Between The Eers: How WVU Beats Oklahoma
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome in everybody.
00:11 It's another episode of Between the Ears
00:13 and today we're gonna be doing our keys to the game
00:16 for West Virginia versus Oklahoma.
00:18 It's a big one.
00:20 Don't be fooled by Chris's background
00:21 playing the West Virginia BYU game,
00:23 but it's a nice little touch to the background there, Chris,
00:26 if I may add that.
00:27 But huge one for West Virginia this week
00:30 for obvious reasons.
00:32 You win, you stay alive in the Big 12 title race.
00:35 And for Oklahoma, obviously they have to win out too.
00:39 You gotta really understand,
00:41 or you gotta really wonder where Oklahoma's mind is
00:45 coming into this game because they had the playoff
00:48 on their mind a couple of weeks ago.
00:50 Even after that loss to Kansas,
00:52 you still felt, eh, they still may have a chance
00:55 if they win out.
00:56 Well, then they follow that up with a loss
00:58 to Oklahoma State and what will be the last bedlam game
01:01 in God knows how long because of them heading to the SEC.
01:05 So where is this team's mindset?
01:08 We have no idea.
01:09 The one thing we do know is that West Virginia
01:13 is playing good football right now.
01:14 They've won two in a row over UCF and BYU
01:16 coming off their most complete performance of the season,
01:19 beating BYU 37 to seven.
01:22 So Chris, let's just start it off right there.
01:24 What did you like about the BYU game
01:27 and what confidence does that give you
01:29 that they can maybe carry that over this week into Norman?
01:33 - Putting two performances where they weren't conservative
01:37 offensively, they continued to stay in the tack mode,
01:41 getting that killer instinct with this group.
01:43 We've talked about retention so many times on here,
01:48 but it makes a difference.
01:50 You think about the last couple of years
01:52 when they've had to piece a team together essentially
01:56 and really fill in some key areas
01:59 where you didn't want to try to do that every season.
02:02 And they found ways to win in November, right?
02:05 They finished three and one last year.
02:07 If you go back to 2019, they won at Kansas State.
02:09 They were able to finally come up with some schemes,
02:14 come up with some stops to get back on the winning track.
02:18 And if you look at last year, they went three and one.
02:21 Come into this season, dealt with some injuries,
02:23 but they scraped those wins together, four and one.
02:25 But now they've taken the next step, right?
02:27 They lost those two games, injuries,
02:30 especially on the defensive side.
02:32 And when you get to the halfway point,
02:35 talk about the coaching in this league,
02:36 especially the D coordinators, well, offensive coordinators,
02:40 I guess, in this scenario,
02:42 that they're going to find your weakness.
02:44 And when they find the weakness,
02:46 everyone's going to expose it.
02:47 Well, it was unfortunate, you know, AB, thankfully,
02:50 he's okay and his injury,
02:53 but they talked about that communication in the fall.
02:55 Dana took advantage of that.
02:57 Dana took advantage of that in the second half.
03:00 So I think now you get AB back,
03:04 you get the experience from those guys
03:06 that had to fill in at that time.
03:08 And it's just really, they're kind of,
03:10 they're really becoming a complete team now.
03:12 You're not trying to scrape to get wins together.
03:14 Now you're in attack mode.
03:15 Now you can be aggressive.
03:17 Now you can step on people's throats.
03:19 So really, it's just been the evolution of the program
03:21 with the retention of the,
03:23 using country road trust this off season,
03:25 you know, the big name, CJ Donaldson,
03:27 being able to retain him and really, you know,
03:30 looking forward, look, Trae Lynn Ray, Ben Cutter,
03:32 look at all these young stars emerging.
03:34 It's going to be needed now more than ever in the off season
03:36 and you hope going next season,
03:38 look, they can still take attack mode.
03:40 Going to have all these pieces back.
03:41 So really that's what it's been,
03:42 just the evolution of the program in general
03:45 and the offense has been able to take further steps
03:47 and build off their success
03:49 and that's really what they just need to continue
03:51 to do moving forward.
03:53 That's really the most promising thing about this
03:56 is like if you have a coach that coming into the year,
03:59 he's coaching for his job,
04:00 I mean, we all know the situation coming into it.
04:02 I mean, he hadn't won enough games and with a new AD,
04:06 he had to win games this year.
04:07 Like there was no question about it.
04:09 But if you have a group that's very junior and senior laden
04:13 and you only get seven-ish wins,
04:17 you don't know about what the future looks like
04:19 because if you're relying so much on those older guys.
04:21 Well, he's doing all this with a bunch of kids
04:24 playing in their first year of college football
04:26 or second year of college football
04:29 or in a guy like Tommy Wadourjahi's case,
04:31 like he'd never played at Kentucky.
04:34 This is his second year in college,
04:35 but this is his first year of action at the college level
04:39 and he's making an impact.
04:40 And you look at what they did in the transfer portal
04:42 with Beanie Bishop, Dede Hawkins,
04:45 you know, Cole Taylor.
04:47 I mean, these are some pretty nice pickups that they had
04:50 and a lot of these guys, they're going to be coming back.
04:53 Now, Beanie, obviously you're going to be losing him,
04:54 but there's so many young pieces on this team.
04:58 You're looking like, man,
04:59 this could be a great finish to this season.
05:02 But not only that,
05:03 you're looking at what you have coming back potentially
05:06 and you're setting yourself up
05:07 for what could be a really special 2024.
05:10 Now, there's a lot of things that have to happen
05:11 between now and next September for that to happen,
05:15 but the optics look pretty good.
05:17 So let's go ahead and dive into Oklahoma.
05:20 A couple of years ago, West Virginia goes to Norman,
05:23 huge underdogs, Lincoln Riley's there,
05:26 Spencer Rattler's the quarterback,
05:28 and Oklahoma is firing on all cylinders
05:32 that they're expected to make another run
05:34 at the Big 12 and bigger.
05:36 And West Virginia shows up, muddies the game up,
05:40 plays good defense, and finds their way in a 13-13 tie,
05:45 deep in the fourth quarter of that game.
05:49 And if you remember, Zach Frazier,
05:52 he would have been what, a sophomore or freshman?
05:56 Freshman or sophomore?
05:57 - True sophomore.
05:58 - True sophomore in that game.
06:00 And 5.23 or so to go in the game,
06:03 West Virginia's got the ball at the Oklahoma 27,
06:05 28-yard line, second and 12,
06:08 he slightly moves the ball before he snaps it,
06:11 so it's a snapping fraction, back it up five yards.
06:13 Then, on the very next play,
06:16 he snaps it before Jared Deggie's even looking
06:19 or paying attention, and goes all the way back
06:22 to the 50-yard line before Deggie falls on it,
06:24 they end up having to punt.
06:25 So they were getting ready to take the lead.
06:27 At least, you would have at least thought,
06:29 get at least three, go up 16-13.
06:31 Now, who knows if they actually hold on to win the game.
06:34 Oklahoma would have certainly had another drive,
06:36 you would think, but that's a tough one to swallow.
06:40 And I think there is still a fair amount of players
06:43 on this team that experienced that loss
06:45 and remember to this day, most notably, Zach Frazier.
06:49 So, I don't think, and we talked about this off the air,
06:53 like, when you just look at these two teams on paper,
06:56 like, it feels like it should be a really good football game.
06:59 But in some aspects, it's just like,
07:01 can they really hang in?
07:03 Like, this seems like everything's going against them
07:06 this week because Oklahoma's coming off
07:07 with two straight losses, they're playing pissed off,
07:10 you would assume, and they're still in this big
07:13 12 races as anybody.
07:15 So, could this be a bad thing for West Virginia?
07:17 I don't know.
07:18 But, to me, I feel like this is going to be a better game
07:22 than expected, and hell, I mean, I don't think it's crazy
07:24 to think that West Virginia could win this game,
07:26 even though they're like 12 or 13-point underdogs.
07:29 - Yeah, I mean, they've been, you know,
07:33 you kind of go look at a lot of the games,
07:35 they've been blown out.
07:36 I think the most memorable one was at Iowa State.
07:40 And again, you know, that was times
07:42 where they were just piecing teams together.
07:44 That 21 team had a lot of promise,
07:47 but they did lose a lot, especially defensively.
07:49 But that game was early in the year as well.
07:53 So once injuries hit, guys had to set out,
07:57 we started seeing some of the weaknesses on that team,
08:02 mostly depth.
08:03 But I think this year, you just kind of look at it,
08:06 I don't think, you know, everyone kind of expected
08:08 Oklahoma to bounce back, I guess.
08:10 And I wasn't really high on Oklahoma again.
08:14 I haven't been high on Brent Venables.
08:15 And of course, now with two straight losses,
08:18 Oklahoma fans are now mad about their offense.
08:22 But if you look at their offense,
08:24 they're in the top of the league, or near the top,
08:26 near the number one spot, scoring, brushing,
08:29 so on and so forth.
08:30 But really, the Brent Venables, the defensive guy,
08:33 they're in the back half, they're in the bottom
08:35 of the conference, near the bottom of the conference,
08:37 and the defense is that.
08:38 So it's kind of funny, you go from Lincoln Rally,
08:42 kind of it was the same thing, essentially.
08:44 So I think really it's just the Big 12 offenses
08:47 are starting to get a little better,
08:49 be a little bit more patient,
08:51 instead of kind of doing everything high-tempo,
08:53 kind of picking their spots with tempo,
08:55 same thing kind of West Virginia does.
08:57 Everything's kind of universal at this point
08:59 when it comes to that.
09:00 So I think really with just Oklahoma,
09:02 again, talked about, you know, film.
09:05 They got exposed, and now everyone sees it.
09:08 So how do they adjust is really the question
09:11 going into West Virginia.
09:12 West Virginia's obviously not going to take it easy
09:14 on them defensively.
09:15 They've got everybody healthy for the most part
09:18 that's been playing for the last few weeks,
09:21 and that's really where it's going to lie, is its defense.
09:24 You want them to question,
09:26 and you want the offense to continue to do what they're doing,
09:28 just keep going, putting up points.
09:30 Offense can sometimes be the best defense.
09:32 Put pressure on, what's the quarterback's name?
09:36 He's strong, Dylan?
09:38 Yeah, yeah, Gabriel, Dylan Gabriel.
09:39 Gabriel, Dylan Gabriel.
09:41 You start putting pressure on him to have to score
09:43 and drive the ball the length of the field
09:46 every time after a kickoff,
09:48 can bode well in your favor,
09:51 and especially if you can create more turnovers again, right?
09:54 You really put so in doubt in their head.
09:58 So really, I think, you know, we kind of joke about it a lot.
10:01 You are who you are.
10:03 We thought West Virginia was going to scrape out
10:05 a bunch of wins throughout the year,
10:07 and they hit the button on the offense
10:09 when the screen got healthy.
10:11 Get everybody back from the offensive line,
10:13 and you're really seeing them go to the next level.
10:15 C.J. Dalton's not thinking. He's just running.
10:18 You're starting to see bigger runs from him,
10:20 so it's coming together.
10:22 It's, you know, not a shame
10:25 because this is really 100% an opportunity for West Virginia.
10:27 You've played really well.
10:30 This is what you've been waiting for since the conclusion of 2020
10:34 when the portal took over college football,
10:38 and West Virginia was just decimated.
10:39 This is what you've been waiting for with Country Roads Trust
10:42 to retain all this talent.
10:43 It's young. All these guys are making plays,
10:46 so here's your opportunity to show,
10:47 "Hey, we're here.
10:49 This is what we're going to do from moving forward.
10:51 Let's go make a statement win," and, you know,
10:54 like you mentioned, 21,
10:56 they had no business being in that game.
10:57 No one thought West Virginia was going to be in that game.
11:00 You're kind of getting that same vibe a little bit.
11:03 Well, they have - West Virginia really hasn't beaten anybody.
11:05 Well, here's your opportunity.
11:07 It's not necessarily a shock to the world
11:09 since they're probably going to be hovering around 20
11:11 in the playoff, another 17th in the AP,
11:13 but you go in there and you beat Oklahoma,
11:16 and they didn't beat Oklahoma that, you know,
11:19 for how many years, and they get the win last year,
11:21 and then you beat them back-to-back years.
11:24 Yeah, that would be hanging the -
11:26 I guess not hanging the banner, but plant the flag on the field
11:28 and say, "Hey, West Virginia, we're here.
11:31 This wasn't a mistake.
11:32 This has nothing to do with how the schedule perception.
11:36 Let's go in there and win the game."
11:38 Yeah, I mean, when you look at that team a year ago,
11:41 I mean, they were 6-6, and now they've lost two in a row.
11:45 They've got a pretty favorable stretch to end the season
11:49 after this week against BYU on the road and TCU at home.
11:53 BYU on the road is a lot tougher.
11:56 If you look at BYU at home, they play a lot better at home.
12:00 Rightfully so. Everyone plays better at home,
12:02 but BYU is on another level.
12:04 Yeah, I think we noted that last week
12:05 of how crazy their home-and-away splits
12:07 were in every aspect of the game, offense, defense,
12:10 special teams, points per game, points a lot, everything.
12:13 It's insane, so depending on what happens this week,
12:16 like if Oklahoma drops this week,
12:20 I mean, they will probably really be down in the dumps
12:23 because now they're out of the Big 12 title race for sure,
12:27 and you have two games left
12:29 that they really probably don't care about,
12:30 so you're going to have teams like BYU and TCU
12:33 that may be fighting for bowl eligibility.
12:36 Certainly BYU, maybe TCU,
12:38 so this thing could get off the rails quick,
12:41 and maybe this Oklahoma team isn't as good as we all thought,
12:45 and maybe they just got hot early.
12:47 They peaked too early.
12:48 West Virginia may be now peaking at the best time.
12:50 You want to play your best football in November.
12:52 As I mentioned on the morning after,
12:54 meaningful football has returned,
12:56 and that's a good thing for West Virginia.
12:58 You haven't had this in forever,
13:03 but I think for West Virginia in this game,
13:05 you've got to clean some things up in certain areas.
13:08 That was definitely their most well-played game
13:11 all the way around against BYU,
13:12 but they've got to get better on special teams
13:15 or at least do a better job on special teams
13:17 than they did a week ago.
13:18 They didn't fit things right in the kickoff game
13:22 and punt coverage.
13:24 I think defensively, there was still,
13:26 even though they held BYU to seven points,
13:30 not sure that would have been the case
13:31 had they played Oklahoma that way.
13:33 I think they would have given up some more points
13:35 in that game.
13:36 The coverage was still hit and miss.
13:39 Run game, they did okay, but that's a team
13:41 that's not going to run the football very well anyways.
13:44 Offensively, I think Garrett's got, again,
13:47 I've been talking about this
13:49 almost every day for the last two weeks.
13:51 He is this close to being a really damn good
13:54 football player, that close,
13:56 but he's got to be able to hit the easy plays
13:59 the defenses are giving him,
14:00 the swing passes to the running backs out of the backfield,
14:03 the quick slants, and even the downfield passes
14:07 where the receiver has a beat on the ball
14:10 and has a beat on their guy
14:12 and has two or three steps going toward the sideline.
14:15 Those are open throws. He's got to hit those.
14:17 Those are, to me, still considered layups,
14:19 and he's missing these easy throws.
14:22 The one I mentioned in the postgame show last week
14:24 was the second down, or I think it was like second and eight
14:27 or whatever to Cole Taylor,
14:28 had Cole for a first down and just threw too high,
14:31 and they ended up punting on that driver.
14:32 That was the first half of the game,
14:34 but still, you've got to be able to hit those easier throws
14:37 and make life a lot easier on you.
14:39 So that's kind of my whole thinking around this.
14:44 For you, what's it going to be this week?
14:47 Yeah, you like to see Garrett.
14:49 You know, he's had the issue.
14:50 He's so fired up to start the game.
14:53 He's got to calm down.
14:55 He does got to calm down and just let the --
14:57 you know, get a feel for the game.
15:00 He's overthrown everything at the start of the game,
15:03 thrown it a little too hard at the start of the game.
15:06 So for Garrett, I mean, before I say it,
15:09 going into next year, just calm down going into it.
15:13 It's not, you know, Neil Brown said,
15:14 but it's not necessarily bad that you don't want to take away
15:16 what makes him great, and he plays with a lot of emotion.
15:19 So just keep being Garrett,
15:21 but you just like to see those emotions
15:23 drained in a little bit,
15:24 just have a little bit more touch on the throws.
15:26 And, you know, I think he's going to be needed a lot.
15:29 They're not going to -- I think, you know,
15:31 Benables is probably looking at West Virginia right now
15:33 and be like, I'll be damned if you're going to run
15:35 for 200 yards on him.
15:37 So it'll be interesting to see how they kind of attack it
15:40 and see what they do with Cole Taylor
15:41 because at that point,
15:43 who are you going to cover Cole Taylor with?
15:47 Is it going to be a safety?
15:49 Are you going to take a round back or out?
15:50 So that's really going to be one of the biggest keys
15:54 is the matchups,
15:55 is what you want to take advantage of those matchups
15:57 and can Garrett see it?
15:59 You know, you can call it, but at the same time,
16:02 they're going to take away some of those quick windows.
16:06 Benables does a really good job of taking kind of
16:07 that first-second option away early.
16:10 It doesn't mean that it won't be open split seconds later,
16:13 but when you're trying to make regency and pressure,
16:16 it obviously makes it a lot tougher.
16:17 So really just Garrett Green just needs to settle down
16:20 a little bit.
16:21 Like you said, hit those swing passes.
16:23 Those are bunnies.
16:24 Sometimes they may only be two or three yards,
16:26 but I mean, second and seven or third and four.
16:28 - Completely changes what you're calling.
16:30 - A little different.
16:32 You know, third and four, now you get half or half of it
16:35 or three yards,
16:37 they're probably going to go for it
16:39 inside Oklahoma territory.
16:41 Really some of the bunnies, you want the offensive line
16:44 to continue to be dominant up front.
16:47 I mean, I can watch film on Zach Frazier all day.
16:50 He just, he's a bully and the nicest kid in the world,
16:52 but man, he is just a brute in the middle there.
16:57 I mean, I would, I think the only thing
16:59 that really be holding him back
17:00 from a first round selection is his wingspan.
17:03 Really could be the only thing that holds him back,
17:06 but it doesn't take every, I think, I think I saw,
17:08 I haven't looked, but he has the same measurements
17:12 as Jason Kelsey.
17:13 I haven't looked into that,
17:16 'cause I guess that was a knock on Kelsey,
17:18 was his wingspan.
17:19 So that'd be interesting, interesting comparison,
17:23 but regardless, offensively, I think he just got to,
17:26 again, go into attack mode,
17:27 want Garrett to be a little patient,
17:29 see Jay not to be so patient still
17:32 and just continue to run and let Shaheem,
17:34 you know, Shaheem hasn't been thinking about anything,
17:37 but just make a play.
17:39 So you can continue to do that.
17:41 And I think really with the receivers,
17:42 you know, they've played better,
17:44 but when you get those bunnies as well
17:48 and they're actually delivering,
17:49 even if they're a little behind,
17:50 anything hits your hand, you got to catch this game.
17:52 You cannot drop passes,
17:54 especially on third down, first downs,
17:56 whether the route is short or not,
17:58 you got to give yourself an opportunity to catch it
18:00 and get upfield to get across those sticks.
18:02 So I think this is really, you know,
18:04 the biggest key of the game
18:06 is you're going to have to play near perfect.
18:07 - I was just about to say.
18:09 - Go into Oklahoma and win.
18:13 And that's really the case for every team
18:14 that goes into Oklahoma.
18:16 And that was the case for the teams last year
18:17 going into Oklahoma.
18:19 You know, we mentioned how tough is it to play at BYU?
18:22 It's really tough.
18:23 Well, it's really tough to win in Norman as well.
18:25 I know Iowa State kind of had that formula there
18:28 for back-to-back times.
18:30 They went in Norman.
18:32 So I'm sure Neil Brown and his staff
18:33 is kind of looking to see what they did.
18:35 I don't think this is a game where you try to,
18:37 you know, shorten it or anything like that.
18:40 You just continue to play how you've been playing.
18:43 Go put points on the board
18:44 and hopefully your offense creates enough chaos
18:48 for your defense to get some turnovers.
18:50 And I think that's really the formula
18:51 they're trying to go with moving forward.
18:54 - Yeah, I was literally just about to ask you,
18:56 like, does this feel like a game
18:58 that they have to play perfect?
18:59 Because to me, everything I keep thinking about
19:01 is you can't have all the penalties
19:05 that they had last week, right?
19:06 That was kind of an oddity
19:08 because they had been so good all season long.
19:11 You just had some dumb penalties
19:13 and it's going to happen from time to time.
19:15 But in a game like this, you can't have those.
19:18 You can't have dumb penalties.
19:19 You can't, this can't be the game
19:20 where Garrett Green all of a sudden decides
19:22 to start throwing interceptions.
19:24 This isn't the game that your run game just vanishes.
19:27 This isn't the game where the defense gives up
19:30 30 plus points in the game.
19:32 You've got to be able to almost play
19:34 as perfect as possible.
19:35 The product won't be completely perfect.
19:38 It never is.
19:39 But you have to be as close to that as possible
19:42 to have a chance to win in Norm.
19:43 It's a tough place to play, like you said.
19:46 But I think offensively, it's kind of cool
19:49 to see how this offense has evolved
19:52 really since the bye week,
19:53 because early on, we really didn't know what to expect.
19:56 The Penn State game was just clear.
19:59 Neil was just trying to get his team
20:00 to the fourth quarter in that game,
20:02 to just give them a chance.
20:04 And that's a whole different beast
20:06 that you're facing there.
20:07 And that game plan is a whole different game plan
20:09 that you're going to have from anybody else
20:10 you play the rest of the year.
20:12 Duquesne's Duquesne.
20:13 We all know about the injury, set 'em backs.
20:15 We weren't able to really do much with Nico.
20:18 And then you come out of the bye week,
20:19 and this has been, it's almost like a fun offense to watch,
20:23 not only just because they're moving the ball
20:25 and scoring points,
20:26 but it's almost like a Sean McVay-ish type offense
20:30 where they're doing all this window dressing
20:31 before the snap,
20:33 kind of changing the picture for the defense.
20:35 You really don't have any idea.
20:36 That was the biggest knock on Neil from fans,
20:39 other than he didn't win games,
20:40 is that his play calling was predictable.
20:43 Now, I don't know that we've seen a whole lot
20:46 of the same plays being repeated over and over and over again.
20:49 They're playing and running so many different plays
20:52 out of these formations and personnel sets.
20:55 It's hard to really get a grasp
20:57 on what they're going to throw at you.
20:59 And when you have Jaheim White now in the mix,
21:02 that's a whole different animal
21:04 because now you've got the hammer,
21:06 and you've got, and C.J. Donaldson,
21:08 you've got this scat back
21:09 that can do a little bit of everything,
21:11 and Jaheim, it just makes it
21:13 that much more difficult to defend.
21:15 So this offense is humming.
21:18 I think they're going to do what they need to do
21:19 to stay in this game.
21:20 I think it really comes down to defense
21:22 and special teams in this one.
21:23 So flipping over to that side,
21:26 how do you contain Dylan Gabriel in this offense?
21:29 Because, I mean, when he gets going,
21:31 it's a tough, tough offense to stop.
21:34 Yeah, it is.
21:36 This one isn't easy.
21:37 It's easier to say, "Hey, just kind of keep everything
21:39 in front of you.
21:41 Don't give up the big play."
21:43 But it kind of goes against everything.
21:45 They're going to get there. They're going to get there.
21:48 It kind of goes against everything you said, right?
21:49 Try to create some chaos and get some turnovers.
21:53 So they're going to have to take chances.
21:55 But I think, you know, this is where AB
21:57 is going to have to be really instrumental in this one.
22:00 He can't let anything behind him.
22:02 He's going to really have to make the right reads.
22:04 I think a lot of teams has had success.
22:07 If you kind of look what UCF did and what Dana did,
22:11 you know, Western has had to play quite a bit of zone
22:14 with all the injuries, so you're probably going to see
22:15 a lot of flooding,
22:17 a lot of, you know, kind of receivers
22:19 coming out of the backfield following the following --
22:23 halfbacks coming out of the backfield
22:25 following the receivers down the field
22:26 and kind of getting those dump offs
22:28 that they can have blocking down the field.
22:30 There's probably a lot of flooding,
22:31 so it'd be interesting to see how they change that.
22:34 Maybe they play a little bit, man,
22:35 but you're going to get that filling out process, right?
22:38 See it in the first quarter, first couple possessions.
22:42 West Virginia has always kind of played base
22:44 to see how they're going to be attacked.
22:46 It's kind of went against them a little bit,
22:48 but, you know, when you've got freshmen thrown in,
22:52 of course, there are still a few games into it at this point,
22:56 but they're still freshmen.
22:57 They're going to see some things from this offense
23:00 they haven't seen all year,
23:01 so it's going to be about adjustments.
23:05 The thing with Oklahoma is they have so much talent
23:08 that adjustments sometimes don't help,
23:10 so I think it's just about containing the offense.
23:12 Make them work for every yard.
23:14 They start getting plays in chunks,
23:16 they're going to start feeling it,
23:17 and then it'll be a lot more loose.
23:18 So, you know, to me, it's just about West Virginia offense.
23:22 Put that pressure on them. Make them force those throws
23:25 and get a tip ball and pop up in the air
23:27 and get the interception.
23:29 I don't know what else you can do defensively.
23:33 You know, you can say, "Hey, just blitz
23:35 and put pressure on Gabriel," but he can use his legs.
23:37 So, up front, you're going to try to contain them
23:40 the best you can.
23:41 That's always a great offensive line at Oklahoma.
23:43 They seem like they've always got NFL guys.
23:46 I mean, they are blue blood.
23:49 Seems like they've always got big-time NFL guys
23:51 on their offensive line.
23:52 I mean, you can get through the league right now.
23:53 There's a bunch of Oklahoma guys
23:55 on the offensive line in the NFL.
23:57 So, I think you have to try to do your best,
23:59 contain them, just kind of keep everything in front of you.
24:01 Pick your spots and blitz.
24:02 I know they've loved Senegalese Koba on the blitz a lot.
24:06 Really, the last few weeks,
24:07 he's really been blitzing quite a bit.
24:10 So, it'll be interesting.
24:11 You know, Oklahoma's seen that.
24:13 How Leslie counters that will be kind of fun to watch,
24:17 but I think it's going to be one of those nights
24:19 where you're just like, "Come on, defense.
24:20 Just one more stop. Can you do something here?"
24:23 Because you look at Oklahoma's scores,
24:25 they've been around 30 points.
24:28 Obviously, the last couple games,
24:30 and you go back to Texas, their games have been chaotic.
24:32 It's kind of like the Big 12 is kind of reverting back
24:35 pre-COVID, where it was just offense galore
24:38 and everything's coming down to the final couple possessions.
24:41 What defense can make that stop?
24:43 West Virginia's shown they can create turnovers,
24:45 and a lot of that has to do with the pressure
24:47 they put on the offense.
24:49 So, I think that's just kind of it.
24:51 Just hope for the best in every card,
24:53 not from the coaching standpoint.
24:55 I know they're going to have a game plan,
24:56 but from a fan perspective, just kind of hope for the best
24:59 and hopefully don't give up big plays
25:00 where they can kind of get momentum,
25:02 and then all of a sudden, West Virginia
25:03 kind of feels that pressure.
25:04 I don't know if West Virginia's really felt
25:06 that much pressure offensively.
25:08 You can go to Oklahoma State,
25:10 but, you know, a couple turnovers there
25:14 kind of hurt that game.
25:16 You know, you really felt most of the time
25:18 they were in control offensively.
25:20 But, again, as soon as you try to get down
25:23 a couple possessions, they feel like they had scored,
25:25 and all of a sudden, they try to squeeze a throw in
25:27 that doesn't need to be there.
25:29 So, really with the defense,
25:31 best offense is your defense, I think, this year.
25:34 Yeah, and I think there's also one other thing
25:36 that I want to point out, too,
25:38 because in these types of games,
25:40 you have to lay it out on the line, right?
25:42 And, again, I know we don't want to look ahead
25:45 at Baylor or Cincinnati, but let's be honest.
25:48 Those two teams are not who you should be worried about,
25:51 and obviously because you have to play
25:54 what's in front of you first.
25:55 But you've got to throw the kitchen sink at this team.
25:59 Like, literally everything that you have in your playbook
26:02 that you have repped and feel comfortable with,
26:04 both offensively and defensively,
26:07 and, hell, even special teams-wise,
26:09 throw everything at them in this game.
26:12 That way, you can survive in advance,
26:14 like Neil said earlier in the season,
26:16 to get to that next part of this so-called
26:19 in-season tournament, if you want to call it that,
26:21 because Cincinnati and Baylor,
26:23 you can probably get by with some stuff.
26:26 You can get by with struggling out of the gate
26:30 or not playing well defensively
26:33 or overcoming a couple turnovers.
26:34 You can do that against those two teams.
26:37 This game, you've got to throw everything at them,
26:38 and I mean by being aggressive on fourth down, too.
26:41 I would not be shocked if Neil Brown
26:45 has multiple fourth-down attempts in this game,
26:48 offensively.
26:49 I would not be shocked one bit
26:51 because he's shown a couple of times this year already
26:55 that he's going to be aggressive, especially in the UCF game.
26:57 First drive of the game,
26:59 they went for it on their own side of the field,
27:01 and it worked.
27:02 So it's not always going to,
27:04 but I feel like he understands what this game means
27:09 and what they're going to have to do to win it,
27:10 and I think it also comes down to stealing possessions away.
27:14 And if they can stay on the field,
27:15 convert a fourth down or two,
27:17 that's going to keep their defense off the field
27:21 as well as Oklahoma's defense on it.
27:24 And you win that time possession battle,
27:26 that's exactly where they want to live, right?
27:28 They want to keep the ball 35-plus minutes a game,
27:31 and when they do that, they're pretty successful.
27:33 So we'll see what happens
27:35 when West Virginia and Oklahoma get together
27:37 this Saturday night in Norman,
27:39 seven o'clock kickoff on Fox.
27:42 We'll have the post-game show for you
27:44 following that one as well.
27:46 Be sure to hit that subscribe button
27:48 on YouTube at Mountain Ears Now
27:49 and follow us on X at the same handle.
27:52 That's Christopher Hall, I'm Skylar Callan.
27:54 Thank you guys for watching.
27:55 Also, make sure you check out
27:57 our walkthrough game day show preview.
27:59 That'll air Thursday,
28:01 and we'll be back here in a couple of days.
28:05 Take care.
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