MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Judging from some of the looks senior center Tyler Orlosky was giving us yesterday having to answer the same questions over and over again, it’s clear he’s ready to move on to the Missouri Tigers, West Virginia University’s game one opponent here on Saturday, September 3, at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Orlosky’s coach, Dana Holgorsen, said he’s beginning to familiarize himself with the Tigers as well.
“I know a little about Missouri, not nearly as much I will know a week from now,” he said. “The assistant coaches (already) have a good knowledge of Missouri.”
Veteran offensive line coach Ron Crook is becoming quite familiar with Missouri’s talented defensive line consisting of Terry Beckner Jr., Rickey Hatley, Josh Augusta and Josh Moore - perhaps the most formidable front four the Mountaineers will face all season, Oklahoma, TCU and Texas included.
This group, even with the summer dismissal of Harold Brantley, is going to give Crook’s Crew fits, that’s for sure.
“They are a great football team defensively,” Crook said Tuesday afternoon. “They’ve got some big dogs up front that really play hard and they’re athletic.”
Big dogs with not only a lot of bark, but also plenty of bite to match it.
These guys helped Missouri rank 13th in the country and third in the SEC in total defense last year, and moving the ball by land consistently against them was a chore for everyone.
This is a group that also won 24 football games during a two-year period in 2013-14, and some believe Missouri could be one of the surprise teams in the SEC East this year good enough to make a return trip to a bowl game following its disappointing 5-7 record in 2015.
In order for Missouri to right the ship this year, however, it is going to have to figure out how to score more than the 13.6 points per game the Tigers averaged last year.
Compounding matters, Missouri is going to have to figure things out with a completely new cast of characters in the offensive meeting room, starting with a brand new coaching staff brought in by first-year coach Barry Odom, Mizzou’s defensive coordinator last season.
Josh Heupel, a familiar name to Mountaineer fans when he was Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, is the guy now in charge of running Missouri’s offense.
The Tigers brought in fifth-year transfer running back Alex Ross - a name WVU fans are also familiar with during his days playing for the Sooners - to bolster the running game, and Alabama graduate transfer Chris Black to help Missouri’s downfield passing attack.
Drew Lock became the first Missouri true freshman quarterback since Corby Jones in 1995 (another name older Mountaineer fans are familiar with) to start a game as Maty Mauk’s replacement, and he finished the year passing for 1,332 yards and four touchdowns in limited action.
And even without top 2015 touchdown-catcher Nate Brown, who is out for the opener with a preseason ankle injury, and an offensive line that does not return a single starter from last season, Missouri should be capable of moving the sticks through the air.
Where it has to improve drastically - and an area Heupel spent a lot of time working on last spring - is running the football, where the Tigers averaged an anemic 115.4 yards per game last fall.
Having Ross, who in 2014 for the Sooners rushed for 585 yards and four touchdowns and returned two kickoffs for scores - one of those coming against West Virginia - should help matters.
Missouri is also excited about dynamic true freshman wide receiver Dimetrios Mason, so there are plenty of unknowns the Mountaineer coaches will have sort through during the next two weeks leading into game day.
Does Gibson spend his time watching last year’s Missouri tape? Does he watch Utah State, where Heupel was last season?
Does he watch older Oklahoma tape when Heupel was coaching there?
Or, does he also watch some Baylor cutups, where tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley was coaching most recently?
“It’s different,” Gibson admitted. “You’re trying to watch a lot of different things. You get kind of anxious to get rolling into it. It’s overwhelming at times trying to watch four or five different schools (to get an idea what they may do).”
Consequently, Gibson said the most logical thing for them to do is hone in on what his guys are doing best right now and work off of that.
“There is going to be a lot of in-game adjustments once we figure out what they are doing and just kind of go from there with it,” he admitted.
A lot of in-game adjustments, indeed, and a lot of unknowns for the Mountaineers as they turn their attention toward an SEC opponent steeped in tradition, just two years removed from winning 11 football games and losing to Alabama in the SEC championship game.
It should be an interesting afternoon, for sure.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by
logging on to WVUGAME.com or by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
