Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Football Friday: Missouri Preview
September 06, 2019 06:45 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last Saturday's game in Laramie, Wyoming, didn't go as Missouri planned, while West Virginia's against James Madison went about as well as could be expected.
So what gives this Saturday in Columbia, Missouri?
NCAA infractions will keep the Tigers out of a bowl game this year, but the Tigers were harboring big aspirations for the 2019 season anyway with 13 returning starters to complement quarterback Kelly Bryant, who transferred in from Clemson early last season.
Bryant was as good as advertised during last Saturday's 37-31 loss at Wyoming, completing 31-of-48 passes for 423 yards and two touchdowns, but Missouri turned the ball over three times and allowed Wyoming to run the it 42 times for 297 yards.
Cowboys quarterback Sean Chambers got 120 of those, which makes what Wyoming did against the Tigers last Saturday difficult to figure out for a West Virginia offense that produced a meager 34 yards in last Saturday's 20-13 victory over an FCS team.
Does Missouri's run defense have some holes in it or was it a matter of Wyoming scheming up the Tigers?
"What (Wyoming) did was they were in a lot of 12 and 21 (personnel), and they are talented at tight end," West Virginia coach Neal Brown explained. "The biggest difference between them and us is their quarterback hit two really explosive runs and he's fast.
"They were able to play multiple tight ends, and they shifted them and traded them and caught them out of gaps. We don't have necessarily a running quarterback, we don't have that many tight ends that are ready to play so exactly how they ran the ball and how we can run the ball don't necessarily match up," Brown added.
At any rate, West Virginia is going to have to figure out a way this Saturday to get more out of its running game to supplement Austin Kendall's passing.
The Oklahoma transfer completed 27-of-42 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns against James Madison, a performance that continues to look much better the more you study it.
Kendall missed some passes, for sure, and he got a little frustrated in the second quarter, but he had a strong second half and finished the game with touchdown passes to Florida State transfer George Campbell and junior Tevin Bush.
Bush, one of the smallest players on the football field standing just 5-feet-6 and weighing a mere 166 pounds, made the biggest play of the game for the Mountaineer offense on the first play of the second half when he turned a simple crossing pattern into a 41-yard gainer.
That play flipped the field and flipped the switch for the offense.
Then, Bush's touchdown catch with 10:08 remaining put the Mountaineers ahead by 10 points and finally put the Dukes in chase mode.
That gave West Virginia two chances to put James Madison away with its running game.
Both were unsuccessful.
On the first try, two Kennedy McKoy runs netted 5 yards and burned just 25 seconds off the play clock before West Virginia had to punt the football back to the Dukes with 4:08 left.
A second opportunity also floundered when a false start on freshman tight end Mike O'Laughlin wiped out two short Martell Pettaway runs.
Brown opted to go to the air with a safe Kendall rollout pass to the sideline to get the first down, but another freshman, Sam James, was unable to hold onto the football.
That gave the Dukes one final crack to score a game-tying touchdown beginning at its own 38 with 58 seconds left.
WVU wasn't able to control the football game with its rushing attack, but it did win it by creating 3-0 turnover advantage and playing exceptional special teams.
When was the last time the Mountaineers could say that about their special teams play?
For the last eight years, and probably even longer, West Virginia fans have held their breath every time the ball was kicked off or the other team punted to the Mountaineers.
Knock on wood, both of those areas were pretty clean last Saturday.
WVU also recovered a fumbled punt and Darius Stills blocked a field goal attempt, which factored heavily in the victory.
If West Virginia can just hold its own in some of the areas in which it is a little deficient right now, improve as the season goes on and some of those young guys out on the field last Saturday can get a little more seasoning, perhaps we could be looking at an entirely different football team a month from now.
That's what Brown's first football squad at Troy was able to do four years ago when it played much better down the stretch and won its season finale against Louisiana 41-17.
The following year the Trojans won 10 games and gave national champion Clemson all it wanted in week two.
This football team is going to get better. Will it be better enough in one week to knock off an already cornered Missouri team that is facing an early-season, must-win game to begin a five-game homestand?
We'll see.
Saturday's game will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College's pregame coverage begins with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 8:30 a.m. on Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College affiliates throughout West Virginia and also online via WVUsports.com as well as the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
MSN's regular game coverage begins at 11 a.m.
So what gives this Saturday in Columbia, Missouri?
NCAA infractions will keep the Tigers out of a bowl game this year, but the Tigers were harboring big aspirations for the 2019 season anyway with 13 returning starters to complement quarterback Kelly Bryant, who transferred in from Clemson early last season.
Bryant was as good as advertised during last Saturday's 37-31 loss at Wyoming, completing 31-of-48 passes for 423 yards and two touchdowns, but Missouri turned the ball over three times and allowed Wyoming to run the it 42 times for 297 yards.
Cowboys quarterback Sean Chambers got 120 of those, which makes what Wyoming did against the Tigers last Saturday difficult to figure out for a West Virginia offense that produced a meager 34 yards in last Saturday's 20-13 victory over an FCS team.
Does Missouri's run defense have some holes in it or was it a matter of Wyoming scheming up the Tigers?
"What (Wyoming) did was they were in a lot of 12 and 21 (personnel), and they are talented at tight end," West Virginia coach Neal Brown explained. "The biggest difference between them and us is their quarterback hit two really explosive runs and he's fast.
"They were able to play multiple tight ends, and they shifted them and traded them and caught them out of gaps. We don't have necessarily a running quarterback, we don't have that many tight ends that are ready to play so exactly how they ran the ball and how we can run the ball don't necessarily match up," Brown added.
At any rate, West Virginia is going to have to figure out a way this Saturday to get more out of its running game to supplement Austin Kendall's passing.
The Oklahoma transfer completed 27-of-42 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns against James Madison, a performance that continues to look much better the more you study it.
Kendall missed some passes, for sure, and he got a little frustrated in the second quarter, but he had a strong second half and finished the game with touchdown passes to Florida State transfer George Campbell and junior Tevin Bush.
Bush, one of the smallest players on the football field standing just 5-feet-6 and weighing a mere 166 pounds, made the biggest play of the game for the Mountaineer offense on the first play of the second half when he turned a simple crossing pattern into a 41-yard gainer.
That play flipped the field and flipped the switch for the offense.
Then, Bush's touchdown catch with 10:08 remaining put the Mountaineers ahead by 10 points and finally put the Dukes in chase mode.
That gave West Virginia two chances to put James Madison away with its running game.
Both were unsuccessful.
On the first try, two Kennedy McKoy runs netted 5 yards and burned just 25 seconds off the play clock before West Virginia had to punt the football back to the Dukes with 4:08 left.
A second opportunity also floundered when a false start on freshman tight end Mike O'Laughlin wiped out two short Martell Pettaway runs.
Brown opted to go to the air with a safe Kendall rollout pass to the sideline to get the first down, but another freshman, Sam James, was unable to hold onto the football.
That gave the Dukes one final crack to score a game-tying touchdown beginning at its own 38 with 58 seconds left.
WVU wasn't able to control the football game with its rushing attack, but it did win it by creating 3-0 turnover advantage and playing exceptional special teams.
When was the last time the Mountaineers could say that about their special teams play?
For the last eight years, and probably even longer, West Virginia fans have held their breath every time the ball was kicked off or the other team punted to the Mountaineers.
Knock on wood, both of those areas were pretty clean last Saturday.
WVU also recovered a fumbled punt and Darius Stills blocked a field goal attempt, which factored heavily in the victory.
If West Virginia can just hold its own in some of the areas in which it is a little deficient right now, improve as the season goes on and some of those young guys out on the field last Saturday can get a little more seasoning, perhaps we could be looking at an entirely different football team a month from now.
That's what Brown's first football squad at Troy was able to do four years ago when it played much better down the stretch and won its season finale against Louisiana 41-17.
The following year the Trojans won 10 games and gave national champion Clemson all it wanted in week two.
This football team is going to get better. Will it be better enough in one week to knock off an already cornered Missouri team that is facing an early-season, must-win game to begin a five-game homestand?
We'll see.
Saturday's game will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College's pregame coverage begins with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 8:30 a.m. on Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College affiliates throughout West Virginia and also online via WVUsports.com as well as the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
MSN's regular game coverage begins at 11 a.m.
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