Jed Drenning Noticed a 'Fundamental Difference' During Recent Trip to WVU Practice

Are things already starting to turn for the Mountaineers?

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Things are moving right along here in August as we've reached the midway point of the month and are just 22 days from kickoff between West Virginia and Coastal Carolina.

On Saturday, the team will hold its first scrimmage, which should give the coaching staff a little bit of clarity regarding some position battles and what this team needs to hone in on in the coming weeks.

In our most recent episode of the In The Gun podcast, we were able to get Jed Drenning's thoughts on the team after he had stopped by a recent practice. Obviously, he's not going to give much away, but his general assessment of this group should provide everyone with a boost of optimism.

What Jed thinks

WVU Athletics Communications

“I think it’s coming together and you can see a fundamental difference. At one of the practices recently, I was talking to a buddy, and it’s just, even without pads- which they just started pads Tuesday morning- even before pads, you could see a fundamental difference in what things look like as they went about their business.

"I think this is a fair way to put this… they say, ‘How many games are we going to win?’ I don’t play that game. But if you’re being intellectually honest about it, here’s what I can tell you — we’re better. Now, you might say, ‘Well, we were 4-8, we better be.’ Of course. Now, are we better than last year’s team? Or are we better than what last year’s team could have been if it was healthy? Because I still think had this team last year stayed healthy, we would have stolen a couple more games and we would have been a six-win bowl team. Well, the answer is both. I think we’re better than both. Now, how much better? We’re going to find out because the missing piece that I don’t know… I don’t know how good anybody else is. That’s always a difficult art to master, but now more than ever, with everybody having more roster turnover. We’re definitely better. Now, I don’t know what that means.

"If you were to ask me to stack it up against last year’s schedule because those 12 teams, I do know, I saw them play…Yeah, we would have fared better. Maybe we would have won seven or eight games. I think we would have been good enough to do that.”

Why a breakthrough feels more than possible

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If WVU takes care of business, it will start 2-0 for the first time since 2018. In some ways, that's hard to believe, but at the same time, 2018 feels like forever ago. The schedule is difficult, but more so down the stretch when they have to face some of the more talented teams in the league, at least on paper, such as TCU, Texas Tech, Houston, and Utah. Early on, though, they could string together a bunch of Ws, and by the time they reach that challenging stretch, they will have some confidence built up, believing they can win every game they play.

With this revamped offensive line, the nation's leading rusher, and better play from the quarterback spot, West Virginia should be able to reach a bowl and could maybe even double its win total from last year if all goes right.