MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Blogging live from the upper reaches of Milan Puskar Stadium, where West Virginia and Georgia Southern opened the season Saturday night. A recap of the in-game updates as WVU rolled 44-0.
FIRST QUARTER
• KJ Dillon reluctantly takes a knee on deep endzone kickoff. But then picks up an unsportsmanlike conduct flag jogging off the field.
• Dang. Was really hoping Holgorsen would try the same opening trick play that Louisville ran. (Was bound to work this time, right?) Instead, it’s a Skyler Howard keeper.
• Touchdown (WVU leads 7-0): Freshman receiver Jovon Durante needed 4 minutes, 6 seconds to score a college TD. He beat Georgia Southern’s Darrius White on a 41-yard go route.
• The scoring drive covered 87 yards in nine plays and 4:06. Don’t forget, it was kept alive by Howard scrambling for 7 yards on a third-and-6. Mobility.
• Georgia Southern goes three-and-out on its first series, failing to convert a third-and-1 when Jared Barber popped Favian Upshaw for a 4-yard loss.
• On second series, Tony Matteo replaces starter Kyle Bosch at right guard. (Holgorsen warned us that might happen.)
• Field goal (WVU leads 10-0): After Shelton Gibson’s 51-yard catch, WVU settles for a 26-yarder from Josh Lambert.
• On a third-and-10, Georgia Southern’s BJ Johnson fumbles an end-around pitch thanks to Dillon’s disturbance. (GSU fumbled only 12 times in 2014.) Karl Joseph recovered at the Eagles’ 31.
• West Virginia gets nothing off the turnover. A fourth-and-1 at the GSU 17 goes nowhere, with Wendell Smallwood crunched by linebacker Antwione Williams.
• Mountaineers lead in total yardage 160-2, but they’re 0-2 in the red zone where TDs are concerned.
• Georgia Southern finally gets rolling and reaches WVU territory before a chop-block leads to a third-and-27. Eagles run a QB draw to play it safe before punting.
• On the last play of the first quarter, Durante would’ve had an 80-yardd TD if not for Howard’s underthrow. WVU settles for a 57-yard gain.
• WVU on pace for 868 yards of offense. (These end-of-quarter projections never materialize.)
SECOND QUARTER
• Field goal (WVU leads 13-0): Howard’s third-and-1 pass is too tall for the slanting Devonte Mathis—costing WVU a 15-yard touchdown. On comes Lambert for the 32-yard kick and 13-0 lead.
• Georgia Southern suffers its third three-and-out in four series.
• Nothing happening on that series for WVU.
• Georgia Southern trying the always-popular 4th-and-1 from your own 29. (Nothing there. Kyle Rose and Co. stuffs the run.)
• WVU can’t capitalize. Howard charged with intentional grounding and loses helmet in the process. William Crest enters facing second-and-29. Not optimal.
• Field goal (WVU leads 16-0): Gibson makes a tough 47-yard catch against tight coverage and Howard runs 10 yards to the 13. But it bogs down from there … again. On third-and-2, Howard throws slightly behind a wide-open Durante, who mistimed his jump. That means a third kick for Lambert—this time from 22 yards.
• Dravon Askew-Henry with an acrobatic interception on a deep ball at the WVU 30. Shows better ball skills than Georgia Southern’s receivers.
• WVU punts from the GSU 39, this time after a Howard pass zips through Shelton Gibson’s hands.
• Halftime: WVU leads Georgia Southern 16-0 on scoreboard and 319 to 89 in yardage. Mountaineers are 1-of-8 on third and fourth downs.
• Halftime: Howard is 10-of-19 passing for 246 yards but would love to have a couple throws back. Still hasn’t thrown an INT in parts of 5 games at WVU.
• Halftime: The Mountaineers nearly had two 100-yard receivers in the first half. (Mario Alford and Kevin White shared 100-yard games twice last season.)
THIRD QUARTER
• GSU’s first series of the third quarter last two plays. Center quick-snaps in attempt to catch WVU linemen offside. Upshaw lobs throw thinking it’s a free play, only to have Karl Joseph make the sideline INT near midfield. Refs do not oblige with offside flag.
• After Howard is sacked for the second time tonight, WVU punts for the fourth time. O’Toole pins GSU at its own 8.
• Bad throw by Upshaw (he’s now 0-of-8) results in another Joseph interception. Karl grew some hands during the offseason.
• Touchdown (WVU leads 23-0): The Mountaineers punch it in this time, albeit only a 28-yard drive. Daikiel Shorts made 19-yard catch before Shell’s 6-yard second-effort run capped it.
• Georgia Southern FINALLY completes a pass. Now 1-of-10.
• Touchdown (WVU leads 30-0): Durante opens drive with 23-yard catch and Gibson ends it with 26-yard score. Two well-spun balls by Howard, who’s 4-of-4 this half for 73 yards.
• Thanks to a facemask on Christian Brown that nullified a sack, Georgia Southern moves into WVU territory. But on fourth-and-9, Upshaw finds Karl Joseph AGAIN. He’s trying to lock up the Thorpe Award in one quarter. #ThreePicks.
• The three interceptions by Joseph are the most by a Mountaineer since the late Vann Washington against La Tech in 1994.
• Touchdown (WVU leads 37-0): Smallwood goes 19 yards untouched, extends the Mountaineers’ margin. Howard’s 26-yarder to Shorts set it up.
FOURTH QUARTER
• Skyler Howard’s night is done at 359 passing yards and two scores, overcoming some first-half misfires to finish 16-of-25. He was 6-of-6 after the half.
• William Crest in the game, and Donte Thomas-Williams getting his first college carries, including a fourth-and-1 conversion inside the 5.
• Touchdown (WVU leads 44-0): Crest delivers some icing, takes it in from 3 yards on a read-option keeper. Drive was nearly foiled by DTW’s fumble near the goal line, but WVU came away with it in the scrum.
PREGAME PREP
Final score prediction: I took West Virginia (-19.5) to win 33-17. Feel free to add your picks in the comment section.
Tonight’s uniform update: Blue jerseys (good). Blue pants (good.) Gold helmets (crap.)
A mid afternoon downpour: Growing up in south Alabama we called this kind of rain a “gullywashing.” (Is that term familiar in the Mountain State?) Heavy, loud rain struck from 4 p.m. until 4:30, but by 5 it was sunny again. Some tailgates were doused, but it shouldn’t impact play too much.
Big payout: As I charted in Friday’s article, Georgia Southern is receiving $850,000 for tonight’s appearance. That’s the largest payout ever for a WVU guarantee game.
Most honest quote of the week: The excitable KJ Dillon admitting his struggles with maintaining assignment discipline: “That is tough for me because the coaches say I like to do my own thing sometime, which isn’t always good. But when it comes to this I know I really have to focus on doing my job. If I mess around and take quarterback, he can still pitch, and if the pitch guy was my guy we’re screwed.”
D-line rotation: The two-deep features two seniors, three juniors, and one sophomore (Jon Lewis), but position coach Bruce Tall doesn’t believe the rotation is cemented. In fact, he’s guarding against making up his mind too soon. So if you don’t see juco defensive ends Larry Jefferson and Xavier Pegues early (or at all today), well, there’s still time.
“Some guys might no be ready for Game 1, but might be ready for Game 3,” Tall said. “I don’t want to put a guy on the shelf and say he’s going to be on the shelf. I think sometimes we get caught up in that because the season gets going.”
Toward developing the guys who aren’t on the depth chart, Tall said he puts their scrimmage plays into a separate cutup reel “so they can keep studying themselves.”
#FritzHappens: You have to respect the climb Willie Fritz has made into becoming an FBS coach. Really put in his proving time at the lower levels and has developed a unique spread-option attack that makes Georgia Southern hum.
But methinks he was being a tad cagey when he told MetroNews “Sportsline” recently that “the offense is also built if we want to throw it 30 to 35 times a game.”
Tony Gibson’s response after a summer spent trying to coach new run fits? “Good. I hope they do throw it.”
Tracking turnovers: Players and coaches said West Virginia’s offense didn’t commit a turnover during the final two weeks of live-team drills. No lost fumbles (and only Jacky Marcellus even venture to put the ball on the ground) and no recent practice interceptions for Skyler Howard. He threw some in 7-on-7 drills early in camp, but assistants said they want him to force throws in those situations to test the coverage.
