Photo by: Caleb Saunders
Monday Mountaineer Football Notebook
November 02, 2020 01:45 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In our line of work, statistics are frequently used to explain things.
When a team is performing well, there are usually a bunch of stats that can be pulled up to prove it (you can reference @TheSignalcaller on Twitter, for instance).
The same can be said when teams are not performing well. There are usually plenty of stats that can help tell that story as well.
And sometimes, stats can even tell the same story.
Take West Virginia football, for instance. So far, the 2020 season can essentially be boiled down to one statistical category – rushing. The ground game has been the most accurate predictor of wins and losses for the Mountaineers this year.
When West Virginia effectively runs the ball and stops the other team from running it, the Mountaineers win.
When it struggles to run the ball and struggles to stop the other team from running it, it loses. It's been as simple as that.
Here is the proof:
* In West Virginia's wins over Eastern Kentucky, Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State, the Mountaineers averaged 218.3 yards per game on the ground while allowing their opponents just 51.3 yards per content.
* In the Mountaineers' two losses this season, the ground game generated 79.5 yards while the defense allowed opposing ball carriers to run for an average of 191 yards per game.
Pretty simple, huh?
"I think it starts with rushing defense and rushing offense," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said earlier today on his weekly teleconference with Big 12 media. "We've made drastic improvements in both."
Speaking of West Virginia's defense, our resident statistical savant, Mike Montoro, informs me that the Mountaineer defense has already held four teams to fewer than 75 yards rushing in a game this season.
The last time that happened was in 2010 when Jeff Casteel's defense did it six times. Coincidentally, Casteel is back on the WVU staff as a linebackers coach this year.
More Monday Notes
* With the election day on Tuesday, West Virginia has had to juggle its weekly schedule to accommodate the mandated day off for student-athletes to vote.
Brown said the team's normal off-day on Sunday was utilized to do its walk-through and today's practice will be a little more rigorous than usual.
The Mountaineers will resume normal prep work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for their game against 22nd-ranked Texas on Saturday in Austin.
"It's a little bit unique. I get confused - I don't know if this is a Big 12 or NCAA rule, but we're abiding by it and I get it," Brown said. "Voting is extremely important. Most of our guys have voted in their home states already."
* I was passed along this cool note from our Harrison County sports historian, Nathaniel Zinn, a Robert C. Byrd graduate and once a Mountaineer football performer for Rich Rodriguez.
Zinn informs me that Dylan Tonkery's pick-six during this past Saturday's 37-10 win over then-16th-ranked Kansas State was the first time a Harrison County product has scored a touchdown while wearing a WVU uniform since Tom Williams did it during the 1969 season opener against Cincinnati.
And the Victory High product might have scored a couple of more touchdowns if not for one small detail – some pretty decent players named Bob Gresham, Jim Braxton, Eddie Williams, Pete Wood and Eddie Silverio were all ahead of him on the depth chart.
Although likely unfamiliar with the rare feat, Neal Brown is pleased that his senior linebacker from Bridgeport High was able to get into the end zone.
"Nobody deserves that pick six more than Dylan Tonkery," he said. "He's as good a teammate as we have in our football program - completely unselfish, team guy, coachable, his teammates love him, so I was super fired-up for Tonk to get that pick six. He played well on defense. That's the best he's played on defense all year, and he's been solid on special teams."
* Yesterday, place kicker Evan Staley announced on Twitter that his 2020 season is finished after suffering a knee injury while attempting to cover a kickoff during the K-State win. Brown confirmed the news during this morning's teleconference.
"We all hurt for Evan," he said. "It was kind of a freak deal. We missed fit a kickoff and it got to him, which you never want a kickoff to get to your kicker, but it did and his leg gave out. It was really unfortunate, and I hate it for him, but he's got a great mentality about it. He'll have surgery, and he'll bounce back, we don't have any doubt about that with Evan."
Sophomore Casey Legg filled in nicely to boot a pair of field goals, including a 45-yarder in the fourth quarter. The Charleston resident filled in last year for Staley and has successfully converted all eight PATs while going 4-of-6 in career field goal attempts.
"Casey Legg never played high school football and he never kicked in a game until last season. The positive thing for us as a program is Casey played in all but four games last year so he's got experience," Brown said. "He never gets too high or too low. He's not a guy that succumbs to pressure and so that's a benefit.
"He's got a great personality to be a specialist. He's well-liked on our team and well-respected, not only as a football player but the kind of person he is. He's got the support of our staff and our team and we have no question he will step in and be highly productive for us," Brown added.
* Texas beat writer Kirk Bohls of the Austin-American Statesman asked Brown to name the guys performing at a high level right now. Most of Brown's choices were as you'd expect, with one exception. He listed WVU's tight end play with Mike O'Laughlin and T.J. Banks being a big boost to this year's offense.
The other guys he listed were running back Leddie Brown and center Chase Behrndt on offense, and the Stills brothers, linebacker Tony Fields II and spear Tykee Smith on defense.
As for his defense, Brown said the difference Saturday against Kansas State was a much-improved week of practice.
"We practiced much better throughout the week leading into the Kansas State game than we did going into the Texas Tech game," he explained. "I think we embraced who we have to be, not only on defense, but our entire team - and that's a gritty team.
"We're not at a point where we're very often the more talented team in our conference when we line up and play. That doesn't mean we can't win – we can win – but we've got to play with mental and physical toughness, we've got to be able to overcome adversity and play at an extremely high level and be physical. That's who our identity has got to be if we want to be successful, and I thought they embraced that last week. We've got to continue to do that if we want to have success."
When a team is performing well, there are usually a bunch of stats that can be pulled up to prove it (you can reference @TheSignalcaller on Twitter, for instance).
The same can be said when teams are not performing well. There are usually plenty of stats that can help tell that story as well.
And sometimes, stats can even tell the same story.
Take West Virginia football, for instance. So far, the 2020 season can essentially be boiled down to one statistical category – rushing. The ground game has been the most accurate predictor of wins and losses for the Mountaineers this year.
When West Virginia effectively runs the ball and stops the other team from running it, the Mountaineers win.
When it struggles to run the ball and struggles to stop the other team from running it, it loses. It's been as simple as that.
Here is the proof:
* In West Virginia's wins over Eastern Kentucky, Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State, the Mountaineers averaged 218.3 yards per game on the ground while allowing their opponents just 51.3 yards per content.
* In the Mountaineers' two losses this season, the ground game generated 79.5 yards while the defense allowed opposing ball carriers to run for an average of 191 yards per game.
Pretty simple, huh?
"I think it starts with rushing defense and rushing offense," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said earlier today on his weekly teleconference with Big 12 media. "We've made drastic improvements in both."
Speaking of West Virginia's defense, our resident statistical savant, Mike Montoro, informs me that the Mountaineer defense has already held four teams to fewer than 75 yards rushing in a game this season.
The last time that happened was in 2010 when Jeff Casteel's defense did it six times. Coincidentally, Casteel is back on the WVU staff as a linebackers coach this year.
More Monday Notes
* With the election day on Tuesday, West Virginia has had to juggle its weekly schedule to accommodate the mandated day off for student-athletes to vote.
Brown said the team's normal off-day on Sunday was utilized to do its walk-through and today's practice will be a little more rigorous than usual.
The Mountaineers will resume normal prep work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for their game against 22nd-ranked Texas on Saturday in Austin.
"It's a little bit unique. I get confused - I don't know if this is a Big 12 or NCAA rule, but we're abiding by it and I get it," Brown said. "Voting is extremely important. Most of our guys have voted in their home states already."
* I was passed along this cool note from our Harrison County sports historian, Nathaniel Zinn, a Robert C. Byrd graduate and once a Mountaineer football performer for Rich Rodriguez.Zinn informs me that Dylan Tonkery's pick-six during this past Saturday's 37-10 win over then-16th-ranked Kansas State was the first time a Harrison County product has scored a touchdown while wearing a WVU uniform since Tom Williams did it during the 1969 season opener against Cincinnati.
And the Victory High product might have scored a couple of more touchdowns if not for one small detail – some pretty decent players named Bob Gresham, Jim Braxton, Eddie Williams, Pete Wood and Eddie Silverio were all ahead of him on the depth chart.
Although likely unfamiliar with the rare feat, Neal Brown is pleased that his senior linebacker from Bridgeport High was able to get into the end zone.
"Nobody deserves that pick six more than Dylan Tonkery," he said. "He's as good a teammate as we have in our football program - completely unselfish, team guy, coachable, his teammates love him, so I was super fired-up for Tonk to get that pick six. He played well on defense. That's the best he's played on defense all year, and he's been solid on special teams."
* Yesterday, place kicker Evan Staley announced on Twitter that his 2020 season is finished after suffering a knee injury while attempting to cover a kickoff during the K-State win. Brown confirmed the news during this morning's teleconference.
"We all hurt for Evan," he said. "It was kind of a freak deal. We missed fit a kickoff and it got to him, which you never want a kickoff to get to your kicker, but it did and his leg gave out. It was really unfortunate, and I hate it for him, but he's got a great mentality about it. He'll have surgery, and he'll bounce back, we don't have any doubt about that with Evan."
Sophomore Casey Legg filled in nicely to boot a pair of field goals, including a 45-yarder in the fourth quarter. The Charleston resident filled in last year for Staley and has successfully converted all eight PATs while going 4-of-6 in career field goal attempts.
"Casey Legg never played high school football and he never kicked in a game until last season. The positive thing for us as a program is Casey played in all but four games last year so he's got experience," Brown said. "He never gets too high or too low. He's not a guy that succumbs to pressure and so that's a benefit.
"He's got a great personality to be a specialist. He's well-liked on our team and well-respected, not only as a football player but the kind of person he is. He's got the support of our staff and our team and we have no question he will step in and be highly productive for us," Brown added.
* Texas beat writer Kirk Bohls of the Austin-American Statesman asked Brown to name the guys performing at a high level right now. Most of Brown's choices were as you'd expect, with one exception. He listed WVU's tight end play with Mike O'Laughlin and T.J. Banks being a big boost to this year's offense.
The other guys he listed were running back Leddie Brown and center Chase Behrndt on offense, and the Stills brothers, linebacker Tony Fields II and spear Tykee Smith on defense.
As for his defense, Brown said the difference Saturday against Kansas State was a much-improved week of practice.
"We practiced much better throughout the week leading into the Kansas State game than we did going into the Texas Tech game," he explained. "I think we embraced who we have to be, not only on defense, but our entire team - and that's a gritty team.
"We're not at a point where we're very often the more talented team in our conference when we line up and play. That doesn't mean we can't win – we can win – but we've got to play with mental and physical toughness, we've got to be able to overcome adversity and play at an extremely high level and be physical. That's who our identity has got to be if we want to be successful, and I thought they embraced that last week. We've got to continue to do that if we want to have success."
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