The opening day domination of Eastern Kentucky was certainly not unexpected however the way it occurred was at the very least pleasing to see. West Virginia came into this season off a 2019 campaign that saw them near the bottom in running the football, in fact they turned in the worst ground attack in the history of Mountaineer Football at roughly 73 yards per game and didnt have a 100-yard rusher the entire season.

2020 saw the West Virginia ground game get out of the gate with 329 yards on the ground on 51 attempts for 6.5 yards per rush on the day. Even against an Eastern Kentucky team that was outscored 115-10 in two trips to the Mountain State to start the season it was great to see 3 different running backs have some measure of success running the football. In 2019 the Mountaineers rushed for just 879 yards as a team for the entire season. They were better than half that in yesterdays season opener as Leddie Brown and Alec Sinkfield both rushed for 123 yards and 3rd team tailback Tony Mathis Jr added another 54 yards and true freshman quarterback Garrett Green added another 33 yards on 5 carries when he got into the game in the 4th quarter.

Along with the Mountaineer rushing attack starting quarterback Jarrett Doege had a very solid effort completing 19 of 25 passes for 228 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions in on half of work. He looked very poised and in control and only had a couple of poor throws the entire game. Of course, this was a struggling Eastern Kentucky team that never really put much pressure on him the entire game and the real test will be in two weeks when the Mountaineers travel to Stillwater Oklahoma to take on the 15th ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys but it was still a very solid performance as the WVU offense under Doege Looked under control and focused. The Mountaineers receivers were led by Sam James with 5 catches for 75 yards and a TD. In all 10 different Mountaineers caught passes. A pretty balanced WVU attack with 329 yards rushing and 295 yards passing for 624 yards of total offense.

Another reason this was such a positive performance even against a such lesser opponent is that just prior to the game it was announced that 11 Mountaineer players were suspended from the game for violation of team rules,10 on offense with several of these players starters and all were players that were expected to see action in the game. It was made clear this was not Covid-19 related so it could really have been everything from curfew violations to missing a mandatory team meeting but you never know what effect this kind of announcement could do to the mindset of the team but it didn’t seem to affect them in any way.

Another positive was that a lot of true freshman and redshirt freshman played significant minutes in the game as everyone that was dressed on the sidelines saw at least a few snaps by the end of the game. WVU played all 3 quarterbacks Doege followed by Austin Kendall and true freshman Garrett Green playing most of the 4th quarter. At one point late in the game there were 3 freshman or redshirt freshman on the Mountaineer offensive line. Despite the youth on the offensive line for much of the game WVU allowed no sacks of any of their 3 quarterbacks

Defensively West Virginia was in control throughout the entire game although the secondary was out of position on a couple of long passes for the most part it was a very solid effort. The Mountaineers had 4 sacks and 9 tackles for loss and an interception. EKU ran for just 75 yards on 32 carries for 2.3 yard per attempt. EKU was also held to 1of 11 in 3rd down efficiency.

The one aspect of the game that certainly needs improvement was special teams as we saw almost everything from a fumbled kick return to a missed chip shot field goal of 23 yards by Senior Evan Staley to a kick return for a touchdown that was overturned by a penalty. The Mountaineer Special Teams also committed 6 of the WVU 8 team penalties for the game. It was not totally unexpected that Special Teams play could be erratic but I was disappointed in a Senior Placekicker missing essential an extra point field goal, that certainly must not continue as hopefully WVU will be in some close battles where filed goals could be critical.

As for the game WVU opened up with a nice 80-yard touchdown drive on 11 plays with Jarrett Doege hitting Leddie Brown for a 15 yard TD and the rout was on. Three series later it was suddenly 21-0 WVU and after EKU cut the lead to 21-7 on a 28 yard TD pass from Peyton McKinney to Keyion Dixon WVU would score the next 21 points to take a 42-7 lead into the break and added a couple more touchdowns in the 2nd half despite coach Neal Brown emptying the bench.

Now we have to wait 2 weeks until the Mountaineers travel to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Of course we can get a good look at this Cowboy football team next Saturday afternoon when they open their season hosting Tulsa at Noon on ESPN.
Until Next Time

Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Mountaineers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!