Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, grab your coffee and donuts, because it's
time for the Morning Spiel, brought to you by Royal Water.
The Athenians and topics discussed on the show do not
reflect that of WVRC Media or our advertisers. Now we
head straight to the one o three to three WKMZ
newsroom with your host Alex Wiederspiel.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning, Good morning, Welcome in, Welcome in. How we doing,
How we doing? Everybody We good?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Just checking in. Everybody okay, nothing too traumatic this weekend
in the sports world. Steelers won right that came at
my expense. Really rough weekend in my house. Fortunately, in
the case of both instances of you know exactly what
I'm talking about. In the case of both instances, this
is a rare weekend where it was really good for
(00:49):
me to be working instead of watching football. I did
watch part of the WVU game, and I haven't had
a chance to rewatch it yet. I did watch part
of it, saw pretty much all the first half, then
had to go to a broadcast who the New York
Jets looked more promising from what I understand, than wv
(01:09):
YOU did. We're going to get into it WVU is
going to be the focus of the show today. Got
lots of feedback, lots and lots of feedback on the mountaineers.
Good morning, everybody, welcome in. This is the Morning Spiel
presented by Royal Water Treatment. I went on three to three.
Wakamz again. Good to be here, and I say this
(01:34):
looking forward to hearing from more of you the Morningspiel
at gmail dot com, because boy, were there some thoughts.
There were some thoughts on that game. Let me tell
you that I got a lot of texts all day Saturday,
and more texts on Sunday before foot, before the NFL started.
(01:58):
A lot of complaints, a lot of unhappy campers, not
feeling the love right now, not feeling Rod two point zero.
Not all of them, not all of them are are
as disappointed or let me rephrase, well, okay, disappointed, some are.
Some are happy to be angry. I guess that's one
way of putting it. But not everybody's quite ready to
(02:22):
jump ship so quickly. But I I've had a few
let me uh, let me, let me, let me, let me,
let me peruse uh and and we're going to bring
those up during the main segment I'm gonnapprove. I I
have so many comments from folks, really a wide ranging
spectrum of comments, and I have my own thoughts as well,
(02:45):
that we will certainly get into what I want to
do right now, though I want to get into. I
want to I want to play Rod's press conference. Let's
start there. Why don't we? Why don't we start there?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I mean to just give us an explanation into especially offensively,
just didn't seem to work much after a second drove. Yeah,
it's very disappointed. Starts with me. Told the guys I
failed him this week. I thought we had a good
week of practice, thought we were ready to play, ready
to play, and and we weren't, you know, didn't execute
(03:19):
a lot of things to work on. And uh, I
knew there would be some growing pains, but we've we've
I can, I wanna do a better job, and uh,
we'll get better from this better job. But he watched
a lot of players too, because I mean, that doesn't
make things easier without Jaheem and Jayden. And yeah, we
(03:41):
got banged up a little bit, and the guys were
playing hard, and the guys went in there and battled.
But as I said, we we I wanted to hurt,
and it's gonna hurt all of us. I think it
really does for the next twenty hours or so. And
then we know who's next. So we've got to get
to work, and uh, I'm gonna get these guys ready
(04:02):
to go with they'll be ready to play next Saturday.
What do you tell you guys after a game like
that's initial that like no eras kind of deflated out
of the balloons, so to speak. Well, just what I said,
I mean, whether you win or lose, after twenty four hours,
you got to move on. I think the biggest thing
we got to do with the losses in the wins,
(04:23):
but the losses you got to learn as much as
you can from it. Like everybody, I mean, players, coaches
and everybody in the program.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Coach what way in the thought process of putting Jalen
in and then going back to Niko.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Later and yeah, just trying to get sparked quarterbacks. Yeah,
I'm in h give me twenty four hours first. Well,
you know, I don't blame me asking, but you know,
you know, I try to get a little spark, you know,
particularly maybe with some of the quarterback run stuff, and uh,
(04:57):
didn't really didn't make but it's not wasn't Jay Thandernico's
fault is it's more mine. So we'll evaluate the film,
try to get some see what went wrong and what
we can fix it get better. Any thoughts on the
past down to falling on the goal line that they
looked at and I.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I couldn't tell. I didn't know if it was close
enough to review. Obviously that was a big play, but uh, yeah,
I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You Knewton Navara would scramble.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
He's still able to be so effective.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, he's he's phenomenal. I was a big worry coming
in that you had everybody covered and you know, there
were times we kept him from going outside, but he
duck inside and scrambled. And he's just a phenomenal playmaker.
And there was no question he's pretty dynamic.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Are you prognosis on Jaheim or no? I didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It didn't look good from the silence, But I haven't
even talked to the medical staff yet, so I don't
know what what's what's going on?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Would you lose a guy, wouldn't lose him?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I mean, how much did that change when you guys
were trying to do that because that was still fairly
early in that game.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, I think, you know, obviously he's as a great
player and so you lose some of his closiveness. But
you know, we weren't executing even before then, So that
that's what Again, that's my job. I take responsibility for
for a lack of execution. Again, I thought we had
(06:28):
two really good practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, and uh,
but that didn't show up today for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
How how does the defense has be come into this
not being able to be a win because.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Opportunity. Yeah, they forced turnovers, get plenty of opportunities. Know
we you know, we missed a couple of tackles here
and there and and gave up just a couple of
things on third down. But they battled, they played hard
and played well enough for us to win. But when
you lose, everybody loses. And and like I said, we're
(07:01):
gonna take this and learn as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
From Okay, so glass half full or glass half empty,
Glass half full. I still think the defense is pretty good.
And I think it's easier to fix an offense than
it is to fix a defense. Right, Like, I think
(07:27):
we saw that last season fixing a defense midyear, Like,
if you don't have it, you don't have it. It's
not that you can't fix it, but it's really tough.
You got to make changes internally. Adjusting the scheme is
a problem. It's hard and it backfires. And I say
this as a Jets fan. I mean I watched it
(07:49):
last year where the big change for the Jets in
the middle of the season, Week five, they fire their
head coach defensive coordinator, all of a sudden, as a
new job, new role, new title, new responsibilities, Jets defense
falls apart because Jeff Olbrick can't focus on the thing
that he does really well, which is coordinating the Jets defense.
(08:10):
I think it's legitimate. I think it's a legitimate, legitimate,
glass half full moment there. Yeah, the defense wasn't perfect,
and Rod kind of alluded to that, but I think
they might have been in that game. They were definitely
good enough. And I think if they're going to force
turnovers like that, if they're going to be able to
(08:30):
get after the quarterback, I think there's there's there there's
some chance here they've got some juice the offense. I
think if you find and unlock the right sequence of plays.
If we are assuming that quarterback is not a lost
cause in the year twenty twenty five. If we are
(08:53):
assuming that quarterback is not a lost cause in the
year twenty twenty five, then you can feel a little
bit more confident about figuring out glass half empty. What
if they don't have a quarterback? Always was a legitimate concern,
what if they don't.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Have a quarterback?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
It feels more than ever like that might be the case.
I've never been the biggest Nico guy. I'm not definitely
I'm I'm not a anti Nico guy. I just you know,
I don't know that he inspires a ton of confidence.
(09:34):
I also think you can, as he has shown, there
are opportunities to win games with him. You can do that.
So I don't know that it's necessarily Again, I don't
know that. I like the idea of a sort of
lost cause here, and I am interested by the folks
who are kind of saying, hey, do we want to
see more of Scottie Fox. It might be a little
(09:57):
early for that, right, isn't it a little early for that?
I mean, I certainly think it is. I don't think
this is a lost cause yet. Wait, till you see
the comments, because there are plenty of folks who absolutely
think that this is a lost cause in the Mountaineer
fan base. There are absolutely folks. There are a lot
(10:19):
of folks who are way more pessimistic, way, way way
more pessimistic than I am. In fact, I wouldn't even
call myself pessimistic. I think, listen, I think Scottie Fox,
there's definitely potential there. But man, going from going from
high school football to the big twelve. I know he
(10:41):
hails from Ohio. I know he's a pretty darn good
dual threat quarterback. Boy, it's got to feel like the
moon though in some respects. But maybe maybe I mean, listen,
he's not small. He's not small. It's not like this
is a guy who is undersized. Right, he could probably
take the abuse of D one football. We'll see maybe,
(11:09):
but for now, let's assume that it's gonna be Nico
or Jalen and we'll kind of go from there. The
bigger issue is Jaheim White and where they go from
here on White, because that was the most explosive part
(11:29):
of the offense. Right, So Cam Vaughan is now going
to have to be the focus and someone I mean,
there's no getting around this. Someone's gonna have to step up.
There is, in reality, probably no one on that roster
(11:53):
who's going to replace Jaheim White in that way, not
as not as far as being a playmaker goes, not
as far as being that level of explosiveness. Again, maybe
it's Cam Vaughn, but that feels like a big ask,
feels like a really really big ask. Okay, well, I
(12:18):
know everyone's feeling real good after that one. What we're
gonna do now is go ahead and hit our first break.
We'll come back. We'll get to your news in sports headlines,
and when we come back for the main segment, I'm
going to get into I'm going to get into what
you had to say. If you still want to contribute
the Morning Spiel at gmail dot com. I'll try to
get comments on as quickly as I can. But I've
(12:41):
got a lot to sift through from this week. A
lot of comments from from some alumni fans who no
longer men in many cases no longer live in the area. Uh,
and they had stuff to say, not all of it negative,
but most of it was. Again I I it's hard
(13:05):
to hard to fathom. Before last week, hard to fathom
WVU going down against Ohio, but after Ohio beat Rutger,
or after Ohio nearly came back and beat Rutgers, and
after WU looked as sluggish as they did in the
first half. That's where I think the spark first had
(13:28):
to be seen, first, had to be felt that this
was a real possibility, that this could really occur, this
could really happen. We'll talk about all that and more
coming up. You're on the Morning Spiel presented by Royal
Water Treatment. I want three three wkmz.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Improving the start to your day with a morning spiel
weekdays on one O three to three wkmz.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
All right, we're back in the studio, Alex Speederspiel here
with you on the Morning Spiel presented by Royal Water Treatment.
I want to three to three w all right, So
look first, first and foremost, let me just say as
I have in a couple of instances. Let me just
say that I was probably a little more optimistic on
this team than most. I am not feeling that way now.
(14:15):
I did always think the seventy plus near eighty players
who transferred, I always thought, hmm, not any real precedent
for this, and having any success doing this. So yeah,
I'll cop to being concerned about it absolutely, but without
further ado, And again reminder folks, the Morningspiel at gmail
(14:39):
dot com, The Morningspiel at gmail dot com if you
want to share your thoughts, I've got I've got a few.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I have.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
A few folks who have shared some who have shared
some thoughts. All right, so first one, really, no preamble here.
I think the Mountaineers stink. Okay, I mean he's not
(15:13):
wrong to say that after that performance, but I think
the Mountaineers stink. It'll take time, which is fine, but
you can't lose to MAX schools. From Chris, we have
(15:33):
to play G five schools. We have to play G
five schools. That's all I heard while playing Penn State
and Pitt or Virginia Tech and Pitt what we did
same blanking result. I had to bleep out one of
the words there. He also adds c USA Conference USA
(15:54):
All Star Team. That's harsh. H oh man, I gotta
I got a couple of these. Hold on, I should
have organized these better. The rich rod Higher was the
wrong hire. I truly believe they won't win another game
(16:16):
this year. I initially did not like the Rich rot higher,
but I get they had no other choice if McAfee
wanted him. McAfee is the one asset the program has
in this nil era. Now, I don't think they will
(16:37):
be favored in any of the remaining games left. Oh
we got we got a pit fan in here. This
sounds bizarre, but as a pit fan, them losing to Ohio,
while hilarious, actually really pissed me off because it ruined
a lot about the brawl next week, took all the
wind out of the sales. I got one more for you.
(17:03):
Hold on yesterday was terrible. Should have never happened. But
the takes about Rich are overreactionary and ridiculous. All right, well,
there you have it. There was also one more in there,
I think, referring to WVU as trash, so we'll skip those.
(17:26):
All right. Yeah, it was bad. It was really really bad.
I don't think you can go And I know they
didn't finish. They did not finish plus three in turnover differential,
but they were plus three into the fourth quarter and
then obviously Nico's pressing throws an interception. You can't be
(17:48):
this was said to me a bunch of times, and
I think it's I think it's the ultimate spot on
point of all of this. You cannot be plus three
going into the fourth quarter of a game against a
MAC opponent betrailing by seven. It just came happen. Two
of thirteen possessions they get points on just can't happen.
Not against a MAX school. I don't care that it's
(18:09):
on the road, it's Athens, it's two and a half
hours from here by bus, maybe three. It just can't happen.
That's the reality of it. West Virginia, Ohio also had
two fumbles. They didn't lose either of them, but that's
(18:33):
the reality. You can't be plus three in the turnover
margin and be down. It's a total recipe for a disaster.
Now I get it. Listen to Ohio in a lot
of ways, played kind of an almost perfect game save
for their turnover problems. An almost perfect game. They had
(18:54):
the ball for forty minutes. So here's another good one.
So WVU. WVU goes two for thirteen in scoring, right,
they went two for thirteen on third down, two for
thirteen on third down, will do it. They only got
to the red zone once they had the ball for
(19:15):
nineteen minutes. It's just not going to get.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
The job done.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I wish I had like I wish I listen. I
wish I could go with the deeper dive here. But
the reality is sometimes these are the stats that, when
the story is clear, they tell the story. Now, there
are deeper things that you can jump into. If you're
a pro football focused person, can dive into that stuff.
You know, I'd be curious to know about like average
(19:40):
depth of target, be curious to know about release time
between passes or I'm sorry, release time in terms of
after the snap. I'd be curious to know about all
these things. But at day's end, all they're really going
to do is reinforce the basic premise that the team
punted the ball eight times against Ohio University. They punted
it the ball twice as many times as Ohio University did.
(20:04):
And what's crazy is the punting was pretty good. That's
what's crazy, though. The punting was actually pretty good. They
lost a field possession game in which their special teams
did mostly alright in terms of combating the field position
(20:25):
aspect element of the game. I'm not saying the defense
was perfect, by the way, I'm not saying the defense.
I know I mentioned this earlier and I'm getting I
got an email about that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I'm not saying the defense was perfect by any stretch
of the imagination, but I think at day's end you
look at this and go, ultimately still pretty good. The
offense could not sustain a thing. I am a longtime
New York Jets fan. I have watched this for so
(20:57):
many years, an offense letting it defense down. Eventually the
defense breaks, and in this case, I don't know that
I would argue that the defense really broke. They did
not give up a point after the second, after the
first half, so it's hard to really argue that the
defense broke in some way that that's not what happened.
(21:20):
This is not what occurred. But here we are there,
one in one. I don't know that they I mean,
I think it's valid that they probably will not be
favored in another game this year. But here's the other
thing too, And I get that the DNA, the bones
of the of the Neil Brown era are gone. They're over,
they are they are dust. The one very on brand
(21:42):
thing though, from the Neil Brown era, would be to
come out and win this game on Saturday. I don't
think it's particularly likely. I do think it is at home,
and I I still think that Mountaineer defense is better.
I don't know what they're gonna do to fix the
other because because if this were just a matter of, hey,
we gotta we gotta resequence some stuff here, we got
(22:03):
to resequence how we're calling the offense, that would be
one thing. But like, I'm not sure I see it
talent wise on offense right, especially without Jaheim, And I
think that's where the I mean, unfortunately, the Conference USA
All Star Team comment, I mean, listen, it's I don't
know how valid it is, but there's a little truth
(22:26):
in there, right, there's a little bit of truth in there.
I mean, these were players who were being pursued at
the power for level. It's not like they were exclusively
being pursued by WVU and a bunch of mid majors.
And yet at the same time, you'd be hard pressed
to look at this and go, you know, where the
you know, point me in the direction of a blue
(22:47):
chip player, Point me in the direction of the blue
chip player on wvu's offense. Right now, there might be
a couple potentially defensively who you could look at and
go get that guy either is or might actually wind
up being down the road a blue chip football player,
at least at the college level. That might happen. There
(23:08):
might be guys there now. I think you saw flashes
of that in Week one. I'm thinking about Reid Karaco,
thinking about the way he played in that front seven,
But I don't know that I see it on offense
without Jahim White again, maybe Cam Vaughn, Maybe maybe cam Vaughn.
(23:32):
What an absolutely brutal way for the season to start.
I mean, listen, the thing about the arm you game
was everything was correctable, right, It's don't put the football
on the ground like they They played RMU the way
(23:53):
a power power forward I'm not even used to it yet,
the way a power for division of it is supposed
to play. Right, That's exactly what they did. They played
it the way a power for opponent is supposed to play.
(24:15):
They just couldn't. They couldn't stop fumbling. You know, those
are those are kind of freak fluke plays right, and
coach coach never questioned the effort level wasn't an issue
of effort. So what it comes down to then, is
it almost certainly has to be one of two things,
(24:36):
or possibly two of two things. One they are not
good enough talent wise, two and this is an and
or situation. And or this coaching staff, particularly on the
offensive side of the ball, has not yet figured out
how to maximize what they have that it seems to
(25:00):
be what Rod was implying with the press conference that
we played at the start of the show. Coaching staff
hasn't figured it out yet. I think that's a very
glass half full approach. That's a very glass half full approach.
I would like to hear what some others have to say.
We'll endeavor on Monday shows to get some other voices
(25:21):
other than mine in the future to give us some
thoughts on exactly what they think of this team week
in and week out. I'll tell you this, I mean,
best case scenario. They go out, they find a way
any way to scrounge out a win next week, and
this Ohio loss basically gets forgotten because then you head
into Big twelve play riding on a high after beating Pitt.
(25:45):
I don't see how they beat Pitt unless Pitt really
really doesn't take them seriously, with the one exception being
that you want to see progress week to week offensively again,
eighty players almost eighty players. There's very little real chemistry here.
(26:08):
This is basically the equivalent of a college football expansion
team at this point. Eighty new players. I don't know
what the exact number is. I keep hearing between seventy
and eighty. Why don't we just say seventy five? It
is an outrageous number of new players. There's no precedent
for it working. The only thing is is that generally speaking,
(26:31):
the guy in charge has had much better success collegiately
than the only other guy who's tried to do it
this way, way, way better success for a longer period
of time. That's the one part of it that maybe
you take away from it and say, Okay, if you
trust in Rod, then the only way out is through
(26:51):
one way out. As they say, the only way out
is through in this case, that is, if you buy
into the eye idea that they hired the right guy,
that he's a much better coach than the other other
guy who tried doing this at Colorado and of course
failed wildly in his first season. Obviously, things got better,
(27:14):
but failed pretty wildly in his first season with far
less experience as a head coach far less tactical X's
and O's acumen as a head coach much obviously a
very good recruiter, but there is certainly more to football
than recruiting.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
We know that.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
So I don't know, and I'm gonna say that a
lot because I don't know. What I will say is
I do think the overreaction. I like, I'm not ready
for overreacting quite yet. And it is because if he's
able to keep them positive, keep their heads up, keep
them working, and work on getting better, it is not
(27:53):
I don't think this is yet unsalvagable. That was a
bad loss. I don't care how good Ohio is. I
don't care if Ohio is you know, winds up winning
the mac new head coach. That strike one, Strike two
(28:15):
is Ohio played a power opponent the week before they
should have been worn down. This is a max school
playing back to back power for opponents. Now, maybe that
concept is overrated when it's Rutgers in West Virginia, right,
But I don't know. We see that. We saw that
in the Big Twelve as teams leveled up into conference
(28:37):
play into power for conference play, they struggled. They played
well previously and in year one, even with similar talent
levels struggled because the P four it's scheduling is a
beast when you're in and playing every single week against
Power four opponents. That was my thought, I won't be
(28:58):
surprised if Ohio State comes out and beats them by
forty five easily. Ohio State to KNOWU this week. It's
been a rough week in my house, guys. It's been
a rough couple of days. I should say in my
house guys. I mean I was getting texts throughout it.
I don't know who's who if you're not aware my signific.
My partner, she is a big OU fan. I don't
(29:19):
call her my wife because we're not married. We've been
together for eight years. We're not married. We're just one
of those couples. Been together for almost eight years, been
together almost eight years. And in all that time, I
never had to worry about the die. In fact, I
could enjoy rooting for OU. I have a whole bunch
of OU t shirts because I never had to worry
(29:40):
about WVU and OU. I never had to worry about
WVU and OU until until Saturday. So here we are
all right. On that note, we'll get to more comments tomorrow.
I got to take one more break and then we'll
come back wrap the show. This is The Morning presented
(30:00):
by Royal Water Treatment. I want to three three WKMZ.
We're back in a moment.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Never miss an episode. Recorded versions of the Morning Spiel
are online at w kmznews dot com.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Fine, I'll cop to something. I gotta I gotta own
something as well. I gotta own I got to own
up to this as well, because I feel like, if
you're superstitious, you're gonna hate me. But I got a
few minutes. Let me just tell this story real quick.
So I came to work on Friday. You know, I
come in early on Fridays because of the Friday free
for all, and I'm working Friday, and I got up early,
(30:37):
and and uh, you know, I did. I did my
news work, and I'm doing a bunch of other stuff.
But I go to my dresser and I grab a
great T shirt. I'm not really paying attention to what
I'm doing. It's pitch black. I'm trying to wake up
my ou supporting girlfriend. I grab the T shirt and immediately,
because it's Friday morning and we've hit basically the fall, well,
(31:01):
immediately I put a sweatshirt on over it, a little
little South Harrison sweatshirt that I got my hands on
earlier this year. Kudos to them, appreciate it looks really good.
And I got to work later, and of course it
gets really hot in the studio. If you've ever worked
in radio before, you will know studios get warm. There's
a lot of equipment in here. It gets warm in here.
And so I took off my sweatshirt and I wrapped
(31:23):
it around my waist, and I was walking around the
building and it took me a few minutes when a
coworker pointed out, why are you wearing that shirt? And
I looked down and I was wearing having not realized
that I did it, an Ohio University T shirt because
(31:46):
I have a ton of them that I inherited from
her father, who they no longer fit. And of course
she's an Ohio University grad. So I, seeing as Ohio
and w you never play, I enjoyed wearing them from
time to time whenever there was a reason to support
Ohio University. And all I can say in this instance
(32:08):
is I am sorry, my bad. That is the big
whoops on my part. Should not have happened. I'm not
saying I am to blame, but i'd yeah, that wasn't
my brightest moment.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Again.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It was dark again, I didn't know what gray T
shirt I had grabbed. They're rolled up, and I just
grabbed a gray T shirt and I put it on,
and I put a sweatshirt on, and I walked out
of the room not worrying about what the T shirt was.
I have a bunch of gray T shirts, most of
them are not Ohio University T shirts. I am objectively
and legitimately sorry. I'm not taking the blame on this one.
(32:46):
I'm not I'm not taking the I'll take the l
but I'm not taking the blame.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
On this one.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
And here's how you should know that I did not
know what shirt I was wearing. I had put on
knowingly and with full reason, had put on a WVU ballcap.
And that's how I walked out of the house w ballcap,
South Harrison sweatshirt, and unbeknownst to me, underneath it all
(33:11):
an Ohio University T shirt. My dad see it tomorrow, folks,
Ladies and gentlemen, grab your coffee and donuts, because it's
time for the Morning Spiel, brought to you by Royal Water.
The Athenians and topics discussed on the show do not
reflect that of WVRC Media or our advertisers. Now we
head straight to the one o three to three WKMZ
newsroom with your host Alex Wiederspiel.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning, Good morning, Welcome in, Welcome in. How we doing,
How we doing? Everybody We good?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Just checking in. Everybody okay, nothing too traumatic this weekend
in the sports world. Steelers won right that came at
my expense. Really rough weekend in my house. Fortunately, in
the case of both instances of you know exactly what
I'm talking about. In the case of both instances, this
is a rare weekend where it was really good for
(00:49):
me to be working instead of watching football. I did
watch part of the WVU game, and I haven't had
a chance to rewatch it yet. I did watch part
of it, saw pretty much all the first half, then
had to go to a broadcast who the New York
Jets looked more promising from what I understand, than wv
(01:09):
YOU did. We're going to get into it WVU is
going to be the focus of the show today. Got
lots of feedback, lots and lots of feedback on the mountaineers.
Good morning, everybody, welcome in. This is the Morning Spiel
presented by Royal Water Treatment. I went on three to three.
Wakamz again. Good to be here, and I say this
(01:34):
looking forward to hearing from more of you the Morningspiel
at gmail dot com, because boy, were there some thoughts.
There were some thoughts on that game. Let me tell
you that I got a lot of texts all day Saturday,
and more texts on Sunday before foot, before the NFL started.
(01:58):
A lot of complaints, a lot of unhappy campers, not
feeling the love right now, not feeling Rod two point zero.
Not all of them, not all of them are are
as disappointed or let me rephrase, well, okay, disappointed, some are.
Some are happy to be angry. I guess that's one
way of putting it. But not everybody's quite ready to
(02:22):
jump ship so quickly. But I I've had a few
let me uh, let me, let me, let me, let me,
let me peruse uh and and we're going to bring
those up during the main segment I'm gonnapprove. I I
have so many comments from folks, really a wide ranging
spectrum of comments, and I have my own thoughts as well,
(02:45):
that we will certainly get into what I want to
do right now, though I want to get into. I
want to I want to play Rod's press conference. Let's
start there. Why don't we? Why don't we start there?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I mean to just give us an explanation into especially offensively,
just didn't seem to work much after a second drove. Yeah,
it's very disappointed. Starts with me. Told the guys I
failed him this week. I thought we had a good
week of practice, thought we were ready to play, ready
to play, and and we weren't, you know, didn't execute
(03:19):
a lot of things to work on. And uh, I
knew there would be some growing pains, but we've we've
I can, I wanna do a better job, and uh,
we'll get better from this better job. But he watched
a lot of players too, because I mean, that doesn't
make things easier without Jaheem and Jayden. And yeah, we
(03:41):
got banged up a little bit, and the guys were
playing hard, and the guys went in there and battled.
But as I said, we we I wanted to hurt,
and it's gonna hurt all of us. I think it
really does for the next twenty hours or so. And
then we know who's next. So we've got to get
to work, and uh, I'm gonna get these guys ready
(04:02):
to go with they'll be ready to play next Saturday.
What do you tell you guys after a game like
that's initial that like no eras kind of deflated out
of the balloons, so to speak. Well, just what I said,
I mean, whether you win or lose, after twenty four hours,
you got to move on. I think the biggest thing
we got to do with the losses in the wins,
(04:23):
but the losses you got to learn as much as
you can from it. Like everybody, I mean, players, coaches
and everybody in the program.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Coach what way in the thought process of putting Jalen
in and then going back to Niko.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Later and yeah, just trying to get sparked quarterbacks. Yeah,
I'm in h give me twenty four hours first. Well,
you know, I don't blame me asking, but you know,
you know, I try to get a little spark, you know,
particularly maybe with some of the quarterback run stuff, and uh,
(04:57):
didn't really didn't make but it's not wasn't Jay Thandernico's
fault is it's more mine. So we'll evaluate the film,
try to get some see what went wrong and what
we can fix it get better. Any thoughts on the
past down to falling on the goal line that they
looked at and I.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I couldn't tell. I didn't know if it was close
enough to review. Obviously that was a big play, but uh, yeah,
I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You Knewton Navara would scramble.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
He's still able to be so effective.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, he's he's phenomenal. I was a big worry coming
in that you had everybody covered and you know, there
were times we kept him from going outside, but he
duck inside and scrambled. And he's just a phenomenal playmaker.
And there was no question he's pretty dynamic.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Are you prognosis on Jaheim or no? I didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It didn't look good from the silence, But I haven't
even talked to the medical staff yet, so I don't
know what what's what's going on?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Would you lose a guy, wouldn't lose him?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I mean, how much did that change when you guys
were trying to do that because that was still fairly
early in that game.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, I think, you know, obviously he's as a great
player and so you lose some of his closiveness. But
you know, we weren't executing even before then, So that
that's what Again, that's my job. I take responsibility for
for a lack of execution. Again, I thought we had
(06:28):
two really good practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, and uh,
but that didn't show up today for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
How how does the defense has be come into this
not being able to be a win because.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Opportunity. Yeah, they forced turnovers, get plenty of opportunities. Know
we you know, we missed a couple of tackles here
and there and and gave up just a couple of
things on third down. But they battled, they played hard
and played well enough for us to win. But when
you lose, everybody loses. And and like I said, we're
(07:01):
gonna take this and learn as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
From Okay, so glass half full or glass half empty,
Glass half full. I still think the defense is pretty good.
And I think it's easier to fix an offense than
it is to fix a defense. Right, Like, I think
(07:27):
we saw that last season fixing a defense midyear, Like,
if you don't have it, you don't have it. It's
not that you can't fix it, but it's really tough.
You got to make changes internally. Adjusting the scheme is
a problem. It's hard and it backfires. And I say
this as a Jets fan. I mean I watched it
(07:49):
last year where the big change for the Jets in
the middle of the season, Week five, they fire their
head coach defensive coordinator, all of a sudden, as a
new job, new role, new title, new responsibilities, Jets defense
falls apart because Jeff Olbrick can't focus on the thing
that he does really well, which is coordinating the Jets defense.
(08:10):
I think it's legitimate. I think it's a legitimate, legitimate,
glass half full moment there. Yeah, the defense wasn't perfect,
and Rod kind of alluded to that, but I think
they might have been in that game. They were definitely
good enough. And I think if they're going to force
turnovers like that, if they're going to be able to
(08:30):
get after the quarterback, I think there's there's there there's
some chance here they've got some juice the offense. I
think if you find and unlock the right sequence of plays.
If we are assuming that quarterback is not a lost
cause in the year twenty twenty five. If we are
(08:53):
assuming that quarterback is not a lost cause in the
year twenty twenty five, then you can feel a little
bit more confident about figuring out glass half empty. What
if they don't have a quarterback? Always was a legitimate concern,
what if they don't.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Have a quarterback?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
It feels more than ever like that might be the case.
I've never been the biggest Nico guy. I'm not definitely
I'm I'm not a anti Nico guy. I just you know,
I don't know that he inspires a ton of confidence.
(09:34):
I also think you can, as he has shown, there
are opportunities to win games with him. You can do that.
So I don't know that it's necessarily Again, I don't
know that. I like the idea of a sort of
lost cause here, and I am interested by the folks
who are kind of saying, hey, do we want to
see more of Scottie Fox. It might be a little
(09:57):
early for that, right, isn't it a little early for that?
I mean, I certainly think it is. I don't think
this is a lost cause yet. Wait, till you see
the comments, because there are plenty of folks who absolutely
think that this is a lost cause in the Mountaineer
fan base. There are absolutely folks. There are a lot
(10:19):
of folks who are way more pessimistic, way, way way
more pessimistic than I am. In fact, I wouldn't even
call myself pessimistic. I think, listen, I think Scottie Fox,
there's definitely potential there. But man, going from going from
high school football to the big twelve. I know he
(10:41):
hails from Ohio. I know he's a pretty darn good
dual threat quarterback. Boy, it's got to feel like the
moon though in some respects. But maybe maybe I mean, listen,
he's not small. He's not small. It's not like this
is a guy who is undersized. Right, he could probably
take the abuse of D one football. We'll see maybe,
(11:09):
but for now, let's assume that it's gonna be Nico
or Jalen and we'll kind of go from there. The
bigger issue is Jaheim White and where they go from
here on White, because that was the most explosive part
(11:29):
of the offense. Right, So Cam Vaughan is now going
to have to be the focus and someone I mean,
there's no getting around this. Someone's gonna have to step up.
There is, in reality, probably no one on that roster
(11:53):
who's going to replace Jaheim White in that way, not
as not as far as being a playmaker goes, not
as far as being that level of explosiveness. Again, maybe
it's Cam Vaughn, but that feels like a big ask,
feels like a really really big ask. Okay, well, I
(12:18):
know everyone's feeling real good after that one. What we're
gonna do now is go ahead and hit our first break.
We'll come back. We'll get to your news in sports headlines,
and when we come back for the main segment, I'm
going to get into I'm going to get into what
you had to say. If you still want to contribute
the Morning Spiel at gmail dot com. I'll try to
get comments on as quickly as I can. But I've
(12:41):
got a lot to sift through from this week. A
lot of comments from from some alumni fans who no
longer men in many cases no longer live in the area. Uh,
and they had stuff to say, not all of it negative,
but most of it was. Again I I it's hard
(13:05):
to hard to fathom. Before last week, hard to fathom
WVU going down against Ohio, but after Ohio beat Rutger,
or after Ohio nearly came back and beat Rutgers, and
after WU looked as sluggish as they did in the
first half. That's where I think the spark first had
(13:28):
to be seen, first, had to be felt that this
was a real possibility, that this could really occur, this
could really happen. We'll talk about all that and more
coming up. You're on the Morning Spiel presented by Royal
Water Treatment. I want three three wkmz.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Improving the start to your day with a morning spiel
weekdays on one O three to three wkmz.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
All right, we're back in the studio, Alex Speederspiel here
with you on the Morning Spiel presented by Royal Water Treatment.
I want to three to three w all right, So
look first, first and foremost, let me just say as
I have in a couple of instances. Let me just
say that I was probably a little more optimistic on
this team than most. I am not feeling that way now.
(14:15):
I did always think the seventy plus near eighty players
who transferred, I always thought, hmm, not any real precedent
for this, and having any success doing this. So yeah,
I'll cop to being concerned about it absolutely, but without
further ado, And again reminder folks, the Morningspiel at gmail
(14:39):
dot com, The Morningspiel at gmail dot com if you
want to share your thoughts, I've got I've got a few.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I have.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
A few folks who have shared some who have shared
some thoughts. All right, so first one, really, no preamble here.
I think the Mountaineers stink. Okay, I mean he's not
(15:13):
wrong to say that after that performance, but I think
the Mountaineers stink. It'll take time, which is fine, but
you can't lose to MAX schools. From Chris, we have
(15:33):
to play G five schools. We have to play G
five schools. That's all I heard while playing Penn State
and Pitt or Virginia Tech and Pitt what we did
same blanking result. I had to bleep out one of
the words there. He also adds c USA Conference USA
(15:54):
All Star Team. That's harsh. H oh man, I gotta
I got a couple of these. Hold on, I should
have organized these better. The rich rod Higher was the
wrong hire. I truly believe they won't win another game
(16:16):
this year. I initially did not like the Rich rot higher,
but I get they had no other choice if McAfee
wanted him. McAfee is the one asset the program has
in this nil era. Now, I don't think they will
(16:37):
be favored in any of the remaining games left. Oh
we got we got a pit fan in here. This
sounds bizarre, but as a pit fan, them losing to Ohio,
while hilarious, actually really pissed me off because it ruined
a lot about the brawl next week, took all the
wind out of the sales. I got one more for you.
(17:03):
Hold on yesterday was terrible. Should have never happened. But
the takes about Rich are overreactionary and ridiculous. All right, well,
there you have it. There was also one more in there,
I think, referring to WVU as trash, so we'll skip those.
(17:26):
All right. Yeah, it was bad. It was really really bad.
I don't think you can go And I know they
didn't finish. They did not finish plus three in turnover differential,
but they were plus three into the fourth quarter and
then obviously Nico's pressing throws an interception. You can't be
(17:48):
this was said to me a bunch of times, and
I think it's I think it's the ultimate spot on
point of all of this. You cannot be plus three
going into the fourth quarter of a game against a
MAC opponent betrailing by seven. It just came happen. Two
of thirteen possessions they get points on just can't happen.
Not against a MAX school. I don't care that it's
(18:09):
on the road, it's Athens, it's two and a half
hours from here by bus, maybe three. It just can't happen.
That's the reality of it. West Virginia, Ohio also had
two fumbles. They didn't lose either of them, but that's
(18:33):
the reality. You can't be plus three in the turnover
margin and be down. It's a total recipe for a disaster.
Now I get it. Listen to Ohio in a lot
of ways, played kind of an almost perfect game save
for their turnover problems. An almost perfect game. They had
(18:54):
the ball for forty minutes. So here's another good one.
So WVU. WVU goes two for thirteen in scoring, right,
they went two for thirteen on third down, two for
thirteen on third down, will do it. They only got
to the red zone once they had the ball for
(19:15):
nineteen minutes. It's just not going to get.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
The job done.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I wish I had like I wish I listen. I
wish I could go with the deeper dive here. But
the reality is sometimes these are the stats that, when
the story is clear, they tell the story. Now, there
are deeper things that you can jump into. If you're
a pro football focused person, can dive into that stuff.
You know, I'd be curious to know about like average
(19:40):
depth of target, be curious to know about release time
between passes or I'm sorry, release time in terms of
after the snap. I'd be curious to know about all
these things. But at day's end, all they're really going
to do is reinforce the basic premise that the team
punted the ball eight times against Ohio University. They punted
it the ball twice as many times as Ohio University did.
(20:04):
And what's crazy is the punting was pretty good. That's
what's crazy, though. The punting was actually pretty good. They
lost a field possession game in which their special teams
did mostly alright in terms of combating the field position
(20:25):
aspect element of the game. I'm not saying the defense
was perfect, by the way, I'm not saying the defense.
I know I mentioned this earlier and I'm getting I
got an email about that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I'm not saying the defense was perfect by any stretch
of the imagination, but I think at day's end you
look at this and go, ultimately still pretty good. The
offense could not sustain a thing. I am a longtime
New York Jets fan. I have watched this for so
(20:57):
many years, an offense letting it defense down. Eventually the
defense breaks, and in this case, I don't know that
I would argue that the defense really broke. They did
not give up a point after the second, after the
first half, so it's hard to really argue that the
defense broke in some way that that's not what happened.
(21:20):
This is not what occurred. But here we are there,
one in one. I don't know that they I mean,
I think it's valid that they probably will not be
favored in another game this year. But here's the other
thing too, And I get that the DNA, the bones
of the of the Neil Brown era are gone. They're over,
they are they are dust. The one very on brand
(21:42):
thing though, from the Neil Brown era, would be to
come out and win this game on Saturday. I don't
think it's particularly likely. I do think it is at home,
and I I still think that Mountaineer defense is better.
I don't know what they're gonna do to fix the
other because because if this were just a matter of, hey,
we gotta we gotta resequence some stuff here, we got
(22:03):
to resequence how we're calling the offense, that would be
one thing. But like, I'm not sure I see it
talent wise on offense right, especially without Jaheim, And I
think that's where the I mean, unfortunately, the Conference USA
All Star Team comment, I mean, listen, it's I don't
know how valid it is, but there's a little truth
(22:26):
in there, right, there's a little bit of truth in there.
I mean, these were players who were being pursued at
the power for level. It's not like they were exclusively
being pursued by WVU and a bunch of mid majors.
And yet at the same time, you'd be hard pressed
to look at this and go, you know, where the
you know, point me in the direction of a blue
(22:47):
chip player, Point me in the direction of the blue
chip player on wvu's offense. Right now, there might be
a couple potentially defensively who you could look at and
go get that guy either is or might actually wind
up being down the road a blue chip football player,
at least at the college level. That might happen. There
(23:08):
might be guys there now. I think you saw flashes
of that in Week one. I'm thinking about Reid Karaco,
thinking about the way he played in that front seven,
But I don't know that I see it on offense
without Jahim White again, maybe Cam Vaughn, Maybe maybe cam Vaughn.
(23:32):
What an absolutely brutal way for the season to start.
I mean, listen, the thing about the arm you game
was everything was correctable, right, It's don't put the football
on the ground like they They played RMU the way
(23:53):
a power power forward I'm not even used to it yet,
the way a power for division of it is supposed
to play. Right, That's exactly what they did. They played
it the way a power for opponent is supposed to play.
(24:15):
They just couldn't. They couldn't stop fumbling. You know, those
are those are kind of freak fluke plays right, and
coach coach never questioned the effort level wasn't an issue
of effort. So what it comes down to then, is
it almost certainly has to be one of two things,
(24:36):
or possibly two of two things. One they are not
good enough talent wise, two and this is an and
or situation. And or this coaching staff, particularly on the
offensive side of the ball, has not yet figured out
how to maximize what they have that it seems to
(25:00):
be what Rod was implying with the press conference that
we played at the start of the show. Coaching staff
hasn't figured it out yet. I think that's a very
glass half full approach. That's a very glass half full approach.
I would like to hear what some others have to say.
We'll endeavor on Monday shows to get some other voices
(25:21):
other than mine in the future to give us some
thoughts on exactly what they think of this team week
in and week out. I'll tell you this, I mean,
best case scenario. They go out, they find a way
any way to scrounge out a win next week, and
this Ohio loss basically gets forgotten because then you head
into Big twelve play riding on a high after beating Pitt.
(25:45):
I don't see how they beat Pitt unless Pitt really
really doesn't take them seriously, with the one exception being
that you want to see progress week to week offensively again,
eighty players almost eighty players. There's very little real chemistry here.
(26:08):
This is basically the equivalent of a college football expansion
team at this point. Eighty new players. I don't know
what the exact number is. I keep hearing between seventy
and eighty. Why don't we just say seventy five? It
is an outrageous number of new players. There's no precedent
for it working. The only thing is is that generally speaking,
(26:31):
the guy in charge has had much better success collegiately
than the only other guy who's tried to do it
this way, way, way better success for a longer period
of time. That's the one part of it that maybe
you take away from it and say, Okay, if you
trust in Rod, then the only way out is through
(26:51):
one way out. As they say, the only way out
is through in this case, that is, if you buy
into the eye idea that they hired the right guy,
that he's a much better coach than the other other
guy who tried doing this at Colorado and of course
failed wildly in his first season. Obviously, things got better,
(27:14):
but failed pretty wildly in his first season with far
less experience as a head coach far less tactical X's
and O's acumen as a head coach much obviously a
very good recruiter, but there is certainly more to football
than recruiting.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
We know that.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
So I don't know, and I'm gonna say that a
lot because I don't know. What I will say is
I do think the overreaction. I like, I'm not ready
for overreacting quite yet. And it is because if he's
able to keep them positive, keep their heads up, keep
them working, and work on getting better, it is not
(27:53):
I don't think this is yet unsalvagable. That was a
bad loss. I don't care how good Ohio is. I
don't care if Ohio is you know, winds up winning
the mac new head coach. That strike one, Strike two
(28:15):
is Ohio played a power opponent the week before they
should have been worn down. This is a max school
playing back to back power for opponents. Now, maybe that
concept is overrated when it's Rutgers in West Virginia, right,
But I don't know. We see that. We saw that
in the Big Twelve as teams leveled up into conference
(28:37):
play into power for conference play, they struggled. They played
well previously and in year one, even with similar talent
levels struggled because the P four it's scheduling is a
beast when you're in and playing every single week against
Power four opponents. That was my thought, I won't be
(28:58):
surprised if Ohio State comes out and beats them by
forty five easily. Ohio State to KNOWU this week. It's
been a rough week in my house, guys. It's been
a rough couple of days. I should say in my
house guys. I mean I was getting texts throughout it.
I don't know who's who if you're not aware my signific.
My partner, she is a big OU fan. I don't
(29:19):
call her my wife because we're not married. We've been
together for eight years. We're not married. We're just one
of those couples. Been together for almost eight years, been
together almost eight years. And in all that time, I
never had to worry about the die. In fact, I
could enjoy rooting for OU. I have a whole bunch
of OU t shirts because I never had to worry
(29:40):
about WVU and OU. I never had to worry about
WVU and OU until until Saturday. So here we are
all right. On that note, we'll get to more comments tomorrow.
I got to take one more break and then we'll
come back wrap the show. This is The Morning presented
(30:00):
by Royal Water Treatment. I want to three three WKMZ.
We're back in a moment.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Never miss an episode. Recorded versions of the Morning Spiel
are online at w kmznews dot com.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Fine, I'll cop to something. I gotta I gotta own
something as well. I gotta own I got to own
up to this as well, because I feel like, if
you're superstitious, you're gonna hate me. But I got a
few minutes. Let me just tell this story real quick.
So I came to work on Friday. You know, I
come in early on Fridays because of the Friday free
for all, and I'm working Friday, and I got up early,
(30:37):
and and uh, you know, I did. I did my
news work, and I'm doing a bunch of other stuff.
But I go to my dresser and I grab a
great T shirt. I'm not really paying attention to what
I'm doing. It's pitch black. I'm trying to wake up
my ou supporting girlfriend. I grab the T shirt and immediately,
because it's Friday morning and we've hit basically the fall, well,
(31:01):
immediately I put a sweatshirt on over it, a little
little South Harrison sweatshirt that I got my hands on
earlier this year. Kudos to them, appreciate it looks really good.
And I got to work later, and of course it
gets really hot in the studio. If you've ever worked
in radio before, you will know studios get warm. There's
a lot of equipment in here. It gets warm in here.
And so I took off my sweatshirt and I wrapped
(31:23):
it around my waist, and I was walking around the
building and it took me a few minutes when a
coworker pointed out, why are you wearing that shirt? And
I looked down and I was wearing having not realized
that I did it, an Ohio University T shirt because
(31:46):
I have a ton of them that I inherited from
her father, who they no longer fit. And of course
she's an Ohio University grad. So I, seeing as Ohio
and w you never play, I enjoyed wearing them from
time to time whenever there was a reason to support
Ohio University. And all I can say in this instance
(32:08):
is I am sorry, my bad. That is the big
whoops on my part. Should not have happened. I'm not
saying I am to blame, but i'd yeah, that wasn't
my brightest moment.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Again.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It was dark again, I didn't know what gray T
shirt I had grabbed. They're rolled up, and I just
grabbed a gray T shirt and I put it on,
and I put a sweatshirt on, and I walked out
of the room not worrying about what the T shirt was.
I have a bunch of gray T shirts, most of
them are not Ohio University T shirts. I am objectively
and legitimately sorry. I'm not taking the blame on this one.
(32:46):
I'm not I'm not taking the I'll take the l
but I'm not taking the blame.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
On this one.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
And here's how you should know that I did not
know what shirt I was wearing. I had put on
knowingly and with full reason, had put on a WVU ballcap.
And that's how I walked out of the house w ballcap,
South Harrison sweatshirt, and unbeknownst to me, underneath it all
(33:11):
an Ohio University T shirt. My dad see it tomorrow, folks,
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