Between The Eers: WVU Bowl Matchup Reaction
Between The Eers: WVU Bowl Matchup Reaction
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello everybody, welcome into Between the Ears.
00:12 I'm Scott Calendet, it's Christopher Hall
00:14 and this is an unusual time for us to tape,
00:17 but it is bowl season.
00:18 We've got our bowl opponent, we've got our destination.
00:21 You guys are coming here to my backyard here in Charlotte.
00:23 So West Virginia, gonna be taking on
00:26 the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke's Mayo Bowl
00:30 here at Bank of America Stadium.
00:32 This is gonna be a fun one, Chris.
00:34 I kind of jokingly said a couple of weeks ago
00:36 that I was hoping West Virginia would match up
00:39 with North Carolina.
00:40 That way me and my wife could have a little back and forth
00:43 throughout the upcoming weeks
00:45 and in the weeks after the game.
00:47 But boy, I didn't know that it would end up here in Charlotte
00:51 that's pretty cool.
00:52 So, the Duke's Mayo Bowl is not directly tied
00:57 to the Big 12 Conference,
00:58 but because the Big 12 had more bowl eligible teams
01:02 than slots, the SEC did not have as many.
01:05 They were able to make that work.
01:07 And here we go, West Virginia, North Carolina,
01:09 once again in Charlotte.
01:10 - Yeah, it's an interesting matchup.
01:14 We don't know who's playing for North Carolina right now.
01:17 - Drake May most notably.
01:20 - Yeah, Drake May most notably.
01:23 And unfortunately, if he does play,
01:25 I think this is a horrendous matchup for West Virginia.
01:28 Just because, I mean, if you look at the teams they lost to,
01:32 they had a good passing game.
01:34 Houston was inconsistent with it,
01:36 but if you go back and listen,
01:39 they had a talented receiving core.
01:40 You look at North Carolina,
01:42 they do have a talented receiving core
01:44 along with a tight end.
01:45 So, don't like that matchup,
01:47 especially with the inside, with the linebackers
01:50 and then the safety issues as well.
01:52 Obviously, we kind of expect all the West Virginia players,
01:56 except for Zach Frazier for now, not playing.
01:59 So, if you're going into it right now,
02:02 it looks like West Virginia has the advantage.
02:04 I mean, I would highly doubt Drake May would play.
02:07 He's like a top three draft pick.
02:09 (laughs)
02:10 So, I'm not sure he's gonna play.
02:13 - Yeah, I mean, you look at this team,
02:16 and again, ironically, I was telling my wife this
02:21 like two weeks or a week ago,
02:23 that West Virginia, North Carolina,
02:25 they both get to eight and four,
02:27 but both fan bases probably feel much different
02:29 about the way they got to eight and four.
02:31 'Cause West Virginia, again,
02:33 picked preseason 14th and Big 12.
02:35 Meanwhile, North Carolina was a lot of people's dark horse
02:38 to get to the college football playoff.
02:40 Everyone certainly pegged them into getting to Charlotte
02:43 this past, or this weekend for the ACC title game.
02:46 Yet, they just, they kind of fell apart, really.
02:50 About late October on,
02:51 and I'm looking at their schedule here,
02:54 after they beat Pitt, Syracuse, and Miami,
02:57 things really started to go downhill.
02:59 They lose to Virginia.
03:01 And I believe at the time,
03:02 that was Virginia's either first or second win of the season.
03:06 They lose to Virginia 31-27 at home.
03:09 You feel like, okay, they bounce back,
03:10 they get Georgia Tech.
03:12 Nope. One game beats them twice.
03:14 They go down to Atlanta and lose to Georgia Tech
03:16 in a shootout, 46-42.
03:19 They bounce, they finally bounce back the next week
03:21 against her alma mater, Campbell, and win 59-7.
03:26 They take down Duke 47-45 in double overtime.
03:30 So they kind of really had to,
03:32 that was kind of, again, it went,
03:33 it could have went either way.
03:36 And then these last two weeks,
03:37 they've lost to Clemson on the road, 31-20,
03:41 and then NC State, 39-20.
03:43 So they've only scored 40 points in these last two games.
03:46 That's with Drake May.
03:47 I don't know what this offense is going to look like
03:49 if it does not have him.
03:52 But the one thing I do know
03:53 is from watching a few of these Carolina games
03:56 is they can run the football.
03:57 Amari and Hampton, 1,442 yards, 15 touchdowns,
04:02 average of six yards a carry.
04:04 Obviously, Drake May can run it as well.
04:07 So if he's not in the game,
04:09 I don't know what that quarterback situation's like.
04:11 We'll go more in depth on that in our actual preview.
04:14 But Amari and Hampton's going to be a problem for sure.
04:16 - Yeah, absolutely.
04:18 I think the defense has let him down most of the year.
04:22 - Oh, yeah.
04:22 - And of course, we'll have time to fix that again.
04:25 We'll have to see how the roster shakes out.
04:26 But definitely an exciting matchup.
04:29 West Virginia got the better of them.
04:31 That was '08, is that when it was?
04:33 - Yeah.
04:34 - Pat White's last bowl game
04:37 in the market four in a row.
04:39 I think they've only matched up or get together twice,
04:42 '96 Gator Bowl, and that, which is kind of odd.
04:45 Geographically, they've never had a non-conference
04:48 even way back in history.
04:50 So it'll be a fun matchup, interesting matchup.
04:55 And I like West Virginia's chances going in
04:58 without Drake May.
04:59 (laughing)
05:02 - With him.
05:02 - I'm not just saying that they could.
05:03 I mean, if you look at the defense,
05:05 I think West Virginia could keep up,
05:06 but you don't want another Dylan Gabriel.
05:11 Alan Bowman was up and down this year,
05:13 but I mean, he put a lot of darts in that game
05:16 to open up the running game.
05:17 And if Drake May's having a good day,
05:20 it obviously opens up the running game.
05:22 You just mentioned their stats with the rushing game.
05:26 So it would definitely be a challenge,
05:27 but I think West Virginia's offense would be up for the task.
05:30 You just hate having someone like Drake May
05:33 possibly having the ball in the final minute or so.
05:35 - Yeah, that could be problematic for sure.
05:39 North Carolina, their defense.
05:42 Past defense, they ranked dead last in the ACC.
05:45 So 14th there, and then against the run,
05:49 they were 11th, allowing 163 yards per game.
05:52 So you kind of feel like this could almost be
05:56 like that Houston game a little bit,
05:57 if Drake May does play,
05:59 because Carolina's defense has got a lot of soft areas in it
06:03 that they're really not that good up front.
06:05 I think this is a game, even without Zach Frazier,
06:08 this offensive line should have its way up front
06:11 and kind of moving the pile
06:13 and creating some holes for C.J. Donaldson,
06:15 Jaheim White, even Garrett Green.
06:18 Like, I think West Virginia's not going to have a problem
06:21 moving the ball and scoring it,
06:21 especially the way they've played
06:23 the last month of this season.
06:24 They've looked really good.
06:26 It's just kind of coming down to all the question marks
06:28 with Drake May, all the question marks
06:31 with West Virginia's defense, because let's face it,
06:33 really since the bye week,
06:36 you can't really say a whole lot
06:38 about West Virginia's defense outside of the BYU game,
06:41 and BYU was in a tough spot in that game
06:45 with Jake Retzelhoff.
06:46 - Yeah, a lot of it just has to do with injuries.
06:50 It came in thin in the secondary linebacker,
06:52 and they've just kind of picked on him there,
06:55 down the seam and in the middle.
06:56 So that's where you kind of worry with Drake May,
07:00 because he's going to be able to kind of target,
07:03 you know, hit those targets,
07:04 and then you think about it,
07:08 well, how good is the backup quarterback?
07:10 Is he supposed to be really good next year,
07:11 because you don't have any film on him.
07:14 They can really come out with a whole new game plan as well,
07:17 but I still think, again, West Virginia's offense
07:22 should be able to move the ball and keep pace.
07:25 You just hope that it's not a bad day.
07:28 You know, they have had their off days, for sure,
07:31 so hopefully it's just not an off day.
07:33 - So I guess there's the optics of this.
07:37 If you can find a way to win this game,
07:39 whether it's with or without Drake May,
07:42 I still think, again, that ninth win is so big,
07:45 because you can recruit to that,
07:48 and you can still recruit to an eight-win season.
07:50 There's no doubt about that,
07:51 but a nine-win season,
07:54 that just, it just sounds beautiful, right?
07:57 Like, if you go to these kids in the portal and say,
07:58 "Hey, we won nine games,"
08:00 even though a lot of these guys that they're recruiting,
08:02 it'll be throughout the month of December
08:03 before the bowl game,
08:04 but there's going to be some stragglers.
08:06 There's going to be some guys that transfer later on.
08:09 I mean, that plus the high school ranks,
08:12 you can really start to recruit to that
08:14 with a nine-win season.
08:16 I don't care who, you know, plays in the game or not.
08:18 Again, these transfers aren't going to go
08:20 and look at the box score and say,
08:21 "Oh, well, they got the nine wins
08:23 because Drake May didn't play in the bowl game."
08:25 So I think it's a good opportunity for West Virginia.
08:28 We'll see how they match up,
08:30 but thoughts on the season a little bit here, too,
08:33 since we haven't had a chance to record that episode yet.
08:36 We will, but just a brief thought on that,
08:38 on the eight-win year.
08:40 Yeah, just kind of build on that.
08:42 You're building, I think,
08:44 when you're pitching these kids in the portal,
08:47 you're, you know, Beanie, I'm sure they were saying,
08:50 "Hey, we're building here.
08:52 We have some pieces. We have a chance,"
08:54 but now you're just adding to what's already
08:57 a pretty good roster coming into next year.
08:59 So I thought they, you know,
09:00 I said eight and four at the beginning of the year.
09:02 That's what they ended up being.
09:03 Didn't waver when they won those early games.
09:06 I thought they would lose.
09:08 I knew it would kind of shake out,
09:09 just kind of who they are as a young team.
09:12 They were going to be a consistent.
09:14 Shake out the way they did, thought they played better.
09:17 When they played their best,
09:19 I thought that was better than I thought they would be,
09:23 especially later in the year with that offense.
09:25 Gary Green has just made strides.
09:27 Jaheim White was advertised and really retention.
09:31 Just think about it.
09:32 They couldn't have retained C.J.
09:34 Donaldson, and all of a sudden,
09:35 you're leaning on Jaheim White all season.
09:37 We don't know.
09:39 D.J. Oliver has gotten a lot of love from the coaches,
09:42 but you don't know how that would have shaked out
09:44 during the season if it changed your passing game
09:46 because pass protection, because C.J.
09:47 Donaldson had a year to learn that
09:49 and help in the passing game.
09:50 So there was a lot involved,
09:52 really, in just so many small areas.
09:54 Small things like that make a huge difference.
09:57 So it's exciting to know the resources are there
09:59 to carry it on the next year
10:01 and are able to build with the bowl practice
10:03 and a quality opponent.
10:05 Yeah, this is a big game.
10:07 Or really not just a big game, but just a big opportunity.
10:10 Either way, you still feel good about the eight-win season.
10:13 You're making progress.
10:14 You've got a young nucleus that you can build around,
10:16 you think, as long as you can keep everybody.
10:18 So we'll see how it all shakes out here
10:21 at Bank of America Stadium.
10:22 Just a little fun fact for you.
10:25 When Chris and I work a West Virginia game
10:28 in Bank of America Stadium, West Virginia's undefeated.
10:31 So just throwing that out there.
10:34 But we thank you guys for tuning in.
10:37 We're going to have more in-depth coverage.
10:39 We've got a bunch of stuff already up on the site,
10:41 more to come on this matchup.
10:43 In the weeks ahead, we'll have even more.
10:46 We're going to have the game day show as well with Eugene.
10:48 Probably, we usually put it out two days before,
10:51 but since that would be Christmas,
10:52 we're probably going to put it out
10:54 maybe the 23rd or something like that.
10:56 So you guys can watch it over the holidays or not.
11:00 I don't blame you if you don't,
11:01 but we'll have it there for you if you choose to.
11:04 So thank you guys for watching.
11:06 For Christopher Hall, I'm Skylar Callahan.
11:08 You've been watching Between the Ears.
11:09 You can follow us on Twitter, or @XMTNEARSNOW,
11:13 and you can also subscribe to our channel on YouTube
11:16 at the same handle.
11:17 So thank you guys for watching.
11:18 We'll see you soon.
11:19 Take care.
11:20 (upbeat music)
11:22 (upbeat music)
11:25 (upbeat music)
11:28 (upbeat music)