Sunday Morning Thoughts: For a Team with 82 Newcomers, It's Only Up From Here

Rich Rodriguez's return as the West Virginia head football coach truly became official yesterday when he manned the Mountaineer sideline for the first time since 2007. Although everyone has been envisioning it since the day he was hired, it was still a little unreal to see him actually out there in WVU gear on gameday, leading the Mountaineers.

All of those good, warm, fuzzy feelings Rich Rod had went away pretty quickly when West Virginia fumbled the ball four times, three of which they were unable to recover. The 10-3 score at the half looked concerning, but WVU was clearly dominating the game, and Robert Morris hadn't shown a single thing offensively, defensively, or special teams-wise to make you think they had a chance or that the Mountaineers had some glaring weaknesses. If you remove the fumbles, that game is out of hand by the time they reach the locker room. WVU out-gained the Colonials 234-81.

Defensively, there were a lot of positives. The front seven was very active, controlled the point of attack, and absolutely shut down the run game. Hammond Russell IV had a terrific game, notching a couple of sacks and TFLs while making a few other things happen, allowing his teammates to finish the job. Braden Siders made his presence felt right away, as well as linebackers Reid Carrico and Chase Wilson. Fredy Perry? As good as advertised.

With the way that side of the ball flew around and played with confidence, you should feel pretty good about where that group is. I don't want to hear "it was Robert Morris" either. Yes, obviously, they're going to face stiffer challenges, but remember UAlbany last year? Their quarterback threw for over 300 yards on Jordan Lesley's defense. This bunch and Zac Alley did what they were supposed to do. That's a good sign.

The offensive line, as expected, is going to be a work in progress. And no, I don't find it concerning that they didn't dominate an FCS front. It was game one. All five starters are brand new, as are most of the guys rotating into the game. When you have that much change along the o-line, it's natural to have some hiccups early on. If those issues get straightened out by Pitt or Big 12 play, everything will be fine.

At quarterback, I loved the way Nicco Marchiol operated. There were a ton of easy completions, so the numbers (17/20) may be a little inflated, but he still made the plays. The last two years, Garrett Greene had trouble completing those layups, so no one should take those for granted. That said, I'm interested to see how much Rodriguez trusts Marchiol to throw the ball downfield as the season moves along. He had a beautiful ball to Cam Vaughn that went for a 46-yard touchdown, showing he's more than capable.

Maybe my biggest takeaway from Marchiol's day is that he just looks more comfortable, which in some ways is kind of odd to say considering he's in a brand new system. His footwork, for the most part, was a lot cleaner than what we had seen in the past, and he didn't rush through his progressions or panic when they sent numbers — signs of a quarterback maturing. I do believe we'll see Jaylen Henderson get some more burn next week in Athens, but Marchiol has earned the right to be the for now. He has to keep building on this, though. He can't go and lay an egg the next two weeks and expect to still be the guy, and he understands that.

I get there are reasons to be concerned, but keep in mind there are 82 new players on the roster. 82. That's an insane number. And I'd be willing to bet that's the largest roster flip in program history. Bringing that many new pieces together is no easy chore. Pre-snap penalties are bound to happen. A lack of domination up front, also bound to happen. What you saw on Saturday should be as "bad" as it gets, and I don't think it was all that concerning, given the circumstances. This team is going to get better with each week of practice and each game they play together. It's only up from here.

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