Gibson returning for his SR year

[GoldRusher]

(In my best Jack Fleming voice)

HoLEY SMOKES!

WVU football’s Shelton Gibson is a playmaker, and a talker

 

[GoldRusher]

“I think I did pretty well this year, but I know it could always be better,” Gibson said. “You could always be better every single year, so now I’ve got to start thinking about that and what I can do better when I come back next year.”

If there was any question about it, Gibson said he’ll be with the Mountaineers for his senior year in 2017

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Good news. Good for him too. I think another year of running routes will help his draft stock. His helmetless grab was one of the highlights of the season

 

[GoldRusher]

After last nights performance... looks like it is most def the right move. He will be better and have better days and he will make our other guys better too.

 

[bbwvfan]

Personally, it doesn't matter to me what he chooses to do. I think he is a really good football player, but I don't believe it would be a huge drop off if he chose to leave school for the draft.

He definitely improved on his drops this year. I know he has the intangibles that NFL Scouts crave, and what he can't do today can be coached up once he's in the NFL.

If he chooses to come back for his final year of eligibility, I know he will be a great leader. He showed mental weakness last night. I'd imagine it left a sour taste.

But, he won't be a true vertical threat next year if the WVU OL cannot protect its QB. I don't care if Will Grier is the next Heisman Award winner from WVU, he can't hit Gibson streaking down the sideline... if he be sitting on his ass on the turf...

 

[GoldRusher]

Personally, it doesn't matter to me what he chooses to do. I think he is a really good football player, but I don't believe it would be a huge drop off if he chose to leave school for the draft.

He definitely improved on his drops this year. I know he has the intangibles that NFL Scouts crave, and what he can't do today can be coached up once he's in the NFL.

If he chooses to come back for his final year of eligibility, I know he will be a great leader. He showed mental weakness last night. I'd imagine it left a sour taste.

But, he won't be a true vertical threat next year if the WVU OL cannot protect its QB. I don't care if Will Grier is the next Heisman Award winner from WVU, he can't hit Gibson streaking down the sideline... if he be sitting on his ass on the turf...

That's my biggest concern with the offense next year. We return some guys that have a lot of PT (assuming we can continue to avoid injuries) on the line and thats good but Orlosky is going to be tough to replace at center, those are some big shoes to fill. I'm excited to see Grier (and Saunders too for that matter) this spring to try n get a feel for what the QB spot is going to look like and I think GriEER as we are going to call him will be a significant upgrade over Howard regardless at QB but you are correct, the Oline has to be at least as good as this year or we may struggle on that side of the ball for a while and that would be a shame because our RB's and WR's should be REALLY REALLY good next year. Not being able to block properly for them would be sickening.

 

[bbwvfan]

That's my biggest concern with the offense next year. We return some guys that have a lot of PT (assuming we can continue to avoid injuries) on the line and thats good but Orlosky is going to be tough to replace at center, those are some big shoes to fill. I'm excited to see Grier (and Saunders too for that matter) this spring to try n get a feel for what the QB spot is going to look like and I think GriEER as we are going to call him will be a significant upgrade over Howard regardless at QB but you are correct, the Oline has to be at least as good as this year or we may struggle on that side of the ball for a while and that would be a shame because our RB's and WR's should be REALLY REALLY good next year. Not being able to block properly for them would be sickening.

As I was looking at Miami's stats on Monday, I really tried to understand their defensive scoring average. I did so in order to get a feel for what WVU's scoring opportunities might be. When looking at the season, WVU's offense truly struggled to score against good defensive fronts.

I saw Casazza tweet earlier today that Dana wanted to see his offense bump their scoring average from 35 to 42 this year. As we know, they didn't even come close. And, as Mike pointed out... teams with above .500 records kept WVU to 28 points or less.

I know Skyler had serious limitations, but Geno couldn't perform when under pressure either. The WVU OL has really struggled in pass pro. Last year, Dana had to introduce power to his offense to have any success with his offense. His OL could not keep Skyler from getting pounded.

I am not crazy about the WR Corps or the OL. I think Grier will be a very frustrated QB at times. Hopefully he has some Mahomes in him and can scramble for his life next fall.

 

[GoldRusher]

I'm not THAT worried about Grier being on his back, Wickline has produced good running offenses everywhere he has been except Texas (and I don't put that on him because of the mess that program has been in for the last few years) I think Dana and Wickline will use those RB's to keep Grier safe if we cant protect in the passing game. Not saying that it will be pretty but if we are just not very good then I could see them keeping him as safe as possible and using the run game to get bowl eligible against the bad teams until we ARE good enough to protect.

What don't you like about the WR corps?

 

[DCWV4life]

I think we have enough guys coming back with expirience that this team will once again be competitive for an entire season....

My biggest question mark right now is at QB....people seem to be falling over themselves for Will Grier, but this guy or any of the other QBs on roster are lacking exp. Need a Qb who can run the offense, Skylar(love or hate him) knew how to run the offense, but did not have the total package of tools to take it to the next level. Was good, but never great with the passing game....Was great with managing run game often getting praise from staff. Next QB needs to learn that quickly as well as making the basic throws for us to have any success.

RB-Well so far so good...what to complain about here...loss of Shell is not major hit

WR's-Should be very solid with awesome mix of speed and size...more exp seems to have helped every WR who has played and we are returning a lot of guys.

OL-I think should be solid, recruiting has been decent here and young guys stepping up has been a theme, Cajust coming off injury is like getting another starter back so until they show me on the field they can't play I will stay positive. They do need to improve on pass protection.

DL-Ouch....but Shuler looked good this season...After that ?????

LB-Should be tough...Long, Preston, Benton, Walters coming back with exp...Ferns and a couple of other guys look solid as well and are young....I like this group.

DB-Losing a ton again....White looked as well or better than advertised....he did some things at that position that we really need...replaced K Joseph presence IMO...We also have Henry coming back and I wanna see how Gross does at a starter. CB I have no clue...probably no one know.

ST-Start anywhere....need improvement all over the place. Kinney was highlight and i am interested in seeing him develop. After that blow the whole thing up.

 

[WVUDAD]

QB, which I thought would be easy for Holgorsen to recruit, has been our biggest lack so far. There is much work to do, linemen have ALWAYS been hard for WVU to get, the top notch linemen, in numbers, going to the blue blood schools, IMO, are the biggest reason they remain blue bloods, the lines are the most important part of a football team, the most injury prone, most physically demanding, and going three deep with no drop in ability is HUGE!! Hell, it is the reason that the "lesser" teams can compete for a half with the Alabama and OSUs of the world. After all, the best QB, RB, or WR is useless when they are on their back. That was Fraud's biggest strength, he had his small, quick, athletic linemen that were cast off by the blue bloods, and came up with effective blocking schemes to exploit that speed. Some bitch about the 3-3-5 defense, I think in this league, it is effective, as has been shown the past couple years, but OOC, where there is more power run, and TE play, it doesn't work nearly as well. Our offense this year was putrid at times, some want to pour piss on Howard for decisions he made, BUT his decisions are predicated by what his coaches taught him, and he was doing as he was coached to do, or else they would have sat him.

 

[bbwvfan]

I'm not THAT worried about Grier being on his back, Wickline has produced good running offenses everywhere he has been except Texas (and I don't put that on him because of the mess that program has been in for the last few years) I think Dana and Wickline will use those RB's to keep Grier safe if we cant protect in the passing game. Not saying that it will be pretty but if we are just not very good then I could see them keeping him as safe as possible and using the run game to get bowl eligible against the bad teams until we ARE good enough to protect.

What don't you like about the WR corps?

I don't believe they are a great unit. I think they are a good unit. I read a bunch of over-the-top comments claiming them and the OL to be among the best in the country.

The unit did a much better job of catching the ball this year. I read a stat that in '15 they had 22 drops. When analyzed, it accounted for 15% of Skyler's incompletion rate. So many want to berate the kid, but he was dealing with their ineptness at times.

They have to improve their blocking skills. Without their downfield blocking, neither the passing game nor the running game can get the big play to finish in the end zone.

 

[GoldRusher]

Lets see how he looks in the spring and fall camp but its tough not to get on the hype train about Grier. Yea we didn't recruit him out of HS and we prob "ran into one" by getting him to Morgantown but just look up his stats from HS and watch his film from his time at UF...Guy was the #2 pro style QB in the country coming out of HS, if we aren't supposed to get excited about getting a QB that was rated that high then.... Not sure we should ever be excited about any of em, ever. We just as well get used to it because I don't think there will be any doubt GriEER will be the most hyped QB that has never played a snap for WVU in history, its coming like it or not.

Barring injury, the WR's will at least be really good, Shorts will be missed but we have a bunch of weapons even if Grier cant play the first few games due to the NCAA rulings (though I think he will be fine personally). The RB's will be good if not great, Crawford battled injuries and put up Slaton and Devine types of numbers for a first year back and the pups will only get better having played early, I love what I saw out of Pettaway, he looks like he could be special imo.

 

[Slaton10]

I think its a big mistake he doesn't come out this year...its a weak draft for WR's...

 

[Slaton10]

I think its a big mistake he doesn't come out this year...its a weak draft for WR's...

He should at least put his papers in and get an eval.

 

[GoldRusher]

Id say he will or has, he already has his degree so the the door is open if he wants it but he could also raise his stock quite a bit with a huge year next year with Grieer pulling the trigger. If we had a so so QB coming back then he would prob be looking at similar numbers ect. and not that much of a difference in money for staying but from most of the stories out of Morgantown Grier is the real deal so...he could make a little more by sticking it out one more year

Its different for everybody and I don't think anyone would blame him if he gets a report back that says he would be a sure fire drafted player and goes but, I see the other side of it too.

 

[Slaton10]

Id say he will or has, he already has his degree so the the door is open if he wants it but he could also raise his stock quite a bit with a huge year next year with Grieer pulling the trigger. If we had a so so QB coming back then he would prob be looking at similar numbers ect. and not that much of a difference in money for staying but from most of the stories out of Morgantown Grier is the real deal so...he could make a little more by sticking it out one more year

Its different for everybody and I don't think anyone would blame him if he gets a report back that says he would be a sure fire drafted player and goes but, I see the other side of it too.

All he needs to do is run a sub 4.3 at the combine and his stock will never be higher...he already has enough film ..

 

[Anotherwvufan]

All he needs to do is run a sub 4.3 at the combine and his stock will never be higher...he already has enough film ..

He could put up Kevin White stats next year and end up in the first round with guaranteed money by staying. He may also learn some new tricks other than the Skyler chuck it up play.

 

[Slaton10]

He could put up Kevin White stats next year and end up in the first round with guaranteed money by staying. He may also learn some new tricks other than the Skyler chuck it up play.

Maybe..but the class is only 5 deep at best this year with elite talent...hard to say.

 

[GoldRusher]

He could put up Kevin White stats next year and end up in the first round with guaranteed money by staying. He may also learn some new tricks other than the Skyler chuck it up play.

All true and to his defense he may be able to do some of those tricks already but our former QB couldn't make the throw or was too short to see him to show that he could. Not slamming Howard or anything but the guy WAS limited.

 

[GoldRusher]

Welp, we don't get called WRU these days for nothin... best of luck to Gibson in the pros!

lil bittersweet cause I was being greedy and wanted him back one more year but best of luck to him!

WVU receiver Shelton Gibson skips final season to enter NFL draft