

00:34:52 They're still out there, they're still making plays,

00:34:54 they're doing what they can for the team.

00:34:56 And it's just, you're starting to see their personalities

00:35:00 and that toughness really start to develop onto the field

00:35:04 because they're in these bar fights.

00:35:06 And it's really starting to,

00:35:07 it's honestly, it's a tremendous thing that's happening.

00:35:10 And a lot of teams don't have that.

00:35:12 Yeah, everybody lifts the weights and conditions,

00:35:15 but up here is a whole different ball game.

00:35:17 - Oh, and it's endearing, isn't it?

00:35:19 - Yeah.

00:35:20 - People around the country, people around the Big 12

00:35:22 are saying, "Wow, this team really wins ugly."

00:35:25 I think we're all looking at it like it's amazing.

00:35:29 It's a lot of fun, isn't it?

00:35:30 Guys, I don't think I'm breaking any news here,

00:35:34 but the last four years,

00:35:36 this WV would not be four and one

00:35:39 through what they've navigated the first five games.

00:35:41 We just wouldn't.

00:35:42 We'd be two and three, maybe, something like that.

00:35:45 - Best for averaging.

00:35:46 19 points a game against FBS teams.

00:35:48 - That's what I mean.

00:35:49 And Jed, you think about-

00:35:51 - We're 120th in the country in passing offense.

00:35:53 Army's 117th.

00:35:54 - Right, I saw you tweet that out.

00:35:56 I mean, that's insane.

00:35:57 You're not winning the turnover battle.

00:35:58 You can't throw the football.

00:36:00 Every game, you found a different way to win, right?

00:36:03 I mean, maybe-

00:36:04 - Backup quarterback, oh, by the way, for two of them.

00:36:06 - Duquesne was the game where, okay, you aired it out

00:36:08 and kind of threw the ball around the field

00:36:10 a little bit against a lesser opponent.

00:36:11 And then you're right.

00:36:12 Backup quarterback from almost the jump

00:36:15 from your second drive against Pitt.

00:36:16 And you still find a way to grind that thing out,

00:36:18 to force turnovers, to run the football.

00:36:20 And then against Texas Tech, Niko again,

00:36:22 bad weather conditions, all these things.

00:36:25 You're able to lean on your defense.

00:36:26 You're able to make just enough plays on offense

00:36:28 to get it done.

00:36:29 TCU, the special teams, guys, when was the last time

00:36:34 that we could really point and say,

00:36:35 yes, special teams won WVU, that football game?

00:36:38 When was the last, special teams for a decade

00:36:40 have been a disaster going back to Dana.

00:36:43 They lose us games like LSU

00:36:44 when you had all the momentum in the world

00:36:46 and then you let them take a kick back to the house.

00:36:48 At one point in Dana's tenure, he wasn't even,

00:36:51 we had what, four muffed punts in three games,

00:36:53 something like that.

00:36:54 Dana wasn't even putting a dude back to return punts.

00:36:57 That's how dreadful our special teams were at one point.

00:37:00 To block two kicks, to have Preston Fox

00:37:03 doing what he's doing, to have Ollie Straw

00:37:05 doing what he's doing.

00:37:06 To me, I'm sorry, people who say it's,

00:37:08 oh, we're winning ugly, but who cares we're winning?

00:37:10 No, bump that.

00:37:11 We're not winning ugly.

00:37:12 It's beautiful.

00:37:13 It just all depends.

00:37:15 Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, right?

00:37:16 And we haven't seen WVU teams win games like this

00:37:20 since the Rich Rod era.

00:37:21 I mean, we won a lot under Dana

00:37:23 and had some great years, right?

00:37:24 But it wasn't like this.

00:37:25 This is scratch and claw and knock down,

00:37:29 drag out in the alley, like you were saying,

00:37:30 and punch you in the mouth

00:37:32 and just find a litany of different ways.

00:37:34 And I'm sorry, that gets me going too.

00:37:36 Now I'm fired up.

00:37:37 It's been so much fun.

00:37:40 - And you're winning a different way each week.

00:37:41 Like I've heard people say,

00:37:43 well, you got to do this.

00:37:44 You're not doing this well enough

00:37:45 or that well enough or this well enough.

00:37:46 If you want to go from being gritty to good

00:37:48 or from being tough to good, you got to do that.

00:37:50 I'm like, first of all, we played five games.

00:37:54 Please, within the parameters only

00:37:56 of the games we've actually played

00:37:58 and not the ones we haven't,

00:38:00 will you define good?

00:38:01 Four in one is good.

00:38:03 Now, if you want to jump off,

00:38:04 well, we won't win a game doing this.

00:38:05 We won't get a game.

00:38:07 Enjoy yourself.

00:38:08 Go be measurable on your own, okay?

00:38:10 We played five games.

00:38:11 That is our frame of reference.

00:38:13 That's what we have to draw from.

00:38:15 I'm going to hit something real quick.

00:38:16 And then I want a quick conversation with you

00:38:19 because we got to get to big daddy here.

00:38:20 He has some good stuff.

00:38:22 We haven't even mentioned the impact

00:38:24 of what happened behind center last week.

00:38:27 And again, as somebody who watches practice,

00:38:30 I can't say everything I see,

00:38:33 even on here or elsewhere, right?

00:38:35 I don't.

00:38:36 Now I was a little confused

00:38:38 based how things played out late in the week

00:38:40 based on what I'd seen.

00:38:44 Well, it makes perfect sense

00:38:45 as everything unfolded on Friday night and Saturday.

00:38:47 Nico was getting the reps Tuesday and Wednesday

00:38:51 in heavy practices.

00:38:52 Garrett wasn't.

00:38:53 Garrett didn't practice.

00:38:54 Very little.

00:38:55 Very little.

00:38:56 What's that look like to you?

00:38:58 Garrett's starting.

00:38:59 I mean, Garrett's not playing.

00:39:00 Nico's starting.

00:39:01 Nico rolls his ankle Thursday.

00:39:08 Garrett has to play.

00:39:09 And he was getting more and more ready later in the week

00:39:11 than he was early in the week.

00:39:12 Early in the week, he didn't look close enough being ready.

00:39:16 By Thursday, he did.

00:39:18 So like, all right, we're going to test this.

00:39:20 So they went from a game plan that involved,

00:39:22 it was heavy with Nico through Wednesday.

00:39:25 They had to pivot on Thursday.

00:39:26 Whoops, game plan for Garrett.

00:39:29 We got shells today and Friday walkthrough

00:39:31 to get the game plan in.

00:39:32 So that is what you saw against a team

00:39:35 that just played the national championship

00:39:37 in their house that was good enough to find a way to win.

00:39:41 So Neil even said in his pressure,

00:39:42 look, I'll cut him a little more slack offensively

00:39:44 than I might otherwise, because that's a lot to ask of him.

00:39:47 But Owen, you and I talked about this somewhat in passing.

00:39:50 I want to finish with this before we go to Big Daddy.

00:39:53 We're looking at CJ, okay?

00:39:56 Now, what I see is this.

00:39:58 CJ's a guy who has been well-chronicled.

00:40:01 He hasn't played the position very long.

00:40:03 And when you don't play the position very long,

00:40:05 there's a certain part of being a running back,

00:40:08 certainly, and to some extent, a quarterback,

00:40:10 where you spend your life training your body

00:40:13 to take a certain amount of hits.

00:40:15 Your targets, the two biggest targets in the offense

00:40:17 are the running back and the quarterback.

00:40:19 So when you play from a young age, working your way up,

00:40:22 whether it's against preschoolers, middle schoolers,

00:40:25 high schoolers, you're learning to take hits.

00:40:27 And in the case of a running back,

00:40:28 you're learning to take those hits between tackles.

00:40:31 So now all of a sudden,

00:40:31 you're thrust into the college level,

00:40:34 and you're saying, "Hey, you're a running back now,"

00:40:36 even though you've never been through that part

00:40:39 that like Owen had been through,

00:40:40 growing up, playing the position, taking those hits, okay?

00:40:44 So I'm looking at this from a baggage standpoint.

00:40:48 Right now, you're seeing CJ, and I know he was exhausted.

00:40:51 He was literally at halftime laying down to rest.

00:40:53 He was on the sidelines at times laying down to rest.

00:40:56 And those shots between the tackles,

00:40:58 this is what I want you to talk about, Owen.

00:40:59 It's the football version of boxing body shots.

00:41:02 Boxers don't take you with body shots to knock you out.

00:41:05 They hit you with body shots to wear you down

00:41:07 and fatigue you.

00:41:08 That's what between the tackle running is.

00:41:10 It takes a man to do that, okay?

00:41:12 Well, right now, CJ, all 240 of them are not.

00:41:16 He has 86 carries.

00:41:18 We're about to go into uncharted territory with him.

00:41:22 He finished the year before the injury last year with 87.

00:41:25 So he's about to go somewhere he's never been

00:41:28 as a college running back, as a feature back.

00:41:31 Owen, talk about the impact that has, how you learn it.

00:41:35 What must that be like for somebody

00:41:36 jumping right into college?

00:41:38 22 carries the other night.

00:41:39 A lot of them between the tackles

00:41:41 against a physical defense.

00:41:42 He's at 86 now on the year.

00:41:45 Nobody can explain that like somebody

00:41:46 who's been through it like you have.

00:41:48 - Yeah, I mean, and like what I always say,

00:41:52 I mean, when you don't hit in practice and stuff like that,

00:41:56 you're not getting that,

00:41:57 you're not building that callus, right?

00:41:59 Football, when you're in football shape,

00:42:02 it's not a, you can run and you're strong.

00:42:06 It's your body being able to take the punishment

00:42:10 that it's about to take throughout the entire year.

00:42:14 And obviously, CJ is a,

00:42:17 he's not the same runner that I was.

00:42:19 It's a different realm.

00:42:20 You know what I mean?

00:42:21 He's obviously more athletic than I was,

00:42:23 but he's a big back.

00:42:25 So naturally he is gonna be a downhill runner.

00:42:28 - 'Cause he doesn't seem hurto

00:42:30 and he just seems worn down a little bit.

00:42:33 Like you don't know he's-

00:42:33 - Yeah, and here's what I'll say.

00:42:35 You know, when you're running between the tackles,

00:42:38 if you ever watched me or studied my film,

00:42:41 I was a two hands on the ball guy, shoulders down.

00:42:46 I'm expecting to get hit.

00:42:50 I'm expecting to take the shots.

00:42:52 And that's what's gonna happen.

00:42:54 Sometimes with, and I'm not saying that

00:42:57 he doesn't understand that.

00:42:59 I think he does.

00:43:00 He just also is, he's carrying this team on his back

00:43:03 right now.

00:43:04 He's thinking that he has to be the guy to get it done.

00:43:08 And he's done very well at that.

00:43:09 But with, you know, that kind of pressure on yourself

00:43:14 and it's a lot of responsibility, you know,

00:43:17 you're trying so hard to make plays.

00:43:19 You might not, you might be a little reckless with the body.

00:43:23 So, you know, and like you said,

00:43:27 he's already reached his max

00:43:29 from what we did last year with him.

00:43:32 So he's about to go into another, you know,

00:43:35 you know, another 80, 90 carries, maybe more, who knows?

00:43:41 So, like I said, great time for the bye.

00:43:46 Dude's got to heal his body up.

00:43:48 There was a point in the time when the goal line stand,

00:43:52 it just looked like he didn't really have the, you know,

00:43:57 he didn't have the gusto to really bust it up in there.

00:44:01 And I didn't, you know, I was asking you Jed,

00:44:03 I was like, I didn't know if he was like, if he's hurt.

00:44:06 I get it, he's tired, right?

00:44:08 I'm sure he's wore out.

00:44:10 I mean, he's a big dude, man.

00:44:11 - He's not hurt, but that is the most tired

00:44:13 I've ever seen him.

00:44:14 I think- - Yeah, and I'm not saying

00:44:16 he's hurt, but what I'm saying is

00:44:18 that stuff starts to accumulate, right?

00:44:22 All those little bumps and bruises, you know what I mean?

00:44:25 They start to add up on you.

00:44:26 And sometimes you might take a shot in an old one, right?

00:44:30 That's like not quite healed up yet.

00:44:33 And it's just kind of like, you know,

00:44:35 next time I go in there, I'm a little crooked sideways

00:44:38 'cause I don't want, I'm trying to protect that.

00:44:39 You know what I mean?

00:44:40 It's just different.

00:44:42 So, I mean, like I said, great time for the bye.

00:44:48 He needs to rest up as best he can to get his body,

00:44:52 you know, healthy, get it right.

00:44:55 And like you said, I know you're not saying he's hurt.

00:44:57 I'm not saying that.

00:44:58 It just looks like the banging's starting to wear.

00:45:03 I mean, he's a different back too

00:45:06 because he's a very thin guy.

00:45:11 And what I mean is there ain't a lot of chub on that dude.

00:45:16 Okay, he's about as ripped as they get for 235 pounds.

00:45:21 You know what I mean?

00:45:21 My 235 and his 235 are a little bit different.

00:45:26 Do you know what I'm saying?

00:45:28 I got the, you know, if you ever seen me in my jersey,

00:45:30 I got the little love, you know, everybody said,

00:45:32 "Hey, do you wear the quarterback rib pads?"

00:45:34 I was like, "No, man, that's my gut."

00:45:36 Okay, you know what I'm saying?

00:45:38 - No, man, that's the Miller Lights, brother.

00:45:41 - Yeah.

00:45:42 - Your washboard abs had a little laundry on them.

00:45:44 - Yeah, just a little bit, you know what I mean?

00:45:46 But it's a tough position, man.

00:45:48 You're gonna take bumps and bruises.

00:45:49 And like I said, he's carried the load for us

00:45:52 for five games.

00:45:54 He's done a lot of the majority of the work.

00:45:57 So I guarantee he's banged up a little bit.

00:46:00 But you know, you just gotta keep fighting

00:46:05 and you gotta get that rehab in, man.

00:46:07 You gotta get those cold tubs, you know what I mean?

00:46:10 And that's a whole 'nother aspect people don't even see.

00:46:14 You know, I was doing, you know,

00:46:16 when I was playing, dude, it was cold tub

00:46:18 every morning and every night, at least.

00:46:21 I mean, you're, and if you're injured,

00:46:24 you're trying to get treatment two, three times

00:46:26 in between classes.

00:46:28 And you know, I mean, it's hard to stay healthy

00:46:31 and it's hard to stay healthy when you're a bruiser,

00:46:35 you know?

00:46:36 So he just needs to keep getting his treatments

00:46:39 and keeping his body as healthy as he can.

00:46:41 And we need some help from the other backs too.

00:46:44 We need some guys to, you know what I mean,

00:46:46 really start busting some plays up too.

00:46:48 So it's not, you know, and they will with time,

00:46:51 with calls, you know what I mean?

00:46:53 - You got what, only two games in the next 21 days?

00:46:58 It's good time to have some reset, like you said, by week.

00:47:02 And yeah, certainly a Robin to CJ's Batman

00:47:09 emerging in the backfield, I think would go a long way.

00:47:11 That's a good breakdown there by Big O.

00:47:13 Get some cold tubs, get some rest, get your treatment.

00:47:16 And let's gear up for the second half-ish of the season.

00:47:20 Five games down, seven more to go.

00:47:21 We do need to get to a break

00:47:22 'cause our guy Big Daddy is waiting on us.

00:47:24 We'll have more on that win deep in the heart of Texas

00:47:28 with our big, what's his tagline?

00:47:31 Handsome tubby man of gold,

00:47:33 Sean Mariner on the other side.

00:47:35 You are in the gun.

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00:49:19 - Let's go, Mountaineer fans.

00:49:23 You're tuned in to In the Gun with Wes,

00:49:26 the runaway beer truck, and the signal caller.

00:49:28 - Back in the gun here now,

00:49:33 it's time for our favorite weekly feature, our day one.

00:49:36 No new friends on this show, only one friend.

00:49:39 Well, that's not true, we got a couple friends,

00:49:40 but our main friend, number one on our top eight,

00:49:44 if this was still the MySpace era,

00:49:46 is Sean "Big Daddy" Mariner, of course.

00:49:49 Sean, buddy, real quick before we get into this.

00:49:53 A thank you to Toothman Ford

00:49:54 for presenting this episode of ITG.

00:49:56 As always, we know cars cost less,

00:49:58 and Grafton, big shout out to our guy, JR.

00:50:01 Sean, it was hot down there in Texas, brother.

00:50:03 I mean, I was like 200 miles away from you guys,

00:50:05 which in Texas is nothing.

00:50:07 That's like a drop in the pan and how big that state is.

00:50:10 Woo, I tell you what, you guys have to grind it out.

00:50:14 Saturday, you had travel delays,

00:50:15 we both had travel delays,

00:50:18 but all is well that ends well in a victory, right?

00:50:20 What was it like down there at M&G Carter?

00:50:22 - I was worried.

00:50:23 I was worried seeing weather reports going in.

00:50:26 Like, your fat buddy was worried.

00:50:29 We get out there, I get there about 2.30, it is hot,

00:50:32 there is no cloud cover,

00:50:33 so I stayed inside as long as I could.

00:50:36 When the team gets there

00:50:37 and we start to go out on the field,

00:50:38 the sun had dropped behind the stadium,

00:50:40 so the field was shaded for three quarters of it.

00:50:43 - Thank God. - Completely different

00:50:44 ball game.

00:50:45 Heaven on earth.

00:50:46 I didn't have a problem with cramps all night.

00:50:48 Funny you said that too, Wes,

00:50:50 we actually had, our women's soccer team was in Houston

00:50:52 to play Sunday.

00:50:54 One of our, our GA for the digital creative team

00:50:57 drove from Houston to come shoot the game

00:51:00 and then drove back directly after the game

00:51:02 to then cover the soccer game at one PM.

00:51:06 - God bless.

00:51:07 Like I told you guys, I thought about doing,

00:51:08 I thought about renting a car and making that drive.

00:51:10 It's 3.15 each way.

00:51:12 It's, yeah, I mean, it's close to eight hours round trip.

00:51:15 Who am I kidding?

00:51:16 The way I would have been driving to get there

00:51:17 in time for kickoff, I mean, I would have been late.

00:51:20 Now in hindsight, it would have probably been worth it,

00:51:21 but I would have gotten like three hours of sleep

00:51:23 and then had to work a full day

00:51:25 with my NFL responsibilities.

00:51:27 But yeah, I mean, we landed in Houston

00:51:29 and the first thing I thought was, holy crap,

00:51:31 I hope those boys are hydrating for tonight

00:51:34 because it's gotta be about the same weather.

00:51:36 - Getting off the plane is always such a beautiful gut punch

00:51:39 wherever we go.

00:51:40 Because it's always like, oh, nice Morgantown weather.

00:51:42 Obviously the plane's climate controlled and pressurized

00:51:45 and then you get out and it's the Texas sun

00:51:47 and just that, just, oh Jesus God in heaven above.

00:51:50 - Yeah, and it's not, it's not July or August.

00:51:51 Like it's the end of September.

00:51:52 - No, it is October.

00:51:54 It's the, buddy, when I got on the plane in Pittsburgh,

00:51:57 it was like 60 degrees outside.

00:51:59 And then we landed in Texas and it's 95.

00:52:02 It killed me in the face.

00:52:04 Real quick, before we get into this,

00:52:05 'cause you guys will be in Houston in a couple of weeks.

00:52:09 You, if you're looking for a unique experience,

00:52:12 the Maple Leaf Pub in Houston, okay.

00:52:15 - Where are we talking?

00:52:17 Are we downtown?

00:52:18 - Downtown, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:52:19 Not far, I mean, it's like,

00:52:21 it's maybe less than a 10 minute Uber ride

00:52:23 from Houston's campus.

00:52:24 So, so not far at all.

00:52:26 You guys know me.

00:52:27 One, I'm fortunate to travel a good amount.

00:52:29 Two, much like our friend, the beer truck,

00:52:31 I like to have some soda pops and enjoy myself

00:52:34 and have a good time.

00:52:35 The Maple Leaf Pub in Houston,

00:52:37 top five favorite bar I've ever been in in my life.

00:52:40 It was opened by a Canadian guy

00:52:42 who moved to Houston 20 years ago.

00:52:44 It's a hockey bar in Houston, Texas,

00:52:47 where they don't even have a hockey team.

00:52:49 It is so bleep and cool.

00:52:51 It's got like the billiards, it's got the dart rooms,

00:52:53 it's got all the old school bar elements.

00:52:56 But Sean, Sean, Sean, Sean, look at me.

00:52:59 - I'm locked in right here.

00:53:00 - The booths are penalty boxes.

00:53:02 - Oh, shut up.

00:53:03 - Like boards, plexiglass, everything.

00:53:06 The booths are penalty boxes.

00:53:10 It was so, they got all the Canadian beers,

00:53:13 the Bat and Molson and all that on draft.

00:53:15 Food was great.

00:53:16 Environment was great.

00:53:17 Million TVs, like I said, dark area, pool tables.

00:53:21 Any Mountaineer fans making the trip to Houston this year

00:53:25 or in the future, Maple Leaf Pub,

00:53:27 I promise you it's worth your time.

00:53:29 - You went to Hard Eight, right?

00:53:31 - Hard Eight, big time.

00:53:32 - Okay, here's what I'm gonna do.

00:53:33 I'm gonna segue into you.

00:53:35 First of all, the reason I wasn't there,

00:53:36 I mentioned it to you.

00:53:38 We were very fortunate.

00:53:40 We were hosted by Brian Estridge,

00:53:42 the voice of the Horned Frogs.

00:53:44 - Did you swim?

00:53:45 Did you swim in the pool?

00:53:46 He told you to bring your trunks.

00:53:47 - It's a beautiful spot.

00:53:48 We didn't swim.

00:53:49 Elvis was there, there's a sign on the reporter.

00:53:51 His wife, Brian's wife was there.

00:53:53 Landry, Landry Burdine, friend of the show, they're analysts.

00:53:56 - That's right, Landry is a friend of the show, yes.

00:53:58 - Landry, his boy had a game, so he couldn't make it.

00:54:01 But boy, it was three and a half hours

00:54:03 of just incredible tomahawks.

00:54:05 They just, he has a smoker/grill.

00:54:08 Did I text you this, Owen?

00:54:10 It's part of an oil pipeline that was built in 19,

00:54:13 they tore apart the pipeline

00:54:15 and they sliced a piece of it to make a smoker out of it.

00:54:18 You talk about heavy.

00:54:20 Made built in 19- - Oh, it was probably

00:54:21 half-inch steel.

00:54:22 - Oh, incredible.

00:54:24 We had venison as an appetizer.

00:54:26 He just poked us up.

00:54:28 We were sitting around telling stories

00:54:30 and Dwight was there, Tony was there.

00:54:33 And Tony's talking about his dad.

00:54:34 And of course, his dad's from Calabria in Italy

00:54:36 and a lot of mafia fear growing up in Calabria.

00:54:40 And he wondered, "Do these people follow me

00:54:42 to Western New York?"

00:54:43 So there's those stories going on.

00:54:44 Well, Elvis, their sideline guy,

00:54:46 is from Mexico, from Chihuahua, okay?

00:54:49 And he starts saying, "Tony, the stories you're telling

00:54:52 remind me of cartel stories."

00:54:54 And he said, he played free safety for Gary Patterson.

00:54:57 And he said, "I remember my sophomore year,

00:54:59 like 20 years ago, I was at practice.

00:55:02 And of course, my family's back in Mexico."

00:55:05 And he said, "They called me off the practice field,

00:55:07 the staff did, and took me into the building

00:55:09 in the middle of practice."

00:55:10 And he said, "What's going on?"

00:55:11 I said, "You gotta come in, you gotta come in."

00:55:12 Well, they put me on the phone

00:55:13 and my mom was on the phone freaking out

00:55:16 because the cartel had cold called her

00:55:19 and said they were gonna end me

00:55:21 and they wanted ransom or they were gonna end it all.

00:55:24 And he's like, "Mom, I'm fine."

00:55:25 He said, "It took me 10 minutes to convince her

00:55:27 that I'm fine, I was at practice."

00:55:29 You talk about crazy stories,

00:55:31 but that was the entertainment for the evening.

00:55:33 Guys, this was an awesome, awesome evening.

00:55:36 But I didn't go to heartache.

00:55:38 It's hard to top heartache,

00:55:40 but I definitely wanna hear your heartache story.

00:55:42 - Meanwhile, I was eating jalapeno poppers

00:55:44 while he's hearing about a family

00:55:45 being put through turmoil.

00:55:46 So that's a fair trade off.

00:55:48 - That's a win for you, Sean, honestly.

00:55:50 - I will take that one, that's fine by me.

00:55:52 Wes, I like that you told me that

00:55:53 because your fat buddy is the one,

00:55:55 the week of the game,

00:55:56 I always send out a very long email

00:55:58 to everybody that's going on the road trip with us.

00:56:00 Here are the restaurants, here are the ones listed.

00:56:04 - The Pit House in Houston, also highly recommend.

00:56:06 That's where I went for brisket before the Maple Leaf Pub.

00:56:08 - Everybody told me that Heartache

00:56:10 is one of the only barbecue places,

00:56:11 that and Pecan Lodge are the two places

00:56:14 that I hadn't been before when we've been to Texas

00:56:16 and Heartache delivered.

00:56:18 And if one more person,

00:56:19 so I put Ren on the email and it was,

00:56:22 I was waiting to see, that's his area, that's his hood.

00:56:26 I just wanted to see if I passed the big guy's test.

00:56:29 He said, I did okay.

00:56:30 He ended up being at the same Heartache that I was at.

00:56:32 So, but all he did was talk about the ribeye,

00:56:35 the ribeye, the ribeye, it's amazing.

00:56:37 14 people came up to me after they found I went to Heartache

00:56:40 and were like, oh, Ren told me to go there

00:56:42 and get the ribeye.

00:56:43 I'm like, my, this man and his ribeye,

00:56:45 he's just out there spreading the good word.

00:56:47 - Ribeye, ribeye, ribeye. - You know what's funny?

00:56:49 His favorite place is Cooper's.

00:56:51 - Yeah, he buys--

00:56:52 - He actually orders the seasoning from Cooper's

00:56:54 and ships it to him,

00:56:55 which I am going to get online and check that out.

00:56:57 I wanna--

00:56:57 - I gotta get some of that too.

00:56:58 - Yeah, absolutely.

00:57:00 - Don't put pepper on it.

00:57:01 Put that Cooper's seasoning on it

00:57:02 'cause it's pepper with a little bit of salt.

00:57:03 I'm like, you don't have to convince me.

00:57:05 I'm right there with you, boss man.

00:57:06 Like-- - Yeah.

00:57:08 - It got really bad because I didn't do the ribeye.

00:57:10 I did sirloin, I did jalapeno cheddar sausage,

00:57:14 unbelievable.

00:57:15 Then they had shrimp poppers and chicken poppers,

00:57:19 buttermilk chess pie.

00:57:20 What else did I get?

00:57:21 Mac and cheese was unreal.

00:57:22 And their barbecue sauce was,

00:57:25 it was, that was a top-notch joint.

00:57:27 - Well, Big Daddy, the expectations are high.

00:57:29 Go ahead, Wes.

00:57:30 - I was just gonna say,

00:57:30 make sure you're tuning into our new spinoff show,

00:57:33 ITK in the Kitchen with Big Daddy Mariner.

00:57:35 - Oh, love it.

00:57:36 Love it. - Never trust any chef.

00:57:38 - Don't tease.

00:57:39 Don't tease.

00:57:40 Come on, don't talk about the cook.

00:57:41 - Listen, you can't make a trip down to Texas

00:57:44 without talking about some barbecue.

00:57:45 That's for dang sure.

00:57:46 I had some delicious brisket

00:57:47 at a place called The Pit House in Houston.

00:57:49 Mac and cheese as well, too.

00:57:50 Couple ribs.

00:57:51 It was fantastic.

00:57:54 Before I went and watched our boys take care of business

00:57:56 at the Maple Leaf Pub.

00:57:57 Tried to go to-- - We may have a spinoff show.

00:57:59 It may be-- - ITK?

00:58:01 - With our-- - Hey, what kind of

00:58:02 mac and cheese was it, by the way?

00:58:03 - So it was the good, good, creamy,

00:58:06 it wasn't baked, it was just thick.

00:58:07 - Creamy.

00:58:08 Oh, you better believe it. - That's what you need.

00:58:10 That's what you need.

00:58:11 - BBQ with RBC.

00:58:12 That's our spinoff show.

00:58:14 With the runaway beer truck.

00:58:15 Barbecue with the runaway beer truck.

00:58:16 I'm telling you. - There we go.

00:58:17 Now we're talking.

00:58:18 Listen, when we do our summertime tailgate party,

00:58:22 we need Big Daddy to be involved with this, for sure.

00:58:26 Our peach lot party with the smoker and everything.

00:58:28 Yeah, we're gonna get after it, for sure.

00:58:30 - The expectations we set very high.

00:58:32 And here's why.

00:58:33 Big Daddy, I told people they better stick around.

00:58:37 - Oh, Lord.

00:58:37 - You would be spreading the good word.

00:58:40 - Okay, yeah.

00:58:41 - Now, after I talked to you, I bumped into Tavon.

00:58:45 But not nearly as long as you did.

00:58:46 I briefly talked to him pre-game in the locker room.

00:58:48 - Yeah.

00:58:49 - Because he has a Tavon story.

00:58:50 - Well, no, I was just gonna say,

00:58:52 Sean and I go way back, right?

00:58:54 I mean, I met Sean the first couple weeks

00:58:57 that I was in college, 2009, my freshman year.

00:59:00 We'd been buddies for a long time.

00:59:02 Sean was at my wedding.

00:59:03 I was at Sean's wedding.

00:59:04 But I mean, we all know his best friend's Tavon Austin.

00:59:07 So tell us about your time with Tavon.

00:59:09 - Just, I'm at breakfast Saturday morning.

00:59:13 And I finish eating, and I'm just kinda roaming,

00:59:16 playing mayor, chatting, being a moron, as everyone knows.

00:59:20 And I peek out, and Matt Horn, one of our state troopers,

00:59:22 is giving me one of these.

00:59:24 And I look, and there's a gentleman with him

00:59:25 that I know immediately.

00:59:27 And I just moth to the flame, walk right out to him.

00:59:30 And I don't wanna bum-rush him, because look,

00:59:33 I always say I'm his best friend.

00:59:35 I was here, I covered him, I did all of his features,

00:59:37 I got to be around him, and Gino, and Stedman.

00:59:39 It was incredible.

00:59:40 I'm young at the time, so it's even better.

00:59:42 You know what I mean?

00:59:43 But I know how this goes.

00:59:45 You know, the guys, they're around me.

00:59:47 There's, okay, there's a fat guy with a camera.

00:59:49 Cool, great.

00:59:49 They graduate, they go do wonderful things.

00:59:51 They come back, they might recognize me, they might not.

00:59:53 I hold it against no one.

00:59:55 If they don't, go live your life.

00:59:56 But he always remembers me,

00:59:58 and the things it does to my heart and my soul,

01:00:03 when he like hugs me and talks.

01:00:05 And so, talked to him a little bit at the hotel,

01:00:07 but he went in to go see Mike Joseph.

01:00:10 Mike Joseph, as you know, strength coach, hard line,

01:00:13 one of the toughest, just straight and narrow guys

01:00:15 you'll ever see.

01:00:16 When Tavon tapped him on the shoulder,

01:00:19 watching Mike Joseph turn and light up the room,

01:00:23 just so happy to see him,

01:00:25 players are like coming over to each other,

01:00:27 going like, "Is that?"

01:00:28 Is that?

01:00:29 And we're like, "Yeah, that's Tavon Austin."

01:00:31 So people are starting to flock and go to him.

01:00:34 I asked him, I was like, "Hey, are you gonna be at the game

01:00:36 on the sidelines?"

01:00:36 He said, "Yes."

01:00:37 I was like, "I'll see you there.

01:00:38 I wanna see if we can shoot something with you."

01:00:40 We get to the game, he's there.

01:00:42 I ask him again.

01:00:43 Still, he's being cordial with me and everything.

01:00:46 If he doesn't remember me, that's absolutely fine.

01:00:48 I film him doing his little speech.

01:00:50 And as soon as he finished, I was like, "Dude, well done."

01:00:52 And he goes, "I grew up, didn't I?

01:00:54 I grew up."

01:00:55 And I was like, "He remembers.

01:00:56 He remembers how hard it was to interview him

01:00:58 back in the day.

01:00:59 He was terrible.

01:01:00 He was so bad."

01:01:01 And that was just, and then we just talked.

01:01:03 - That's awesome.

01:01:03 - I brought up-

01:01:04 - And having him on the sidelines,

01:01:07 you still kind of feel bulletproof with him nearby.

01:01:10 You really, it's weird.

01:01:11 It's weird how-

01:01:12 - He was in the-

01:01:13 - That effect he does.

01:01:14 It's like, and compare that to what Bruce said to me

01:01:16 when he saw me at the game,

01:01:18 he Texas Tech game,

01:01:19 when he came back to get his jersey retired.

01:01:21 He'd come up and hugs me and said, "You aren't retired yet."

01:01:23 So compare that to what Dave Vaughn said to you.

01:01:26 (laughing)

01:01:27 - So he's giving, he's high-fiving everybody

01:01:29 in the locker room pre-game.

01:01:30 He's not giving a speech,

01:01:31 but he's just trying to hype the guys up.

01:01:33 Nick Malone is sitting over in the corner

01:01:35 of our offensive lineman, Morgantown native.

01:01:37 Just kind of focusing, not really doing much,

01:01:39 talking with Biggs, one of the other linemen.

01:01:40 And Dave Vaughn comes over and he looks up at him.

01:01:43 He's still in the zone and he nods.

01:01:45 Dave Vaughn gives him a high-five and everything.

01:01:46 He watches Dave Vaughn leave.

01:01:47 And he sees me right behind, 'cause I was filming.

01:01:49 And he goes, "Sean, Sean, that was awesome.

01:01:51 That was incredible.

01:01:52 Did you see?"

01:01:53 Like, yeah, I feel the same way.

01:01:56 I feel the same way, buddy.

01:01:57 - So I got to ask you,

01:01:58 there's something I wanted to cover.

01:02:00 I told Owen yesterday, we were pretty fired up.

01:02:02 I thought this was really cool,

01:02:03 but then I want to ask you about

01:02:05 where you were for the non-intentional grounding.

01:02:08 But we're leaving the stadium and I see Zach out by,

01:02:13 you know, he's within the gate

01:02:14 and his family and friends are all surrounding him.

01:02:16 And of course, Zach's, I didn't realize this,

01:02:18 how I didn't know this, you probably knew this,

01:02:20 Zach knows sign language.

01:02:22 He's signing this little girl.

01:02:24 And of course, just when you think

01:02:25 the guy couldn't possibly impress you anymore,

01:02:28 you know, it's like, here he goes with that.

01:02:29 Well, his dad spots me, okay?

01:02:32 Ray Frazier.

01:02:33 And he comes over, he says, "Jed, Jed, Jed."

01:02:36 And he comes up and he says, "Hey, I played against you."

01:02:38 He said, "I was a young pup when you were a senior

01:02:40 at Glenville."

01:02:41 And he starts walking me back through the '93 game.

01:02:42 And what are your members about?

01:02:44 'Cause we went to Rozier Field in Fairmont,

01:02:46 my senior year at Glenville.

01:02:48 And of course, Mike Joseph's nearby.

01:02:50 And so we're having a big old Wiviac reunion.

01:02:52 And, but Zach's dad's talking to him.

01:02:54 We're sharing West Virginia Conference memories

01:02:56 and this and that.

01:02:57 And I was saying, "Hey, you obviously,

01:03:00 you got one that couldn't be any better

01:03:02 than he possibly is."

01:03:03 So I said, "You, well, I don't know what you did,

01:03:05 but you did everything right."

01:03:07 And he's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:03:08 But I gotta tell you, I love in the gun.

01:03:10 I love it.

01:03:11 I just, I can't get enough in the gun, guys.

01:03:13 I can't get enough in the gun."

01:03:14 So shout out to Ray Frazier,

01:03:16 who apparently is listening, all right?

01:03:19 - Ray, your son Zach played a hell of a game

01:03:21 on Saturday night, my man.

01:03:23 - I did ask him, anybody that's played

01:03:25 the West Virginia Conference knows what I'm saying

01:03:26 when I say this, including those that played at Fairmont,

01:03:29 but they don't like it.

01:03:30 The Fairmont folks don't like it.

01:03:32 I looked at him, I said, "You played at Fairmont?"

01:03:33 He said, "Yeah."

01:03:34 And I said, "What's the word?"

01:03:35 - Ah.

01:03:36 - The rest of us know it's something the bird

01:03:38 because of the falcons, but he looked at, "Ah!"

01:03:41 So anyway.

01:03:42 - Excuse me, it's something the herd?

01:03:44 - Yeah, our version, but.

01:03:46 Ray will be, this is where he's yelling in his radio

01:03:49 right now as he's listening.

01:03:50 It is either Zach's brother or cousin, I think,

01:03:54 that has a bit of a hearing disability

01:03:56 because Zach came to me his freshman year

01:03:58 and said, "Sean, is there any way you can put

01:04:00 closed captioning on all our videos?

01:04:02 I have a family member who's hearing impaired."

01:04:04 And I was like, "Oh, okay, yeah, well."

01:04:06 - That's awesome.

01:04:07 - And we've got it.

01:04:08 - What a kid he is.

01:04:09 Just what a good dude.

01:04:11 - That's how I am.

01:04:12 - An incredible football player,

01:04:14 an even more incredible person.

01:04:15 So now, one of the key moments in the game

01:04:18 that seemed to drag on forever.

01:04:20 I mean, I do remember during the review

01:04:23 of Hudson Clement's touchdown that was called back,

01:04:25 which we ended up not scoring on

01:04:26 at the end of the third quarter and early fourth.

01:04:28 Garrett's standing in front of me

01:04:30 and he's having fun arguing with the field crew.

01:04:32 And we're watching the replay on the monitor.

01:04:35 And during the whole timeout, he's screaming,

01:04:36 "Look, his knee's not down, his knee's not down,

01:04:38 his knee's not down."

01:04:39 And the guy running the yardsticks is arguing with him.

01:04:42 "Look at it, his knee's down."

01:04:43 Of course, he's a Fort Worth guy.

01:04:45 So they're going back and forth and back and forth.

01:04:47 So the call gets overturned, no touchdown.

01:04:50 Well, the guy comes up to me

01:04:51 when Garrett's back on the field and says,

01:04:53 "I told you to want a touchdown."

01:04:54 I said, "Sir, everybody in this stadium,

01:04:56 except number six and maybe even number six,

01:04:58 knew his knee was down."

01:05:00 But when the incompletion, that Chandler Morris,

01:05:03 Sean Martin Sacks Chandler Morris, or so it appears,

01:05:07 he flicks the ball,

01:05:08 it was one of the crazy plays we'll remember for years,

01:05:10 flicks the ball somehow off his back downfield.

01:05:13 I put an image on Twitter

01:05:15 because so many people were asking me,

01:05:17 "How is this not intentional grounding?"

01:05:18 Well, I put an image that included from the coach's cut

01:05:21 where the ball was hitting the ground,

01:05:23 where the two closest eligible receivers were.

01:05:26 And there's a couple of things to consider here.

01:05:28 First, it's not reviewable.

01:05:30 The replay is not reviewable per se.

01:05:32 You can review the spot if there's an intentional grounding.

01:05:36 But there were a couple of interesting things

01:05:38 to point out there.

01:05:39 40 some seconds left in the game,

01:05:40 they're driving to try and do what they were trying to do

01:05:42 to get a tide or win.

01:05:44 So had they called intentional grounding,

01:05:47 which I thought they should have, initially,

01:05:48 I thought the initial call should have been,

01:05:51 it's either a 10 second runoff

01:05:52 if the defense wants it to be,

01:05:54 or the offense can exercise a timeout to prevent the runoff.

01:05:56 And then it's just the penalty from the spot

01:05:58 or the foul loss down.

01:05:59 None of those things happen.

01:06:00 So they review it.

01:06:02 And you're thinking, "All right, well,

01:06:03 what's going to happen is

01:06:05 they're going to have a call coming out of the review,

01:06:07 and it's going to say he sacked, all right?

01:06:10 And he's down, obviously."

01:06:12 And instead they said, "No, it's incomplete."

01:06:14 So they put nine more seconds back on the clock.

01:06:17 And the whole thing was just so zany and quirky.

01:06:20 And you can't review it to see if it is intentional grounding.

01:06:24 You can review the portion of it for the spot.

01:06:27 But where were you?

01:06:28 Because we were right down by the officials.

01:06:30 Were you around me?

01:06:31 - No. - What was your perspective?

01:06:33 - We get into that, I stand a little further down

01:06:36 so that I have direct play behind.

01:06:37 And I was with Andrew, our creative,

01:06:39 who was shooting from that angle.

01:06:41 So I'm with a couple of the defensive guys

01:06:43 who aren't directly involved.

01:06:45 They're there for sub-ins,

01:06:46 but they step down so they can see the replay too.

01:06:48 And we were all just confused

01:06:50 as to what on earth was happening.

01:06:53 - It was one of these things that they missed,

01:06:55 in my estimation, they missed the initial call,

01:06:57 it was bang, bang.

01:06:57 But the entire intent of the rule

01:07:00 was to prevent what Chandler Morris did.

01:07:02 And I'm not blaming Chandler Morris.

01:07:04 I'm not nearly athletic enough to do it.

01:07:05 But if I was, I would have probably tried

01:07:06 to do what he did too.

01:07:08 But it's to prevent what happened.

01:07:09 So then there were a couple receivers.

01:07:12 See, the problem with the rule is,

01:07:13 for those wondering out there,

01:07:15 it's never been clearly defined the parameters.

01:07:17 And it's slightly different at the NFL

01:07:19 than it is in college.

01:07:20 But no level of it clearly defines,

01:07:22 hey, if there's a receiver within eight yards.

01:07:23 They don't say that.

01:07:24 They say if there's a receiver,

01:07:25 or an eligible receiver in the area,

01:07:28 and they never define it.

01:07:29 Because first of all, it matters if it goes,

01:07:32 if it goes 30 feet over somebody's head,

01:07:33 that's not the same as going 30 feet off to the side.

01:07:36 So there is a tremendous amount of judgment involved.

01:07:39 But guys, when you were sitting at home,

01:07:41 did you see it any differently than what Big Daddy and I did?

01:07:44 What was going on with what you saw?

01:07:47 - It was a weird play.

01:07:49 And then once it got even closer,

01:07:51 it was like, you thought his arm was down,

01:07:53 but then it was like a shadow.

01:07:56 And I'm thinking to myself,

01:07:57 like how did he not dislocate his arm?

01:07:59 Like when he was even trying to throw it like that.

01:08:02 - It looked like an old, like a video game,

01:08:05 a football video game from 2005,

01:08:07 where like the quarterback's dying,

01:08:09 but can still wing it like 80 yards down the sideline.

01:08:13 Listen, by the letter of the law, Jed,

01:08:15 and I thought what you posted on Twitter, honestly,

01:08:17 was like a fair, you posted the screenshot

01:08:19 of where the wide receivers were and everything.

01:08:21 By the letter of the law, I think you could easily say,

01:08:24 okay, like I guess technically it wasn't intentional,

01:08:27 but in the spirit of the thing,

01:08:28 like that's intentional grounding.

01:08:30 (laughs)

01:08:31 I don't care how close the wide receiver is,

01:08:32 he's chucking the ball up as he's an inch from the ground.

01:08:35 - Well, he obviously was desperately trying

01:08:36 to get rid of the football,

01:08:37 but did he get lucky enough to have a receiver around?

01:08:39 That's not the rule.

01:08:40 - Right, right.

01:08:41 - And it makes it more complicated

01:08:43 because it's not clearly defined,

01:08:45 there is all this judgment, but I guess there has to be.

01:08:47 - Silver lining, what is the first thing

01:08:49 that Sean Martin said in the post-game press conference?

01:08:51 - He said it to me on the field.

01:08:53 90 seconds later, Sean, I interviewed

01:08:55 basically the entire defensive line

01:08:57 after I interviewed Neil on the field.

01:08:58 And the first thing he told me was

01:09:00 they took my sack away and I was mad.

01:09:03 - If they called it, I think-

01:09:03 - So I'll get people to go.

01:09:05 - I don't know if we get-

01:09:05 - We got the sack on Chandler Morris, officially,

01:09:07 and then they took it away.

01:09:09 90 seconds after it happens.

01:09:11 So what hits a papper, but-

01:09:11 - I love it, I love it.

01:09:12 - I'm like, "Daddy, I'm supposed to interview Neil

01:09:14 on a player when we win."

01:09:16 So what happens is I'm asking Montoro where Sean is

01:09:19 'cause Sean blocked the game winner, right?

01:09:21 Well, guess Big Mike hears me,

01:09:24 Big Mike Lockhart hears me looking for Sean.

01:09:27 He's like, "Well, I blocked one too."

01:09:29 And I said, "Well, there's no rule

01:09:29 "against me doing both of you, you stay here too."

01:09:31 So then Toby sees me with Big Mike and Sean

01:09:35 and Toby's like, "Well, hey, I want in on some of the action."

01:09:37 I said, "Well, then get over here."

01:09:38 So I got all three of them after I interviewed Neil.

01:09:40 I'm interviewing the whole D line on the field.

01:09:42 - When- - That's awesome.

01:09:43 - I've never done that.

01:09:44 - That's awesome.

01:09:45 - Mike blocked the first one.

01:09:46 He came over and found my camera and just went nuts.

01:09:50 Eddie V, that sweet, beautiful angel, Eddie V,

01:09:53 Mike's just going, "I told him I was gonna block it."

01:09:55 And Eddie V, in his beautiful Finnish accent goes,

01:09:57 "He told me and he did it," like right in the camera.

01:10:00 So I'm done.

01:10:01 (laughing)

01:10:02 - That's who told me it was Mike.

01:10:03 I asked Eddie V, I said, "Who was it?

01:10:06 "Who was it?"

01:10:06 'Cause you never know.

01:10:07 We always gotta ask the guys coming off the field.

01:10:09 And he said, "It was Mike, it was Mike."

01:10:11 - So Mike sits down and he's just up, right?

01:10:14 Sean Martin comes over and he's like doing this.

01:10:16 And I'm thinking like, "Oh, he's just trying to calm down.

01:10:18 "They're gonna have to get back in."

01:10:20 I turn around 30 seconds later and he's still doing that.

01:10:22 They're getting into a fight.

01:10:24 Not a, you know, they're just verbally going.

01:10:26 Sean's going, "I blocked it, so calm down, calm down."

01:10:29 (laughing)

01:10:30 But then they're going at it.

01:10:31 So then Mike, "Go get one, go get one."

01:10:33 And then as soon as he did it,

01:10:34 Sean went right to Mike at the end of the game.

01:10:36 - That's awesome.

01:10:37 - If you're re-watching the game

01:10:39 after the field goal was blocked,

01:10:42 look for Neil Brown.

01:10:43 That's all I'm gonna say.

01:10:44 - No, no.

01:10:45 It was the tough scene.

01:10:48 - Neil was not happy that we were chasing that football.

01:10:52 - Yeah, yeah.

01:10:53 Let it go, let it go, boys, let it go.

01:10:55 I gotta tell you what, we talked earlier, Sean,

01:10:58 before you came on about just the mental toughness

01:11:02 and the togetherness of this team and how, like,

01:11:05 you just look at how each game has been

01:11:07 almost a completely different story

01:11:09 and they've won a plethora of different ways

01:11:11 with different quarterbacks and with special teams

01:11:13 and with run game and with defense.

01:11:16 But that whole together, and I said, Sean,

01:11:19 and I think you'd probably agree with this,

01:11:20 like, in years past,

01:11:21 this team wouldn't be four and one right now.

01:11:23 They'd be two and three or something like that.

01:11:26 That defensive line might encompass that, man.

01:11:28 Just those guys are such a unit.

01:11:30 They're so deep.

01:11:32 They compete with each other.

01:11:33 They root for each other.

01:11:35 And man, that's just, that's something

01:11:37 that is such a strength of a football team.

01:11:39 To have so many defensive linemen that you can trust,

01:11:41 that can make plays for you,

01:11:43 that's something we haven't had in a long time either.

01:11:45 - So Aubrey gets hurt and it's scary

01:11:47 'cause we don't know what's going on, right?

01:11:49 And same thing with CJ last year.

01:11:51 Like, I hate those situations.

01:11:54 Just, and one of the reasons I hate it the most

01:11:58 is I'm watching the guys and Tyron Bradley is upset.

01:12:02 That's his guy.

01:12:03 Hershey McLaren is upset.

01:12:05 Those are his guys.

01:12:06 And I know it might not be my place,

01:12:08 but Hershey comes off and I'm like,

01:12:10 I'm trying to hug and consult.

01:12:11 Like, I'm trying to be there for these guys.

01:12:13 But as soon as they get to the huddle,

01:12:14 they're all going, "This is for two.

01:12:16 This is for two."

01:12:16 What's the first play that happens

01:12:18 after the defense takes the field?

01:12:20 Tomey, sack, stands up, just holds it up.

01:12:23 Just holds it up, like, instantly.

01:12:26 Just flipped it right away.

01:12:27 It was incredible.

01:12:28 And not trying to make this the Zach Frazier podcast,

01:12:31 even though Mr. Frazier would be very excited,

01:12:33 Sean Martin gets banged up a little later in the game.

01:12:35 Comes off, they take him in the tent.

01:12:37 He's absolutely fine.

01:12:38 Obviously, he comes out, blocks the field goal.

01:12:40 Zach is walking down towards me and he's looking.

01:12:43 He looks at me and I just give him a nod.

01:12:45 He goes, "Where's Sean? Where's Sean?"

01:12:46 I said, "Martin?"

01:12:47 He's back out.

01:12:48 And he goes, "He's back out?

01:12:49 I wanted to come check on him.

01:12:51 I wanted to make sure he was okay."

01:12:52 Like, "Yeah, no, buddy. He's good."

01:12:54 And he turns around and he walks off.

01:12:55 - Go ahead, Sean.

01:12:57 - No, no, no.

01:12:58 It's offensive, defense, special team.

01:13:00 They all care about each other.

01:13:02 They're all checking each other.

01:13:03 - They're tight.

01:13:04 We talked about what happened at halftime

01:13:06 with Wyatt's situation.

01:13:09 What was impressive to me was the job the staff did

01:13:12 against an up-tempo team, still finding a way,

01:13:16 when you look at the snap counts of that D-line,

01:13:18 to get them ending the night

01:13:20 within their snap count target distribution.

01:13:22 I mean, listen to some of the breakdown.

01:13:25 Eddie Vee, 49 snaps, most of the D-line.

01:13:28 Big Mike, 44.

01:13:29 Sean Martin, 42.

01:13:31 You get down to Tomey, 28.

01:13:33 Fatorma, 21.

01:13:34 Jalen, 17.

01:13:36 It's not as easy when the other team's going tempo

01:13:38 the way they did.

01:13:39 But I'll say this, Sean.

01:13:41 You hit on something.

01:13:42 When we were all out on that field

01:13:44 and it was like the whole sidelines emptied onto the field

01:13:46 20 feet from them, right?

01:13:48 In a weird way, just in a real world

01:13:54 personal experience kind of way,

01:13:57 not even a football high and low kind of way.

01:13:59 It had nothing to do with it.

01:14:00 But the most personally moved I've ever been

01:14:04 on a football field, that was in the top two.

01:14:07 Watching those kids and just what we heard

01:14:10 and what we saw out of the reaction of his teammates,

01:14:13 it made me feel the only thing that I've been around,

01:14:16 and this is to some extent apples to oranges,

01:14:20 fortunately, with these injuries,

01:14:22 we now have even better news than we thought on Auburn.

01:14:26 Okay?

01:14:27 He might in fact have a shot at Houston.

01:14:28 We'll see.

01:14:29 Don't throw it to cart before the horse,

01:14:30 but it's not long-term.

01:14:31 It's none of the things we initially feared.

01:14:34 Thank heavens.

01:14:35 So let's first establish that from an injury standpoint,

01:14:38 he's been cleared and it's none of those things.

01:14:40 But I remember being at Rutgers

01:14:44 the year that Eric LeGrand suffered the injury.

01:14:47 And we were the game at the end of the year

01:14:50 that in a wheelchair, he led them down out of the tunnel

01:14:54 and onto the field.

01:14:55 And I was standing there next to him

01:14:57 and I saw his team.

01:15:00 It took me back to that.

01:15:01 - Yeah.

01:15:02 - It was just, wow.

01:15:05 I mean, the reaction of those kids was so real, so raw.

01:15:09 It hurt us.

01:15:11 It hurt us.

01:15:12 And it's difficult to describe what we were seeing

01:15:17 or feeling or experiencing, much less what they were.

01:15:20 But, ugh.

01:15:22 - Neil and the guys said it post-game,

01:15:24 that's one of the most emotionally draining games

01:15:26 you'll ever see.

01:15:27 Not only do we have that happen to Aubrey,

01:15:29 and then we've got players kind of going down

01:15:31 along the way, then Trey happens at the very end.

01:15:34 And Trey on that cart is writhing in pain.

01:15:37 Like, again, we got good news today, surgery went well.

01:15:40 His mom was there, thank God, all that stuff.

01:15:43 But how they were able to bounce back,

01:15:45 you only do that when you're as close as you are.

01:15:49 And you and the other players around you know,

01:15:51 okay, we're going to do this for them.

01:15:53 We believe in each other, we support each other.

01:15:56 - And that's CJ's boy.

01:15:57 - CJ's boy is Trey, they grew up together.

01:15:59 They've known each other since they were

01:16:00 three or four years old.

01:16:01 And not only that, but CJ's reaction to Aubrey.

01:16:05 You know, I mean, all those kids were going through a lot.

01:16:09 A lot.

01:16:10 - Jed, you were talking about the defensive line

01:16:14 and the snap count and everything.

01:16:15 When they're driving at the end of the game,

01:16:17 and they had a couple of plays where they strung together,

01:16:20 I was watching Eddie, and Eddie is just toast.

01:16:23 He's torched, he can barely get down in his stance.

01:16:26 But as soon as they snap the ball, he's moving, he's moving.

01:16:29 They had that little incomplete out of bounds.

01:16:32 The ball had not touched the sidelines,

01:16:35 and we got three fresh guys going in,

01:16:37 just to sub in so that we can get them.

01:16:39 And then what happens?

01:16:41 They're the ones at the end of the game

01:16:42 that come in and block the field goal.

01:16:44 'Cause it was the Mike, Eddie, Sean line, hot swap.

01:16:47 They've got a little bit of juice left in them,

01:16:49 and then you see what happens.

01:16:50 - I couldn't help but notice,

01:16:52 in those critical final snaps,

01:16:54 you had late in the game, you had the sack by Lee.

01:16:58 This tells you a lot about the leaders of this football team.

01:17:04 The entire sideline, including the defenders

01:17:06 who were standing next to me and not on the field,

01:17:09 they were all screaming yes for the defense at large

01:17:12 to do something to make a play.

01:17:13 They were specifically, individually screaming for Lee Koba.

01:17:16 Lee, we need it.

01:17:19 You could hear the whole sideline yelling for Lee Koba.

01:17:22 It's your time to win this game for us.

01:17:25 And I was like, wow, that's powerful.

01:17:28 You know what I mean, Owen?

01:17:29 When you're doing that, that says a lot.

01:17:32 - Yeah, it's pretty cool.

01:17:33 And he's earned that, you know what I mean?

01:17:35 He's that guy on the field.

01:17:37 I think he spoke about that a little bit

01:17:38 in his presser he did after the game.

01:17:41 And he seemed super honored to have that right

01:17:44 and privilege, and that just goes to show,

01:17:47 he's put a lot of hard work in, man.

01:17:50 A lot of hard work,

01:17:50 and those players are absolutely behind him 100%.

01:17:54 - No, they all have.

01:17:55 Again, I mean, Jed laid it out nicely at the start of this.

01:17:58 From the emotion that was Pitt, right?

01:18:00 And just 12 years of waiting for those guys

01:18:03 to come back to Morgantown,

01:18:04 the way everything played out last year

01:18:06 in the renewal of the brawl.

01:18:07 And then Texas Tech in your big 12 opener

01:18:09 and a team that's beat the crap out of you in large.

01:18:12 I mean, there were some close games in the last four years,

01:18:13 but they beat you four straight times

01:18:15 and they beat the crap out of you last year.

01:18:17 And then to go on the road in that heat,

01:18:19 night game in TCU, jacked up crowd, all these things,

01:18:22 good team, really good offense

01:18:24 that our defense was going against.

01:18:26 I mean, guys, I, like, I, that was, I think, the most,

01:18:31 well, other than Pitt, I should say,

01:18:32 other than the Pitt, other than the backyard brawl win,

01:18:34 that was the most satisfied I was after a victory,

01:18:37 I think, since the Will Greer Texas game in 2018,

01:18:42 but for a completely different reason.

01:18:44 I mean, the injuries on defense, on offense,

01:18:47 just every reason to not win that football game.

01:18:51 As Jed pointed out, over 300 yards of offense for TCU

01:18:55 in the first half, and you just,

01:18:56 it's the theme of the first five games of the year.

01:18:58 You just bleep and find a way, man.

01:19:01 And like, I love these guys.

01:19:03 Like, I get jammed up.

01:19:04 Like, I get chills thinking about it because this,

01:19:07 the best team, not the best teams,

01:19:09 the easiest teams to root for,

01:19:12 I don't care what the sport is,

01:19:13 the easiest teams to root for

01:19:14 are the ones that embody your city,

01:19:17 your state, your university,

01:19:19 whatever the sport may be, right?

01:19:21 I mean, and this team just embodies West Virginia.

01:19:26 Just hard nose, just grit, just together,

01:19:31 and just scratching and clawing every single snap.

01:19:34 - Rank last. - Find a way, yeah.

01:19:36 - 49th to 50th, they're 14. - Right, right.

01:19:39 - West, I wanna ask you something.

01:19:40 - Getting degraded by everybody before the season starts,

01:19:43 and just--

01:19:44 - 'Cause I think you're gonna have

01:19:45 a great answer to this question.

01:19:46 Early last year, we started this podcast.

01:19:50 Not long into it was the Pitt game,

01:19:54 the loss up in Pittsburgh.

01:19:56 And you talked about being the voice of the fan

01:19:59 and that we didn't go for the fourth and one,

01:20:02 and we argued the merits of one way or the other.

01:20:04 We penned them on the eight with the punt,

01:20:05 it didn't work out.

01:20:07 You said, "Look, all fans want,"

01:20:09 and you said this bravely.

01:20:10 You said, "All fans want are a moment."

01:20:14 Something to sink your teeth into and remember,

01:20:16 and chew on, a moment.

01:20:18 Did you see any moments the other night?

01:20:22 - Oh, buddy, I saw six or seven.

01:20:24 - See?

01:20:25 - And I mean, listen, it's been a great start to the season,

01:20:29 better than I think any of us envisioned.

01:20:32 I mean, even I think the most optimistic amongst us

01:20:34 were thinking, "Okay, let's get to the end

01:20:35 "of September three and two," right?

01:20:37 I mean, let's beat Pitt, let's get to three and two,

01:20:40 let's split those first big 12 games,

01:20:42 let's beat Pitt, let's get to three and two,

01:20:43 and then things slow down and let's see how it goes.

01:20:46 And I don't care how it plays out the rest of the way,

01:20:50 whether we end the season 10 and two,

01:20:53 whether we end the season seven and five,

01:20:55 I am so damn proud of this team.

01:20:58 And it's been, man, like I said,

01:21:00 I haven't had this much fun watching the Mountaineers

01:21:04 in a long time.

01:21:05 It's been awesome.

01:21:06 They embody everything that you want them to be.

01:21:10 Again, the best teams do that, right?

01:21:12 The teams that really attach to their...

01:21:14 It's why you still here in Western Pennsylvania,

01:21:17 50 years later, you get all the nostalgia

01:21:19 about the Steel Curtain, right?

01:21:20 Because I mean, that was a team

01:21:22 that embodied Pittsburgh at the time,

01:21:24 steel and grit and hard nose and punch you in the mouth,

01:21:27 right?

01:21:28 Like that's what this team is.

01:21:29 This team embodies West Virginia,

01:21:31 discounted, trashed, talked down upon,

01:21:34 all these different things,

01:21:36 and just go out there and prove everybody wrong

01:21:38 and find a way.

01:21:39 And God, man, I'm getting fired up again.

01:21:42 I'm getting emotional again.

01:21:42 It's been so much, it's been so much fun.

01:21:45 And I just hope it does continue.

01:21:47 Again, I'm not naive enough to think

01:21:49 we're dealing with a lot of injuries right now.

01:21:50 Your quarterback's banged up,

01:21:51 your offensive line's banged up.

01:21:52 Some of your best players on defense are banged up.

01:21:54 I'm not naive enough to think

01:21:56 there couldn't come a point at some...

01:21:57 Maybe this team loses a couple of games in a row,

01:21:59 but God, man, I hope they finish this off

01:22:03 because this could be a season

01:22:06 that we talk about for a long time.

01:22:07 And I don't mean finish this off

01:22:08 like I expect them to go win a Big 12 championship

01:22:10 and be ranked in the top 10,

01:22:12 but I really hope they keep this thing humming.

01:22:15 They're gonna, I mean, maybe I'm wrong.

01:22:17 I hope I'm wrong.

01:22:18 They're not gonna go 11 and one this year.

01:22:19 Like we're gonna lose at some point,

01:22:22 but I just, man, it's been so much fun.

01:22:25 And I hope we're looking back in December

01:22:27 and that this was the start of a really special year,

01:22:30 not just kind of the peak of it.

01:22:32 - Agreed.

01:22:35 I think it can happen though, Wes.

01:22:37 - I think so too, Wes.

01:22:38 - You gotta believe, brother.

01:22:40 - I think so too.

01:22:40 And the ESPN Power Index went from predicting us

01:22:44 to win three games at the beginning of the season

01:22:46 to now they're predicting us to win nine games this season.

01:22:49 So we're turning some doubters into some believers.

01:22:54 - This feels to me, again,

01:22:58 as somebody who did a crazy deep dive

01:23:01 into Neil and Troy when we hired him,

01:23:04 when Neil got Troy cranking, it felt a lot like this.

01:23:08 It was ugly.

01:23:10 It was almost all ugly.

01:23:11 When you look at their biggest,

01:23:13 the one at LSU was ugly.

01:23:14 The one at Nebraska was ugly.

01:23:17 So ugly, they're beautiful.

01:23:19 This feels like that.

01:23:21 It's not time capsule stuff.

01:23:23 That's not who Neil Brown is.

01:23:24 - See, I think Saturday night was time capsule stuff.

01:23:29 - Yeah, absolutely.

01:23:30 Hey, you know what time capsule stuff is?

01:23:32 Winning.

01:23:33 You win enough games,

01:23:34 it automatically goes in the time capsule.

01:23:36 You don't say, "No, really, I'm gonna tell my kids

01:23:39 about how a few years ago,

01:23:41 we couldn't even put somebody back to field punts

01:23:44 because it was special teams were such a disaster.

01:23:46 And our defense blocked,

01:23:47 or our special teams blocked two field goals

01:23:49 to secure victory in 157 degree heat down there in Texas.

01:23:53 - 50 years from now,

01:23:54 I'll be telling about the team that gave up 312 yards

01:23:58 in the first half in Texas heat

01:24:00 and gave up three feet in the third quarter.

01:24:03 That's what I'll be telling about.

01:24:05 - Gave up over 300 yards in the first half

01:24:06 and gave up 21 points the whole game.

01:24:08 I mean- - Shut them out in a second.

01:24:10 - Yeah. - Guys,

01:24:11 and this is not a nut,

01:24:12 'cause a lot of the guys that are on the roster now

01:24:14 have been last year, two years ago, three years ago.

01:24:16 If this game is last year, if this game's two years,

01:24:21 we lose that game by double digits.

01:24:23 I mean, they had every reason to get beat on Saturday night.

01:24:27 Every reason in the world.

01:24:29 - Big Dan, you were the walker in pregame.

01:24:31 - Yeah. - Correct me if I'm wrong.

01:24:33 What game, what other pregame this year we've seen

01:24:38 felt like that?

01:24:40 To me, there was one.

01:24:42 - See, I wasn't in the locker room for any of the home-

01:24:45 - Okay, that's right, it's true.

01:24:46 Oh, well, I'll tell you, Pitt.

01:24:48 - Yeah.

01:24:48 - It had that eerie, quiet focus of-

01:24:51 - Yeah, I'm telling you,

01:24:52 like when they played the highlight video,

01:24:54 normally the guy, there's a big hit,

01:24:56 that the guys are saying,

01:24:57 everybody sat there quietly, nodding their head.

01:24:59 The entire time Neil spoke,

01:25:01 everybody sat there nodding their head

01:25:02 and they just took the field and that was it.

01:25:05 - Yep.

01:25:06 - And then they came back.

01:25:07 - In 2005, when we ended up playing

01:25:10 in the Sugar Bowl there,

01:25:12 there was a, you just keep going to the next game

01:25:17 and then you win it.

01:25:18 And then it's like, the next game's here again

01:25:21 and you win that game.

01:25:24 And then all of a sudden you're like,

01:25:26 shit boys, it's the end of the season right now.

01:25:28 We're-

01:25:29 - We're pretty good.

01:25:30 - We're pretty good.

01:25:31 We're going to a major bowl game.

01:25:33 - Yep.

01:25:34 - You know what I mean?

01:25:35 That's how it goes, man.

01:25:36 I mean, and they're not going to all be great.

01:25:39 The story would suck if they were all blowouts.

01:25:43 You know what I mean?

01:25:44 - Yes.

01:25:45 - So it's incredible.

01:25:47 It's fun to watch and I hope they keep it continued success.

01:25:50 We just got to get healthy.

01:25:51 This is a great time for the bye man.

01:25:53 - Look, I don't know what good looks like through 12 games.

01:25:55 I can give a guess 'cause I don't have a time machine,

01:25:59 but I know what good looks like through five games

01:26:02 and through five games, four and one looks good to me.

01:26:05 - Yeah.

01:26:06 - I don't know about the games we haven't played.

01:26:07 I'm not going to play that game.

01:26:08 Well, what about this?

01:26:09 We're not good enough at this.

01:26:10 We're not good enough at that.

01:26:11 We'll lose this because of that.

01:26:12 You have, you go make yourself miserable

01:26:14 with those conversations.

01:26:15 I know that through five games, which we have played,

01:26:19 four and one looks pretty good to me.

01:26:21 I don't know about six, seven or eight or nine or 10,

01:26:23 but I know through five games,

01:26:25 four and one looks good to me.

01:26:26 - Yep.

01:26:28 - Haven't had this much fun watching a WVU team

01:26:30 in a long time and long may it continue.

01:26:33 This has been a long episode,

01:26:35 but man, I think we all needed it.

01:26:36 This is, this is great.

01:26:37 This is what we, in our short history of the podcast,

01:26:41 like this is what we've been waiting for.

01:26:42 Four game win streak.

01:26:44 Like this is, this is, this is why you're,

01:26:46 this is why you're a fan.

01:26:48 And, but with that being said, I think for all of us,

01:26:51 for all of us emotionally,

01:26:52 for the team physically and emotionally,

01:26:55 as Owen said a few times and pointed out the reasons why,

01:26:57 great time for a bye week.

01:26:59 Gentlemen, this has gone on way too long,

01:27:00 but quickly, Sean, bye week plans?

01:27:04 Taking a little deckland to some fall festivals.

01:27:06 I mean, what are you doing?

01:27:06 - Columbus, Ohio.

01:27:08 Gonna go get a little,

01:27:09 go get a little Legoland action, hit the zoo.

01:27:12 - Your old stomping grounds from your first

01:27:15 post-college job.

01:27:16 - And hit the old halls, catch up with some folks,

01:27:18 go get some--

01:27:19 - What's the town center?

01:27:20 - Take a breath.

01:27:21 Easton, yep.

01:27:21 - Easton, there you go.

01:27:22 Okay, Easton, yep.

01:27:23 That's a nice one.

01:27:25 - Come out over the summer.

01:27:26 He fell in love with Legoland.

01:27:27 Let's go back.

01:27:29 - Love it, love it.

01:27:30 Well, folks, this has been a lot of fun.

01:27:31 If you've stuck with us this whole time,

01:27:33 you're a real one.

01:27:34 God bless you.

01:27:34 Or you're Ray Frazier, right?

01:27:36 - That's right.

01:27:39 Or you're Ray Frazier.

01:27:40 - You guys gotta keep giving me these Zach Frazier stories

01:27:42 because I already, the combine is what, five months away?

01:27:47 Yeah, five months away till I'll be in Indianapolis

01:27:49 for a week for the,

01:27:49 I already cannot wait to talk about Zach Frazier

01:27:52 to everybody at the combine.

01:27:53 I can't, I can't.

01:27:55 By the time I leave Indianapolis,

01:27:57 he's gonna be a top 10 pick.

01:27:58 That's how I'm gonna talk this guy up so much.

01:28:01 I love it.

01:28:03 Thanks to all of our presenting sponsors.

01:28:06 Fortis as well too for roof performance

01:28:08 and financial certainty.

01:28:09 Make sure you visit fortis.us.com.

01:28:12 Big thank you as always to our handsome tubby man of gold,

01:28:15 ITK, dropping soon in the kitchen with Sean Mariner

01:28:19 for Jed Drinning and the Runaway Beer Truck.

01:28:22 Our producer Skylar Callahan as well,

01:28:24 doing great stuff as always.

01:28:25 The one thing we ask of you is to be in here

01:28:27 and tell an ear about your new favorite

01:28:29 WVU football podcast.

01:28:31 Take care everybody.

01:28:32 And we'll talk to you soon.

01:28:33 You've been in the gun.

01:28:35 (door opening)

01:28:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]

ITG 95 - Big Daddy Kicks Off WVU Bye Week

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