Sunday Morning Thoughts: O-Line Concerns, QB Situation + More

The Mountaineers did what they were expected to do against Long Island on Saturday night as they blew out the Sharks, 66-0. Sure, it was nice to see the fans back inside Milan Puskar Stadium but it was a very boring game, which is a good thing when you play teams like this. That means you took care of business.

Although WVU cruised to victory from the moment the ball was kicked (literally), there were still a few things that I took away from this game that I didn't like. To be honest, I didn't really see much to be excited about.

The offensive line is a work in progress and that's a problem. Coming into the year, WVU was expected to be able to run the ball fairly well with a strong interior of multi-year starters James Gmiter, Zach Frazier, and Doug Nester. Through two games, that hasn't been the case. Leddie Brown averaged just two yards a pop on 15 carries. Something like that shouldn't happen against a team like Long Island. No disrespect to them but they are severely undersized and not as athletic or as powerful as West Virginia's o-line. You wouldn't have known that watching the game last night as Long Island's defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage seemingly all game and pushed back the WVU o-line snap after snap. What's going to happen next week against Virginia Tech? What about the following week at Oklahoma? This is a scary situation and one I did not expect from what was supposed to be a much-improved unit.

Then there's the quarterback situation. Jarret Doege completed 14 of 22 passing attempts for 259 yards and three scores but he made a few of those throws look tougher than they needed to be. His mobility in the pocket, which was a point of emphasis for him this offseason, has been subpar at best through the first two weeks of the season.

Garrett Greene showed fans a possible glimpse of the future by rushing for two scores and also throwing for 57 yards on seven pass attempts. I liked what I saw out of him but was I impressed? Not really. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don't think you can be impressed with anyone when you're playing Long Island. Like his teammates, Greene did what he was supposed to do and did what we all knew he could do - run. He did make a few nice throws but this game won't mean much in terms of Greene vying for the starting job. If he can show that in flashes over the next two weeks against real defenses, now you know you have something. Until then, we know just as much about Garrett Greene as we did entering the season which is not much.

On the bright side, Neal Brown was able to get in just about everyone on the roster, including several walk-ons and young freshmen/redshirt freshmen. Yes, it really doesn't tell a whole lot about those guys but it does give them much-needed experience and confidence to play the game in front of a big crowd. Heck, even Sam James coming down with a couple of touchdown grabs was nice to see considering the drop issues he's had throughout his career. This was a confidence boost for him.

WVU will get a good idea of how much progress they've made since the loss to Maryland next week when they host Virginia Tech.

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