Between The Eers: The Morning After Baylor
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:09 Good Sunday morning, everybody.
00:11 It is the morning after here on Between the Years.
00:14 I'm Skylar Callahan here on this Sunday morning,
00:18 the day after West Virginia beats Baylor 34 to 31.
00:24 And a late comeback, very similar to the game down in Houston,
00:29 where West Virginia took the lead late in the last minute,
00:33 only to give up a Hail Mary at the end.
00:35 But Hail Mary did not happen here in this one.
00:38 Baylor attempted it, but West Virginia learned from their mistake the first time
00:43 around in Houston, sent some pressure, got to Sawyer Robertson, and
00:48 ball didn't even get beyond two yards with the deflection.
00:54 So, Mountain Ears finished the season eight and four, six and
00:59 three in Big 12 Conference play.
01:01 It guarantees them a top five finish.
01:05 Haven't even started to look into the tiebreakers because I don't really
01:09 understand some of them.
01:10 But there's essentially a three way tie for
01:13 fourth place between them, Iowa State and Kansas State.
01:16 And as I mentioned multiple times on the game day show,
01:22 on the post game show, on between the years, on in the gun.
01:28 I have said multiple times that if West Virginia won against Baylor,
01:33 that Neil Brown should be in the discussion for Big 12 Coach of the Year.
01:42 And I still wholeheartedly believe that.
01:45 Again, it wasn't pretty.
01:48 They probably should have lost the game.
01:50 They didn't play their best.
01:51 There's no reason why they should have played the way they did.
01:54 But at the end of the day, they won the game, and they're eight and four, and
02:00 six and three.
02:01 I'm not saying that Neil Brown is the guy of the future for West Virginia.
02:09 I still really don't have a gut feeling that he is or that he isn't.
02:16 Because every moment you feel like he's gonna get this program back on track and
02:23 turn the corner, stuff like last night happened.
02:26 To where they almost lost the dang game against a three win team.
02:31 So it's kind of this yo-yo effect with Neil in terms of whether he's safe,
02:38 whether he's not, whether he's safe, whether he's not, he keeps going back and
02:42 forth, but I think we all know he's gonna be back in 2024.
02:49 But back to the Big 12 Coach of the Year thing, the only reason I'm saying this,
02:54 and I'm not saying it's because they had this terrific resume where they beat
02:59 freaking five top 25 teams and they're playing in the Big 12 title.
03:03 No one has the type of resume.
03:06 Oklahoma State, pat on the back to them.
03:10 They did a really good job of bouncing back after losing to South Alabama.
03:15 Not just losing to them, but getting their butts kicked by South Alabama at home.
03:20 Started the season off very slow, and they bounced back.
03:26 They beat Oklahoma in Bedlam.
03:29 They found a way to overcome a disastrous loss to UCF on the road and
03:36 get themselves in the Big 12 title.
03:39 Hats off to them.
03:40 But again, this is more about, not so much my opinion,
03:47 it's more about the opinion of those who pipped West Virginia 14th.
03:51 As we know, they did not finish 14th.
03:55 They did not finish in the bottom 10.
03:57 So to me, those very same voters
04:06 that voted on the Big 12 media poll are going to be voting on the Big 12
04:11 coach of the year, they need to make their correction here.
04:15 They at least need to understand and recognize that they were really wrong.
04:20 And again, I don't care what the schedule looked like.
04:24 I don't care that they avoided Kansas State.
04:27 I don't care that they avoided Texas.
04:29 I don't care that they avoided Kansas or Iowa State.
04:32 I don't care.
04:33 Because guess what, before the season started, everybody knew the schedule.
04:38 Every single one of those voters that picked West Virginia to finish dead last or
04:43 near the bottom that caused them to be picked last,
04:46 knew exactly who was on West Virginia's schedule.
04:50 Yet, they still put them there.
04:54 So that is an indictment on the voters.
05:00 Or it's just quite simply overlooking this football team.
05:05 You can only play who's on your schedule.
05:08 And I've had this argument back and forth with folks on social media for
05:13 the last 48 hours.
05:15 Yes, I 100% agree with you that they got a little lucky
05:21 with some favorable scheduling this year.
05:23 There's no doubt about it.
05:26 But moving forward, Texas isn't on your schedule ever.
05:31 Oklahoma is never on your schedule.
05:34 So it's gonna automatically get easy.
05:36 But also, everybody else in the Big 12 is going to have their opportunity
05:43 where they get an easier schedule, where they get these four not newbies anymore,
05:48 but they're gonna get Cincinnati, Houston, Central Florida, and BYU.
05:51 West Virginia can't control that.
05:55 But you can also look at the other Big 12 teams.
05:59 And I'm just guessing here off the top of my head.
06:03 I really don't know.
06:04 But I would assume very few of them played two of their non-conference
06:10 games against Power Five opponents.
06:12 Yes, Pitt was a disaster, but you can't predict that.
06:18 You can't forecast that years in advance of when you schedule it.
06:24 They played Penn State on the road to open up.
06:26 No one's playing that game.
06:27 So yes, although the Big 12 schedule may have had some favorableness to it,
06:35 a lot of teams weren't playing the type of teams that West Virginia was playing
06:41 in September, so just keep that in mind.
06:44 You can't control the schedule.
06:47 You can only control who you play in that schedule and what the results are.
06:53 So I think the biggest thing that I've tried to drive home to folks is they say,
07:01 well, eight wins in a year where you're playing Cincinnati and BYU and UCF,
07:08 Houston, which you lost to, but what does that really mean?
07:15 Because now I think the fear in folks is that,
07:20 well, this is going to keep Neil Brown around another year, and
07:24 then when 2024 rolls around, that things are going to go back to the way they
07:30 were where it's like a six and six football team.
07:32 Well, two things.
07:35 One, the Big East days, okay?
07:43 As good and as fun and as electrifying as those teams were with Pat, Steve, and
07:49 Owen, and Rich.
07:52 Even the part where you get to Geno and Tavon and Steadman when they were in
08:00 the Big East with Dana for that one year.
08:02 You look at the teams that Bill had, Bill Stewart.
08:06 They're playing South Florida.
08:11 Guess who?
08:13 Cincinnati, Rutgers, UConn.
08:18 A bad, bad, bad Pitt team.
08:22 Not the Pitt team, like, yes, they were bad this year, but
08:26 not the same Pitt that we've seen the last five years.
08:29 This is more of the Pitt that we're talking about now, okay?
08:35 You're putting in all these bad teams that West Virginia was beating up on year in
08:42 and year out in the Big East.
08:43 Nobody cared about the strength of the schedule then.
08:48 Nobody cared about it.
08:49 Nobody cared about strength of the record and all these analytics, none of that.
08:53 And I'm not saying that you can't be upset about it now.
08:55 But when you say eight wins is not a good enough year,
09:02 go back to the years in the Big East, look who they were playing and
09:06 how many times they won only that many games or
09:09 won nine games with a very, very weak schedule.
09:14 More incredibly weak than this year.
09:19 So just keep that in mind.
09:25 And then 2024, the whole conversation about that look,
09:29 if you're upset because West Virginia won, well, I don't know what to tell you.
09:34 You've got your own problems to sort through.
09:37 If you wanna be miserable because they found a way to win and
09:42 Neil's keeping his job, then I don't really know how to treat that.
09:46 But the one thing I can tell those folks is look,
09:51 2024 is gonna be the tell all for Neil Brown.
09:55 Although he's safe now,
09:58 I don't think he's necessarily 1 million percent safe for 25 and beyond.
10:05 The reason I say this is because when you win eight games and
10:09 potentially nine with the bowl game, when you win that many games after
10:14 four years of average football, all of a sudden the optics change.
10:19 The expectations change from within.
10:23 So when you have this type of season, you have the potential of bringing back
10:31 your starting quarterback, your top four running backs.
10:35 You have those guys at receiver and Rodney Gallagher and
10:39 Trae Lynn Ray and Hudson Clement and Preston Fox, EJ Horton, Cole Taylor tight end.
10:45 You're losing Zach Frazier on the offensive line.
10:47 You're losing Doug Nester, but you return three others.
10:51 You bring back a lot of interesting pieces on defense.
10:54 You get Trey Latham back to side, Trotter will be healthy.
10:58 And then you add some pieces to this team from the portal.
11:01 There's no reason why this team can't duplicate what it did this season,
11:08 and then some.
11:09 There's no reason why this team can't be in the Big 12 picture here in
11:14 late November and actually have a chance to get to Arlington.
11:18 So that's why I say if you're mad about them actually winning the game or
11:23 you're mad about Neil Brown sticking around to be the coach, just relax.
11:28 Be patient.
11:29 24 will tell you a whole lot and it will tell Ren Baker and
11:34 the administration a whole lot about Neil Brown.
11:38 Because when you bring all of that talent back,
11:40 there's no reason you should fall to seven and five or six and six or five and seven.
11:49 It's gotta be eight, nine or more.
11:53 And especially when you have a more than likely a more challenging schedule
12:00 in the Big 12.
12:01 So if you're talking about, again, if you're one of those people that talk about
12:05 the strength of record or the strength of schedule, Relax.
12:11 It's gonna be a little bit more difficult next year.
12:13 And we can judge Neil on what he can do with a full complement of talent on
12:20 offense, a lot of returning pieces on defense versus
12:25 a very competitive Big 12 schedule, more so than we could this year.
12:31 This was a good step.
12:33 This was a progress year.
12:35 A year where you wanted to find some answers on both sides of the ball.
12:39 You haven't had a quarterback in four years.
12:42 You finally got one.
12:43 You haven't had much of a run game.
12:46 You've had some glimpses of it there with Letty.
12:49 But you haven't had a run game like this.
12:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]
12:56 Even at West Virginia in years.
12:58 With Jaheim, CJ Donaldson, Justin Johnson, if you wanna throw him in there too.
13:05 And Garrett Green.
13:06 This is a year where they found out a lot about themselves and
13:14 won some football games.
13:15 Yes, they lost some games they shouldn't, but every team does.
13:20 With first year starting quarterback and a lot of young true freshmen playing.
13:23 So let's just take a deep breath for a second.
13:29 Let this one simmer.
13:32 The Mountaineers folks have a chance to win nine games.
13:35 Again, this is about the optics.
13:39 Has nothing to do with the strength of schedule, strength of record.
13:44 The optics from within mean this team
13:50 should be an eight, nine or better win team in 2024.
13:55 Ren Baker, Gordon Gee, all the other administrators at WVU.
14:01 That is what this season does to their expectations.
14:05 It also changes the optics for those in the portal because the last
14:10 three off seasons that Neil has had to recruit in the portal.
14:16 What does he have to recruit to?
14:17 Potential, maybes, hopes.
14:23 Now there's concrete evidence that they can win games.
14:29 Not one of these kids in the portal, and I said this probably a month ago.
14:33 Not one of these kids in the portal is going to sit down and
14:38 study West Virginia's schedule for 30 minutes and say, yeah,
14:43 they've won eight games, they've won six games in the Big 12.
14:46 But I think if they played Texas, no, stop it.
14:50 They're gonna look at West Virginia winning eight games, maybe nine.
14:57 Winning six Big 12 games with a top five finish in the league.
15:02 And all those pieces coming back on offense, and
15:07 all those pieces come back on defense and think, you know what?
15:10 West Virginia's got a chance here.
15:16 That's what you need to take out of this.
15:20 It's all about optics from within and from the portal.
15:28 So enjoy the wins.
15:31 Winning in college football is hard, as we've evidenced over the years.
15:37 College basketball is about to be a very long season, I'm worried.
15:40 So enjoy the wins while they're here, regardless of who they're playing.
15:44 And you'll find yourself in much better state of mind.
15:48 So that'll do it for me here today on the Between the Ears show.
15:52 I'm Scott Cal, make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube,
15:56 @MountaineersNow, give us a follow on X at MountaineersNow as well.
16:00 No game day show this week, obviously there's no game.
16:03 But I will bring Eugene back on to make our conference championship picks.
16:08 And we'll talk about the season recap with him and with Chris.
16:13 I think we're gonna hammer a lot of those episodes out this week.
16:16 So stay tuned, we're gonna have a lot of content coming your way.
16:19 And as always, thank you guys for
16:22 tuning in each and every morning after the game.
16:26 To see what I have to say about what just happened the night before.
16:30 So thank you guys, and we'll see you here in a couple of days.
16:34 [MUSIC]