Sorry about the delay in posting. The great ice storm of 2007 had me shut down for a while but we are back up and running at full speed!
So, we've established contact with Charlie from WBGV and have been swapping some questions back and forth. We'll be sharing snippets of the ongoing conversation with you guys leading up to the Fiesta Bowl match-up between the Sooners and the Mountaineers.
The first thing he wanted to know from me, and subsequently we'll pass on to you the fans, is how do Oklahoma fans feel about playing West Virginia? Immediately I though to myself that it was a lot better than playing the Kansas Jayhawks. That would have been a disaster on so many different levels that we don't have the time to discuss it.
As for the Mountaineers/Sooners match-up I couldn't be more excited. In West Virginia OU is playing the Big East champions with an offensive attack that will run, literally, right into the strength of Oklahoma's defense. We'll get more into that in a latter post but I really feel that the Fiesta Bowl match-up between the Sooners and Mountaineers is the best of the BCS match-ups.
Here's the question that I fired back at him. How much confidence do Mountaineer fans have in their team's passing attack? His response is below.
We have no passing game. We can occasionally pass the ball, but we have no passing game. The majority of any passing yards we accrue are from bubble screens and swing passes. Basically, an extension of the running game.
This is something that bothers me about Mountaineer football. To truly succeed on a consistent level, West Virginia needs to establish a balanced attack. That certainly hasn't happened this year. In our losses, and even in the games where we haven't played well, the opposing team has slowed our running attack. Each time that has happened, we continued to run the ball, just as if it were going gangbusters. No adjustments from Coach Rich Rodriguez (CRR).
There are two theories for this occurance, neither of which are very palatable: 1) he can't make in-game adjustments; or 2) he has no faith in our passing attack. The first makes CRR look incompetent. The second makes Pat White, Jarrett Brown, and our receivers look incompetent. Neither are very palatable.
Personally, I believe it to be the latter. It pains me to say that our Heisman-candidate, Big East Offensive Player of the Year can't make our passing game work, but it seems he can't. Whether that is a condemnation of White or our receivers or both, I don't know. But something isn't working.
Pat White is the Big East Offensive Player of the Year but apparently
can't get the Mountaineers' passing game going.
But even without a passing game, we've beaten a lot of good teams over the years. A lot of those teams were good against the run, too, just like OU. How do the Sooners plan on shutting down White, Slaton, Devine, and Co.?
Wow, nice response Charlie and a great follow-up question to go with it! I'll think of something creative to send to him for posting on his site but how would you, the Sooner fan, answer? Leave your responses to how you feel about playing the Mountaineers and what you believe Oklahoma's defensive game plan will be in the comments section below.