Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
WVU’s Resourcefulness Shows Up in Saturday’s Upset Win
November 17, 2019 12:30 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Don Nehlen once summed up his Hall of Fame coaching career at West Virginia University in this manner, "We did the best we could with what we had."
That statement immediately came to mind yesterday after Neal Brown's 14 ½-point underdog Mountaineers stunned 24th-ranked Kansas State 24-20 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.
Even Bill Snyder, seen numerous times on television sitting in one of the climate controlled suites in the stadium named after him, had to be impressed with West Virginia's resourcefulness.
"I'm really proud of my staff," Brown said afterward. "I thought we had a good plan in all three phases."
Where to start?
Quarterback is the most obvious place, of course. Brown last Tuesday said he had a plan for his two quarterbacks, Austin Kendall and Jarret Doege, heading into the Kansas State game.
It turns out the plan was to flip the quarterback reps 60-40 in Doege's favor.
"I just felt like we had lost five in a row and we needed a changeup," Brown explained. "Jarret had practiced well and so we made the decision. Austin was disappointed, and I feel for him because he transferred here with the hope and expectation that he was going to win the job; he won the job, and we haven't necessarily performed well around him.
"Jarret came in, prepared well, and I thought he was under control," Brown added. "I knew he would be able to handle the environment."
The Bowling Green transfer, who Brown correctly pointed out has more Division I starting experience than any other offensive player on the team with the exception of senior left tackle Colton McKivitz, completed 20-of-30 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
In that respect, the Mountaineer offense played flawlessly by not committing a single turnover.
Brown was also able to revive a lifeless running game that has gone backwards nearly as much as it's gone forward this year. Junior Chase Behrndt was reinserted at center with Michael Brown and James Gmiter flanking him at offensive guard, while regulars McKivitz and Kelby Wickline remained positioned at their normal outside spots.
That group was able to move a very stout Kansas State defensive front just enough to gain 85 net rushing yards, 122 if you subtract the 37 yards in losses.
Sophomore Leddie Brown averaged a respectable 4.8 yards per carry and his second-quarter bursts slowed down K-State's pass rush just enough to allow Doege time to throw his three touchdown passes.
Doege was by no means Lamar Jackson running the football, but he did display good pocket awareness and was able to feel the pressure and move around to buy some extra time. He also showed his grit on several occasions by hanging onto the ball long enough for his young receivers to get open.
Last week, freshman receiver Sam James was targeted 18 times in the Texas Tech loss so naturally Kansas State was going to pay much closer attention to him this week. The Wildcats did, holding him to only one catch for 4 yards.
Consequently, some of the targets James got last week went to George Campbell, who responded with his best afternoon as a Mountaineer, five catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns, to give him a team-best six TD grabs on only 14 receptions this season.
Isaiah Esdale also saw more passes come his way, as did freshman Ali Jennings.
Fellow freshman Bryce Wheaton's lone catch, a 50-yarder for the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, was the biggest of the game. It was true the closest K-State defender to Wheaton was standing in Topeka, but sometimes securing passes when you are THAT wide open is not easy.
Anyone who has ever watched the Robin Williams and Kurt Russell movie, The Best of Times, can understand that.
The coverage units on special teams were outstanding on Saturday afternoon. Kansas State has returned two kickoffs for touchdowns this year and every Mountaineer fan from Weirton to Welch, Martinsburg to Matewan and all points in between remembers what happened to West Virginia here in 2015 when Dana Holgorsen foolishly chose to kick the ball to Morgan Burns in the fourth quarter after his team had taken a 23-17 lead.
Incidentally, that was the last time Kansas State beat West Virginia.
Brown showed supreme confidence in his young placekicker, Casey Legg, when he trotted him back out onto the field in the fourth quarter after two misses to try a 51-yard field goal.
Legg delivered for his coach, and those three points turned out to be the difference in the football game.
And when it comes to resourcefulness, how about the job veteran defensive coordinator Vic Koenning did to compensate for his lack of manpower at linebacker?
The one area where Koenning has some depth is defensive line, so instead of having a couple of his better players standing and watching from the sidelines, why not put them in the game by changing to a four-man front?
That's what Koenning did, as the Blue & Gold News' Greg Hunter so astutely pointed out afterward during Neal Brown's postgame press conference.
"We felt like coming into the week, first of all our numbers are down pretty good, and we were having to play more linebacker bodies at Bandit so we didn't feel like we could hold up against their bigger sets, the 12 and 21 packages, so we played the four-down front, " Brown explained. "If you go back and look at it, (Jeffery) Pooler, Reuben Jones, Reese Donahue, Darius and Dante (Stills) basically went the whole way and they battled."
Battle they did.
K-State ran for 213 yards in its 48-41 victory over Oklahoma last month. Yesterday, the Wildcats managed about half of that (122) against a WVU run defense that came into Saturday allowing 172.1 yards per game.
Added all up, it was a mountain-climbing victory for Neal Brown's young Mountaineer football program – a triumph many from Weirton to Welch, Martinsburg to Matewan and all points in between weren't expecting.
That statement immediately came to mind yesterday after Neal Brown's 14 ½-point underdog Mountaineers stunned 24th-ranked Kansas State 24-20 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.
Even Bill Snyder, seen numerous times on television sitting in one of the climate controlled suites in the stadium named after him, had to be impressed with West Virginia's resourcefulness.
"I'm really proud of my staff," Brown said afterward. "I thought we had a good plan in all three phases."
Where to start?
Quarterback is the most obvious place, of course. Brown last Tuesday said he had a plan for his two quarterbacks, Austin Kendall and Jarret Doege, heading into the Kansas State game.
It turns out the plan was to flip the quarterback reps 60-40 in Doege's favor.
"I just felt like we had lost five in a row and we needed a changeup," Brown explained. "Jarret had practiced well and so we made the decision. Austin was disappointed, and I feel for him because he transferred here with the hope and expectation that he was going to win the job; he won the job, and we haven't necessarily performed well around him.
"Jarret came in, prepared well, and I thought he was under control," Brown added. "I knew he would be able to handle the environment."
The Bowling Green transfer, who Brown correctly pointed out has more Division I starting experience than any other offensive player on the team with the exception of senior left tackle Colton McKivitz, completed 20-of-30 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
In that respect, the Mountaineer offense played flawlessly by not committing a single turnover.
Brown was also able to revive a lifeless running game that has gone backwards nearly as much as it's gone forward this year. Junior Chase Behrndt was reinserted at center with Michael Brown and James Gmiter flanking him at offensive guard, while regulars McKivitz and Kelby Wickline remained positioned at their normal outside spots.
That group was able to move a very stout Kansas State defensive front just enough to gain 85 net rushing yards, 122 if you subtract the 37 yards in losses.
Sophomore Leddie Brown averaged a respectable 4.8 yards per carry and his second-quarter bursts slowed down K-State's pass rush just enough to allow Doege time to throw his three touchdown passes.
Doege was by no means Lamar Jackson running the football, but he did display good pocket awareness and was able to feel the pressure and move around to buy some extra time. He also showed his grit on several occasions by hanging onto the ball long enough for his young receivers to get open.
Last week, freshman receiver Sam James was targeted 18 times in the Texas Tech loss so naturally Kansas State was going to pay much closer attention to him this week. The Wildcats did, holding him to only one catch for 4 yards.
Consequently, some of the targets James got last week went to George Campbell, who responded with his best afternoon as a Mountaineer, five catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns, to give him a team-best six TD grabs on only 14 receptions this season.
Isaiah Esdale also saw more passes come his way, as did freshman Ali Jennings.
Fellow freshman Bryce Wheaton's lone catch, a 50-yarder for the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, was the biggest of the game. It was true the closest K-State defender to Wheaton was standing in Topeka, but sometimes securing passes when you are THAT wide open is not easy.
Anyone who has ever watched the Robin Williams and Kurt Russell movie, The Best of Times, can understand that.
The coverage units on special teams were outstanding on Saturday afternoon. Kansas State has returned two kickoffs for touchdowns this year and every Mountaineer fan from Weirton to Welch, Martinsburg to Matewan and all points in between remembers what happened to West Virginia here in 2015 when Dana Holgorsen foolishly chose to kick the ball to Morgan Burns in the fourth quarter after his team had taken a 23-17 lead.
Incidentally, that was the last time Kansas State beat West Virginia.
Brown showed supreme confidence in his young placekicker, Casey Legg, when he trotted him back out onto the field in the fourth quarter after two misses to try a 51-yard field goal.
Legg delivered for his coach, and those three points turned out to be the difference in the football game.
And when it comes to resourcefulness, how about the job veteran defensive coordinator Vic Koenning did to compensate for his lack of manpower at linebacker?
The one area where Koenning has some depth is defensive line, so instead of having a couple of his better players standing and watching from the sidelines, why not put them in the game by changing to a four-man front?
That's what Koenning did, as the Blue & Gold News' Greg Hunter so astutely pointed out afterward during Neal Brown's postgame press conference.
"We felt like coming into the week, first of all our numbers are down pretty good, and we were having to play more linebacker bodies at Bandit so we didn't feel like we could hold up against their bigger sets, the 12 and 21 packages, so we played the four-down front, " Brown explained. "If you go back and look at it, (Jeffery) Pooler, Reuben Jones, Reese Donahue, Darius and Dante (Stills) basically went the whole way and they battled."
Battle they did.
K-State ran for 213 yards in its 48-41 victory over Oklahoma last month. Yesterday, the Wildcats managed about half of that (122) against a WVU run defense that came into Saturday allowing 172.1 yards per game.
Added all up, it was a mountain-climbing victory for Neal Brown's young Mountaineer football program – a triumph many from Weirton to Welch, Martinsburg to Matewan and all points in between weren't expecting.
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