Upon Further Review: Virginia Tech
September 04, 2017 06:36 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Virginia Tech 31, West Virginia 24. Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's move on to some of the positives that came out of Sunday's game against the Hokies.
No. 1, West Virginia has an outstanding quarterback to build its offense around in Will Grier. For the most part, he looked very comfortable in the pocket, demonstrated an ability to make all of the throws and showed his competitiveness on that fourth down run when he leaped over Hokie backup linebacker Anthony Shegog to make a first down to keep alive West Virginia's drive to try and tie the game at the end.
His 31-of-53, 371-yard, three-touchdown passing performance was the best ever for a debuting Mountaineer quarterback, and it came against a top quality defense.
No. 2, the Mountaineers are going to move the football against any defense they face this year. The 592 yards West Virginia put up last night against Tech were the most yards a Bud Foster defense has ever allowed to the Mountaineers.
And the yardage was not heavily skewed toward the pass as it usually is whenever Foster's defenses give up lots of yards. Grier threw for 371 yards, but five different runners gained 221 yards on 35 attempts for an impressive 6.3 yards-per-carry average.
Even more surprising was how effective Grier was carrying the football, gaining 52 yards on 11 attempts including one run for 14 yards.
"It's hard to get the running game going against those guys," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen pointed out. "They gave up 120 yards a game on the ground last year, and all those guys are the same."
Defenses that choose to use a light box to defend West Virginia's passing game means offensive coordinator Jake Spavital will hand the ball off to Justin Crawford, Kennedy McKoy and Martell Pettaway, or play press-man as the Hokies did most of last night and Spavital will continue to throw the ball down the field to Gary Jennings, David Sills V and Ka'Raun White.
That's balance and that's what all offenses are striving to have.
"It took me a little bit to figure out what type of team we were," Spavital said. "It actually went opposite of what I thought. I thought we were going to be a move-the-pocket team and get it out. I moved the pocket a couple of times and I realized our protection was fine and we could hold up and Will seemed pretty comfortable back there."
No. 3, you can now see why the coaches spent a lot of time praising the work Jennings put in during the offseason. He caught 13 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown last night, and at times he looked like a man doing so.
The junior provides a physical presence the wide receiver corps has been lacking since Kevin White graduated in 2014. And there is plenty to like about Jennings' supporting cast as well. Sills V made a great adjustment on the pass Grier threw to his back shoulder to score the game's first touchdown in the second quarter, and he looks like he's going to be a solid option in the intermediate passing game.
Ka'Raun White, who is still playing catch up after recovering from last year's broken leg, showed some good things on the outside as well. If he can get back to the way he was playing toward the end of last season, that will put additional pressure on opposing defenses.
"Through more practice and through more games, the timing will improve with Will, and they will have extremely big years," Holgorsen predicted. "Virginia Tech is a top 20 defense, they're really good, and for us to be able to get what we got on them, that's a great tribute to what Coach Spavital is doing, and Will, the receivers, the O-line and the running game."
Speaking of the offensive line, with the exception of a couple of holding calls, the pass protection appeared to be excellent. On many occasions, Grier had more than enough time to scan the field looking for open receivers, which hasn't always been the case for WVU quarterbacks in recent years.
Defensively, there were many instances when Tony Gibson's crew looked like his defenses of old. Sophomore corner Hakeem Bailey, making his first career start at corner, led the team with eight tackles, including two tackles for losses.
Al-Rasheed Benton, Toyous Avery, Xavier Preston, Dylan Tonkery, Reese Donahue, Lamonte McDougle, Jon Lewis and Quondarius Qualls all had a hand in negative yardage plays - typical of Gibson's most active defenses with playmakers coming from everywhere on the field.
"I thought they fought hard," Gibson said, "but too many mistakes."
Six times, Virginia Tech was held to three-and-out possessions and Tech's success rate on third down was just 20 percent. That's good.
There were some missed assignments and some misdiagnosed plays, for sure, and depth is still a big concern for Gibson, but if his guys can become a little more consistent and a few more players can emerge it's a group very capable of playing winning football.
"We have to be able to play more guys that we have to feel comfortable with," Gibson said. "I think we rotated three corners, the linebackers played every snap they could and up front, we had a good rotation, but we have to be able to get where I can play 22 guys and right now we probably could play 14 guys total all night."
Now, West Virginia has to build on the good that came out of Sunday's loss, fix the bad, and do it quickly with a shorter week of preparation before its home opener against East Carolina on Saturday, September 9.
After that, it's Delaware State and then on to Big 12 play at Kansas on Saturday, September 23.
Still, that's plenty of time for growth from a very young, and very promising football team.
No. 1, West Virginia has an outstanding quarterback to build its offense around in Will Grier. For the most part, he looked very comfortable in the pocket, demonstrated an ability to make all of the throws and showed his competitiveness on that fourth down run when he leaped over Hokie backup linebacker Anthony Shegog to make a first down to keep alive West Virginia's drive to try and tie the game at the end.
His 31-of-53, 371-yard, three-touchdown passing performance was the best ever for a debuting Mountaineer quarterback, and it came against a top quality defense.
No. 2, the Mountaineers are going to move the football against any defense they face this year. The 592 yards West Virginia put up last night against Tech were the most yards a Bud Foster defense has ever allowed to the Mountaineers.
And the yardage was not heavily skewed toward the pass as it usually is whenever Foster's defenses give up lots of yards. Grier threw for 371 yards, but five different runners gained 221 yards on 35 attempts for an impressive 6.3 yards-per-carry average.
Even more surprising was how effective Grier was carrying the football, gaining 52 yards on 11 attempts including one run for 14 yards.
"It's hard to get the running game going against those guys," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen pointed out. "They gave up 120 yards a game on the ground last year, and all those guys are the same."
Defenses that choose to use a light box to defend West Virginia's passing game means offensive coordinator Jake Spavital will hand the ball off to Justin Crawford, Kennedy McKoy and Martell Pettaway, or play press-man as the Hokies did most of last night and Spavital will continue to throw the ball down the field to Gary Jennings, David Sills V and Ka'Raun White.
That's balance and that's what all offenses are striving to have.
"It took me a little bit to figure out what type of team we were," Spavital said. "It actually went opposite of what I thought. I thought we were going to be a move-the-pocket team and get it out. I moved the pocket a couple of times and I realized our protection was fine and we could hold up and Will seemed pretty comfortable back there."
No. 3, you can now see why the coaches spent a lot of time praising the work Jennings put in during the offseason. He caught 13 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown last night, and at times he looked like a man doing so.
The junior provides a physical presence the wide receiver corps has been lacking since Kevin White graduated in 2014. And there is plenty to like about Jennings' supporting cast as well. Sills V made a great adjustment on the pass Grier threw to his back shoulder to score the game's first touchdown in the second quarter, and he looks like he's going to be a solid option in the intermediate passing game.
Ka'Raun White, who is still playing catch up after recovering from last year's broken leg, showed some good things on the outside as well. If he can get back to the way he was playing toward the end of last season, that will put additional pressure on opposing defenses.
"Through more practice and through more games, the timing will improve with Will, and they will have extremely big years," Holgorsen predicted. "Virginia Tech is a top 20 defense, they're really good, and for us to be able to get what we got on them, that's a great tribute to what Coach Spavital is doing, and Will, the receivers, the O-line and the running game."
Speaking of the offensive line, with the exception of a couple of holding calls, the pass protection appeared to be excellent. On many occasions, Grier had more than enough time to scan the field looking for open receivers, which hasn't always been the case for WVU quarterbacks in recent years.
Defensively, there were many instances when Tony Gibson's crew looked like his defenses of old. Sophomore corner Hakeem Bailey, making his first career start at corner, led the team with eight tackles, including two tackles for losses.
Al-Rasheed Benton, Toyous Avery, Xavier Preston, Dylan Tonkery, Reese Donahue, Lamonte McDougle, Jon Lewis and Quondarius Qualls all had a hand in negative yardage plays - typical of Gibson's most active defenses with playmakers coming from everywhere on the field.
"I thought they fought hard," Gibson said, "but too many mistakes."
Six times, Virginia Tech was held to three-and-out possessions and Tech's success rate on third down was just 20 percent. That's good.
There were some missed assignments and some misdiagnosed plays, for sure, and depth is still a big concern for Gibson, but if his guys can become a little more consistent and a few more players can emerge it's a group very capable of playing winning football.
"We have to be able to play more guys that we have to feel comfortable with," Gibson said. "I think we rotated three corners, the linebackers played every snap they could and up front, we had a good rotation, but we have to be able to get where I can play 22 guys and right now we probably could play 14 guys total all night."
Now, West Virginia has to build on the good that came out of Sunday's loss, fix the bad, and do it quickly with a shorter week of preparation before its home opener against East Carolina on Saturday, September 9.
After that, it's Delaware State and then on to Big 12 play at Kansas on Saturday, September 23.
Still, that's plenty of time for growth from a very young, and very promising football team.
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