West Virginia
In a Driving Rain, West Virginia Washes Out Oklahoma
MORGANTOWN, WV — What else however a stirring end might come from such an unpleasant sport in ugly situations between two groups mired in an unpleasant season?
Saturday’s Oklahoma-West Virginia sport wasn’t a traditional within the ordinary sense. Performed largely in a driving rainstorm that stored soccer followers away from Milan Puskar Stadium, each offenses had been predictably dysfunctional, and each teaching staffs had been appropriately conservative.
Backup quarterback Garrett Greene led the Mountaineers on a last-minute game-winning drive that included fourth down move to Bryce Ford-Wheaton and three tackle-breaking runs of his personal.
Greene’s final run coated 7 yards on third-and-6 after OU exhausted its timeouts and arrange Casey Legg for the go-ahead discipline objective from 24 yards out as time expired.
OU suffered its first loss to the Mountaineers in Massive 12 Convention play. Saturday ended a streak of 9 in a row since WVU joined the league in 2012.
Oklahoma is 5-5 total and 2-5 in Massive 12 Convention play, whereas WVU is 4-6 and 2-5.
The ultimate minutes had been entertaining, however the halftime scoreboard was almost caught at 3-0 earlier than an unlikely flurry of factors within the ultimate seconds.
The Sooners allowed 205 yards complete offense within the first half, however WVU averaged simply 3.8 yards per rush and accomplished simply 9-of-16 passes for 106 yards.
OU’s offense, nevertheless, was sluggish within the first half regardless of one other incredible efficiency from Eric Grey.
The Sooners transformed simply 1-of-7 third downs and had been 0-for-1 on fourth down within the opening half-hour.
Dillon Gabriel overthrew Marvin Mims on a possible large achieve, however then Mims dropped what would have been a walk-in landing on one other deep ball. Gabriel accomplished simply 11-of-20 for 155 yards within the first half as a gradual rain fell on Morgantown.
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It was scoreless for a lot of the primary half — Zach Schmit was quick on a 54-yard discipline objective within the first quarter after which made a 32-yard kick within the second quarter — and after WVU pinned the Sooners at their very own 4-yard line with an ideal punt, it appeared the groups would go into halftime at 3-0.
As a substitute, they produced an surprising outburst of factors.
Grey received the Sooners off the objective line with a pair lengthy runs, after which Mims lastly hauled in an enormous ball from Gabriel, a 67-yard achieve to the WVU 12. Grey’s landing on the following play constructed the Sooners a 10-0 lead with simply 66 seconds on the clock.
However the Mountaineers received a 42-yard kickoff return on Schmit’s quick kick, and cashed it in three performs later when Greene ran for 33 yards, then scooted 5 extra for the landing to make it 10-6.
The additional level, nevertheless, was a distinct story, as Robert Spears-Jennings crashed into WVU holder Kolten McGhee, inflicting a unfastened ball, and Billy Bowman scooped it up and took it again for a 2-point conversion runback that pushed the OU result in 12-6 at halftime.
West Virginia took its first lead on its second possession of the third quarter when Greene connected with Bryce Ford-Wheaton on an 8-yard fade route landing to make it 13-12. On the earlier play, David Ugwoegbu batted down a throw by Greene on the line of scrimmage — a throw which may have been in any other case intercepted by Billy Bowman in the long run zone.
The Sooners opened the quarter with a robust possession — 10 performs, 45 yards, greater than 4 minutes off the clock — however had been stopped on downs when Gabriel’s fourth-and-3 throw was batted down on the line.
On Oklahoma’s subsequent possession, Eric Grey took over with runs of seven, 5, 21, 3 and 5 yards, and Gabriel accomplished passes of 8 and 10 yards to Marvin Mims. Grey’s 5-yard TD put the Sooners again in entrance, and Gabriel’s rush on the 2-point conversion gave OU a 20-13 lead with 1:22 to play within the third quarter.
Grey completed with a career-high 211 speeding yards and now has 1,113 on the season.
West Virginia wasted little time with their reply, although. The Mountaineers transformed a fourth-and-15 state of affairs when OU’s Gracen Halton was referred to as for offsides, and Greene adopted that up with a 15-yard completion to Kaden Prather. After one other 5-yard hookup with Prather, Inexperienced raced round the correct edge for a landing that tied it at 20-20.
The fourth down wasn’t with out controversy, as Greene’s throw into the top zone was intercepted by C.J. Coldon, however as Coldon tried to take a knee in the long run zone, he was clobbered by a WVU participant. The play was initially flagged for pointless roughness, which might have been offsetting penalties, however the second flag was picked up and the offsides name in opposition to Halton was allowed to face, giving Greene the Mountaineers second life.
OU’s subsequent drive was promising as Grey rushed for five, 5, 6 and 24 yards on 4 straight rushes. However the drive slowed down simply outdoors the pink zone, and Schmit’s 46-yard discipline objective banged into the correct upright, leaving the rating tied at 20.
West Virginia
Examining West Virginia's lost offensive production after the 2024 season
Examining West Virginia’s lost offensive production after the 2024 season
West Virginia is in the midst of a roster overhaul as new head coach Rich Rodriguez starts to build from the ground up. In the last weeks, the Mountaineers have lost dozens of players either to the transfer portal or to eligibility loss, and we look at how much production from this past season will not be returning.
On offense, about 20 guys who recorded snaps this past season will not be returning to the Mountaineers. Nine are out of eligibility, and nine have entered the transfer portal, while that number could still increase.
On offense as a whole, West Virginia has lost 83.25 percent of the total snaps played. 64.52 percent of the snaps lost are due to running out of eligibility. Out of WVU’s top four snap totals, all four came on the offensive line.
Three of them exhausted their eligibility (Ja’Quay Hubbard, Nick Malone, Brandon Yates), and the fourth (Tomas Rimac) entered the transfer portal.
Number of Snaps Lost
Note: In the table above, under the column ‘Total Percentage Lost’, the 52.42% and 46.58% are the share of the total number of snaps played, not the total numebr of snaps played at each position
At the quarterback position, Garrett Greene does not have any remaining eligibility. Greene accounted for just about 30 percent of WVU’s rushing yards, 84 percent of WVU’s passing yards, as well as 22 percent of their scores on the ground, and 75 percent of their passing touchdowns thrown.
At running back the loss of CJ Donaldson looms large. He accounted for 29 percent of WVU’s rushing total this season and between him and others who tallied up much lesser totals, West Virginia has lost 60.21 percent of their rush yards from this past season.
At the receiver position, it’s even more drastic. West Virginia has lost Hudson Clement, DayDay Farmer, Traylon Ray, Justin Robinson, and Kole Taylor, among others who were some of WVU’s top pass catchers. The Mountaineers have lost 76.23 percent of their receiving yards from last year as well as 80 percent of their receiving touchdowns.
Offensive Production Lost
Overall, there is a significant loss on the offensive side of the ball.
West Virginia lost most of their passing game as well as their receiving game due to guys leaving the program. While it’s easy to point to Greene in the passing game because he was the starting quarterback for the majority of the year, most of the production lost at receiver was due to guys entering the transfer portal. At running back, it was roughly a 50-50 split between what percent was lost to the portal and what was lost to eligibility, as Greene as well as Donaldson, were the main contributing factors there.
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West Virginia
2 charged in death investigation, victim identified
UPDATE 11:50 P.M. 12/24/2024
MASON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ)-Two people are facing charges in connection with a death investigation in Mason County.
Investigators found the remains of a man Tuesday who had been reported missing. The remains were found along Broad Run Road in Letart.
Authorities arrested Brandon Harbaugh and Jodi Gerlach a short time later.
Harbaugh and Gerlach are charged with concealment of a deceased human body and conspiracy, according to Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Seth Gaskins.
Investigators identified the victim as Michael S. Phalen, 65, of New Haven, West Virginia. Investigators say Phalen was reported missing Dec. 12.
Harbaugh and Gerlach were arraigned Tuesday night in Mason County are in the Western Regional Jail on a $75,000 cash or surety bond.
UPDATE 7 P.M. 12/24/2024
MASON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -A death investigation is underway after human remains were found in Mason County, according to Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Seth Gaskins.
Investigators found the remains of a missing adult male along Broad Run Road in Letart on Tuesday afternoon.
The Mason County Prosecuting Attorney identified the victim as Michael S. Phalen, 65, of New Haven, West Virginia.
Gaskins said that two individuals have been arrested in connection with the investigation. Both are charged with concealment of a deceased human body and conspiracy, although their identities have not been announced.
Copyright 2024 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
West Virginia
Chad Scott Returning to West Virginia
Accoring to Mike Casazza of 247 Sports, West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez will retain assistant coach Chad Scott as part of his staff.
Scott spent the last six seasons under former head coach Neal Brown as the running backs coach and served as the offensive coordinator the last two seasons. He was also named the interim head coach for the Frisco Bowl.
The Mountaineer rushing attack ranked ninth among Power Four schools in rushing yards per game at 192.7 this past season and WVU was one of two FBS teams that has three players who have rushed for 630 yards or more.
Scott will be entering his19th season as an assistant coach. He began his career at Troy before taking jobs at Texas Tech (2010-12), Kentucky (2013-15), North Carolina (2016-18), Louisville (2019), and landed in West Virginia with Neal Brown in 2019.
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