MORGANTOWN -
The college football season continues to draw closer. West Virginia University will meet Marshall in less than two months.
WVU will play a whole new set of conference opponents this year. That is due to the move to the Big 12. One of the biggest road games on the schedule will take place on October 6 when WVU visits Texas.
Carter Strickland of Hornsnation, a division of espn.com, which covers the University of Texas exchanged a Q&A with me.
Scott Grayson: Who
do you think will be the starting quarterback at Texas this season? Is
there a chance both Case McCoy and David Ash will be used in a two
quarterback system?
Carter Strickland: David
Ash is going to be the starter unless something unforeseen happens. Now
the coaching staff refuses to say that Ash is going to be the starter
but they gave Ash the majority of the snaps in spring and in the final
game of the 2011 season. The reason they are not saying it is Ash is
because they want to slightly hedge their bets. Ash has been
inconsistent – nine interceptions against four touchdowns – and the
staff wants an engaged and content Case McCoy just in case Ash is not
the guy. McCoy is much more of a risk taker and cannot be as easily
controlled by the coaching staff and that is why he is not the starter.
There has been some talk that McCoy would get the third series of every
game but if things are rolling with Ash, McCoy is going to stay on the
bench.
Scott Grayson: The Texas defense is receiving a lot of hype. What is driving that hype and do you feel it is deserved?
Carter Strickland: Texas finished 11th nationally in defense last year and actually
upgraded its talent in every area. This defense has the ability to be
dominant because it is so incredibly fast and extremely deep along the
defensive line. The two cornerbacks, Carrington Byndom and Quandre
Diggs, are NFL caliber players. The interesting thing to watch when UT
plays WVU will be the defensive ends. Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor
are both first round picks in 2013 so their skills against Geno Smith's
feet will be a good matchup.
Scott Grayson: Is this potentially a trap game for Texas with Oklahoma sitting on the schedule one week later?
Carter Strickland: Not really because Texas does not look forward to playing Oklahoma. It
is more a game they dread. See past results. Texas is going to be coming
off its first true road test at Oklahoma State the week prior so there
should be enough mistakes on film that they are fully concentrated on
what they have to clean up from that game.
Scott Grayson: Describe what a home game is like at Texas Memorial Stadium. What kind of atmosphere should WVU fans who make the trip expect?
Carter Strickland: It might be the quietest 101,000 people you will ever sit next to. While
Texas has a very large fan base it does not have a very vocal one. It
is not like going to an SEC game. The fans are quick to jump on players
if they make a mistake. The students arrive late and leave early. It is
an impressive stadium and campus. Just don't expect it to be like LSU or
Alabama in terms of atmosphere.
Scott Grayson: How do you see the October 6 game between WVU and Texas playing out? How about a score?
Carter Strickland: Texas is going to keep the ball on the ground and run it on at least 65
percent of the snaps. It should be coming into the game confident
because the early season schedule is not that tough and I would expect
the Longhorns would be undefeated. If this game were in Morgantown I
would pick WVU without hesitation. But since it is in Austin and it is
WVU's first Big 12 road trip. I think Texas has a lslight edge. I'm
going 24-21 Texas. The best way for WVU to win is for the game to become
a shootout. Texas cannot put up a huge amount of points.
Carter Strickland: All
the talk around Texas is Geno Smith and trying to contain him. I know
LSU kept him in check for a bit but did anyone do a good job of it for a
full game last year and, if so, how did they do it?
Scott Grayson: Few teams were able to rattle Smith
in 2011. Syracuse did do it and did so with a ton of blitzes. That went
against everything Syracuse had done all season up to that point. Dana
Holgorsen said Syracuse blitzed on roughly three out of every four downs
and did it in many different ways. WVU had a hard time figuring out
where the pressure was coming from and consequently the offense
struggled.
In fact, with about four minutes to go in the game and West Virginia
behind by several touchdowns, Smith gathered the offense on the
sideline and proceeded to rip into every member on the offense for their
poor play. He was also critical of himself. Smith is a very composed
quarterback who rarely gets that frustrated on the sideline. It just
illustrates how out of sync the offense was in that game.
Carter Strickland: How
much should WVU mature offensively in the second year under Holgorsen?
And is that scary proposition given the last time anyone saw WVU it was
putting up 70 against Clemson?
Scott Grayson: The expectations from everyone including
fans and especially the coaching staff is that the offense should mature
even more in the second year. More because nine starters are returning
from last season and received a ton of experience in the offense a year
ago than anything else. The most interesting part of the Orange Bowl
explosion was what Geno Smith and Dana Holgorsen did, or especially did
not do throughout the game. They appeared to be on a whole different
wavelength in terms of communication and as a result the amount of
signals Smith needed from the sideline were far less than at other
points in the season.
Holgorsen kept saying throughout the season that once he and Geno
Smith are seeing the same thing, the offense will move to another level.
That happened in the Orange Bowl. Quarterbacks Coach Jake Spavital
acknowledged that Smith and Holgorsen reached that point where Smith was
calling audibles without needing much guidance from Holgorsen. Like
Peyton Manning, Smith will be making a lot of the calls at the line of
scrimmage this season.
Carter Strickland: What are the realistic expectations for WVU in the first year of the Big 12?
Scott Grayson: Fans
here in Morgantown will tell you the realistic expectation is to win
the Big 12 title. The team is focused on pursuing a National
Championship, so I would say WVU expects to win the Big 12.
The schedule is set up favorably for WVU to make a run for that
title this fall. By far, the toughest road game is at Texas. WVU has the
other so-called preseason contenders Oklahoma, Kansas State and TCU at
home.
The biggest question for West Virginia is its defense. Will it be
able to hold opponents to fewer points than the WVU offense can score?
Everyone looks at the WVU offense, but the key to a Big 12 title for
West Virginia may lie in its defensive successes or failures.
Carter Strickland: The Big 12 has been a league that likes to put up points, Holgorsen
obviously knows that from his days at Oklahoma State. So knowing that
what has WVU done to upgrade its defense?
Scott Grayson: First
and foremost, WVU changed its defense from a 3-3-5 odd stack under Jeff
Casteel to a 3-4 under Co-Defensive Coordinators Joe DeForest and Keith
Patterson. DeForest challenged the defense to force 46 turnovers
throughout spring practice. The Mountaineers met that goal. WVU forced
23 turnovers in 2011. That is a little deceiving because the
Mountaineers forced 10 of those 23 turnovers in their last four games.
DeForest, like Holgorsen, knows the Big 12. He came to WVU from
Oklahoma State. DeForest and Patterson both were pleased with the speed
at which the defensive players picked up the new defensive scheme.
Carter Strickland:
How about picking a score, a winner and justifying it all.
Scott Grayson: I
see this as a very close game. I think this could come down to who has
the ball last. West Virginia's biggest weakness on defense may be in the
secondary, but neither of the quarterbacks at Texas appear to be taking
full custody of the starting job. Given that, WVU must do a good job of
stopping the run in this game. If that happens, Texas could have a hard
time moving the ball and that will give the WVU offense plenty of
opportunities and good field position to rack up some points.
If Texas can get its running game going and give the passing game
time to develop, then it could be a long day for the WVU defense.
I will pick WVU to win a tight one, 37-34.
So, how do you see the WVU at Texas game playing out? Post your answer to the comments section below.
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