I will start with the WV fans. Stayed in the RV lot with the majority of RV's being WV. As best I could tell about 3 RV's were Mizzou fans including mine. What a great time and some great people we experienced. Got invited to breakfast and treated well by the WV fans close by. Great hospitality! Stadium operations is another story. What a mess they had and all the WV fans were apologizing to us for the mess while standing in the crowd. Stood in a massive crowd with ticket in hand for 40 minutes to get in the stadium and missed the opening kick off. The concessions where awful and the lines were outrageous. A beautiful stadium and a great college game day atmosphere but being in a massive crowd of angry WV fans just trying get in the game was not fun. They clearly need more gates. What a mess!
As for the game it was about what I expected. One of the WV fans sitting close asked me at the half what the deal was with our defense. WV was averaging 6 yards per card at the half and he was surprised as he told me your defense allowed and average of 3 yards per carry in the SEC last year with many starter back. I told him the new DC and new DL coach had some work to do as obviously as there was not a lot of carry over from last year. Our secondary played better than I expected and our front 7 not as well as I expected against the run. Charles Harris was not a factor. The left tackle had help on many of the passing downs. Very little pressure up the middle and when their QB had time he was accurate.
Our offense was better than last year in pass protecting but still has work to do in run blocking. I would play Josh Agusta at fullback more in selected situations. We got the ball on the 6 or 7 yard line after the WV turn over and got nothing which killed us. Big Josh is going to get 2 yards per carry and even as a blocker he will flatted anyone in one in his path. I love the creativity with using big Josh.
Needless to say we have to catch the ball and hold on to the ball. On the fumble the ball carrier had the ball out from his body so just poor fundamentals. He could get by with that in high school but not at this level. Soft hands and use the fingers as opposed to stone hands went catching the ball. Can't fault our effort just need to be smarter in carrying the ball and catching the ball.
This team will get better every week and be a factor in the SEC East if we get our defensive act together. I think our defense will play better as the year goes on. We may not win the East but we will win some games people are not expecting us to win. My biggest fear was that our defense being out of position and slow to react, just thinking to much in the first game. I saw some of that in the secondary but I also saw a tentative play on the DL which surprised me. It appeared they were clearly struggling with new techniques they are being taught. Not sure why but clearly not firing off the ball and get penetration like last year.
I will watch the DVR version I recorded when I get the chance so preliminary observations from being at the game.
As for the game it was about what I expected. One of the WV fans sitting close asked me at the half what the deal was with our defense. WV was averaging 6 yards per card at the half and he was surprised as he told me your defense allowed and average of 3 yards per carry in the SEC last year with many starter back. I told him the new DC and new DL coach had some work to do as obviously as there was not a lot of carry over from last year. Our secondary played better than I expected and our front 7 not as well as I expected against the run. Charles Harris was not a factor. The left tackle had help on many of the passing downs. Very little pressure up the middle and when their QB had time he was accurate.
Our offense was better than last year in pass protecting but still has work to do in run blocking. I would play Josh Agusta at fullback more in selected situations. We got the ball on the 6 or 7 yard line after the WV turn over and got nothing which killed us. Big Josh is going to get 2 yards per carry and even as a blocker he will flatted anyone in one in his path. I love the creativity with using big Josh.
Needless to say we have to catch the ball and hold on to the ball. On the fumble the ball carrier had the ball out from his body so just poor fundamentals. He could get by with that in high school but not at this level. Soft hands and use the fingers as opposed to stone hands went catching the ball. Can't fault our effort just need to be smarter in carrying the ball and catching the ball.
This team will get better every week and be a factor in the SEC East if we get our defensive act together. I think our defense will play better as the year goes on. We may not win the East but we will win some games people are not expecting us to win. My biggest fear was that our defense being out of position and slow to react, just thinking to much in the first game. I saw some of that in the secondary but I also saw a tentative play on the DL which surprised me. It appeared they were clearly struggling with new techniques they are being taught. Not sure why but clearly not firing off the ball and get penetration like last year.
I will watch the DVR version I recorded when I get the chance so preliminary observations from being at the game.
