Country Roads Confidential

I see lots of positives but also lots of stuff this young team needs to work on this off season. I am kinda curious to see if we add an offensive coordinator on the off season. I can't remember if Holgs ever said he wanted to be his own O-coordinator when he was hired.

Maybe my expectations were too high but I expected more from this team than what we saw. Watching a WVU football the past few years is about 90% frustration and 10% exhiliration. Having said that, we found ways to win enough for a cochampionship and if we get to a BCS game, it will have been a successful season because that was our stated goal.

I find myself worried with the developement of the offense. I agree depth is an obvious problem and our O line is a huge issue, but 3 or 4 games into the season I really thought when our o line came around we would be very hard to stop. Im not so sure now. While the defense improved greatley by the end of the season ( agree that B. Jenkins had a big part in that) they had to keep us in the last several games.

I agree with a lot of it..not so sure about Bruce being 1st/high 2nd round talent. At the beginning of the year I would agree..but not now. He has stepped up as the season went on but we expected a lot from him when he became an every down player..and he didn't really impress me. He could be a very good pash rush specialist but I don't think he could ever been an every down player...which could hurt his draft stock.

You do realize that every NFL person knows he is playing out of position right?

When Bruce goes to the combine and runs a 4.4 and im sure he will bulk up to around 250 scouts will be drooling.

He lives in the weight room, he has a non stop motor. Im not as certain that he will be a first round pick but if he falls farther than the top half of the 2nd round then people are just ignorant.

Good summary and good thread. I would say this season, in a really roundabout way, went about the way most of us expected. I picked WVU to go 10-2, which really should happened if we hadn't handed Louisville a giftwrapped win. If someone had told me in August that WVU would finish 9-3, I likely would have picked LSU, USF and Pitt or Syracuse as the three losses. Not too far off from what ended up happening ... LSU and Syracuse were losses, and Pitt and USF both came down to the wire.

Still, as is always the case, W-L records don't tell the whole tale. The installation of the new offense was not anywhere near as seamless as many of us (myself included) predicted it would be. The defense struggled mightily at times (Cuse and Louisville in particular). Newcomers on D (Francis and Rowell in particular) didn't get up to speed as quickly as we thought they would. Special teams were highly inconsistent at best and a complete nightmare at worst.

If I were to grade the season as a whole, right now I'd give it a solid B. Depending on the bowl performance, that grade could change to a B-/C+ or a B+. We'll see.

As for awards ...

OFFENSIVE MVP: Geno Smith. I really, really want to say Stedman Bailey here, but I can't. Geno has been the driving force behind the offense this season. I think we lose at least two additional games without him, maybe three.

DEFENSIVE MVP: Julian Miller. Miller played through pain all year to anchor a very thin defensive line and came on strong when we needed him the most. In a transition year for the defense, Miller was reliable and effective. Najee Goode and Terrence Garvin both deserve an honorable mention here.

First off I was overly optimistic by predicting 11-1 season. Am I disappointed by how the season played out? No.

Dana love ur coaching style but it showed at times the inexperience at the position. Play calling on 3 & short has to improve and game management.
Offensive MVP goes to Stedman Bailey.

Defense has grown up tremendously towards the end of the season and this is the area I was focused on more in terms of maturation.
The defense will be awesome next year with Rowell Clarke Bryant up front with 3 experienced linebackers in Rigg Snow Barber and the emergence of Jenkins is huge to add to experienced secondary.
Co Defensive MVP Julien Miller and Brodrick Jenkins.

If Bruce falls to the 3rd round, what a steal someone will get. Would be along the lines of stealing Tom Brady in the 6th (Imo), just hoping he will fall all the way to my Steelers . They love fast motor types!

I want Irvin to sit behind James Harrison for a year or two before taking over. Can you imagine a talent like Irvin learning from James Harrison?

He will be happy with whatever team drafts him, my opinion from talking to him is he wants to play for Rex Ryan and that defense or Atlanta since its home.