Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: WVU Runs Over BYU
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Well, that was fun.
00:11 West Virginia winning 37 to 7 over the BYU Cougars, improving to 6 and 3.
00:17 They are now bowl eligible and now move to 6 and 3 on the year,
00:22 4 and 2 on the year in Big 12 play.
00:25 I'm Skylar Kelland, that is Eugene Napoleon.
00:27 This is the Mountaineers Now post game show presented by Country Roads Air Duct
00:31 Cleaning, take me home to comfort.
00:33 And let's take a look at some of the numbers here before we dive into our
00:36 analysis of the game.
00:37 West Virginia, a total of 567 yards of offense in this one.
00:44 From start to finish, just did just about anything that they wanted to do against
00:48 this BYU team.
00:49 336 of those yards came via the ground game.
00:54 Thunder and Lightning duo in the backfield with Jaheim White and CJ Donaldson.
00:59 Jaheim White going for 146 yards on 16 carries.
01:03 CJ Donaldson, a buck or two and two scores.
01:07 Meanwhile, Garrett Green completed 50% of his passes but
01:11 did throw for 205 yards and two touchdowns, took care of the ball, no picks.
01:15 And for BYU, Jake Retzeloff, his first start of the year, 24 of 42, 210 yards.
01:22 So Gene, before we get into West Virginia, because there's a lot of stuff that we
01:26 can talk about with West Virginia, I do want to talk a little bit about Jake
01:31 Retzeloff and kind of maybe the player that BYU has.
01:35 Because even though the offense didn't do a whole lot,
01:39 he looked like a decent quarterback that they can maybe build with here at the last
01:43 few games of the season and leading into their next two years.
01:46 Because he's gonna be able to redshirt this year still,
01:49 because he sat out all up until this point.
01:52 Look, I'm telling you now, BYU missed a couple of receivers in this game.
01:56 They're missing a couple of pieces up front.
01:59 I think they got something in this Jake Retzeloff kid.
02:02 >> They do, no, he's good.
02:03 He's only gonna get better.
02:05 When you put more pieces around him, he's gonna be fine.
02:08 You get a running game going, that's gonna help him take a lot of pressure off of him.
02:11 He's a good quarterback.
02:13 Even though we got a chance to see a little bit of a sample size of what he can do,
02:17 I'm with you, Skylar.
02:19 I think he's gonna be really, really good down the road.
02:22 And I'm gonna tell you what, BYU, again, I told you before,
02:25 I really like their program.
02:28 The bottom line is, right, just too much firepower tonight.
02:33 Defensively, we came to play, and it is what it is.
02:37 But I do like this young quarterback.
02:39 I think for years to come, you're gonna be hearing his name, and
02:42 he's gonna be putting up some pretty good numbers.
02:43 >> Well, Kalani Sataki got his wish, right?
02:47 He was able to hear Country Roads inside Mountaineer Field.
02:52 But look, it was a dominating performance from start to finish.
02:57 Shout out to the BYU faithful who were able to make the trip to Morgantown.
03:01 There was a lot of BYU fans in attendance.
03:03 Also thought it was a pretty cool nod.
03:05 I don't know if it was meant to honor West Virginia or whatever, but
03:09 BYU actually ran out with the West Virginia state flag.
03:12 It was just a really cool thing there at the beginning of the game,
03:17 just a program that it's hard to dislike, right?
03:19 I mean, you could dislike some of these new Big 12 schools that come in, but
03:23 everything about BYU from top to bottom, from Kalani Sataki and
03:27 the way he handles things there, top down, great.
03:30 Their fans are tremendous.
03:31 We had a few comment on our walkthrough game day show earlier this week.
03:35 Thank you guys for tuning in, and
03:37 hopefully you'll be tuning in to future West Virginia BYU content in the future.
03:42 But over to the West Virginia side of this.
03:46 This is exactly what we had been looking for, I'd say, since Big 12 play started.
03:52 You thought maybe you could get it against the Houston Cougars, right?
03:55 A team that's towards the bottom of the Big 12 standings.
03:58 You got into a shootout with that one.
04:00 We all know how that one ended.
04:01 But there's been some games where you felt, even last week in Orlando against UCF,
04:05 it felt like West Virginia was really gonna just kind of pull away.
04:09 And they did to some degree, but not like this.
04:11 This was a whole different type of result, and
04:15 one that I think can really build some momentum here in these final three games.
04:19 >> Absolutely, well, again, when you put everything together,
04:22 you put a running game together, which again,
04:24 takes a lot of pressure off the passing game.
04:27 You don't have to rely on that as much.
04:29 Things like this is possible because you're gonna eat up the clock, number one.
04:33 You're constantly getting first downs, and you're getting explosive plays.
04:36 I think we was averaging 9 point whatever per carry, 9.2,
04:40 9.4, somewhere in there per carry.
04:44 Dude, when you put up those type of numbers,
04:48 the scoreboard is gonna be very favorable to you.
04:51 >> It is.
04:52 >> Your defense is loving it because they're getting a chance to get some rest.
04:55 And you're really showing what happens when you're not so
05:01 one dimensional.
05:02 What I mean by that is, you got a bevy of backs that can rotate.
05:07 There are different styles of backs that we have in our arsenal.
05:12 And we were able to utilize them all.
05:14 And again, Green still put up the kind of numbers that he needs to put up
05:18 to continue to get the offense, to continue to keep the offense moving.
05:21 So I was very impressed with what I saw tonight.
05:25 And to be honest with you, Skyler, this is what I expected out of our offense.
05:30 Probably, to be honest with you, after the Penn State game,
05:35 I expected this type of offense for the remaining part of the season.
05:40 >> Yeah. >> So to get it now,
05:41 I'm good because we have three more games to even improve on what we did tonight.
05:45 >> Well, I'm glad you brought that up cuz I was actually exactly where I was gonna
05:50 go with this because over the last three weeks,
05:52 we've really seen this offense kind of light up a little bit.
05:56 Actually, the last four weeks, since the bye week, really.
05:59 Houston, Oklahoma State, UCF, and tonight.
06:02 But you gotta go back to the beginning of the season, Garrett Green again,
06:06 I can't mention it a million times.
06:09 And it's a huge part of it.
06:12 He only played the Penn State game.
06:14 He played half the Duquesne game, then he gets hurt early in the Pitt game.
06:18 It took him a while to gain some of that rhythm.
06:21 Again, he didn't have his best tonight, but he didn't need to.
06:25 But when you look at some of the other parts of this offense, I mean,
06:28 EJ Horton, he's starting to come to life a little bit.
06:31 And at the beginning of the season, he didn't really know what he was doing.
06:33 I mean, he was still trying to figure out his role and
06:35 understand what to do in this offense.
06:38 And now that Jaheim White has become a part of this offense,
06:42 it took him a couple of months to understand how to be
06:47 great throughout the week in practice.
06:48 But now that he's a part of this, this just opens up a whole other dimension.
06:53 And I also need to mention, this West Virginia offensive line has been
06:58 taking a beating, I mean, it goes from Tomas Remack being out to Wyatt Milam being
07:03 out, then you get those guys back, then Doug Nestor goes out,
07:06 Brandon Yates was a little dinged up tonight.
07:08 So for them to be able to do what they've done over these last four weeks with
07:13 kind of a pieced together offensive line is even more impressive to me.
07:18 >> Well, again, I'm gonna tell you, whenever you can run the football,
07:23 I'm not just saying it cuz I'm a former back, but
07:26 whenever you can run the football, good things tend to happen.
07:31 And I said this, we talked about this in the pregame,
07:35 early part during the week, this is what we needed to do to impose our will.
07:42 And let me clear up something cuz I wanna make sure that I'm very clear with our
07:46 BYU fans, listen, I'm a big fan of BYU.
07:49 So when I said BYU, I was just really joking around,
07:53 there's no disrespect to that program or their fan base at all.
07:57 That's a tremendous school, it's a tremendous program,
08:00 it's a tremendous fan base.
08:01 So let me go ahead and clear that up.
08:04 All right, I wanna make sure I'm respectful, but tonight was a great night.
08:11 It kinda shows what we can do when we're focused, it kinda shows the things that
08:16 this offense can elevate to a certain point, which also helps the defense.
08:21 Because the defense played very well tonight,
08:24 I mean, I have no complaints with our defense at all.
08:28 You had a real, that's a good offensive unit,
08:31 BYU has with those receivers and the quarterback can get the ball to them.
08:35 And we did a excellent job of keeping everything in front of us,
08:38 not getting beat deep, all that good stuff.
08:41 So I'm really looking forward to seeing what we do in Norman next week.
08:46 >> Yeah, that'll be a big one.
08:48 Again, if you can somehow pull out a win against Oklahoma,
08:52 you're gonna be in the thick of things.
08:55 We'll show the schedule here in a minute.
08:58 Last thing I wanted to touch on with this running game before I asked you a question
09:01 about Garrett Green.
09:03 When you have this kinda thunder lightning type duo, like a CJ Donaldson,
09:07 who's gonna hammer you and hammer you and hammer you.
09:09 And then you can bring in Jaheim White,
09:11 who's just gonna make you miss in space and just kill you with his speed.
09:16 I mean, I don't remember a dynamic duo like this for
09:20 West Virginia in recent memory.
09:22 Like I would have to go way, way, way back.
09:25 But I mean, just the thought of those two different types of backs in this offense
09:30 and having the success that they're having.
09:32 Speak to this because you are a former running back.
09:36 How much does this help an offense go and
09:39 actually get them going in the passing game too?
09:43 >> It's a tremendous boost, it really is.
09:45 I mean, you think about all the teams that can run the football successfully,
09:50 it opens up play action for your passing game.
09:54 And the fact that we can do that now- >> With two different styles.
09:59 >> With totally different styles, it puts so
10:01 much more pressure on the defense.
10:04 Like I said, that play action becomes significantly different now when you can,
10:09 you've been successfully running it, pounding it with CJ.
10:13 Now you come back with White, and all of a sudden, either one of them back there,
10:17 you give it and pull it.
10:20 You're opening up different passing lines, long, short, screens,
10:24 all that stuff is open to playbook.
10:26 Look, if I'm the OC, that's a beautiful place to be,
10:29 when you have a successful running game.
10:31 And it votes well for this time of year.
10:37 We needed this to happen right now.
10:39 These next three weeks is going to be quite interesting, because we finally
10:44 have the running game that I thought we would have had early part of the season.
10:48 >> Yeah, and last thing I wanna ask you about in terms of this game is Garrett
10:54 Green, again, completed 50% of his passes, did take care of the football.
10:59 Which this, I guess, is a pretty good feat, because BYU is one of the top
11:03 getters in the country, or in the Big 12 at least, in terms of turning teams over.
11:07 They had 12 interceptions on the year coming into this game.
11:10 We talked about that as well, but to me, Garrett is, he's this close, right?
11:18 He's this close to being a true star quarterback.
11:22 And the reason why I say he's not quite there yet is because he's missing some of
11:26 these easy layups, right, these easy slam dunks that are just little passes out
11:32 to the flat, whether it's the screens or maybe he's got a guy tailing downfield and
11:37 heading toward the sideline and he's wide open, or
11:39 at least he has a complete two or three steps on his guy.
11:43 And all he's gotta do is put it right there.
11:45 If he just gets better ball placement,
11:48 those things can turn into big plays, first downs, touchdowns.
11:52 And it seems like he's just consistently been missing these all season long.
11:55 Neil Brown has talked about this at length.
11:57 If he can piece that part of his game together,
12:03 what is the ceiling for this team?
12:06 >> Dude, let me, okay, this is not even for the, well, okay.
12:14 For the rest of the three games that we have for this season, plus the bowl game,
12:19 if he, if Green can somehow progress and
12:25 start progressing in his passing game, not talk about moving the ball with his feet,
12:31 cuz we know he can do that.
12:32 If that happens, do you know how that sets him up for next season?
12:38 >> Man.
12:39 >> I mean, because once you get in the rhythm of doing that and
12:43 once you learn that, first off, to be honest with you, ball placement is one
12:47 thing, but it's the touch on the ball.
12:51 >> Yeah. >> It's the touch that he also needs to
12:53 learn how to control.
12:54 And again, that's gonna come down to just the extra repping and
12:59 all that type of stuff that you do with your receivers and your backs and
13:02 all that good stuff.
13:02 And more importantly, that comes down to what you do in practice,
13:06 with your OC, with your quarterback coach, and with the head coach.
13:10 All that stuff plays a role in his overall development.
13:14 It's not just on him to develop himself.
13:18 So once that happens, I'm gonna tell you, okay,
13:22 I know Coach Brown talks about it.
13:24 Okay, you talk about it, but what are you doing about it?
13:26 >> Action.
13:28 >> That's the deal, okay?
13:30 Let's put it this way, action is a verb.
13:33 >> Yeah. >> Action is a verb.
13:37 So what are you doing about it to help him to develop in those areas?
13:42 The arm talent that Garrett has is one thing.
13:47 He can throw the football, but being able to throw the ball consistently
13:52 down the field is something that if we can improve in that area,
13:57 plus the running game that we have, it is a wrap.
14:01 I'm telling you, if, when, I'm speaking to existence.
14:07 When Garrett Green improves in that area, with what he already has as a runner,
14:13 he's already dynamic moving the chains with his legs.
14:18 And you're right, he's about, he's almost there with becoming that true
14:23 dual threat guy, where if a defense says we're gonna pack it in and
14:28 he's gonna have to throw the ball 25, 30 plus times to beat us with his arm.
14:34 We're not gonna be afraid of that here in a short window of time once he develops
14:38 that skill, it's gonna be a wrap, I'm telling you.
14:41 >> It is, I mean, like I said, he has been phenomenal all season long.
14:44 He's take care of the football, he's electric with his legs.
14:46 He didn't even really need to use his legs tonight, but he can do that too.
14:51 It's just gotta get the easy dinks and dunks that defenses are giving him.
14:56 If he takes advantage of that, it's like you said, it could be a wrap.
14:59 So with that win, Eugene, West Virginia is now in a five way tie.
15:06 Get this, for second place, the team that everyone projected 14th and Big 12.
15:11 Five way tie for second place, Kansas took down Iowa State tonight.
15:15 That creates that five way tie between Kansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma,
15:18 Kansas State, and West Virginia.
15:21 And we'll go ahead and take a look at the road ahead here for West Virginia.
15:24 Again, next week is a big one.
15:26 It is a massive, massive showdown.
15:29 I can't state it enough.
15:31 West Virginia at Oklahoma, the time for that one is TBD.
15:35 But if they get past Oklahoma, they have a legitimate shot to get to Dallas for
15:39 the Big 12 Championship game.
15:42 They're gonna need a little help, but at least they will have an opportunity
15:46 because they come back home against Cincinnati, who is two and seven.
15:49 And Baylor on the road, who is three and six, but is now one and six.
15:54 One and six, I repeat that, one and six at home.
15:59 So you'll like your chances if you're the Mountaineers to get to Dallas,
16:04 if you can get by the Sooners who have now lost two in a row.
16:08 So what does that mean for Oklahoma?
16:10 Is this a team that feels crushed that their national championship hopes are
16:14 dashed?
16:15 Or is it somebody that's gonna come out and ticked off and still feel like they
16:19 can make it a special season by getting to the Big 12 Championship game?
16:22 So we'll see.
16:24 Gene, final thoughts on tonight's game and what's ahead.
16:27 >> Man, I was just really excited from the start to the very last snap of the game.
16:36 I'm hoping that we can take this and travel this to Norman next week.
16:42 And if we do, boy, them poor Sooner Boomers, boy.
16:47 >> [LAUGH] >> It could be pretty special.
16:52 I'm excited for our program and I'm excited for our coaching staff.
16:55 I'm excited for the state of West Virginia.
16:57 This is a really, really, it feels good to be in this place.
17:00 It does, because in the beginning of the season, everybody wrote,
17:04 as always, they wrote the Mountaineers off.
17:06 And right now we're sitting, well, I wasn't gonna go there, but okay.
17:11 I'll take it because- >> Hey, hey, by the way,
17:13 I got the pick right this week.
17:16 >> Yeah, you did.
17:18 You did.
17:19 >> I'm blue.
17:20 Maybe the curse is broken.
17:22 >> It could be.
17:23 So you gotta pick up again next week.
17:26 >> I do, I do.
17:27 So we thank you guys for tuning into Mountaineers Now post game show.
17:33 As always, and for tuning into our coverage throughout the entire week.
17:36 We've got West Virginia and Oklahoma next week.
17:39 Tomorrow I'll be back for the morning after episode that I do each week.
17:44 And then we'll get into how West Virginia can beat Oklahoma.
17:47 And then I'll be back with Eugene on Thursday to preview West Virginia,
17:53 Oklahoma for next week in week 11.
17:56 My goodness, we're already into week 11.
17:59 It's crazy to say already, but my goodness.
18:02 West Virginia bowl eligible, as I said, with this win, they're six and
18:06 three on the season.
18:07 Everything that they want is still ahead of them.
18:10 And we'll see how they respond in Norman next week after they beat down,
18:16 beat down BYU 37 to 7.
18:19 So for Eugene Napoleon, I'm Scott Calahan.
18:21 Thank you guys for tuning in to the Mountaineers Now post game show.
18:24 Hit that subscribe button on YouTube at Mountaineers Now.
18:28 And I'll be back with you guys in the morning.
18:30 So thank you and take care.
18:31 [MUSIC]