3 Guys Before The Game - Arizona State Game Recap (Episode 675)

West Virginia traveled more than two thousand miles to face Arizona State, but Saturday’s outcome came down to inches.

The Mountaineers’ struggles in critical fourth-and-short moments proved costly, opening the door for the Sun Devils to escape with the win.

In this episode, the “Guys” unpack the disappointment in the desert and shine a well-deserved spotlight on the WVU women’s basketball team after its unprecedented—and emphatic—victory over No. 15 Duke.

Listener questions and comments round out the show on Textual Healing.

 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome one, Welcome all. Yes, it's time for three guys
before the game, episode number six hundred and seventy five.
This is our Arizona State recap ouch. Didn't feel good.
Didn't feel good at all.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Could have had one. Yeah, could have been a thanks
for having us.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, it could have been a huge thanks for having us.
You see two guys if you're watching on screen. But wait,
as they used to say on the infomercial, but wait,
there's more. He's back. Yeah, there he is. Ladies and gentlemen,
We have located Kerchiable. Thanks to all the emergency responders.
The silver alert worked really really well and we were

(00:52):
able to find him. This is really good hops with us.
He looks good.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
There's got some nice light.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
We sure he does. You got the lady there with
three guys before the game. Brought to us by Gomart.
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(01:18):
be a special gift, like you win a Gomart store.
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secure and efficient for twenty five years. By Jan Dills

(02:00):
Attorneys at Law. They simply won't take no for an answer.
Spreads on Stats is coming Up. Brought to us by
the Connolly CPA Group, providing value beyond numbers. All right,
let's do this thing. Episode six hundred and seventy five.
It's the Arizona State Game recap and just doing some

(02:20):
quick math, which I try not to do in public
This would leave us one hundred and twenty five episodes
away from episode eight hundred and all I have to
say about that is listen, it's been a great run.
And that's all we'll say. Let's bring in Hope Kerchieville,
who has not been with us. I'm doing my math

(02:42):
correctly for like the last seventeen or eighteen days, missed several.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Shows twenty twenty two, last time he appeared.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yes, and he is back. Top of the day to you, sir.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Good morning, guys, Good morning. I note that while I
was away, West Virginia did nothing but win. Yeah, and
I come back in West Virginia loses. Yeah, so causation correlation.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, we should point out you are in Arizona. You
were at the Arizona State game yesterday. Yeah, yes, sure, Okay.
You went with some college buddies, is that right?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, we got together six other college buddies and I
got together and decided to meet for this game. So
we gathered from all of the country and went to
the game.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Uh. And it was a different experience for me. I
had not been to a game of football game of years,
so it was different. And I tell you, guys, if
you want to get into the obvious observations. Well, not played,
put on my WV.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Not until we play, can't start it until we play.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
He hasn't been here a while.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
I would just think just a big accomplishment at his
age still to have six college buddies around. I mean,
that's a that's a great that's a great step right
in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
There. That's good to have. That's really good. Yeah, he's
anxious to go here. He hasn't been on one play
to music because he's ready. He's rare to go here.
All right, we're not wasting any time. Here we go
man Hoppy's obvious observations. He went to his first football
game in a long long time, and he sat in
the stands. He wasn't working at He's got.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Thoughts that sound rand new, but the things we already knew.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, he got his bomb ready. Heaven knows, I's t
it quick before.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, obvious.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Ovation boom. Yeah, that is a good song.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Really, I like this very well done, thanks again to
Gary Mertens. Yeah I put that together all right. So
hit us with your obvious observations. I saw you send
me a picture of where you were sitting. Pretty good, really,
good seats. So you had a good look at.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
It, good good seats. Yeah yeah, right on the forty
five across from you. If you were way up high,
right went your way up high.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah it was it was high, but it was good.
I was fine with it. It was good.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
But okay, okay, but you know, you know, guys, what
was interesting about this is that I got here Friday
and I went spent two hours walking around campus and
going to local establishments, and my guys got in later
and yesterday we were went down to the homecoming parade
it was homecoming for Arizona State, and then of course
went to the game. So I was probably spent like

(05:25):
four or five hours among Arizona State fans even prior
to the game. And Brad, it was the word I
came up with was sterile. Nobody said go home, Mountaineers,
nobody said welcome Mountaineers. And I think that's because there's
just no history, right, I mean, they don't know who
we are. Who are these strange people from the east
to or called west, and then we don't know who

(05:47):
they are. There's no rivalry there, so it was just
kind of a sterile environment I think for the visitors
then after the game, everybody was polite. Of course they won,
like hey, thanks, then then it was great game, which
it was good luck to you. We said good luck
to them. So it was a it was a very

(06:10):
casual environment there was there wasn't a lot of attention.
And those fans, Tony, you know, they only bowed twice
in the game. Once was in West Virginia came out,
and another time when there was a call that the
fans didn't like. But there was not hostility directed toward
West Virginia. So interesting. Certainly, over time, maybe some I've
developed eft first the game itself, and you guys have

(06:33):
already touched on this. This is one that got away.
I mean you had this one. You had opportunities in
this game and couldn't capitalize. I know you'll talk about
this twice inside the five came away with no points
on those on those two of those attempts, that two
point conversion two points ended up being the difference in
the game, and didn't get anything going on that two

(06:53):
point conversion. Couldn't run the ball what sixty eight yards
rushing By the same token, I thought the best player
on the field was Jeff Simms and an interesting story.
Here's a guy who was at Georgia Tech. He was
in Nebraska. He's been up and down. This was his
third school. He was behind Sam Levitt. He comes on
and Tony, he has a great game. He's nineteen of

(07:15):
twenty eight, two oh seven, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and
probably had about four drops, ran for eighty one yards.
I thought he was the difference in the game for
Arizona State. West Virginia did make some big plays and
brand You've talked a lot about West Virginia's inability to
make big plays, and they made big plays. I mean,

(07:36):
how about that great call on third and twenty seven.
Get the ball to Tayvon Bowers right and just let
him do what he does. And on that play I
went back and watched it, Jacob Barrett had a tremendous
block on the outside, had a great block that really
sprung him. And then the long pass to Jeff Weimersy
had big plays. You had big plays. That roughing the

(07:59):
passer call late really hurt. That was on that last
drive by Arizona State where they end up picking the
field goal and I didn't, Tony, I didn't get a
second look at it.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
I didn't need did you get it?

Speaker 3 (08:10):
On that car?

Speaker 1 (08:11):
He went low?

Speaker 2 (08:12):
But he went low, it's an automatic penalty. The passers
in his in his passing position, legs locked and he
doved his knees. That's an automatic pens the ball out. Yeah,
so it was a little bit late, but you also
it's an automatic penalty when you dive low at the knee.
So and again, and I'll get into that. There's some
numbers to back that up. It was a massive play

(08:32):
obviously put him in scoring position. That's tough, though. Man,
You're just trying to make extra effort and make a
play and you're just lunging to get there. And it
was just it was an unfortunate situation there because it
did hurt you.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
I mean that because otherwise would have been third and
eight and they get a first down. They move the
ball up and they kicked the field goal, and the
hastess Gomez, I mean, he's got a big leg, but
he had not made a ton. I think it was
like fifty from forty. He had forty plus.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, after he had had the one blocked. That made
him two for his last five, because he was two
of his last four going into the game and then
he had the one blocked. He was two out of five.
Think about Gomez. Gomez throws the two point conversion pass
and then he drills the forty nine yard field goal.

(09:18):
Probably did not have Jesus Gomez on your Bengo card.
Is the guy that was going to decide the game.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
We did not break him down on Friday's house.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
But that Gig guys, that thing would have been good
from fifty nine. He just he just he drilled it.
And then in West Virginia couldn't get anything going on
there their last possession. So, by the way, on calls,
and again we talk about calls, I don't want to
say all the officials cost him the game, but I
did not like that second call on Fred Perry, you

(09:49):
know when he threw down the runner. I mean, maybe
that was a good call, maybe not. I didn't even
like that call at the bottom.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
More and more, more and more though this year, it's
almost a guarantee if you have a guy wrapped up
around the waist and you pick him up, here comes
the flag.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Except when it happens to Scotti Fox correct. That's the
only time it doesn't get called. As if Fox is
the one that is body slammed.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Who was that b Yu No that was when recently
that was hou No no, no, yeah, yes, Houston right side.
He ran off to the right side, guy picked him up.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Picked him up, slammed in.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Now yeah but whatever.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
So yeah, it didn't cost it a game. It's just
things were pointing out obvious impatients. So finally, the bottom
line for me is and and Mike Crew my subject
of Crew. I was hanging with my boys. We all agreed.
It was a great effort. It was an entertaining game.
It was a great effort. I mean, this is a
team that was left for dead a few weeks ago.

(10:43):
They rattle off a couple of wins and put a
great effort together on the road against a good team
that's still competing for a league title. And you come
up a little short because you didn't make a couple
of plays and they made a couple of plays, and
you made a couple of mistakes and couldn't get couldn't
get yards, and the artist situation so disappointing because it
was there. You know, I was thinking too that this

(11:05):
Arizona State team when their new coach took over, they
were three and seven they're three and three and nine
something their first year. He only won three games. Last
year won the league title. This year they're competing for
a league title. And I don't want to say you
aspired to the Arizona State, but I think you see
a potential arc there or team like West Virginia. You

(11:27):
can end up with four wins this year probably, and
but you know, you can be optimistic. You can be
hopeful based on the kind of effort you're getting at
the end of this season and the fact that other
teams are doing it too. So didn't come came away disappointed,
but not not in despair because I still think there

(11:50):
are opportunities going forward. Just that this is one that
you just needed. Brand just needed a couple more plays.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Very well done, Hoppy, he's right back. I mean he
just jumped in that saddle. I a cute of music.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Well that was something already thoughts from Hobby's point of view.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Here was right on it.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
This segment has.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Been brought to us by list Sticks.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yep, the lip bomb in the blue can and software
smooth top. That's the play.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Very nice. How the low humidity there, how does that
impact your your lip bomb? Were you going to the
can at all. Did you get chapped there at all?
Or are you pretty good?

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Not as much? I was pretty good. And by the way,
it was, it was a nice day to sit in
the sands. Got a little hot there later in the afternoon,
but a lot of cloud cover, not too hot. Yeah,
pretty pleasant experience. How was your You were way way
way up there.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
But yeah, but it was Yeah, it was good. I
hadn't been there since the nineties when it was a
seventy thousand plus seats. They took twenty thousand seats out.
And some things haven't changed, like the booth was the
same booth. But it was completely fine. It was completely fine.
Just incredibly disappointed by the outcome of the game for

(13:16):
the simple reason, as you just alluded to, Hoppy that
was there. Now you think about it big picture, you
are two and two in your last four games. But
you have now played four straight games of what West
Virginia football is going to be going forward, and that
is an ultra competitive team, but trying to do that

(13:39):
right now in the early going personnel wise and everything
that goes with it. So you are trending up. But
you're two and two and you very well could have
been three and one or even four and oh in
these last four games, which makes it disappointing. We'll get
into all that coming up on textual healing as well.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
I do think to your point there, if you're trying again,
and I'll give the standard disclaimer that you give and
hopefully after this year you don't have to give them
any more of these program wasn't built on moral victories.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
But when you're trying to be real and look where
this team was in that five game losing skit, and
look where they've come, I think a couple of things
jumped to me and Tony this was note number one
on my notes, But you said it when you first
walked in the studio. You hit part of it right there.
That's an Arizona State team, Hopey said it won the
league last year. They're still theoretically in contention. They're gonna
have a good season, go to a bowl. They're missing

(14:32):
two of their best offensive players. I get that, but
West Virginia is as well and missing more than just two,
missing a boatload of them. And that's a game not
should have won. You walk out of there saying or
not could have one? You walk out saying probably should
have won that game. You had more opportunities. I'll get
into some of the numbers that normally indicate a win
when you end up with the numbers, we'll get into that.
So I thought, from from a macro standpoint, you talk

(14:56):
about this team from where it was, and are you
seeing in per movement and are you seeing individuals and
hop you talked about the explosive plays that we didn't
see for a big stretch of this season. Multiple different
guys with big time plays that came through, didn't do
enough to get the win, and still too many mistakes
to get over the hump there to get a win.
But I do think there's something you can take out

(15:17):
of that second part of that that's a companion piece
that goes along with it. I thought Rich's postgame press
conference probably indicates and backs up everything we're saying right there.
It's the first time the old Rich, I think, has
come out in a postgame press conference or even a
regular weekly Tuesday press conference.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
He was hot, sizzling.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
If he said it once, he said it one hundred times,
that you got to be able to get this much
and he put his hands up like that. I mean
how many times did he say that? He could have
just said that and just repeated it and kept going
and then walked away after thirty seconds. So you could
tell he was highly agitated walking out of there without
the win. And that's the first time I've seen him
react that way, which tells me he moved past the

(16:01):
what can we do here?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Too?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
We could have had that win, should have had that win,
should have been walking out here with a win, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
No, totally.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
He was different after that game than he's been all year.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, it's coming right, I mean, you're right. He this
year has been difficult for a bunch of different reasons.
And for him, Number one, he's not used to losing.
That's one. Number Two, he knew that his hands were
going to be a little bit restricted to what he
could do because they got in here without a full
recruiting cycle. One then you have this unbelievable, unprecedented number

(16:35):
of injuries during the course of the season, So he's
kind of been trying to manage that and that's been
bumming him out.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
And you haven't seen him lose his mind a whole lot,
either in game or postgame.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Right, So he's been kind of okay, okay, I know
I gotta do. I know I got. And now he
went out there and he went, oh yeah, okay, I got.
I've been here before, I know how to do this.
And then getting close, We're getting close, and then you
have the ability to gain the first down on these
short yards place. Then you have penalties for personal file,

(17:07):
penalties at one point two back to back at a
face mask and then and then the personal file there.
So like to him, the furnace, the furnace had hit
its point. He just exploded, right, which tells us it's
the same rich seventeen years later, we get that. But
he knows he's closer than he is farther away, and

(17:30):
he just can't wait, can't wait to get the pieces
that he needs because then he will go on the
redemption tour and you know, next year, you could already
theme this thing is what it's going to be, and
he will have all the fuel that he needs and
he will use that going forward. But unfortunately, you hit
a super low point here, because that was so it

(17:52):
was so right there in your hand.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, so I thought that was tell him the way
he reacted that both in game two he got after
Fox once. That was as much as I've seen him
get after one of the quarterbacks this year. That looked
like old school Rich when he expects so much out
of you and you're not delivering. So I just thought
that kind of backed up what we saw out there,
that this was a game you should have walked out
of there with a win.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, you know, guys, you as you alluded to, and
there's a lot of things you need to be able
to do and a lot of things that need to
be corrected, but at its base level, you have to
be able to get a yard. You know, I don't
care what you do. I don't care what your offensive
strategy is. I don't care who your players are. You
have to be able to get a yard. And as
Dwight Wallace likes to say, one man with courage makes

(18:33):
a majority. And if you and that, that was very
revealing in this game. You couldn't get a yard or
two when you had to, and that was a difference
in this game.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, that was the essence, And that's the essence of
the game of football, right, That's the essence of the
game of football. And you came up short in doing that.
And we'll get into We'll get into more of that
coming up here in just a little bit. Three guys
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(19:05):
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(19:29):
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(19:49):
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catch up on season ending deals. All right, we're gonna
bounce around to different topics. We recapped the Mountaineer pit

(20:13):
game in our last episode, and West Virginia plays Monday
against Lafayette and then head to Charleston, South Carolina later
this week. We'll talk about that, by the way, that
event we're going to have next Saturday down there in
Charleston at Morty's Fish World at Lawrence's.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Quit calling it fish World for Lawrence's.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Oh okay, it's sold out. Imagine that, like literally sold out.
It's sold out. The tickets are gone.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
We were down to just a few Fridays episodes, so
they're gone sold out. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Next Saturday afternoon, from noon until three, we will be
at Lewis's Seafood, Lawrence's. Oh, Lawrence's too. We're gonna be
Lawrence Time.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
We're at Lawrence's. Can't come back.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
We're gonna be it. We're gonna be at Larry's Fish World,
and well, listen, they don't know. The people already got
their tickets. I don't know where to go. Anyway, We're
gonna have music, We're gonna have fun. And it's between
the two games that West Virginia plays, because West Virginia
is off on Saturday. Meanwhile, I don't want to be
a prisoner of the moment, but I will be. What

(21:16):
the WVU women's basketball team did on Friday night, oh my,
is the most I don't want to go too far
over the top, but it is truly one of the
most amazing things in sports that I have ever witnessed.
My initial thought was, it's a combination of all of

(21:39):
the movies that we grew up watching, like Rocky, like
Field of Dreams, like Miracle on Ice, like Name every Hoosiers,
like it was all wrapped up into one thing. Someone
in the text chat coming up in here a little
bit later, they said, well, we need to name and
have a nickname for the five Mountaineers who played the

(22:03):
entire second half, and I thought they hit it perfectly.
Called them the white sulfur five.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
That was good. I saw WV women's basketball count called
him just the Greenbrier five, which comes off, rolls off
the tongue better.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
I think white sulfur five is better because that is
white sulfur five. Anyway, I was listening to the game
at halftime when it all happened, and a couple of things. One,
I mean, I get the ejections because if you come
off the bench, automatic automatic. Right. Personally, I thought the

(22:37):
exchange between Jordan Harrison and the Duke player, I thought
that Warranton would would yeah a technical on each That's
what I thought that was. I didn't think that's ejection.
I mean, how many times in a game do you
go like boom, okay, get back. Anyway, the fact that
it took those officials over thirty minutes to figure out

(22:59):
what the call was is absolutely high school. Harry, are
you freaking kidding me? You can't do that in thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes, that was ridiculous. Point that's the one thing
people aren't talking about. They're got more upset that they
kicked the players. To me, it's like, it took you

(23:19):
thirty minutes to do that, not good, not good anyway,
forget about that. What those girls did simply breathtaking. You
had four reserves, you had one starter, and you're down
at halftime, and they lined up and said, oh, is
that right? You only gonna let us play with five?

(23:41):
Let me certainly show you something. What's outstanding?

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Man, I'm not CC goes six minutes, six and a
half minutes with four fouls. They're attacking her, and I
know she had to just back off a couple times.
Six and a half minutes with four files when the
other team is in intentionally trying to get you out
of the game, and you don't foul out. That was unbelievable. Well,
that really was a remarkable That was That was perfect too,
because you and I share the share the weirdness gene.

(24:07):
I love weird things. The fact you're playing that thing
in that ballroom, have been there for the the Grinch,
Whoville Christmas buffet, been in their hobby. You had the
buffet in that room, and they're in there and it's
packed in and there's thirteen hundred seats, but it feels
like there's seven. And it's and it's loud, and it's chaotic,
and it's weird. It was perfect that that happened in
that event in that building allowed it to get even louder.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
That was great.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
That was just the whole thing was surreal standing in surreal.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, the thing was surreally. Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
It made it. It made a couple of things about it.
One is it was surreal. It was historic. It made
national news, I mean national news. Six players kicked out,
you finished with five, and you win the game. That
was a That was a national story Number one. Number
two is that I'm with you, guys or Tony was
what you said. Jordan would taunted after the block. Okay,
I don't want to get in like school yards she started,

(24:59):
but she taunted, you can't do what she did, and
then Jordan Harrison came back with the push. I get
that you can't come off the bench, but I agree
with you. Like, look, if the players had not come
off the bench, I think you could have just offsetting
technicals and move on. But to win the game the
way they did was historic. But I think I'm going

(25:19):
to go with Greenbrier five. I like Greenbrier five.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Rolls off the tongue top fifteen team. That's the other part.
I don't care who they would have beaten in that situation,
it would have been an unbelievable win. To do it
against the fifteenth ranked team in the country, that's what
makes it even more unbelievable and puts it further up
the chart in the Mountaineer lore.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Going forward, I'll be very interested to see what the
lasting implications are from this game for West Virginia. You
would think now that it will have a mindset that,
regardless of the situation that they are in, that they
will take you down to the absolute final second one two.
That may leave a permanent scar on Duke. Their mentality

(26:04):
has been absolutely scolded by this performance. Which way do
they go? Which way do they go? Now? Think about
in the surreal category, how bizarre had it was it
for them? They're in that silly ballroom. It's all West
Virginia people. Now, all you need to do is give

(26:25):
a West Virginia a reason to be pissed off, right,
So you kick out, you kick out those six players,
and those Mountaineer fans and the crowd go.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Against Duke, against Duke. He's not a fan favorite to begin.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
With, exactly private this then, oh really, and that was
a great is that right?

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Game?

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Is that right? Those walls, those walls inside that ballroom.
I mean, the walls had to be buzzing. You could
just feel it and hear it. And I think the
Duke players at some point had to be where in
the hell am I great? Been great? And Kellogg coach
K the real coach K? How beautiful was he? His

(27:10):
demeanor like he could have flipped out and been just
miserable and mad at the officials the whole thing, But
instead he went the other way and.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Change and change style of play too. Sure that's also
I mean again, not not that you needed evidence that
Mark Kellogg's a really good basketball coach, but that's further evidence. Right,
he had to switch how they play. You had to
change offensive scheme, defensive schemes, slow it down a little.
He had to go into a different mode and did.
And then again I always say this, that's fine. I
mean I would expect Mark, one of the elite coaches

(27:41):
to be able to do that. The players then executed
something that they're not used to doing. They had to
play differently. Sure, a great job all the way around.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
I think that the Greenbrier has this incredible history, so
now I think you have of its history you have, Well,
it had the bunker there in case there's a nuclear attack.
It had it as a hospital during World War two.
And as where West Virginia beat Duke with five players
with five players, that now moves up in terms of

(28:09):
the historic significance of the Green Bar.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Well, don't forget the Great Tea service too as well.
Happy yeah, yeah, you get the Great Tea Afternoon Tea
anyone under underestimate afternoon Tea.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, that was fun. Good for that in all time,
That's an all time moment in the history of the program.
I agree you guys like Greenberg five. I like White
Sulfur five better. Anyway, we move on, coming up textual
healing in just a second. A reminder, a reminder that
holiday season is here. Do you know, guys, like, we're

(28:39):
like five weeks away from Christmas, five weeks away from Christmas,
so it's time. It is time to do some partying
in some events. Obviously a lot of parties and workplaces
things like that. The good folks of Tutors Biscuit World
can cater your event. If you want to do something
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(29:01):
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Did you hit the triple points yesterday? I did?

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Street continues fla. I'm going a heck of a run,
four straight, four straight saturdays. You got triple right, took
the triple points. Thank you appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Go Mark. Do you walk in or did you just
do it off the gas tank? Of youenny? Going to
get the Marty Spin.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
I did not get a Marty's Spin, nor did I
get a rec peanut butter cup.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
This time Marty's Mary Spins available for you. Spin your
way to sweet treats, awesome prizes, bonus rewards points. All
you gotta do is walk in, hit that QR code
and you spin and you can win a ton of stuff.
Like a ton of stuff. Let me see what else
they got here? You know what you can get. You
could get a thousand dollars Go Mart gift card, five
hundred dollars shopping spree, or five hundred dollars charity donation

(29:53):
plus five thousand bonus reward points, all of that stuff, candy,
things like that. So get in there, do your Marty
spin the way. Phil was on the trip with us.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Phil from Gomart.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, the main dude, the main go of going the
capital g of Gomar. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Now he was a backyard brawl on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Busy. Yeah, yeah, he was very busy. He was very busy.
But yeah, he was with us as well. Did not
bring Marty with him. I looked over behind me, his
two rows behind me on the flight. I thought he'd
had the big Gopher and the out and the outfit there,
but it did not. Didn't see him next time, did
not see him all right, textual healing uh is coming
up and again, in all seriousness, we are looking forward

(30:31):
to our event on Saturday afternoon between the two Mountain
Near basketball games down Charleston, South Carolina. Skippy's gonna be
there by the way, kirksvill gonna be there. Hop's gonna
be the get there. No, yeah, we gotta find him away.
We got to find a way to get gotta find
a way to get Hoppy there. But we're gonna be
there and do a live show. So we encourage you.

(30:54):
I'd say, like, probably probably go to Seek. He could
probably buy these things bootleg at a higher valve like
a Taylor Swift con Probably right.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
And more details coming on the next Charleston event Charleston,
West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
You know what I screwed up?

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Still efforting.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
We haven't even done spread Zone.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
See, I know I was waiting for you. I wondered
what you were doing.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Okay, well, heck, let's do Spreads on Stats. I mean, hey,
equal opportunity. I just forgot about that. Let's jump into
the analytics. Worship of the show Spreads on Stats is
brought to us by the Conley CPA Group. What do
they do, you may wonder, Well, they simply provide value
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(31:33):
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Speaker 2 (32:00):
Couple things I mentioned earlier. There were going to be
some numbers that you walk out of that game and say,
normally you hit those benchmarks, excuse me, you win the game.
Out gained them by nearly one hundred yards total yards
out first downed them twenty to eighteen out yard per
played them six yards per play for West Virginia, just

(32:21):
under five for Arizona State. Usually get those three categories
that would you walk out with a win. Again, as
we knew, Let's go back to Friday's preview episode and
look at some of our keys and see how they
shook out. First thing we said, West Virginia's ability to
run it was going to be a key. Some of
the raw stats showed that Arizona State's rush defense was
pretty good, but you looked underneath that they were just

(32:43):
one ten nationally and EPA per rush ninety fourth nationally
in success rates. So that would tell you thought maybe
you could run it a little bit. You could not.
West Virginia average is one point seven yards per carry,
and it was really only two point seven if you
remove the sack. So just couldn't get it done. We
already mentioned and Rich did afterwards. Just needed to get
a yard a couple of different times, and that game

(33:06):
is different. So the inability to run it down by
the goal line really cost you. A couple numbers power
rushing stat here, and that means rushes with two yards
or less to go that convert into first downs or touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Ooh, this is a good you pulled this one out.
You normally don't do this one. This is a new category.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Try and evolve.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
I can't wait to hear this go ahead. So this
is say that again.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Rushes with two or less yards to go that are
converted to first downs or touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
This isn't going to be good.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
One for seven.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, that's one for seven.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
So there's the story of the game. Could stop right there.
Success rate running the football I just mentioned Arizona State
was ninety fourth nationally in this category. Your success rate
was only thirty nine percent. Under forty is considered below average.
Over fifty is considered above average. So still just a
below average day with success rate running the football. Soh,
that's number one. So key number one didn't come to

(34:02):
fruition that puts you in some jeopardy right there. Number two,
we said, can West Virginia limit the Arizona State rushing attack?
It was a little bit different offense with no Levitt
and Sims in there. And I'll get to Sims in
a minute, because we spent some time breaking him down. Hoppy,
you mentioned the good performance that he had. You just
you allowed. We talked about Arizona State's explosive ability in

(34:24):
the run game eighty fourth percentile in rush explosive percentage.
Commented that Colorado was even better in that category, and
West Virginia limited them. It started out okay, just one
run of ten yards or more in the first half.
Only three rushing plays of over ten yards in the game,
just forty seven yards off those what are considered big
rushing plays of ten yards more. Just three of those

(34:47):
all day for forty seven yards. So you did your
job right there. But what was it that got you?
It was the pass place Five pass plays of fifteen
yards or more in the first half alone. Sims was
very effective throwing it. Let's go rushing stat for Arizona
State again, rushes with two or less yards to go
that converted to first downs or touchdowns zero for five.

(35:08):
You held their run game in check. You did exactly
what you wanted. Hold their run game in check, don't
give up big rushing plays, make Sims throw the football.
And then what was the companion piece to that? You
had to get pressure on him, right, You had to
get pressure on Sims, and you just you didn't get there.
So I'll get more to that here in a second.
That was hopefully going to force long third downs if
you limited the run, right, we talked about that Friday,

(35:30):
Slow the rundown, force them into third and long, get
pressure when Sims really struggles under pressure, put them in
long situations. They had averaged seven and a half yards
per third down? Did Arizona state? It was one hundred
and six nationally. In the game, guys, you held them
to an average of eight point two yards per third down.
You structure this exactly what you wanted, Hopy, You held

(35:53):
the run game in check, didn't give up big rushing plays,
force Sims to throw it in long third down situations.
But he came through seven of ten for one to
seventeen on third downs, seven to ten passing for one
to seventeen on third down. Now, let's talk about Sims specifically,
we went deep into him Tony. We talked about his
his prone miss. Yeah, that's a word to turning it over. Well,

(36:15):
he gave you something. He gave you two fumbles. You
only got one and it was on a fourth down,
so you were getting the ball anyway. That fumble early
was one of those plays early in the game, along
with the field goal instead of a touchdown on the
first drive, the non conversion on the second drive, you
got no points, and then he fumbled it early. We
told you guys, he was going to fumble the ball.
He did twice. You only got one of them and

(36:35):
you couldn't convert that in. He did not throw any picks.
That was a surprise there that he didn't give you
a pick. He was very good through the air. He
flipped his career numbers. He had been a a two
to one turnover worthy play to big time throw guy.
He flipped that he had two big time throws, no
turnover worthy plays. Threw it for sixty eight percent. A

(36:55):
lot of that was just simply you didn't get any pressure.
He was a thirty eight percent passer under pressure. You
never made him uncomfortable. You were credited with just one
quarterback hurry and one sack on the day. It's an
absolute stark contrast to what you did to Houston and
Colorado's quarterbacks and Pitt. If you want to go back thousand,
there's your story. Couldn't run it in short yardage, that
power rushing number. You didn't get pressure on. Sim's a

(37:17):
guy who had struggled in his entire career with being
pressured in turnovers and you just couldn't get to him.
That's a story.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Totally agree with you. He stood back and delivered the
ball and you're unable to get any kind of pressure
on him, consistent pressure, which you did as you said
against Juju Lewis last week, and then against Connor Wigman
of Houston. You were all up into their face and
you could not get to this guy.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yep, there's a story. So credit to him. He did
something that he hasn't done for most of his career
and he beats You lined up, had a pretty good game,
even though you were executing the game plan defensively, you
just couldn't quite get at home in the few areas
where you needed to. So there's it. Oh wait, I'm sorry,
I got one more category. You guys find this interesting,
so well, we'll do this one the most important plays

(38:05):
of the game. What swung win probability the most Yeah,
like the the fox to sincere Bowers play. Glad we
finally got to see his speed. I mean he made
guys miss too. That one't just straight speed. Guys were
like falling at his ankles all over.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, he's really really fast. You think he got tired.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Well, he was on the oxygen machine over when he
got to the sideline.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Well, I said this during the broadcast. He actually wanted
the oxygen at the fifteen yard.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, I mean he had guys coming up talk to him.
He's like, I'm not talking to you. I gotta get
this air. I gotta get this air. I'll be back
to you in a minute. That's that ninety yard touchdown,
which was really ninety five because he caught it on
the five and then he ran across the field. He
did run across He's caught on the right side, ran
all the way to left.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Chris Collinsworth could probably give you a stat to how
many yards he actually ran. He was well over one
hundred hours.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
We had next gen stats like the NFL does it
and usually shows that. Yeah, that added forty six percent
to your win probability.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
That's amazing number.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
And it feels like you that right, feels like you
had had one when that happened. The Fox to Whimer
big play, Hoppy you alluded to both those big plays earlier.
Those were great both great to see. That added eleven
percent to your win probability, which was really good. On
the Arizona State side. A figure you'd ask me about this.
The third down pass from Sims right before the game
winning field goal that was incomplete cost Arizona State fifteen

(39:21):
percent win probability. But then they kicked the field goal
on the very next play, so they go forcing them
into a forty nine yard field goal on the third
down play. When you got the stop, you thought, all right,
you may be in good shape. That swung it back
to West Virginia. The roughing the passer penalty added ten
percent to Arizona State's win probability. I'll be honest, it
felt like it was bigger than that, didn't it, because

(39:42):
of the fifteen yards it gave them, But in actual numbers,
it gave them ten percent to their win probability.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Let me ask you this, does the forty nine yard
field goal by Gomez. Did that change their win probability
to one hundred percent? No?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
But it it It was a significant play.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Why wouldn't it. Why wouldn't have that because you still
got the ball? Okay, but I thought it would be
I mean it was.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
It was way up there, but it will be over eighty.
Oh yeah, it was way over that.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
So there you go. There's some numbers. Yeah. To me
that when I walked out without looking at broken down numbers.
To me, it was the fact that you did not
get Sims to turn the ball over like you were
supposed to. Didn't ley, You didn't hit.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Them, you didn't get the interceptions, you got the fumbles.
I mean, he'd been fumble prone in his career. He
was two to one in fumbles to rushing touchdowns. That
that came to fruition. You just didn't get back on
top of the one, and he didn't throw the guys.

Speaker 3 (40:33):
I was sitting there watching it thing, and I was
I was channeling Brad because I thought, as this game
went on, I thought, Sims is gonna give you. He's
gonna throw you one. He's gonna throw you one, and
you just never you just never got it.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
It is interesting, guys, if just as a macro conversation,
we talk about these numbers sometimes and there are times
when it comes out and it doesn't mean anything, doesn't
show anything. It is interesting on those quarterback numbers, how
often that has hit this year. We talked about it
against Ohio. You, we talked about it against Holstein. We
talked about Connor Wegman at Houston. We didn't have any
numbers on Juju. There were and then this game were guys,

(41:06):
they're underlying metrics told you they were. They were turnover
machines there in every one of them. It came up
with the turnovers. Pretty interesting how those have told the
story in that regard.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Going all the way back to Parker Novarro.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
We said Parker Navarro was going to give you something.
He did you just couldn't cash in on that.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
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You're ready now for textual healing.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yeah, you don't want to talk basketball real quick?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Yeah, let's talk basketball.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
We can do it real quickly.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Here, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Lafayette's coming up Monday. I'll give you a quick look
at them. But first let's I want to look at
some numbers real quick for West Virginia overall, because as
we get going here, some trends are starting to develop.
As West Virginia started four and oh, that's the best
start by a first year coach since Fred Shaus began
five and h oh, fred was pretty good. That was
pretty good. Off to a great start here. West Virginia

(42:45):
now twenty six nationally in adjusted efficiency defense. So makes
some sense, right with what you've seen. Top twenty five
now in effective field goal percentage defense, top thirty one
in turnover percentage thirty six. We talked about this Friday,
tony thirty sixth now in the country in defensive rebounding.
I know that was a big concern for people. After

(43:06):
one game, you've now climbed into the top forty in
that area. These defensive numbers are fantastic. Thirty first in
free throw attempt rate, so you're still getting to the
free throw line of bunch. But overall point there, that defense,
as we thought it would under Ross Hodge is starting
to come along. And a couple notes here, guys we
said this Friday the three point shooting still hasn't arrived

(43:28):
in the big bunches that I do think it will
as we as we get throughout this season. But a
couple of those guys, I was watching some film yesterday
and talking to Ross about this. There were some things.
Number one, trace and Eaglestaff's defense. I can't stress how
far that has come from June. He had a really
good defensive game against Pittsburgh. Being in the right place,
that defensive shell got to a point against Pitt exactly

(43:51):
where you wanted to get. There were multiple possessions where
West Virginia's defense was literally almost perfect for how they
want to do it. Now, you just keep expanding that out.
What was that Ross told us the other day. You
take the periods where things went well and try and
extend those periods out right, that got better against Pitt.
Traycon was one of those defensively that's come a long way.
And then Honor Huff and this doesn't show up anywhere

(44:12):
on the stats. He had a couple screens. Did you
have this on your Bengal card that we'd be talking
about Honor Huff's ability to screen.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
He was the screener two.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Different times that freed up Harlan o Bioha for an
easy basket that don't show up anywhere on the stats
that contribute to you winning that game. I under did
that really good. One was down in the lane like
he went down in the paint on a backstrin that
stood right there, took the hit from a bigger guy,
left Harlan wide open for a layup. Those are the
things that if you're just looking surfacely, that you don't

(44:45):
pick up. But a guy like Tracon and Honor, two
guys that were brought in and hailed for their offensive prowess.
Playing defense and then setting screens. That's ultimately how you
win some games. So I want to make sure we
shouted both of those guys out for doing some of
the little things.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Ken Palm's computer not in love with West Virginia. As
the Mountaineers at sixty two, if you're wondering, that puts
them in the Big twelve. If you take Ken Palm,
it puts them at eleventh in the Big twelve. It
has them above UCF, Arizona State, TCU, Colorado, and Utah.

(45:25):
It has these teams above West Virginia. So here's the
question for you as the season goes on, can you
beat these teams overall? As far as the league race
goes Can you be better than Kansas State? Can you
be better than Oklahoma State? Can you be better than Cincinnati?

(45:45):
If you do, that would take you to eighth.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
In the league, which should be a tournament team.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Kansas is seven, Baylor six, BYU five, Texas Tech four,
Arizona three, Iowa State two, and Houston.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
In Ken Palm right now, ken'sa is very interesting. Do
you see Bill Self's comments yesterday Darren Peterson out and said,
won't have him for the immediate future.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
What's going on there?

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Don't know and don't know how long immediate future is.
But I thought that was a significant quote from him yesterday. Peterson,
one of the most valued freshmen in the country, thought
to be one of the top one or two picks
in the upcoming NBA draft, out for the quote immediate future.
According to Bill Self, see what that means?

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Ken Palm's computer just a couple of nuggets. So tomorrow's
game against Lafayette, the computer gives West Virginia a ninety
eight percent chance to win. Howsomever? Next Friday night, kertchievill
will be in attendance down there at Charleston, South Carolina.
Mountaineers given just a thirty four percent chance to beat

(46:50):
the Clemsons. The Clemsons got beat by the Georgetowns. Georgetown's
off to a good start, Yes they are cool. He
going there. So that gives West Virginia just a thirty
four percent chance to be Clemson. So this will be
a super fun tournament for West Virginia. We were there
before and Mountaineer fans love that venue. There will be
a ton of Mountaineer fans there, and so that's going

(47:13):
to be that'll be a fun week and we'll see
exactly where West Virginia figures in here against other powerful opponents.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
One last number, This is for Monday, and then as
you get into this tournament. I mentioned this Friday, but
let's watch and see if there's some positive regression coming here.
West Virginia eighty first percentile with frequency for LiveBall turnovers,
so they're creating a lot of turnovers, but they're forty
fifth percentile in points per possession, so they're not cashing
those in at the same rate in which they're creating them.
Some of that's due to three pointers, although they've shot

(47:41):
it well from three off a LiveBall turnover, shooting forty
four percent in those situations. So I would think that
number can continue to creep up a little bit there
in terms of points per possession. But watch that it
starts on Monday. Lafayette hasn't turned it over a lot,
but they haven't seen a defense like they're going to
see Monday night.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
All right, let's heal themselves.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Just an obvious observation about this basketball team.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Early.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
I know it's early. I know it's early. That was
as good against Pitt. I know you've got talked about that.
That's as good a defensive performance as you'll see I
think for a basketball team. And also early take this,
this is a pretty talented team. I think they're more
talented than last year. And they got some guys you know,
it just just guys that stand out as more talent.
I thought Laurent can Marion can do some amazing things

(48:27):
with the basketball. He's a step above a lot of
other players. And I like Harlan down on the block.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Yeah, you big.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Harlan's been out to a great start, yep.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
And the piece is still the pieces still aren't all there.
As I keep saying, chance more will make a significant difference,
give you opportunities to do different things with his body type,
and then eventually Jackson Fields will as well.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
And Jackson Fields I think is going to really change
his team. That gives you another big that can jump
and run inside there to go with Harlan and DJ.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Now when he plays, he doesn't use those designer glasses
that he's been wearing during the games. Right, you're gonna
take those off? Correct? Yeah, that's a stylish look though, Yeah, correct.
Very good. Also, when Hoppy comes back in the studio,
you'll be back in here if we record Tuesday or Wednesday,
correct of this week?

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what day?

Speaker 1 (49:15):
We'll either going to do Tuesday Wednesday. But I don't
want to the reason why you've been gone recently. We
want to spend some time on that and maybe show
a picture, maybe show a picture of two on Hoppy's
excellent adventure. Right now, let's heal everybody. Let's heal. Time

(49:35):
now for textual healing. It's brought to us by episode
eight zero zero dot com Episode eight hundred dot com.
Our shipment of Mountaineer Munch popcorn for the holiday season
has a ride and the shipments have begun. You go
to our website. You can get our popcorn, you can
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whole lot more. Plus's coming up this spring the olive oil.

(50:00):
A lot of people start to ask about the olive oil.
Really good stuff. We'll get into that three guys before
the game. So you know, we're going to be in Charleston,
South Carolina for the event on Saturday. We encourage people
to attend if you've got tickets. Their low Country Mountaineer

(50:20):
Alumni group is going to be involved with that, along
with Golden Blue Enterprises. Then in a couple of weeks
after that in Charleston, West Virginia, looking forward to doing
a live event the night before the Wake Forest game.
And as previously reported on this program, we're going to
have a really special guest with us efforting that day.

(50:40):
Not confirmed. So here we go. Hey, three guys, I
want to thank all of you for bringing up the
dangers of candy cigarettes a couple of episodes back. I
know the dangers firsthand. I was a two pack a
day man when I was eleven years old. After a
long day of wheeling and dealing base ball cards in
the neighborhood. It always took the edge off. When my

(51:03):
friends started getting secondhand hypoglycemia, it was time to quit ps.
Harlan's the best passing true big man we've ever had
in a long time. I can't think of one in
the last twenty five years. It would be close. Love
the show. Pete and Pennsborough. Good to see he got
rid of that. I mean he was a two packa
day candy cigarette guy. Not good for you and could

(51:25):
lead into problems Texter. This message is for the jackass
who pushed the Marshall soccer player after Sunday's game. Grow up,
you're a grown ass man. Act like it instead of
a petulant twelve year old idiot. Self control is a
lost virtue among men these days. Be the man in
the arena, not the moron embarrassing everyone. Go Mountaineers, Jay

(51:47):
in Asheville, North Carolina. He's not happy, Texter, and we're
gonna get So. There's a general theme to a lot
of the football related tech and I could have put
them into the chat GPT blender and broken them down.
But in essence, this is kind of the theme that

(52:09):
we got a lot of three points I have to make.
I've heard great coaches say, if you're at home, you
go for that yard on fourth down, but on the
road you take the points. One of the field goals
would have won. Two. Their defense is better against the rump.
Perhaps we should have passed it more in the red zone.
And three where was the jumbo package of offensive linemen
that we used earlier in the year.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
At one point of clarification, their defense actually number wise,
was better against the pass. They were fortieth nationally defensive
success rate against the past ninety fourth against rush.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
As we outlined, Yeah, you'll see a general theme on
these is this questioning Rich's decision to go for the
touchdown or the first down rather than kick field goals.
A lot of that questioning, and quite honestly, you know,
in play while it was happening, I don't have an

(53:04):
issue with it. Quite honestly, I think Rich knew the
number of points he needed to win the game. And
I think he also, especially on those first two possessions
to start the game, he had to settle for the
field goal the first time, but he wanted those points
on the second possession. And to me to this point, yeah,

(53:27):
you can go back and do mathematics and say, hey,
what could have should have? But in the moment, I
didn't have issues.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
What about you, guys, I think I get what you're
doing there, and you're right, you left points out there.
You didn't you didn't take advantage of the points. I
think what he would answer this, and you can see
where he's coming from. It's two things. His belief and
he said it in the postgame a million times. He
just thinks you should be able to get one yard,
even if they know you're running it right, So that
was that's first in his mindset. Number two, given how
much West Virginia struggled to sustain drives, never mind just

(53:57):
put points up in general, sustain drives. The fact that
you're down close and early, you could have put a
real dagger into them. I'm sure he's thinking to himself,
I don't know how many times we're gonna be able
to get back in here. One two we mentioned this
hasn't been an explosive offense either, so you were gonna
have to try and drive down the field, which has
been part of the problem. You ended up with two

(54:18):
explosive plays. I get it, But early in that game,
I'm sure his thinking was, I don't know how many
times we're gonna get down here against what's a pretty
good defense. I better try and put seven on the board,
is my guess.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
That's my guest too. That's my thinking. Steve from Virginia
Beach Rights. Okay, guys, before we officially say check please
on this football season. Losing to Arizona State was like
a trip to the emergency room. You show up thinking
it's just heartburn. Next thing you know, you hook up
to multiple machines with the doctor saying you need a
triple bypass telling you to slow down on the tutor's biscuits.

(54:50):
But let's remember owning pit in football and basketball was
the extra gravy on the side. Well worth the er visit.
Disappointing year, yeah, but worth it to clown pit until
twenty t twenty nine. Time to focus on hoops. By
the way, the women's team truly brought the hard edge
unbelievable historic win. Texter, Hello crew, Matt from Clear Mountain
Bank here. I wanted to share a quick update on

(55:12):
our Suncrest branch sign. Look what they did there. So
they had the So the history on that is they
put their beat pit sign up before the backyard brawl
in football, right then after West Virginia beat him in football,
they put up the wei beat pit above that. And
now with the basketball they got two of their fine

(55:35):
folks that work there and they're holding up the sign again.
So we beat Pitt again. Very nice, well done, Well done,
Well done, Matt, very good. We had a couple of
these texts and we can talk about this a little bit.
Not to sound stuffy, but I will. The fan version
of sweet Caro line is beneath the dignity of the
institution which has produced seventeen Rhodes Scholars. Suspect many parents

(56:01):
and maybe including some coaches with children in attendance, cringe
at the choice words. The song only fosters the image
of a crude, vulgar, and classless people that West Virginian
should be trying to dispel. I suspect that others or
orders from the top to ban the song at pit
events would fail, perhaps even generating more enthusiasm for the song.

(56:23):
I don't have a solution, only a lament signed by
aj NPA, And there were a couple of those questioning
the use of Sweet Caroline. I. So here's where I am.

(56:44):
Here's where I am on that. As you know, I'm
not really big into taunts one school to another as taunt. However,
there are exceptions, and I have no problem whatsoever in
letting that go. For a couple of different reasons. One
two things can be true. You can have seventeen Rhodes

(57:05):
Scholars and be an academic institution, but you can also
be who you really are. And what is West Virginia.
West Virginia is gritty. West Virginia takes no crap from anyone,
and I personally like, I'm huge in like those across
the pond soccer chants where they have this great stuff.

(57:27):
So I actually enjoy it. I like it because I've
been to Pitt and I've heard the constant incest jokes
and this and that with your sister, and it's like,
hey man, it's fair game and it's in use, and
I think people love it.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
So you do have to do some explaining to your
kids when they're little about it. Understood, there is a
little bit of that. I understand what the text are saying.
I think it is one of the listen golden blue
glasses on here. I get it, one of the all
time great hijacks of another school's tradition. It like there
has to be a part of a lot of Pitt
fans that just cringe when it starts because they know

(58:06):
what West Virginia fans are going to give him. You've
taken their tradition and absolutely just hijacked the thing. It's
a pretty good time. When you talk about taunting of
schools and going back and forth and what rivalries mean,
that's a that's pretty high on the list of things
you can do. You took their deal and made it
your own. Stolen that pretty good? Doesn't happened a lot?

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, Hey, Jake, is Hoppy still with us? Do we
have Hopstile here? Or did he go away? He must
have gone away. He's not in the box Kerchiefell disappeared again.
He won? Oh no, okay, good, good, good good? Why
am I doing that? I had your volume done? I'm sorry,
my bad, that's my bad. I'm sorry. I thought you
went away and I looked up there and see him.

(58:45):
I'm saying, here, what do you what do you think about?
Sweet Caro lot?

Speaker 3 (58:49):
I think that that like you all made good points
and brag, like you said, you got to explain to
the kids. But it's a it's a rivalry. It's the
most intense rivalry. Number one. Number two. You want to
make this more of it, institution, try to ban it,
it'll become more of a thing. So it is what
it is. It's not it's not a big deal. It's

(59:09):
a it's a it's a slightly vulgar part of what
is a really good rivalry.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
And you live with it. Yeah and again, and I'm
nationally it's become a thing. I mean nationally, like people know,
like Warren Sapp defensive line coach for Colorado while the
game was going on, and West Virginia played it at
the Colorado game like he was. He was outwardly laughing.

(59:41):
It's it's a thing. So if you got to be
known for something, be known for being crazy passionate fans boom.
It's just to compliment the country roads. Uh, Texter, this
is funny, Scott, and Stafford writes the hot start for
the WVU men's basketball team is great news for North
Carolina a tournament hopes.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
That's well done, Scott. That's that's might be in the
textual Healing Hall of Fame. That is superb, excellent, well done.
One of the most ridiculous decisions in sports, no question,
the westerream was left out and that they got in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
So last episode we were talking about when did West
Virginia block a punt for a score? When did the
last time happen? Remember and the gentleman that said Oklahoma
State And I looked in the box and the box
doesn't say block punt, But guess what they did. They
did The guy should sent me a video link. Blocked
it at about the one yard line and just carried

(01:00:39):
the ball in so it had it did happen, So
I don't know, we got to go find what were
those guys saying the rules on it like they were?
Why did they say that that that was the last block?
Since they got that screwed up? Rich in Williamsburg, Virginia,
T see please explain the naming of Hope Coliseum. So

(01:01:07):
the explaining the name of the Hope Colseum. So obviously
they sold the name to Hope Gas ten year deal.
The numbers out there right, people know what the number is?
Has that been foied out?

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Don't know?

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
It's about ten eleven, twelve million.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
I think now it's twenty three million over ten years,
two point three million dollars a year. So anyway, I
guess I did. Anyway, So obviously in the world that
you're living in now, you need more revenue dollars. The
athletic department with revenue share has been, you know, put
to the task. You need to come up with twenty

(01:01:45):
million dollars this year and then every year going forward
more for revenue share. And so everything is up in
play to try to find different ways and streams of revenue.
And that is one of those. And if you mean
why doesn't it say Hope Gas Coliseum. That's because Hope
Gas wants it known as the Hope Colisseum. Because I

(01:02:08):
think they want to be known and want to do
more things outside of just Gas and being known as Gas.
I think they want to be known, you know, as
a partner and everything that they do. And there's a
bunch of other things that they are doing with the university,
and so that's kind of where it is. I'll just
read a little bit of this. I'm appalled at the

(01:02:28):
action involving Neil Diamond, Sweet Caroline. I understand rivalries make sports,
but allowing this unsportsmanlike action that disrespects the institution of
pitt The song was written in honor of Caroline Kennedy
and the songwriter Neil Diamond. I get the rival bye,
but when do we teach respect for our opponents, which
is one of the steps of sportsmanship, if not the
number one step. I can see a whole younger generation

(01:02:50):
thinking this is the norm in society. Thus that same
disrespect will trickle down to high school sports and further well,
guess what that horse is out of the barn? And
if a sweet Caroline for what's going on in our
world right now. If Sweet Caroline is the thing, trust me,
the dam has already broken in that regard. Trust me.

(01:03:14):
I was in Morgantown with my dad for the big
win Thursday. Now we're in DC. This morning. We went
to the International Spy Museum, and I cannot confirm nor
deny that Oliver Straw's dead Anthony has an exhibit there.
I can confirm. We are head to do a bar
to watch West Virginia play football. Texter, had our chance

(01:03:37):
at the end just came up short. Better days ahead,
for sure. Would have been nice to get a bowl game.
But hey, maybe this will allow time extra for recruiting.
Another person said, when you're on the road, you take
the points. Field goals are okay, you can get fourth
downs and if you can't get fourth downs inside of
the five, Texter, I may have sent this message before,

(01:03:58):
but I've been emphasizing this since the twenty eighteen Oklahoma game.
When will coaches start taking the three points shot until
they absolutely have to? Seems like almost every time points
are missed, the team that misses them ends up losing
by two or three. It's a widespread issue. Shepherd in
South Charleston. Another person take the points in the end zone. Please,

(01:04:22):
Texas says you can second guess every call, but you
have to show trust in your team when you can
get a yard. We fought hard, came up short. We're
setting the tone for the future. Hey, three guys, or
is it two and a half? No, he's here. I
get no such thing as moral victories, but man, we
were close. If you would have told me after stomping

(01:04:44):
the stomping that we took at Kansas, we would have
had four wins. I really don't know I'd believe it,
especially if you said we're down to a true freshman
and rotating running backs. I would have thought, well, there's
always next year. But the fight that this team has
doesn't get old. It's what we're used to for so long.
A bunch of nobody's turning the underlying boldprint team into
a highlight. I root for the Mountaineers winning and losing.

(01:05:04):
I think they'll still still have a lot to be
proud of. Texter this there was just the oly gotten on.
This was the brother and the niece. So a couple
of Mountaineer fans went to the Arizona State game. I
think that's yeah, that's Cactus there, so that'd be the
w Alema. So there you go sporting a Pat White jersey.

(01:05:27):
The rest of these are into the women's basketball team.
I think, good morning, gents, shout out to the women's team,
the Fab five, Mark Kellogg and staff with more experience
than I in this realm. Has this ever happened before?
That had to be historic, clearly significant. No, that's never
happened before, never happened before. Texter a lot of negativity

(01:05:49):
regarding WVU football. As I watched the game, I saw
a competitive team until the end. Injuries not an excuse. However,
we're watching QB three, RB four and Heisman candidate Curtis Jones,
who's a linebacker playing running back. I get it he
played running back in high school, but not why he
was here. What does this team look like with a
full complement of players available? Time will tell. This year

(01:06:10):
gives me hope even in a loss. I have hope
in something I didn't think I had in the previous
six years. Maybe or many things. For what you do
and let's go very good.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
I think you're actually quarterback four if you go by
based on who got starts right. Wilson's was the third
start of this is the fourth Curtis Jones continues the
Heisman campaign, though with another rushing touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
I mean, has anyone scored more touchdowns this season per
Carrie than Curtis Jones? I think not. I think not.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
The rest of these Curtis Jones. Who had Curtis Jones
on the in preseason? Did we mentioned Curtis Jones in
the preseason discussion?

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
I don't think he was on the over under episodes
back in August. I know, I love it though, YEA
happy for him, Texter. These are all on the women's team.
The state of West Virginia may as well as well.
The state of West Virginia might as well proceed with
planning historical marker on the grounds of the Greenbrier that
tells the tale of the Greenbrier five incredible john from

(01:07:07):
Oklahoma City. The women's win over Duke may be the
biggest in school history. Only the Kentucky ELITEA comes to
mind as close. Do you agree on biggest upset? Well,
because of the way it happened, I think West Virginia
probably would have won the game if they had their
full complement of players in the third and fourth quarter.
I think they would have wore them down, probably would

(01:07:28):
have won the game. But for what they did, that
is that's in a category of its own, Like I
wouldn't even put it with anything else. It was like,
it's got his own category, like traditional forty minute basketball
game and a basketball game where you have five players,
it's in its own list.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Yeah, the five they're doing it in the five is
pretty amazing because if you think about I mean, Westernia
should be ranked, they should have been ranked before this
now put them in the rankings. So in terms of
just pure upset, it was more the conditions in which
the game developed.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Yeah, it was amazing that first six and a half
minutes of the second half in the women's game against Duke.
Perhaps the best six and a half of WVU basketball
of all time, men or women. Absolutely incredible what those
kids did with five players. Thanks for coming to West Virginia, Duke. Yeah,

(01:08:19):
so that's a really good point because if you weren't
following it really closely, when you start the third quarter,
so everyone's still kind of in shock that you just
lost all of those players, and they had about two
minutes to say, okay, it's U five, let's go, and
they came out and it did not take them time

(01:08:40):
to get a feel of how we're going to do this.
They attacked and so to the Texter's point, you're right,
they exploded and that even made it more astounding, and
then held on for the win. After watching the game Friday,
I couldn't stop thinking about how strange and probable and
incredible that game truly was. Since that will be part

(01:09:02):
of West Virginia lore moving forward, I think those young
women deserve a catchy nickname, Whitesaw for five or something
appropriate that will forever remind West Virginia fans of a
remarkable moment with these young women Sidney Woodley, Sydney Shaw, Riley, Mclesky,
Logan Johnson, and C. C. Revere. Yeah, it's just incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
I think at the very least, you got to have
a historic marker in the ballroom, right at the very least.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
What could they do? I know, in all seriousness, in seriousness,
I think they do need take me with them. I
think they need to have something that they put into
the Hall of Traditions back here in one of the cases,
just something that marks it. On this day, West Virginia

(01:09:55):
with five players beat fifteenth Duke and ye, I think
something needs to be done. There doesn't need to be
a statue, but it just needs to be a marker
place to show because why because it defines everything that
WVU Athletics says that it is tough, resourceful, gritty, never quit,

(01:10:18):
hard edged, ability to persevere, ability to like. It's the
embodiment of every characteristic that you say you are, so
like I would do that. I'd have something in.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
The Mark Kellogg in the movie. That's my questions.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
You watch more movies than I'd like. Who would be hoppy?

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Is a movie guy?

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
Who would you think happy?

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Oh gosh, let me think about that a little bit.
Is Tom Cruise available?

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
I wouldn't, No, I would do Cruise.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
It would be nice to put a nice little medallion there,
some on the wall or on the ballroom floor, somewhere
that I think you take a significant I.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Think you get the locker room picture that's been distributed
when they're all in the locker room and they're squeezing.
You take that pick sure, and then you take a
picture of the five players, and you take the box
score and you make a note that says, on this day,
West Virginia with five player. I think you do something
like that. Just a guess. Kellogg? Pretty cool? Huh, Kellog?

(01:11:19):
Pretty cool?

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
Tom Hanks? How about Tom Hanks? He too old?

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Now Hanks? And call logg? I mean, what about what's
I don't know these actors? What's this guy? What's that?
Is that Ryan Gosling available? Is that his name?

Speaker 3 (01:11:30):
Ryan Gosling? Maybe?

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
Maybe Chris Hemsworth.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Okay, yeah, I don't we're working on we're looking. We'll
look into that. So let's have an open meeting. When
are we doing the next show?

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Wrap it up here, we'll we'll have it offline.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Okay, you're gonna be You're gonna be in studio so
we can show all the pictures from your trip. I
will be this is something, this is this is this
is really something.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
All Right, we've done you'd already showed them.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
No, we didn't show. I want you to be there
to give us the explanation. We'll be back Tuesday or
Wednesday to preview West Virginia against Clemson. Obviously the football
team in a bye week. We've got other stuff going on, right.
The soccers are doing well. Congratulations to Nicky Izzo Brown
and her group for their opening round NCAA tournament victory.
Mountaineer men's team also going to get its walking papers

(01:12:21):
this week. As to what's going to happen for them,
we'll have all of that and more. Good to have
Hoppy back Busy Guy Special. Thanks to Braden and Jake
for producing today's show. Three Guys Before the Game brought
to us by Go Market that Gomart Rewards card Instantly
save food and fuel. Go into the store, Go into

(01:12:43):
the store, hit the QR code and do that. Marty
spin win all kinds of stuff. Three guys brought to
us by Tutor's Biscuit World. Start your day the homemade
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(01:13:05):
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That'll do it for us. Episode six seven five is
into the book for the Senator and for the Dean.
We're out. Talk to you again later this week. Stay well,