2015 class

[DCWV4life]

Who knows if he will be here to coach it, but our 2015 class has three and is ranked 14th so far.

 

[ralphiewvu]

Saw that, I like it. We need to keep to our roots and keep recruiting Florida. That is where we usually to well in recruiting.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Coach Seider is looking to be a good pickup.

 

[DCWV4life]

Seems like most of these guys are pretty good at bringing in talent.....now they need to find a way to develope that talent.

Really hoping this kid from California signs with us....even if it is just for the competition.

 

[bbwvfan]

Seems like most of these guys are pretty good at bringing in talent.....now they need to find a way to develope that talent.

Really hoping this kid from California signs with us....even if it is just for the competition.

The JUCO QB... Skylar Howard? The video of him as well as his stats from this year look good.

Gibson was responsible for recruiting a large majority of the team that played in the '05 Sugar. He just has to re-establish the pipeline again... when he left with Rich... the PA recruiting effort went with him.

 

[JIMKOON]

The JUCO QB... Skylar Howard? The video of him as well as his stats from this year look good.

Gibson was responsible for recruiting a large majority of the team that played in the '05 Sugar. He just has to re-establish the pipeline again... when he left with Rich... the PA recruiting effort went with him.

The "on paper" and flassy video spots look good...but...in my opinion...the 2012, 2013 groups looked good in those categories also...we have yet to see sustained action on the field of play. So, I hope these 2014 kids are not once again "flash in the pan" players with no real heart and tenacity when it comes to the real game!

 

[bbwvfan]

The "on paper" and flassy video spots look good...but...in my opinion...the 2012, 2013 groups looked good in those categories also...we have yet to see sustained action on the field of play. So, I hope these 2014 kids are not once again "flash in the pan" players with no real heart and tenacity when it comes to the real game!

Jim,

The 2012 class would consist of guys who are now Sophomores or RS Fr.

From that class... here is a partial list of guys who've become major contributors...

Josh Lambert
Adam Pankey... coming off knee surgery and rehab from last spring's practice
Mark Glowinski
Nana Kyeremah... played as a true Fr last year, lost to injury this year
Karl Joseph... all Fr player last year. 2 year starter
KJ Dillon
Jordan Thompson

Have any of these guys made the impact of a PW or SS... no. But, they're playing as SO or RS FR.

 

[bbwvfan]

From the 2013 class... here is a partial list of recruits playing as JUCO transfers in their JR year... or playing as true FR...


Mario Alford
Brandon Golson
Jeremy Tyler
Nick O'Toole
Dontrill Hyman
Kevin White
Dreamius Smith
Marvis Gross
Dakiel Shorts
Daryl Worley
Darrien Howard
Wendell Smallwood


I think it is amazing to look at the number of first year players who are major contributors to this year's football team.

 

[bbwvfan]

Skylar has been playing JUCO ball, so who knows if his performance can transfer to the FBS level. But, he seems to have a good handle of running the same type of offense Dana presently runs. 30+ TD passes is pretty awesome!

 

[DCWV4life]

The JUCO QB... Skylar Howard? The video of him as well as his stats from this year look good.

Gibson was responsible for recruiting a large majority of the team that played in the '05 Sugar. He just has to re-establish the pipeline again... when he left with Rich... the PA recruiting effort went with him.

Yeah he does look good and his stats back it up, biggest reason I want him here is for the competition. If he turns out to be a stud even better. I think alot of us agree we were a decent (average) QB away from winning three more games at least.

I enjoy these talks about talent here at WVU, people are not patient with these classes DH has signed. WE ARE SEEING THE LAST GAME FOR 12 SENIORS. Let these guys mature gents.....

 

[DCWV4life]

Mark it down now, Wendall Smallwood is going to be a star at WVU, you can see his flashes just like when Tavon came in his freshamn year.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Mark it down now, Wendall Smallwood is going to be a star at WVU, you can see his flashes just like when Tavon came in his freshamn year.

Bold prediction. Love Small wood, but he is no Tavon. If Shell produces like he should, Wendell may never big higher than #2 RB, may be the best #2 in the nation by his Senior year.

 

[GoldRusher]

Howard is a true dual threat QB, we need that badly. Our Oline is going to be new again next year and my guess is, our run game once again wont be where it should be for that reason and we will need a mobile QB to get out of trouble as well as help the run game. We have two QB's that are statues and another that's 175# soaking wet that is injury prone... yea, we need this guy as well as Crest .

 

[DCWV4life]

Bold prediction. Love Small wood, but he is no Tavon. If Shell produces like he should, Wendell may never big higher than #2 RB, may be the best #2 in the nation by his Senior year.

Telling you this kid is going to be a star, remember Tavon was no Tavon his freshman year.....Smallwood had better stats this year than TA his freshman year. Just sayin.

I think we have a couple guys with very bright futures on this team.

 

[JIMKOON]

From the 2013 class... here is a partial list of recruits playing as JUCO transfers in their JR year... or playing as true FR...


Mario Alford
Brandon Golson
Jeremy Tyler
Nick O'Toole
Dontrill Hyman
Kevin White
Dreamius Smith
Marvis Gross
Dakiel Shorts
Daryl Worley
Darrien Howard
Wendell Smallwood


I think it is amazing to look at the number of first year players who are major contributors to this year's football team.

While I do not disagree with you on some of this, these kids were major contributors, I was simply saying the consistency of play, now before you start going off on me, I KNOW they are young, and maybe some expected too much, but 4-7? No way! The lack of upperclassmen was a defining factor too, but still, 4-7? No way. These youthful major contributors have to improve. We played a whole bushel full of youth on defense in 2012, where did those kids go in 2013? Marginal to none is my grading of the defense from 2012 to 2013, some would say the defense went backwards, and I know you say it was because of the greater amount of on the field time.

 

[bbwvfan]

While I do not disagree with you on some of this, these kids were major contributors, I was simply saying the consistency of play, now before you start going off on me, I KNOW they are young, and maybe some expected too much, but 4-7? No way! The lack of upperclassmen was a defining factor too, but still, 4-7? No way. These youthful major contributors have to improve. We played a whole bushel full of youth on defense in 2012, where did those kids go in 2013? Marginal to none is my grading of the defense from 2012 to 2013, some would say the defense went backwards, and I know you say it was because of the greater amount of on the field time.

How fair is it to expect first time starters to consistently play at a high level?

I agree with you that 4-7 falls short of most everyone's expectations, but did anyone expect a carousel at the QB position?

IMO, the defense that started out the season holding OU to its 2nd lowest scoring output of the season, the one that held a healthy Maryland team to one of its worst productions through that part of the season… the one that dealt Okie St a huge blow in its only defeat of the season showed remarkable improvement from last year. Unfortunately, when you lose Christian Brown from the D-line, and guys like Barber, Rigg and Petteway at LB… your defense is gonna take a hit. Especially when young freshmen and RS Fr are thrown in as their replacements.

This team is not far from being 7-4 today. Sadly… it isn't… and we are full of pessimism… instead of optimism at this point.

 

[WVUDAD]

How fair is it to expect first time starters to consistently play at a high level?

I agree with you that 4-7 falls short of most everyone's expectations, but did anyone expect a carousel at the QB position?

IMO, the defense that started out the season holding OU to its 2nd lowest scoring output of the season, the one that held a healthy Maryland team to one of its worst productions through that part of the season… the one that dealt Okie St a huge blow in its only defeat of the season showed remarkable improvement from last year. Unfortunately, when you lose Christian Brown from the D-line, and guys like Barber, Rigg and Petteway at LB… your defense is gonna take a hit. Especially when young freshmen and RS Fr are thrown in as their replacements.

This team is not far from being 7-4 today. Sadly… it isn't… and we are full of pessimism… instead of optimism at this point.

BB, It is very hard to be optimistic right now. We have seen the exact mistakes made in game 11 as in game one for three years in a row. We have seen talent enough to compete with the best teams in the nation one week that cant score a point the next. We see the same clock management issues in game 36 that we saw in game one. We see as outsiders a very distinct lack of team chemistry, we see a head coach who seems like a master one week who cant come up with a gameplan to beat one of the worst teams in the nation the next week. We watched as a once really good defense became one of the worst in CFB, we watched as an offensive guru couldnt score a single point against a middling ACC team. We have watched as nearly ONE IN THREE games under this coach have been blowout losses. From 2003-2010 WVU could compete with ANYONE, anywhere, now we get our asses kicked by KANSAS!!!!!!!!!

 

[bbwvfan]

BB, It is very hard to be optimistic right now. We have seen the exact mistakes made in game 11 as in game one for three years in a row. We have seen talent enough to compete with the best teams in the nation one week that cant score a point the next. We see the same clock management issues in game 36 that we saw in game one. We see as outsiders a very distinct lack of team chemistry, we see a head coach who seems like a master one week who cant come up with a gameplan to beat one of the worst teams in the nation the next week. We watched as a once really good defense became one of the worst in CFB, we watched as an offensive guru couldnt score a single point against a middling ACC team. We have watched as nearly ONE IN THREE games under this coach have been blowout losses. From 2003-2010 WVU could compete with ANYONE, anywhere, now we get our asses kicked by KANSAS!!!!!!!!!

Lots of valid points DAD.

We have seen this HC struggle in the BE to beat USF and Pitt at the end of the regular season. You made similar comments at end of 2011... the team was getting worse. Then WVU goes to the Orange Bowl and sets multiple national and Orange Bowl records.

Prior to 2011, we watched WVU get their asses kicked by a non-AQ team and a bottom feeder B12 team. We watched WVU get its asses kicked by Maryland twice in the same season. We watched WVU lose a game to a 28 pt dog to lose a berth in the BCS NCG. But, we are watching a different style of football today. Blowouts occur at a regular rate. Last week, Oregon was blown out by Zona. This year, we've seen Clemson get blown out by FSU. Baylor was blown out by Okie St.

Prior to 2012, WVU never faced a regular season in which it played 10 AQ teams. With so much young talent earning playing time, the future should look better as they become multiple year starters. As WVU fans, we have seen this pattern many times before.

Dana has more wins against ranked opponents than his predecessors.

 

[JIMKOON]

How fair is it to expect first time starters to consistently play at a high level?

I agree with you that 4-7 falls short of most everyone's expectations, but did anyone expect a carousel at the QB position?

IMO, the defense that started out the season holding OU to its 2nd lowest scoring output of the season, the one that held a healthy Maryland team to one of its worst productions through that part of the season… the one that dealt Okie St a huge blow in its only defeat of the season showed remarkable improvement from last year. Unfortunately, when you lose Christian Brown from the D-line, and guys like Barber, Rigg and Petteway at LB… your defense is gonna take a hit. Especially when young freshmen and RS Fr are thrown in as their replacements.

This team is not far from being 7-4 today. Sadly… it isn't… and we are full of pessimism… instead of optimism at this point.

I'm sorry BB, but your assessment to us being not far from a 7-4 record is pipe dream thinking, we are closer to 0-11 than 7-4, the hopeful thread talk and banter about what once was, does nothing to address the current state of the program. Can it get better under Dana Holgerson, that is becoming the burning question in a whole bunch of Mountaineer nation. I just spent 2 days with 78 people of former graduates of WVU, and what I found odd, truly odd, was that there wasn't one single person in the room, that had a single positive word about our program, not one. They were a mix of age groups too, some old farts like me, but some rather newbie grads(less than 10 years since graduation), and while they all endorse the move to the Big 12 enthusiastically, there was no ringing endorsement of Dana Holgerson. The growing swell among many is that under his leadership the program is not moving forward, and JUCO players have never bode well for programs seeking to build foundationally a solid program. It is being called a panic attack of accepting lower quality players to fill empty slots within the depth chart with lower than average players(wasted scholarships). Some would have preferred using those assets for true freshman. It seems that inexperienced talent and losing would have been preferable to JUCO's who couldn't cut the mustard in the first place in Division I.

I know you will defend to the eye teeth your personal belief in the system, and I guess you can probably find some numbers to spur your thoughts, but it appears a great number of Mountaineer faithful who look at one thing, the product on the field, and the record of that product on the field, and see a program slowly bleeding to death, and even the most ardent fan, has got to begin to look at this situation far beyond simple stats from past glories, and who did what against whom, and see, some very glowing problems. Dana Holgerson cannot recruit, and believing that somehow his character is going to magically change and good players are going to somehow embrace his temper laden character, is pure folly. Dana Holgerson does not possess the requisite ability to be a head coach, the delegation of responsibility has been time and time again placed in men of even less capability than himself since 2012(DeForest being the more than ample example of this folly). These are the things people are seeing, they could care less and less about the stats, and as this wave of pissed off minor contributors to the programs grows, there will be a revolt against the AD that will force him to move, or be removed himself.

I really thought this mini-reunion of friends would give me something more, this after all was a rather diverse group of doctors, lawyers, engineers and such, it was young and old, so it was rather surprising that the unanimous agreement in the room was that Dana Holgerson has got to go, no more years, no more chances, unless it is the intent of the AD to further damage the future of our football program, the vote was 77-0. That was depressing. It does appear that these is about to be a serious Alumni revolt, and should we lose to Iowa State, Oliver Luck had better have all his phones disconnected, because it will not be pretty, and within that alumni group is the power to bring down a coach, it has in the past.

 

[bbwvfan]

I'm sorry BB, but your assessment to us being not far from a 7-4 record is pipe dream thinking, we are closer to 0-11 than 7-4, the hopeful thread talk and banter about what once was, does nothing to address the current state of the program. Can it get better under Dana Holgerson, that is becoming the burning question in a whole bunch of Mountaineer nation. I just spent 2 days with 78 people of former graduates of WVU, and what I found odd, truly odd, was that there wasn't one single person in the room, that had a single positive word about our program, not one. They were a mix of age groups too, some old farts like me, but some rather newbie grads(less than 10 years since graduation), and while they all endorse the move to the Big 12 enthusiastically, there was no ringing endorsement of Dana Holgerson. The growing swell among many is that under his leadership the program is not moving forward, and JUCO players have never bode well for programs seeking to build foundationally a solid program. It is being called a panic attack of accepting lower quality players to fill empty slots within the depth chart with lower than average players(wasted scholarships). Some would have preferred using those assets for true freshman. It seems that inexperienced talent and losing would have been preferable to JUCO's who couldn't cut the mustard in the first place in Division I.

I know you will defend to the eye teeth your personal belief in the system, and I guess you can probably find some numbers to spur your thoughts, but it appears a great number of Mountaineer faithful who look at one thing, the product on the field, and the record of that product on the field, and see a program slowly bleeding to death, and even the most ardent fan, has got to begin to look at this situation far beyond simple stats from past glories, and who did what against whom, and see, some very glowing problems. Dana Holgerson cannot recruit, and believing that somehow his character is going to magically change and good players are going to somehow embrace his temper laden character, is pure folly. Dana Holgerson does not possess the requisite ability to be a head coach, the delegation of responsibility has been time and time again placed in men of even less capability than himself since 2012(DeForest being the more than ample example of this folly). These are the things people are seeing, they could care less and less about the stats, and as this wave of pissed off minor contributors to the programs grows, there will be a revolt against the AD that will force him to move, or be removed himself.

I really thought this mini-reunion of friends would give me something more, this after all was a rather diverse group of doctors, lawyers, engineers and such, it was young and old, so it was rather surprising that the unanimous agreement in the room was that Dana Holgerson has got to go, no more years, no more chances, unless it is the intent of the AD to further damage the future of our football program, the vote was 77-0. That was depressing. It does appear that these is about to be a serious Alumni revolt, and should we lose to Iowa State, Oliver Luck had better have all his phones disconnected, because it will not be pretty, and within that alumni group is the power to bring down a coach, it has in the past.

Jim,

I am not attempting to defend Dana… I am merely trying to find explanations. I did the same with your good friend Bill Stewart. I would pose this question to you… this gathering of friends with ties to WVU… were they all friends with Bill Stewart as well?

I have a group of friends back in WV… some of whom are big time contributors to MAC, and their feelings mirror mine. They don't like where we are, but they understand why we are here.

If your friends don't understand why Dana recruited the JUCO players he has… then they don't understand the void of personnel Dana inherited. His first year, he had 56 scholarship players. 85 is the limit.

Many of the JUCO players WVU recruited were Div 1 athletes that did not have the grades needed to meet eligibility requirements. Some of the guys on WVU's roster were once awarded scholarship offers to Bama, LSU… so, it ain't like they have no talent.

A more informed person would already know this… and understand.

Once you tell me WVU is closer to an 0-11 team… you lose all cred in my book. Sorry…