Game Thoughts: WVU

[Jer]

Honestly, I wonder if some of this NIL stuff is overblown.

Players were always getting paid, and probably similar to the amounts offered by most schools.

Biggest difference now is Bryce Young appearing in Dr. Pepper and Nissan national ads.

Beyond that? Many players still value playing time and the spotlight. Hunter going to UT for basketball doesn't appear to be the norm.

Last year was light because people were still figuring it out. This year will be much more impactful. Just in basketball we lost two studs this year strictly to NIL. They would probably add at least 5 wins to our conference total this year with their scoring ability.

Football has so many more players that it won’t impact us except for those that really show value or promise like a Tampa. Key will be building enough relationships and culture that some decide to stay anyways.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

All phases of the special teams have been a problem all season, and will continue to be until a full time coach is hired in that area. We have had at least 3 blocked punts this year, and numerous others that were close to getting block, while on the flip side, we have not blocked a kick all year that I can remember.

Kickoffs are not getting into the endzone, but at least we are covering them, too many punts are not fielded, and we let them bounce losing yardage to the opponent and putting the offense into a hole when they start.

Another horrible field goal kick, complete shank to the left, which should not be happening when it was a good snap and hold, I get missing from that distance, but that kick looked like some of my golf shots, and that is not good.

 

[Cloned4Life]

Fielding punts in Jack Trice has to be tough on a windy day. Losing field position sucks, but I trust Noel is making the decisions he has been told to make. As for the dropped TD pass. Ball was tipped at the line changing the trajectory of the ball. Plus there was a defender that was close to Noel trying to make a play on the ball too. It looked like a classic drop live, but on replay it was clearly a really tough catch to make. Noel is a bright and talented true sophomore, some people need to cut him some slack.

I cannot recall other teams coming into Jack Trice and having major problems fielding punts. Maybe ever.

 

[JM4CY]

Busting Noel’s chops for not catching those punts yesterday is asinine. Some of those kicks were essentially knuckleballs that wv kid was ripping off. People were yelling behind me about him not catching those. I said to the people by me, I’m glad he got his ass out of the way. There were way to many bad things that could of happened.

 

[MJ271]

There were probably a couple punts that Noel should have tried to catch. But I was absolutely fine with most of the punts that he let go. As others have said, all of the ones he let go were line drive rugby punts with ugly spin, plus whatever effect the wind had.

 

[GoldCy]

Yeah.....I guess someone can talk football and their opinion is "ok"

But wish at some point the relationship would end and we'd get another former player in that role as I'd probably listen to the post game more.

Kudos to CW for likely putting aside their own political beliefs to just talk football. I couldn't do it.

CW has never been in the closet with his political views. This forum is noted for it's political bent.

 

[bozclone]

I cannot recall other teams coming into Jack Trice and having major problems fielding punts. Maybe ever.

We punted 5 times yesterday, how many were returned by WVU? None. WVU punter averages 42.1 yards per punt for the season. His average yesterday was 42.8 on 9 kicks. I think the rugby style kicks and the wind led Noel to not fielding several kicks yesterday. Too bad our Australian punter kept kicking the rugby style kicks out of bounds when he was at Iowa State or we may have had the same success.

 

[brentblum]

I would be curious what @brentblum thinks is truly needed to keep our key guys for next year. I know Brent and Chris have talked about how important the next 2 months will be but I’m wondering if we are even in the ballpark of what we think is needed to at least try and compete with what they’ll most certainly get elsewhere.

It’s hard to know for sure. But there will be guys getting six figure offers I would guess. That doesn’t mean they would take that. Our thought is if a guy is offered $100k for example, if we can get them $25-50k they may choose to stay due to the familiarity and culture. We could use some more funding to get to that level to do that, but we’ve tried to plan accordingly. We will be having a broader marketing push on the video board at JTS and on radio to hopefully get more people on board. Now is the time to support if you had considered it!

 

[Darius Bieber]

Honestly, I wonder if some of this NIL stuff is overblown.

Players were always getting paid, and probably similar to the amounts offered by most schools.

Biggest difference now is Bryce Young appearing in Dr. Pepper and Nissan national ads.

Beyond that? Many players still value playing time and the spotlight. Hunter going to UT for basketball doesn't appear to be the norm.

Just look at how good Arkansas, Miami, and Texas A&M are doing in football with pretty much unlimited funds

 

[Cyforce]

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned but we almost had 2 punts blocked. The roughing the punter on the second one was the turning point in the game. I wish we did more unpredictable things on offense like that run heavy formation and throw it to X when we were on the 3 or the Noel reverse. I also liked the speed option looks. Maybe this game can be like Iowa's northwestern where we get confidence and roll next week too but I am not counting on it.

Watched Johnston Ankeny Friday. The Dragons put their two stud pass rushers in as blocking backs on the goal line. I'd say it's time to bring in a Woodley to shore up special teams. Upbacks on the punt team need to be the best you have.

 

[hoosman]

Same field for both teams . Same sun. Same wind. One team fielded every punt . One team didn’t.

 

[DrClone]

Same field for both teams . Same sun. Same wind. One team fielded every punt . One team didn’t.

No difference in the type of punt?

 

[JohnDoe]

Yeah.....I guess someone can talk football and their opinion is "ok"

But wish at some point the relationship would end and we'd get another former player in that role as I'd probably listen to the post game more.

Kudos to CW for likely putting aside their own political beliefs to just talk football. I couldn't do it.

I like listening to Whitver break down games. I like listening to Bruns break down games. They clearly have different political leans. I don’t see why it has to has to matter.

 

[jsb]

I like listening to Whitver break down games. I like listening to Bruns break down games. They clearly have different political leans. I don’t see why it has to has to matter.

Unfortunately Bruns isn't an elected official in Iowa making decisions that affect all of us who live here. That's the difference and the fact that people don't understand that is quite concerning.

 

[JohnDoe]

It’s hard to know for sure. But there will be guys getting six figure offers I would guess. That doesn’t mean they would take that. Our thought is if a guy is offered $100k for example, if we can get them $25-50k they may choose to stay due to the familiarity and culture. We could use some more funding to get to that level to do that, but we’ve tried to plan accordingly. We will be having a broader marketing push on the video board at JTS and on radio to hopefully get more people on board. Now is the time to support if you had considered it!

I don’t envy you Blum. It’s the Wild West and we have no clue what timelines will look like, when the dust will settle, or in what ballpark for numbers. Anything but certainty. Good luck brother!

 

[IASTATE07]

I like listening to Whitver break down games. I like listening to Bruns break down games. They clearly have different political leans. I don’t see why it has to has to matter.

Does Bruns hold office in Iowa?

 

[JohnDoe]

Does Bruns hold office in Iowa?

I hear you and fair enough. I just wish things didn’t have to come back to politics. Moving on.

 

[dafarmer]

HOne was right in front of me and I thought they got it. Definitely coming after the punter and it was affecting punts, because he was booming them in warmups. Other teams will continue to pressure him, not sure what the solution is.

Better blocking and system?

 

[CydeofFries]

I'm actually kind of optimistic about our special teams to be honest. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but our kick coverage has been excellent this year, and most of our field goal woes are due to a freshman kicker (who still has a 70.6% field goal % which isn't that bad). But most importantly, even though our punt protection is still terrible (and our coverage is good), we are actually making changes during the season, which I don't think we have done under Campbell. And Perkins has gotten quicker with his release

The problem is the bad plays are REALLY bad, and the good plays are forgettable (because they're solid execution). I may also just be desperately looking for a silver lining in a really dark cloud.

 

[dafarmer]

We won because fan in Section L went for a hotdog, and when he came back we had a TD in the2nd half. Offered to buy him another after Anthony Johnson’s over-turned TD.