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3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Football vs UVA Preview - Wren Baker and Nick Krahe Visit (Episode 739) · 3 Guys Before The Game

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Big week, big show. Let's do this thing.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Hi, everybody.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It's three guys before the game. This is our preview
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: for West Virginia and the Virginia Cavaliers. Episode number 738
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of three guys before the game. And I normally don't
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: say this once we get into, you know, our preview
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: review series, but we got a real good one for
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you today.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: You think?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Multiple.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Multiple. good ones within the good one that is the episode.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: That's right. We got two guests in just a second.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Subcategory.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Mountaineer footballer Nick Cray. One of the starting members of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the Mountaineer offensive line will join us and then later
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: in the podcast WVU athletic director Ren Baker is going
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to be in the studio with us. He's got a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: couple of different pieces of information that I think will
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: make you say that's coming up. But first Let's get
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it going. Three Guys Before the Game is brought to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: us by GoMart. Download the GoMart app and immediately begin
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: saving on the food and the fuel. Really easy to do,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: just wherever you get your apps. Download it, and it's
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a heck of a deal. Three triple points on Saturdays.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Three Guys brought to us by Lewendl Marine Sales, their award-winning.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: They sell family fun. Who's against family fun? I hope
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: no one. Visit them at lewwendlmarinesales.com. Three guys brought to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: us by Tudor's Biscuit World. Start your day the homemade
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: way with a Tudor's Biscuit. How many did Nick say
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: he could have eaten?
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Two.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Nick was a clear two.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Three guys also brought to us by Jan Dill's Attorneys
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: at Law. They won't take no for an answer. Brad's
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: got spreads on stats coming up in just a little bit.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Breaks down this matchup between WVU and UVA. It's brought
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to us by Conley CPA Group, providing value beyond numbers.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: And textual healing brought to us by WVU Medicine, the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: exclusive health care provider for all Mountaineers, including you. So
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: here we go. Saturday night, ball in the air, 7.30
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: from the Panthers Stadium in Charlotte, West Virginia and Virginia
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: for the first time in over 20 years. Cavaliers are
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: ranked number 25 in the nation. West Virginia looking to
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: go 3-0 on the season. UVA is currently 2-0. Just
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a ton of things riding on this game. Hoppy will
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: have obvious observations coming up in just a little bit.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Brad will have the spreads on stats. Wren will be in.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: But first, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome, we can say,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: back to the program. He was in studio with us
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: during the offseason. Please welcome to the show WVU offensive
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: lineman Nick Cray joins us. Nick, it's good to see
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you again, buddy. How are we?
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me again.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, man. I mean, since you've been on, right, we
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: grew a big fan. Your dad, right? Your dad is
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: now a regular, whether Nick's on or not. He watches, listens.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I got a chance to meet his family.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Oh, really?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, during the practice during August. And so he's fired up,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and they're going to be making the trip down to Charlotte.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: All right, bud, let's jump in. So last time you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: were here, we're talking about, hey, what do you think
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: of this? What do you think of this? Well, you
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: guys now have Two games under your belt. And by
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the way, Nick's appearance here presented to us by the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: folks involving the Duke's Mayo Classic. So we do not
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: get the mayo. What is the deal? Do the kids
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: get mayo? Do the young student athletes get at least
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a box or a case or something?
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they should. That's good stuff. Got it in my
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: fridge right now.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And you said in our very advanced pre-production meeting, which
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: lasted six seconds, you said you do like mayo.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: I do like mayo.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So like in anything, like how often are you hitting
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: that thing? Is that just for, what are you doing?
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: Uh, I think it's, I would put it, I put
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: it on burgers, obviously, you know, uh, burgers, subs, stuff
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: like that.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: I do like on cheese sticks, cheese sticks.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: You, you bristled, but in our pre-production meeting, when I
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: said I would dip fries in the mayo, you bristle,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: but you'll put it on cheese sticks.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Cheese sticks.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: That's not that far off.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Cheese Steaks.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: That's a good move. Cheese Steak. Oh, Cheese Steak.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yes. Steaks.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: My apology. I do it on Cheese Sticks, too.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: By the way. He's from Erie, PA.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: That accent got me.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: The sub, when he says sub, that's sub territory. That
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: enters into, you know, Hoppy Mason Dixon line? That's like,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Erie starts the sub wing sub. beef on wick. That's
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: in that area. And they got a Wegmans in Erie.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Heavy mayo on Danny's favorite.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: All right, dude. Let's jump on in here. Give me
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: your evaluation. First two games. What's it felt like? Where
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: do you think you guys are? Specific to the offensive
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: line because there's so many new faces out there. How
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: do you think you guys are coming together?
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's been awesome to get out in front
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: of the fans and just the entire state of West
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: Virginia and kind of put what we've been working on
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: so far through the offseason, put it on show. And
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: I think just, you know, getting that experience, you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: through the first two games has been good for us
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: up front, trying to nail down that communication through practices,
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: through games, all that's been good. So I think we're
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: starting to gel together and getting ready for this weekend.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, let me ask you, where do you think
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: you are, Nick, in regard to that point of communication
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: where you're going to go to the line and you're
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: going to look to Kevin to your left and you're
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: going to look to West to your right and not
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: have to say anything anymore and you guys know what
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you're doing?
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: I think we can definitely get there.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: But, I mean, I think the communication helps because it
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: puts everyone on the same page on every single play.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, I've said it before, but every Thursday, actually,
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: the offensive line will go out to eat. So just
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: having that camaraderie together and getting that communication in, even
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: if it's not in practice or in a game, is
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: a big thing.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: First play of scrimmage against Coastal Carolina. Ball goes left.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: You're on that left side. You're at left guard. What
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: was your involvement in that 72-yard run?
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: So we had an outside five technique, which Kevin had,
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: and then we had a one technique inside. So me
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: and Wes got to double team up to the linebacker.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: And then once we got up towards the linebacker, we
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: saw Cam hit the hole pretty fast, which he's good
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: at doing, which everyone else knows. So seeing him take
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: that long run down there, it was a great feeling.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Pre-snap, did you know where you were going, or how
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: did that develop where you know where you went to?
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: I had an idea of where I was going, but
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: I think just having the reactions when it comes down
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: to the ball actually being snapped is huge. But I
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: had an idea of what I was going to do
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: and when I was going to do it.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: How about your particular switch from tackle to guard? You're
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: just two games into that, but how has that been
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: so far? What's been the biggest challenge from that move?
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: I think just the biggest challenge would be how fast
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: things happen. At tackle, you know, you go against different guys.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: They're a little faster. But inside, you'll go against guys
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: that are stronger. But, like, it also happens faster. I mean,
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: once the ball is snapped, they're on you. So you
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: got to get on them first. And I think that's
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: just the biggest thing. It's just the speed of the
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: difference between both positions.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Can you tell the difference? Let's say you've got, like,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: an eight-play, nine-play drive, something like that. Nick, can you
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: tell the difference? Because you guys go so fast that
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: the defense is starting to get winded. Do you see that?
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Do you feel that in a long drive?
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely feel.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: I mean, when you see that they're starting to rotate
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: guys or it's starting to get late in the game
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: and they start subbing guys more often, you can definitely
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: tell that they're getting tired and that our conditioning is
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: helping us.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about your conditioning because your
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: practices are very, very rapid, very, very intense physically. Where
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: are you at, do you think, from a cardiovascular perspective
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: in comparison to your past seasons here? Do you think
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: just this tenacity and frequency of snapping the ball off
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: has put you in a better position shape-wise?
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely believe that.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: I mean, we go a lot faster than I'm used to,
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: obviously from high school to my first couple years here.
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: But I think that's helped my cardio and just everything,
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: you know, in the weight room to getting ready for
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: all that stuff. And then also on the field, you know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: snapping the ball fast, it's definitely helped my conditioning.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: You said just before we started, the next thing you
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: have to do before you go into your meetings is
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: your weigh-in. So where are you at weight-wise, day-to-day? What
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: are you, like yesterday it was really hot. Would you
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: weigh after? Would you weigh before?
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: So I typically weigh in around 310 every day.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: And so yesterday I actually got IV before practice because
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: it was pretty hot outside.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: So I went out at 302, I think. So I
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: lost eight pounds, which isn't too bad.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: How about that?
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Eight pounds, Hoppy. Could you and I, like, afford to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: lose eight? I mean, everybody's just like, all you got
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to do is go to one football practice with Coach Trickett.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: He'll take eight off.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think we could go as hard as
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Nick goes in those practices. Yeah, exactly.
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: Probably not.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Nick, what are your thoughts as you get ready to
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: head here? That Dukes-Mayo Classic coming up. You get to
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: play in Panther Stadium. You're back in the NFL Stadium there.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Thoughts as you get ready to head to Charlotte for
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: this one?
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: I'm really excited.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: I mean, I was my freshman year playing the Dukes-Mayo
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: Bowl in Charlotte against North Carolina. So just seeing how
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: our fans showed up for that. And I mean, I'm
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: expecting the exact same. Our fans always travel, so I'm
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: excited to go out there and just play football.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Who is saying what on the offensive line in a game?
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Who's talking smack in the game?
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Smack? These guys don't have time to talk. They're making
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: line calls.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: And you're going so fast.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Any time to talk? I'm sure there's not.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: No, we really don't talk, honestly, up front.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: We'll make our calls to each other, talk to each other,
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: but We kind of let the plan do the talking
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: for us.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: They leave that to the receivers. and receivers and cornerbacks
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: are talking okay.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Those corners yeah.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Corners are notorious for that so okay then let me
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: let me change the question so what is the communication
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: i mean what are you what are you saying to
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: each other that's a good question as you're lining up
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: you know what the play call is you know how
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: they're lining up defensively what are you saying to each
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: other just give us an example.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: I'd say an example would be like who we're micing
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: on every single play, you know, what we're doing, like
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: certain calls that we have to make to delay to
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: know where we need to be at.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: So stuff like that.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: So when you say who you're micing, what you mean
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: is you're identifying in that particular scheme that they're showing
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you who the mic linebacker is you're calling. That's the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: mic there. So you guys base everything off of that.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir. What happens when the ball is snapped and
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: they do something that you didn't expect?
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: You just have to react to it on time.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Okay. And go hit somebody and move them out of
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: the way.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Exactly. What kind of challenge did last week's opponent present
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to you as far as the overhang and kind of like,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: was that a different look, different feel for you guys?
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was definitely just a different scheme. I mean,
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: first week we saw four down front. Last week was
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: more of an odd front, but they had that overhang.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: So they're just kind of getting to the different double
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: teams that we had. And they obviously moved a lot
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: east and west. So they obviously moved a lot, but
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: we needed to go north and south. So just kind
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: of trying to figure that stuff out was definitely different.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: So number one on your goal board, on the whiteboard
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: inside your meeting room, the number one goal for the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: offensive line every week would be what? Fill in the blank.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Come off the ball.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Take them to the deep end. Take them to the
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: deep end. Come off the ball.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Come off the ball. There you go.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Give me a take when you've been watching tape this
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: week of Virginia. Scheme-wise, what do you think? What do
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you expect to see?
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: I'm expecting four down. They're going to move a lot
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: up front, just kind of like our defense does. So
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: just getting the movements down and getting double teams down
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: is going to be big.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And, Nick, really talented linebacker crew here for the Cavaliers, huh?
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: Do you like the night game? Sit around all day
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: and wait for the game, or would you rather go play?
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: I would say I like both. I mean, both have
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: their pros and cons.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: It's nice to kind of get your body back a
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: little bit before the game and play under the bright lights,
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: but also sometimes you just want to go out there
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: and kind of just hit someone in the mouth.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Just go ball.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You'll have some Mountaineer fans down there, a big contingent
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: coming down there. It'll be loud down there.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: It'll be really good. You've got two night games in
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: a row, and we wish you the very, very best, Nick.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you giving us a little time before you
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: get your work day started. Wish you guys the very,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: very best coming up on Saturday.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: Thank you. I appreciate it.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: All right, brother.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Nick.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: There he is, Mountaineer offensive lineman Nick Cray.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Friend of the program.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, I think any time
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: you come back more than once, then you're kind of
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: like you're in. All right, you're in. Special thanks to
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the folks of the Duke Mayo Classic for giving us
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to chat there with Nick. All right, let's
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: jump in. We've got no time. This is busy.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: We're running tempo today.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: We're basically, Rich has got jet tempo. He's got indie tempo.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: We're going.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: We've got stuff.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: I'm cutting out a lot of my stuff to move
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: this thing along.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Well, sometimes you have to simplify the game plan once
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: you get into it.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I've got to go base.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to use the whole playbook.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Don't go base, though. You've got some wrinkles in there.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: It's Virginia. You've got some wrinkles.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Go ahead.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: We had one little thing that put us in a
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: happy place before we started. We'll talk more about it.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: But we got pizza delivered to us moments before we
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: started the show. Patrick Oliverio from the fine folks at
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Oliverio's came by. Brad has now got it. Ooh, yeah.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: So that was before it started. Did you see the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: new boxes, Hoppy?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: That's the hot honey right there, by the way.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: This is called the Tuxedo Pizza Box. You ever seen one?
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: No.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Watch this tuxedo.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: So you don't drip. Yeah. You don't drink.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing. You put that on your chest.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Perchable did not know pizza was delivered because of what
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: you and I did when it first hit the table
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: out there. I think we were supposed to bring them
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: on set.
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: And show a picture of them.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: No, it's fine.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: No, it was good.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Mine was gone.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, really? They also started.
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: Is it all gone?
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Pawpaw's, mine. Is it all gone? Did a little, how
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: about this? Hot pepperoni sausage on a cauliflower crust. Interesting.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Very good.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Really good.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: It's my recommendation at Cafe Alvarez.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: They're doing their own sauce now. I think they're trying
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to make amends for the Renfredo. Hey, let's do this.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: He's got thoughts that sound brand new. But they're fake.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Hoppy's obvious observations. What's Hoppy have in his bag of
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: tricks about this week's game? Yeah. What's hitting you?
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: So the sign of a success, to me, the sign
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: of success is you not only beat teams you're supposed
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: to beat, Brad, but you beat teams that people think
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: you're not supposed to beat. I think that measures success.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Last year, West Virginia only won four games, but two
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: of the wins were against teams where they were underdogs,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Houston and Pitt. And they almost beat Arizona State, where
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: they were an underdog. So that, to me, gives you
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: significant hope heading into this game where you're like a
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: nine-and-a-half point dog.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Up a little bit. It's moved a little bit.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Ten-and-a-half.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Ten-and-a-half point. Now, statistically speaking... When you're a 9.5-point underdog,
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: your chances of winning are only 25%. However, it is
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: early season, so you don't know about these odds, whether
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: that's really accurate or not. So anyway, I think, again,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: success rooted in not only winning the games you're supposed
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: to win, but winning some games that people think you're
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: not supposed to win. Sure. Okay, so that's where I
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: put this game. I still have a bitter taste from
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: Ooh.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: You're not letting that go.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Well, it's hard. I mean, when West Virginia got beat
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: soundly by Virginia— And then the whole thing with the
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: band at halftime making fun of West Virginia. But we
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: did accomplish one thing. West Virginia succeeded in getting rid
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: of their scramble band.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: That was the end. They had senior day.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: That was it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Get out.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: That was it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: So props to us for that. They were annoying and juvenile,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: and they're gone.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure you're alone in your hanging on to
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: that moment.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of folks that share that.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: I'm going to skip through analysis of Virginia because you're
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: going to do all that. But I'll just say this, obvious.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Two teams very similar. Similar things.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Want to do similar things.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Want to do similar things. And their offensive line, fifth year,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: sixth year, sixth year, seventh year, seventh year. That's right.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Ungodly.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think on the left side, I think
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: they have total starts of like 70. Something crazy. So
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: you'll talk about that. You'll talk about the running quarterback.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: You'll get into all that. Let's see. West Virginia has
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: a $ 2 million guarantee going down there. And I do think,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: as you all have mentioned, I think that West Virginia fans, well,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: a number of Virginia fans.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, it'll be significant.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Mark that down.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Tony, you probably make pretty good money as the
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: play-by-play announcer for the Mountaineers, but you're not in Joe
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Buck territory.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I heard he had a new deal.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: He has a six-year deal worth roughly $ 108 million. Now,
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: that's not quite, that's a little bit more than you get.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: But that's Joe Buck's deal, $ 108 million.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: You know Joe Buck's college roommate that's from West Virginia?
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Who is it? Somebody we know? Tim Matheny.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Tim Matheny, Parkersburg.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: They went to school at that Indiana school.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: There's talk of expanding the playoffs to 24 teams. The
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: bowl people are all flipping out. What's going to happen
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: to the bowls? Some talk that the bowls could move
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: to the beginning of the season, some of those. But
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: it might very well eat into the whole bowl thing
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: if you have 24 teams in the playoffs. The Athletic
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: took on the challenge of trying to figure out the
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: size of payrolls for some of college football programs. This,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: I thought, was fascinating. And they talked to sources, and
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: they pieced it all together. Ohio State, Oregon, LSU, Miami,
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: and Texas, all with roster budgets this season, approaching or
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: at $ 50 million. Big 12, Texas Tech, $ 38 to $ 42 million. TCU,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: 22 to 25 million. BYU, 20 to 25 million. Baylor,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: 20 to 23. Arkansas State, Kansas State, Utah, West Virginia, Colorado,
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: all in the 18 to 22 million dollar range. Then UCF, Houston,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma State, Kansas in the 15 to 20 million dollar range. Arizona,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Iowa State, Cincinnati, the 13 to 18 million dollar range. So, look,
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: you're not going to be in the 15 million dollar range.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: You're probably not going to be in the 30 million
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: dollar range. But you want to be in.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Most aren't, by the way. Right, right. I mean, that's
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: what jumped to me. And again, let's I'll assume for
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the sake of discussion that those are around it. That
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: is a really hard number to get. The Athletic even
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: admitted some schools nobody would go on record. So let's
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: just take it for face value, although I don't think
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: it's exact. If you look at most of those schools,
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: the majority of the teams are within a few million
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: dollars just on that report. So most teams are in
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: the same ballpark.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: So you're close. Tony, you're not going to be in
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: the 50s. You're not going to be Ohio State or LSU,
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: but you can be competitive.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're in the middle. You're in the middle right
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: now in the Big 12. Three years ago, you were
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: in the bottom. So you've moved up. You've moved up
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: to the middle. But, and Brent will be here in
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: just a little bit, he would be the first to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: tell you, even for those that are in the $ 50
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: million category, it's not sustainable. Yes, Ohio State has spent
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: over $ 50 million. Their debt is tremendous. They're losing money
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: in their department.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: And they might– also, it might not be money well spent.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: Oregon spent $ 50 million.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Had a bad Saturday. Now, they had a bad day
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: there on Saturday.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: So, you know, it's just– it's not only how much
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: money you have, but how you spend that money.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Ask Florida State that.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: And that's why you want to be in the area
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: that you are. You're always trying to grow that, as
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Wren is, and the board, you're trying to grow that,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: but you're in the ballpark there, and now the other
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: things come into play. You don't want to be so
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: far away that you can't get to the other advantages
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: you offer. That's what you're trying to do. Make the money.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: equal to pretty much what everybody else has, and then
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: you can get to the other stuff.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: One other observation about the game, and, you know, Brad
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: and Tony, how many times over the years when the
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: team wasn't very good and you're getting ready for a
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: game and you ask yourself, who's going to make a play?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: And you look around and you go, I don't know.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know who's going to make a play. But
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: you look at, based on what we've seen so far,
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: small sample size, and you look at this game and go,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I got some guys that can make some plays. You know,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: you got Hawkins. You got Cam Cook. You got Epps.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: You got on defense.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Bray.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Bray. You got, you know, if they're ever getting the ball,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: you got Bray. Defensively, you're creating turnovers. So you feel
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: more optimistic because you have playmakers that when teams weren't good,
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: you looked around and said, I don't see guys that
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: are going to make plays.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: Fair?
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Agree.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: Fair.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Final.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: One other point about the game. 165 years ago, May 1861...
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Representatives of the northwest counties of Virginia met in Wheeling, Tony.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: The delegates created the Restored Government of Virginia, which then
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: became West Virginia in 1863, which was on the Union
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: side against the rebellious Commonwealth of Virginia. We were on
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: the right side of history. That's all I've got to say.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And let us be on the right side of the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: gridiron game on Saturday night. Let freedom ring.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Three guys before the game. Spreads on stats with Brad
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: coming up. Director of Athletics, Wren Baker, will join us
• 21:39
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• 23:17
  Speaker 2: All right. This is a fun one coming up, isn't it?
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: It's good. It's not your final exam. You've got a
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: lot of season left after this. But it's a nice
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: little midterm test here to kind of measure where you
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: are at this point in the season.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: First test of the semester.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's early. Again, you can go on from here.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: But I think this will be interesting to watch. Where
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: does this West Virginia team stack up against what's a
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: really good team and has turned itself into, guys, a
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: really good program? Tony Elliott won just 11 games in
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: the first three years, turned around and busted out 11
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: last year, and then have their sights set on an
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: ACC championship and a college football playoff. It's a pretty
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: quick and remarkable turnaround for what Elliott started with down there.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: So they're in good position. So this is a heck
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: of a test here. Provide some things to you that
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: will be good to know down the road. How does
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: this offense go? It looks really good. To your point,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I think there's some playmakers here, and I think we're
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: going to see a lot of plays made. How does
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: it go against the best defense it's faced by far
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: and what may be one of the better defenses in
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: that league by the time all is said and done?
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: How's the defense stack up here? It's going to get
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: run right at. They're going to line up and say,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: here we come. We're throwing a 95-mile-an-hour fastball. Here comes
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: the pitch. Can you guys handle it? And you're going
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: to line up and have to stop that run. How
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: does this defense stack up against that?
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Great opportunity, obviously. But when you think about it in
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the big picture of things, these next two games give
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: you an opportunity to change your entire complexion as a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: program once again. That's the reality of it. You know,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: one game doesn't make a season. But if you're able
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to get Saturday nationally, you get some ears perking up.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And then you've got Oklahoma State coming in. And if
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you're able to hold home court serve, you know what
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: two weeks could do for your program, right? So in
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: two weeks, then everyone's on the nationally people going, whoa,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: see what Rich Rodriguez is doing in his second season? Yes.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: They got the thing cranked back up again.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Uh-oh.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, may have underestimated. That's what you have opportunity. Now,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: if you don't accomplish those two, it doesn't mean that
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: you're not making progress. It just is going to give
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: you a really real-time update as to where you are.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: So it's a great opportunity.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: And it's dependent, Tony, primarily on wins and losses, but
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: also just how you play. Okay, if you get whacked
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: like Continental Tire Bowl, then that's a bad narrative. And
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: you don't want to lose. But if you lose 35-32, like, okay,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: wait a minute. We saw some things here. If you
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: play well but lose, it's more acceptable than getting whacked.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: So how the game goes is important, too.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: There's no question. There's no question. And you mentioned, and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: we alluded to it when we had Nick on there
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a couple minutes ago, you know, what a great week,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: say it a million times. What do great players do?
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: In big opportunities.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: Make plays.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Show up. Why is Pat White's number on the side
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: of the stadium wall? Because when the light shined the brightest,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: he went like, I got this. I got it. I
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: can take care of this for you. That's what the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: great ones do. They don't turn away from the light.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: They walk into the light and say, I'm here.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: And so I think that's part of what you're looking
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: for are West Virginia's playmakers at the stage where they're
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: ready now. Are they ready to take that ball and say,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I'm here, watch this. If this is a win, we'll
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: come back when we wrap this up, and that's what
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: we'll be saying. There'll be a couple guys, especially on
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: that offensive side, that we say, uh-huh, they arrived here.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: If you get the win, somebody's going to have to
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: step up and do that. Take the ball and make
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: a couple big plays.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: And how many fans have we talked to coming up
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: beginning of the season after the first couple games, that
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: have talked about the Virginia game. The Virginia game. I
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: haven't talked about Coastal. I haven't talked about UT more.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: I've talked about the Virginia game. So if you win,
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: I think the enthusiasm level is going to increase geometrically.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: It's going to shoot up like, oh, okay. Got over this.
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: Wow.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, here we go.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the opportunity is right. And we've talked about all summer.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I thought these first five games of the season really
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: could put you in position for where you want to
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: be at the end of the season. But you got
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: to go. None of them are gimmies, right? There's no
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: gimmies coming next. And in fact, they're all three difficult
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: games that we outlined. Oklahoma State got its ship righted
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: after a disastrous first week. Iowa State showed me a
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: lot going against Iowa last time. And that'll be your
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: first time in a true road environment. We know that's
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: a great road environment. But you do have a tremendous
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: opportunity over the next few weeks, not just coming up Saturday.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no question about that. And let's face it,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: on the other side of it, Virginia has all kinds
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: of reasons to to walk onto that field feeling very
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: good about themselves. As you said, they won three, three,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and five in Tony Elliott's first three seasons, which equals 11.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: And then last year, they go get 11. And then
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: even though they have a ton of old guys, they
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: went and got 31 transfers this year. Talking to some
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: people that are outside of the program but watch them,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: they say what they've really been exceptional at is they
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: did multi-year deals to keep guys or to re-sign guys
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: after their 11-win season. So they did a really nice
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: job at that. And then they do a really, really
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: good job of evaluation and they pick the right guys.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Whereas I mentioned Florida State earlier, the word I'm getting
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: now is Florida State has just been swinging and missing
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: at player evaluation. And as a result, you get that.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Wren Baker is on deck. We'll have some news with
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the AD coming up. Three Guys Before the Game is
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  Speaker 1: Please welcome to the program the Director of Athletics, Vice
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: President of West Virginia University, Mr. Wren Baker. Not the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: first time he's been on the show. He's the fourth guy.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: I've been here.
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: This may be a fifth time.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, at least. Yeah, but people say you have four guys.
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: Before you go.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, we had graphics for that.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: There was one. Yeah, someone built one.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: It's a surprise visit. I don't know if the graphic
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: package is ready to go.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, there it is. You'll get a chance to.
• 30:35
  Speaker 6: Look at that. Yeah, my agent was getting ready to
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: make a call because this was ironed out before I
• 30:42
  Speaker 6: got here.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Speaking of agents, speaking of agents. You just signed some
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: mountaineer coaches to some extended contracts. Yeah.
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: So listen, the way these things kind of work at
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: the conclusion of the season, you sit down and kind
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: of have an overall assessment of the program generally pretty
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: quickly agree on terms. And then, you know, they, we
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: have a general counsel that reviews those deals. They have
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: attorneys that reviews those deals. So you work out the
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: fine details, but we had board meeting last week and,
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: We're able to brief them preceding it on the details.
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: So Steve Saban's extended, Mark Kellogg's extended, Jen Greeny's extended.
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: So three coaches that are doing really great things. Jen
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: Greeny is building a volleyball program that we know needs
• 31:36
  Speaker 6: a strong foundation, has not ever really had the success
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: we'd like for it to have. And she's doing a
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: great job. And then you know, Mark Kellogg and Steve
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: Saban are two coaches that all they've done is win.
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: And so, uh, really, really excited. Um, you know, it's
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: been a great, great year across our, uh, Olympic sports, um,
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: in terms of success. And so to be able to
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: lock up the future with those coaches is really awesome.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Did you, did you ensure that if something happened, we
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: would not be held hostage by a buyout?
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: Um, you know, we, we, we negotiate fair terms and
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: there's commitment on both sides.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah.
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: And so, um, There's a buyout if the coach terminates
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: for convenience. There's a buyout if the institution terminates for convenience.
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: Generally in those, we try to keep those on a ratio.
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: So kind of two to one, whatever we would owe
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: if we terminated that day, they would owe us half that. But,
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: you know, depending on the coach and the time and
• 32:35
  Speaker 6: the situation, you're also in a competitive market, you know,
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: and so. But I think the board was comfortable with
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: the risk reward, the compensation levels and all that in
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: those coaches.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I saw Coach Kellogg earlier today. So he's out for
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: six more years. So that's good. Yeah. That's a nice.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: That's a nice. Would you say saves is how many?
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: I can't remember if he went back to five or six.
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: And we added two on to Coach Greeny's as well.
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: So Yeah, it really solidifies the long-term. And listen, there
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: are no deals that don't carry risk, but when you
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: look at those three, I really feel like the returns
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: on what they've done so far are really positive and
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: we're really excited about it.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: The reality of it is each of those coaches has
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: a lot more longevity than we do.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: We're just day-to-day, basically. I mean, Dr.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: Tony over there.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: We are.
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: Unconfirmed. Hoppy may have another long tenure.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: You think?
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: I think you got a lot left in you. I
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: think you haven't even turned up. You haven't even heard
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the bell where they ring and then go around. No,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: you're still good.
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: Depends on how many times he does that bike trip
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: in Iowa.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: He's done with that. That's the last.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: One and done.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: That was one and done.
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: I did go.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: My doctor told me I have a 10% chance of
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: having heart failure in the next 10 years. But he
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: said that's good.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Probably better than 80.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: So you're saying there's a chance.
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's like, wait a minute. Did the doctor
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: know that you do, in fact, follow Mountaineer sports? Did
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: he factor that in?
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: That's a good point. On those days, Ren, it goes
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: up a little bit, as you well know. I mean,
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: you're the worst. You can't handle it. You're just, you're
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: beside yourself.
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: I walk a lot of steps on game day.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: You, besides the extensions last week at the BOG, you
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: made your formal, okay, here's where we are. with this
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: press box project. So you've got all green lights, right?
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: You're going ahead.
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah. You know, as we said, in a perfect world,
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: when this season is over, we will start the demolition
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: of the press box and then have it ready to
• 34:42
  Speaker 6: go for the 28th season. We've got accommodations for the 27th.
• 34:45
  Speaker 6: So we made a presentation in committee meetings earlier in
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: the week, and then ultimately the presentation, the public presentation
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: that was open, and that was to the full board. Um,
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: and so, uh, you know, the project at this point, um,
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: there's 112 million that is already signed, uh, sealed and
• 35:08
  Speaker 6: in the process of being delivered. Some of that's an installment.
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: It's $ 156 million estimated project, although we think we have
• 35:15
  Speaker 6: a chance to come in under that. Um, and then, um,
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: we feel really, really confident another and another 15 to
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: 20 million coming, coming in. And, and I feel, I
• 35:26
  Speaker 6: still feel like Um, we have an opportunity, uh, and
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: we'll get the full 150 million committed coming in over
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: a five-year period. We may have to take out and
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: come back to the board for kind of a short-term loan,
• 35:41
  Speaker 6: but no long-term debt service roll all of that, um, to, um,
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: our bottom line. And you may remember that we'll add
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: an additional, uh, $ 5 million at minimum, maybe more, um,
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: to our annual budget. And that accounts for the loss
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: of the money that we were getting in the old
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: press box. So that's not the gross, that's the net.
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: So that's significant, especially when you look at things like,
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: does the Senate bill actually become a law? And you
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: have a $ 48. 8 million cap. We were in the mid-30s
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: this year in total roster spend. Um, and so, uh,
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: we got to find a way, uh, as quickly as
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: possible to get to that cap, if that actually becomes
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: a new cap. And this project's a big part of that.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about that for a minute. It's, it's amazing
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: where sports has, has taken us that as fans, we
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: now need to root for bank accounts too. Not just
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: the team need to root for somebody else's bank account.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Normally Hoppy, you root for your own bank account. Got
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: to root for somebody else's that, that shouldn't be minimized, right?
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: That amount of money that's coming in on the front end.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: And that's a massive number, obviously. But that shouldn't be
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: minimized how important that is to get all of that
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: in up front for the reasons you outlined. That competitive advantage-wise,
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: that's a massive boon, isn't it? It is.
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: There's no question about it. Because when you start to
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: look at what are our opportunities to hit home runs
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: in terms of revenue, I'm not the smartest guy in
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: the room. But I identified those.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: No, I think in this room you are. Go ahead.
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: That might be fair. I'm not the smartest guy.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: In most rooms.
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: But I- I think we did a pretty good job
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: early of identifying the low-hanging fruit, and also certainly this
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: project's not low-hanging fruit, but the huge chunk plays you
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: could get, so to speak. And so, you know, what's
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: left is a lot of singles and doubles, and those
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: things add up, and we chase those things every day.
• 37:34
  Speaker 6: But this project was really big when you look at, hey,
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: over the next couple of years, we'd like to grow
• 37:38
  Speaker 6: our roster spin. If there is a $ 48. 8 million cap
• 37:41
  Speaker 6: to the cap, That's another 10, 12 million bucks. And so,
• 37:47
  Speaker 6: you know, to knock off almost half of that in
• 37:50
  Speaker 6: one chunk would be massive for us. It's a good
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: way to say it.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Chunk plays and explosive plays win games. That's a big
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: win right there.
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: That's exactly right. Not to get into spreads on stats.
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: I don't know where we're at in the show yet.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: It's coming up still. He's got a lot of numbers. Yeah,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: he's been working. He's been working hard. You were in
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh yesterday, correct? That was yesterday. Yes, sir. and the
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: backyard brawl basketball. This is an interesting little thing here.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: So you're getting a pit home game off the pit
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: campus and you're making money. That's a good deal.
• 38:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah. So, um, uh, Morgan O'Brien and the folks at
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: Hope Gas approached us over the summer. Would we have
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: interest in, in doing an event like this? And, and, um, they, um,
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: brought up that the ideal matchup would be to move
• 38:42
  Speaker 6: the backyard brawl. They, they really wanted to involve, um,
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: Duquesne and Robert Morris as well. You may or may
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: not know, uh, Morgan O'Brien is actually the chair of
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: the Robert Morris board.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: So, so, um, he oversees governance there at Robert Morris.
• 38:56
  Speaker 6: And so, um, so, you know, he had a um
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: there's a gentleman named pat gallagher's a big pit um
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: uh donor uh as well friends with dave alvarez oh
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: really yeah i want to name yesterday i said that's
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: not a character witness you call the trial um but
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: uh but uh yeah those two guys are friends and
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: so um they each uh jumped in with sponsorship um
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: w medicine is is sponsoring i believe as well and
• 39:26
  Speaker 6: a couple others And it's going to be a really,
• 39:30
  Speaker 6: really cool event. Four area teams. I did not realize
• 39:34
  Speaker 6: until yesterday Duquesne and Robert Morris hasn't played in over
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: like a decade. Really?
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you didn't know.
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: First time I heard of that. Yeah, something happened. I
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: don't know.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, don't you like sports?
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there was a fight somewhere.
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: Um, and so, uh, but, but they play, they play
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: each other. Uh, we play pit. Um, both teams will
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: get a significant, uh, opportunity.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: What does that mean? What's significant mean?
• 39:57
  Speaker 6: Um, well, well, well into the six figures, uh, of
• 40:01
  Speaker 6: NIL opportunities for student athletes. So that's in this environment,
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: that's super important. That's probably what motivated pit to move
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: home game. Now, uh, pit got some additional accommodations. I believe, uh,
• 40:10
  Speaker 6: the game is in their season ticket package maybe. because
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: they're moving a home game. So anybody at home is wondering,
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: I have told them we would love to participate in
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: an event in the future. Because I value living, we
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: will not move the Morgantown home game to Pittsburgh. I
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: legitimately think I would have a fear for my safety.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it wouldn't go well.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: Where's the game going to be?
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: At PPG Arena. Yeah, it'll be at PPG. So that's
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: going to be really awesome, and I think there'll be
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: a lot of Mountaineers there.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Am I correct, 6 o'clock? West Virginia goes first, correct?
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: That's what I hear. I think West Virginia plays the
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: first game, then Robert Morris and Duquesne afterward.
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: Is he correct, Brad? He is correct.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's confirmed confirmed yet, but that's
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: never stopped Tony.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm just saying this. If that first game goes
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: at 6, there's more reason for Mountaineer fans to make
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the trip because it'll be earlier. It's not like you've
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: got to get there for that 9 o'clock tip. Hell,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: that game's going to be over with Hoppy. About 8, 10,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: you drive back home. Easy, right?
• 41:07
  Speaker 6: What's the date on it?
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: The middle of December 9th? 10th?
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: 9th or 10th?
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: 9th or 10th of December. Midweek.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's nice.
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: If you guys are going to ask me very detailed
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: date and time questions, I need to know that ahead. Well,
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: you are the director of athletics.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, you did the deal.
• 41:21
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he is.
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: He's got people.
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: He's got people.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: No, he does bigger things.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: By the way, do you know the original cost of
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: the stadium while you're talking about spending $ 150 million on
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: the upgrade? Do you know the original cost?
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: It was in the 20s, wasn't it?
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: $ 22 million.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:34
  Speaker 6: I didn't know that. even though I just said don't
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: ask me detailed questions, and he asked me.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: Well, I was going to give you the answer.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Do you think the Senate will say yes and give
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: this formal Protect College Boards yes, and then what happens
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: in the House? We want to know.
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: So as I was walking in here, Ross Dellinger, one
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: of the other reporters that often scoops Hoppy– Ross Dellinger
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: reported that they took another vote just now, and they
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: actually picked up to 77 yes votes. So I think
• 42:10
  Speaker 6: it's going to pass the Senate. Then the question becomes,
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: does it get through the House and win?
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: And you've got the midterms, and they use the midterms
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: to push everything off.
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but I think Trump really wants this to happen,
• 42:22
  Speaker 6: so he may really lean on the House leadership to
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: try and bring him back. Some people are reporting they
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: think that will happen. Ted Cruz said that. Some people
• 42:31
  Speaker 6: are saying they don't think it will. Um, you know,
• 42:33
  Speaker 6: to Hoppy, you know, politics better than, than I do.
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: I don't, I don't predict that, but I will say
• 42:37
  Speaker 6: it would be very, very helpful if this is going
• 42:39
  Speaker 6: to get passed to, to have it passed before the
• 42:42
  Speaker 6: portal period. Um, and so, uh, yeah, my hope is, uh, that,
• 42:47
  Speaker 6: that it gets across the finish line. We, I've said
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: it on this show a lot. It, it, people can
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: agree or not agree. Most of the people that don't
• 42:55
  Speaker 6: agree or not people who live in the space every
• 42:57
  Speaker 6: day to understand, um, other than, um, Legitimately, Texas may
• 43:02
  Speaker 6: be the only one that's affording this spend without feeling pain.
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: LSU is talking about bringing in private equity. I talked
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: to ADs at places like Ohio State and Michigan. Everybody
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: is really struggling. They're pulling from future revenues. They're moving
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: money around. They're taking out lines of credit. um, to,
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: to try to try to win the day. And, and
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: if we don't get a system in place, eventually there's
• 43:27
  Speaker 6: no way that doesn't have catastrophic, uh, impact.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: So this isn't perfect, but it's one you feel like
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: most can live with. First part of the question. Second part,
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: is there the ability to then change and make modifications
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: to this once it passes?
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: Do you feel?
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you, So I think if we wait for a
• 43:45
  Speaker 6: perfect solution, we'll get nothing. And so, um, this, this, uh,
• 43:50
  Speaker 6: puts us on a path for, I believe a much,
• 43:53
  Speaker 6: much better future and plan. Um, can it be modified?
• 43:58
  Speaker 6: I would hope so. Um, but you know, we will,
• 44:00
  Speaker 6: we'll have to see where that is, but I believe
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: this offers enough protections for student athletes. for Olympic and
• 44:07
  Speaker 6: women's sports, for programs. It gives us a system that
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: institutions can implement. And like I said, I don't know
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: that year one we would be at a $ 49 million cap,
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: but at least we would be able. I do think
• 44:21
  Speaker 6: if we could go out to donors and say, hey,
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: here's how far we are away from this cap, it's
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: a better call to action than we don't know how
• 44:28
  Speaker 6: much we need, we just need more.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: It might be coming back.
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: And, Wren, it would provide antitrust protection with some limitations.
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: to the NCAA so that every student who feels like
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: he or she has been wronged can't sue and blow
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: up the whole thing.
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: That's right.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: Now, if somebody has been wronged, there would be avenues
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: to correct that. But whatever the governing body is, it
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: needs to have some protection so every judge in the
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: country is not changing the rules all the time, right?
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:00
  Speaker 6: So there's two really important pieces here, the antitrust protection
• 45:03
  Speaker 6: and the state preemption. Um, and, um, right now people
• 45:08
  Speaker 6: can pass state laws. They can go to friendly jurisdictions,
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: get whatever ruling they want. And most of those rulings
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: that have went against the NCAA conferences, institutions have been
• 45:18
  Speaker 6: because of antitrust violations. And so the, the limited antitrust
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: protection allows you to set rules and make sure that
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: you have competitive equity in terms of those rules and
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: not be, uh, not have them circumvented by state laws,
• 45:34
  Speaker 6: state courts, as well as given the antitrust protection. Doesn't
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: mean you can't be sued. It just means that you
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: couldn't be sued in certain limited areas on the grounds
• 45:44
  Speaker 6: of antitrust.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: As a regular, and as a regular, I don't know
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: if you listen or not when you're not here, but
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: these guys attack me sometimes for jumping out ahead a
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: little bit on certain things.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: Rightfully so. Yeah.
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: Accurate.
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: So food courts coming to basketball this year. What?
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: Is it?
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: What now?
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: Is it?
• 46:04
  Speaker 6: That's what I heard. The three guys food court.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: That's a very Tony thing to say.
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: It was.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: If you can get the weather to cooperate, we'd be
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: happy to do that.
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: It's about 12 degrees.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Can I ask you a personal question?
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Did you clear this through his people?
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: No.
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: We have space in the Coliseum. You could have space
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: in the Coliseum. Yeah.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Have you been hospitalized since the last time you came
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: on this show? Is that too far?
• 46:28
  Speaker 6: He has been wanting me to tell this story. Are
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: you going to tell the story? Yeah, we'll tell the story.
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: But he told me I could Zoom. I said, this
• 46:38
  Speaker 6: is not a story that you can tell on Zoom.
• 46:41
  Speaker 6: So the last time I was here, at the end,
• 46:45
  Speaker 6: we talked about me killing a rattlesnake in my yard.
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: Might have had a little brush with the law over that,
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: I guess. Allegedly, some people say. But, you know, I
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: talked about I'd not seen a poisonous snake since I
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: moved here. Growing up in Oklahoma, there was a bunch
• 47:02
  Speaker 6: of them. I know them. I even bragged about my
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: ability to identify them.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Snakes and clouds, you know, snakes and clouds.
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: So I had killed a timber rattler. And for those.
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: Those back home. I said this at the time. I
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: know there's always a few people like, you know, why
• 47:21
  Speaker 6: didn't you relocate him? He was in my yard. I
• 47:23
  Speaker 6: have kids and dogs. He's relocated. And so after that,
• 47:32
  Speaker 6: I went on vacation, Florida, come back and I killed
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: a copperhead in my yard.
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: So not seen one. No, you know, I'm like, man,
• 47:40
  Speaker 6: I don't know if it's all the rain we've had
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: flushing them up. You know, I live on top of
• 47:44
  Speaker 6: the hill. I'm not sure.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: So probably about three weeks before our first football game,
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: I was in our basement. So we have an unfinished
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: basement because we have plenty of space above grade. So
• 47:56
  Speaker 6: we have not finished it. But my wife gets a
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: little agitated with some of my kids' old toys, particularly.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Their old Legos. Got to put it downstairs.
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: So she's put them in a basement. And the girls
• 48:08
  Speaker 6: go down there and play Lego sometimes. And it's kind
• 48:12
  Speaker 6: of a neat hide-and-seek spot. They'll go down there and
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: play hide-and-seek. They got a trampoline. There's a set of
• 48:19
  Speaker 6: French side doors walk out, and they got a trampoline
• 48:22
  Speaker 6: out there. Now, I live on top of the mountain.
• 48:25
  Speaker 6: Some of the most beautiful views you'll ever see. You
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: get quite high winds up there. So if you don't
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: shut these doors real good and lock them, the wind
• 48:34
  Speaker 6: will blow them open. So twice earlier in the summer,
• 48:38
  Speaker 6: I went down there, and the doors opened. I'm like, hey, guys,
• 48:41
  Speaker 6: we live, we back up to $ 60, 000. acres of forest
• 48:45
  Speaker 6: land as, as is documented on this show confirmed here
• 48:48
  Speaker 6: last time, Cooper's rock state forest, snake Hill wildlife, which
• 48:53
  Speaker 6: Hoppy very was very quick to say that's appropriate given
• 48:57
  Speaker 6: snake Hill.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: That's where they live. Yeah.
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: So, uh, so anyway, I said, Hey, we back up to,
• 49:06
  Speaker 6: to all this forest land. You're going to let a bear,
• 49:10
  Speaker 6: you know, like, um, raccoons, squirrels, like, you know, chipmunks,
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: all manner of animals, all manner of animals in the house. Guys, let's, let's.
• 49:20
  Speaker 6: shut the door. So, fine. Like, it's well lit down there.
• 49:25
  Speaker 6: We're down there all the time. The HVAC units are
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: down there. Our boiler system's down there. You know, Heather's
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: Christmas decorations are down there.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: She loves Christmas.
• 49:35
  Speaker 6: All over the place. It's like Macy's is storing their
• 49:38
  Speaker 6: Christmas decorations down there.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, you enjoy the Christmas decorations too.
• 49:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I do. But I don't enjoy her method of
• 49:46
  Speaker 6: storing them.
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: Rabbit hole.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Bring it back in the holiday to discuss that.
• 49:52
  Speaker 6: So I go down and I change a filter in
• 49:56
  Speaker 6: one of my HVAC units. So I walk through and
• 49:59
  Speaker 6: I'm coming back and all of a sudden I feel
• 50:02
  Speaker 6: the most extreme pain in my foot.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Here's a problem.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: Were you barefoot?
• 50:08
  Speaker 6: Flip-flops. Flip-flops, okay. Yeah, so when I get home at night,
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: I don't walk around barefoot, but I do switch over
• 50:15
  Speaker 6: to the Hawaiian-style flip-flops. Have the little fish hook on them.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, comfortable.
• 50:21
  Speaker 6: They're very comfortable.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Great, great.
• 50:23
  Speaker 6: They should be a sponsor. I'm sorry to advertise.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, we'll get them.
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: So anyway, in Tanspain, I knew instantly. Like, even though
• 50:32
  Speaker 6: I'm not an experienced victim of snake bites.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: But you are a snake expert.
• 50:35
  Speaker 6: But I'm a snake expert. So I knew instantly I
• 50:38
  Speaker 6: looked and I saw a copperhead and he coiled back
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: up and was ready to get me again.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: So.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: This is in your basement.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 50:47
  Speaker 6: So I'm not going to claim that I never curse,
• 50:50
  Speaker 6: but I'm pretty intentional not trying to curse a lot
• 50:53
  Speaker 6: around my daughters.
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: Good for you.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Solid move.
• 50:58
  Speaker 6: And I particularly don't take the Lord's name in vain
• 51:00
  Speaker 6: around them. And so I'm not going to go into
• 51:02
  Speaker 6: what words I said, but I let out a string
• 51:05
  Speaker 6: of words that had about every cuss word you could
• 51:10
  Speaker 6: imagine in it and probably some that I made up
• 51:11
  Speaker 6: that were new. And Reagan, my youngest daughter, heard, and
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: she's like, Dad, are you okay? And I said, Hey,
• 51:18
  Speaker 6: can you have Mom come down here?
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: Calmly?
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: I was very calm. Meanwhile, the thing's still coiled. Yes,
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: it was coiled up down there. And I'm making sure
• 51:26
  Speaker 6: I don't lose sight of it. You know, it's in
• 51:28
  Speaker 6: the house. And so Heather, uh, comes to the stairs
• 51:32
  Speaker 6: and she was actually outside in the garage, but had
• 51:34
  Speaker 6: heard the screaming. She thought it was on TV at first.
• 51:37
  Speaker 6: And she's like, Oh, what are the girls watching the
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: show talking like that for?
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: And so she come in and she goes, Ren. And
• 51:45
  Speaker 6: later she told me she was, she was afraid that
• 51:47
  Speaker 6: some Christmas decorations had fell on me and I was
• 51:49
  Speaker 6: getting ready to get upset at her. So I said,
• 51:54
  Speaker 6: Hey Heather, I've been bit by a copperhead. And she said, uh,
• 51:59
  Speaker 6: she said, what? I said, you heard me. I got
• 52:01
  Speaker 6: bit by a copperhead. And she goes, Oh my God,
• 52:04
  Speaker 6: I'll call 911. I said, no, don't do that. We
• 52:07
  Speaker 6: can get there quicker than they can. And so all
• 52:10
  Speaker 6: you ever hear is get to the hospital as quick
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: as possible. So Heather's like, well, we need to go.
• 52:14
  Speaker 6: And I said, you're right. But first you got to
• 52:16
  Speaker 6: bring me a shovel. Cause I'm not leaving here until
• 52:19
  Speaker 6: this snake pays a price. So another snake relocated this
• 52:23
  Speaker 6: one in four pieces, but, um, um, and so, uh,
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: So anyway, she brought me a shovel. I could tell
• 52:30
  Speaker 6: she was a little miffed, but I took care of
• 52:33
  Speaker 6: the snake.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Hold on. So it never struck again in the interim
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: here while you're waiting on the weapon?
• 52:38
  Speaker 6: Oh, when that shovel hit it, it tried.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: But before that, while you're waiting on the weapon?
• 52:42
  Speaker 6: Well, I didn't get close enough. It's a stare down. Yeah,
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: it's a stare down.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: How close were you?
• 52:46
  Speaker 6: Seven, eight feet. So back to my snake knowledge, this
• 52:50
  Speaker 6: snake was about a little under two foot long, 21,
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: 22 inches. A snake can generally strike... About half of
• 52:59
  Speaker 6: the length of his body, generally.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: See?
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: So you knew you were at a safe distance. Because
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: you're an expert. You did that calculation quickly and knew
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: you were safe.
• 53:08
  Speaker 6: That's exactly right. But when I went to kill the snake, actually,
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: so a few species of snakes do not lay eggs.
• 53:18
  Speaker 6: They have live babies. This snake was pregnant and had
• 53:23
  Speaker 6: five babies inside of him. Also relocated.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Somebody's got to pay a price.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Were you calm during this time, or were you, like, shaking?
• 53:33
  Speaker 6: So inside, no. Like, I was like, yes, and it
• 53:36
  Speaker 6: hurt instantly, and it was continuing to elevate. And someone
• 53:40
  Speaker 6: asked me what it felt like. It, sharp pain, burning,
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: and every time your heart would beat, which is very
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: rapidly during that time, it would hurt worse. It's like,
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: you know, like, and so, but I was, Reagan was
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: already crying. She thought I was going to die. Um,
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: but was probably also trying to figure out which of
• 54:01
  Speaker 6: my assets that she wanted. Um, and, uh, and so, uh, but, uh,
• 54:07
  Speaker 6: and so I was trying to be calm. And so
• 54:10
  Speaker 6: Heather brings me the shovel. You could tell she's mildly
• 54:12
  Speaker 6: annoyed because she's like, we need to get to the hospital,
• 54:16
  Speaker 6: which is prudent advice.
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 54:18
  Speaker 6: And so she gave me a look and I was
• 54:19
  Speaker 6: just like, I'm not leaving till I kill it. And
• 54:21
  Speaker 6: then she's told me many times since I'm so glad
• 54:24
  Speaker 6: that you've made that decision.
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: Uh, but, um, Good decision under pressure.
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 54:29
  Speaker 6: And so on one leg, hobbling with flip-flops, I took
• 54:34
  Speaker 6: out the snake and its bloodline. So it won a battle,
• 54:37
  Speaker 6: but I went true Italian.
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: Lost the war.
• 54:40
  Speaker 6: West Virginia Italian mafia.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Just took care of him.
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: You don't like the Christmas decorations now. Can you imagine
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: if this copperhead hadn't been discovered until you went down
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: to get out said Christmas decorations?
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: Got you on the arm or something.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: There would have been five of them by then.
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: So obviously you got some great care, too. You still
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: quickly got to the hospital.
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: Did you drive yourself or did Heather drive?
• 55:01
  Speaker 6: So Heather, we take off driving. Again, inside, like I'm
• 55:07
  Speaker 6: off the charts, heart racing. It hurts. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. But, like,
• 55:14
  Speaker 6: I'm trying to be calm. So I'm projecting calmness. It's
• 55:17
  Speaker 6: no different than when we go through something. I have
• 55:19
  Speaker 6: people tell me.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Coaching change.
• 55:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, coaching change. And they're like, man, you're calm. You're
• 55:22
  Speaker 6: press calm. I was not calm. But I faked calm
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: really well. And so I felt like I was faking
• 55:28
  Speaker 6: calm really well. And Heather, she's going to take exception
• 55:33
  Speaker 6: to this. And that's fine because you guys have not
• 55:35
  Speaker 6: had her as a guest. So she doesn't get a
• 55:36
  Speaker 6: rebuttal here.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: No microphone.
• 55:39
  Speaker 6: So she was all over the road, like, you know, panicked,
• 55:44
  Speaker 6: driving crazy, trying to get us there. And so I
• 55:47
  Speaker 6: was like, hey, very calm. I was like, this is fine, Heather. Like,
• 55:51
  Speaker 6: I'm going to be okay. Five minutes is not going
• 55:52
  Speaker 6: to make the difference. Slow down. We don't want to wreck.
• 55:54
  Speaker 6: You know, let's get us there. And she was like, well,
• 55:58
  Speaker 6: doesn't it hurt? And I just flipped the script. I
• 56:02
  Speaker 6: was like, it hurts like a... Insert your words there.
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: And I was like, but it does us no good
• 56:07
  Speaker 6: to be on the side of the road in a
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: car wreck here. So I called our friend, Darren Rogers.
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: Of course.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: You gotta call Darren. WVU Medicine.
• 56:15
  Speaker 6: WVU Medicine. Friend of the program.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: Incoming.
• 56:19
  Speaker 6: I said, hey, here's the situation. And let's get to
• 56:24
  Speaker 6: the hospital.
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: So.
• 56:26
  Speaker 6: I get there and there's basically like a trauma team
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: waiting on me. Like this is, you know, there's people
• 56:32
  Speaker 6: in the lobby has probably been there for a while.
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: I'm like, you know, Hey, I'm sorry. You know, like,
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: and so we, but they, they get me back there quickly. Um, and, uh,
• 56:41
  Speaker 6: and there's doctors everywhere. Like it's like an ER episode. Um,
• 56:46
  Speaker 6: and like, you know, they're all checking on me. Uh,
• 56:49
  Speaker 6: they very quickly got an IV in, uh, they very
• 56:51
  Speaker 6: quickly got some morphine into that IV that, that, that
• 56:54
  Speaker 6: eased the mood a little bit.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 56:56
  Speaker 6: Um, and, uh, and so they're looking at it and
• 56:59
  Speaker 6: so I, this is within 45 minutes of being bit. Okay.
• 57:02
  Speaker 6: And they're like, you know, a lot of times we,
• 57:04
  Speaker 6: we watch these and, um, you know, if an adult snake,
• 57:08
  Speaker 6: so some people say, Hey, baby snakes are more venomous, not,
• 57:12
  Speaker 6: not true. Oh, adult snakes have the knowledge and ability
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: to not inject all of their venom into And so
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: a lot of times when they do the first strike,
• 57:24
  Speaker 6: it's a warning strike, which is why they recoil and
• 57:26
  Speaker 6: they give you the real one if you continue to
• 57:29
  Speaker 6: aggravate them. A juvenile snake has no ability to do that.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: So they just give you all of it all at once.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: High IQ with the older snakes.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Been around the beat.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Know how to play the game.
• 57:40
  Speaker 6: Been here and there.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: Don't make those mistakes youngsters sometimes do.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 57:44
  Speaker 6: We're in there and we're in there very quickly. It
• 57:47
  Speaker 6: is swollen. It is hurting, but it's not, it's not
• 57:49
  Speaker 6: looking too terrible at the time. And so doc says, Hey,
• 57:54
  Speaker 6: a lot of times a situation like this, we had
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: watched this for a little bit. See if you, if
• 57:58
  Speaker 6: you got, you know, enough venom for us to give antivenom.
• 58:02
  Speaker 6: Now this antivenom is very expensive. You Google this crow
• 58:05
  Speaker 6: fab antivenom. It's like 10 to 15 grand a vial.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 58:11
  Speaker 6: And so I'm like, doc, I, I, I cannot, I'm
• 58:15
  Speaker 6: not a doctor and I'm also not an experienced victim
• 58:22
  Speaker 6: of snake bite. So I have no ability to judge,
• 58:24
  Speaker 6: but I really feel like I got some venom.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: And got a good juice load.
• 58:28
  Speaker 6: Like this really hurts. And he's like, well, we could
• 58:32
  Speaker 6: go ahead and order that and start. I was like, yeah, let's,
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: let's go ahead and do that. Like, I was like,
• 58:36
  Speaker 6: you know, um, and so They did. And I said,
• 58:40
  Speaker 6: they gave six vials of antivenom and they sent me
• 58:44
  Speaker 6: up to a room. And so they kept watching it
• 58:47
  Speaker 6: and they would come and mark it with a pen.
• 58:49
  Speaker 6: And it went all the way up my leg. It
• 58:51
  Speaker 6: did swell really big, probably three times its size, really ugly.
• 58:57
  Speaker 6: I was the third snake bite victim that day.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 59:00
  Speaker 6: They said it's been an unusual year for snake bites.
• 59:03
  Speaker 6: Not three every day, but I was the third that day.
• 59:05
  Speaker 6: In fact, I didn't meet the individual, but there was
• 59:07
  Speaker 6: somebody next to me that also had been bitten.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: By a copperhead.
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: So snakes were rising up.
• 59:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, they were trying to.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: So you were in there for a night?
• 59:16
  Speaker 6: Almost two. I got to go home really late the
• 59:18
  Speaker 6: next night, but it was late enough. It was like
• 59:21
  Speaker 6: 10 o'clock. They said, you know, we're charging you for
• 59:23
  Speaker 6: the night, but if you want to go home. I
• 59:26
  Speaker 6: was like, yeah, if Heather will come get me, I'll
• 59:28
  Speaker 6: go home. And so, um, they ended up having to
• 59:31
  Speaker 6: do four rounds of antivenom. So they gave me six units,
• 59:34
  Speaker 6: the first one, and then three additional units to each
• 59:37
  Speaker 6: time because they're monitoring and doing it.
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 59:41
  Speaker 6: Um, and I've always heard that snake bites really hurt
• 59:44
  Speaker 6: can confirm, uh, really, really hurt most intense pain I've
• 59:50
  Speaker 6: ever felt. I had a partial rotator cuff surgery once,
• 59:53
  Speaker 6: and I always said that was the most pain I'd
• 59:55
  Speaker 6: been in. Um, Worse than that, for sure.
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: And isn't it true that one of the concerns is
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: that it kills tissue?
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: Around the bite, and you could end up permanently scarred
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: or damaged or muscle loss, that kind of thing?
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: And that didn't happen?
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 6: It didn't, partly because I got the antivenom so quickly. So,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 6: you know, I'm going to go back and I'll tell
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 6: another story that I've never told here. And we'll keep... Actually,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 6: two stories. So, go all the way back to young... juvenile, uh,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 6: Ren Baker has 13 or 14 years old was deer
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: hunting in Oklahoma. Um, with, um, uh, a rifle from
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 6: the eighties, it was a 30, 30 rifle. It was
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 6: a Marlin rifle, no safety on this rifle. You just
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 6: cock it just a little bit, not all the way.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: And that's, that's probably not good.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 6: Probably not. Um, you know, but, um, first, first time
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 6: to ever use this rifle. Was in the woods. Long
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 6: story short, somehow found a way to shoot myself in
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 6: the foot with this 30-30.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, golly.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Tell you what, you got feet problems.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 6: Same foot. We're in the hospital and Heather's like, man,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 6: that foot has really been through it. And I was like,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 6: way too soon for that. And so I always tell
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 6: people just that I'm a gunshot survivor. I usually don't
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 6: tell them until today that I shot myself.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 6: Then at one time I was on a small plane.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 6: The plane goes to land, and the landing gear collapses
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 6: out of the plane, and we go skidding down the runway.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 6: So technically, by FAA standards, that's a plane crash.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: That's a crash. That's a crash.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 6: They investigated it as a crash. Had to do a
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 6: little interview with the OFAA on that. All right, so
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 6: I'm in the hospital, and I'm like, I've got to
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 6: either be really unlucky or really lucky. So I Google
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 6: how many people would go through and survive a gunshot,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 6: a plane crash, and a snake bite from a venomous snake.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is not really often happens, doesn't happen.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 6: One in 10 trillion, what Google said. There's only 8
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 6: billion people in the world. So I don't know if
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 6: I need to buy a life insurance policy or a
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 6: lottery ticket. I don't know if I'm lucky or unlucky,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 6: but- I will say I got home about four or
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 6: five days later sitting on the back porch. I have
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 6: this giant back porch, and you all have seen the view.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 6: It looks over Cheat Rivers. Basically, same view Cooper's Rock has.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: Gorgeous.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 6: So I love to be out there. Storms rolling in.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 6: It's my favorite time. Sitting on the back porch watching
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 6: a storm roll in. All of a sudden, it starts
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 6: lightening around, but I'm under a porch.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: You're fine.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 6: Heather come out, and she said, With all due respect.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 6: Good point.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: Yep, this is a good one.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 6: I would like for you to come in the house.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 6: I feel like if there's anybody in the world that
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 6: would get struck by lightning.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Yep, you're on deck.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 6: Then you'd be one in whatever. So, you know, last
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 6: time I was in here, I was bragging about my
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 6: snake awareness.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: He was like a cornerback. He was yipping, running his mouth.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: In all seriousness, I mean, I know where you live.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: You're up on the mountain there. And what has happened
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: over the years in West, we have moved into their habitats.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 6: That's right.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: Bears, deer, snakes, everything else. So you are in their
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: zone and you got young kids, you know, do you
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: worry about them outside running around?
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 6: Um, I don't cause I educate them pretty good on,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 6: on awareness. Um, and, um, you know, listen, I grew up,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 6: I told Heather, there's two things that really bothered me
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 6: about this whole snake bite episode, uh, episode one is
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 6: I grew up stomping around beaver sloughs and creek banks
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 6: and river bottoms and ponds with waist-high grass trying to
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 6: catch a bass okay like the fact that I would
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 6: have been bitten by a snake is not a shock
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 6: the fact that I would be bitten I would have
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 6: been bitten by a snake in West Virginia which per
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 6: capita doesn't have very many snakes compared to where I'm
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 6: from in the house yeah It's just astronomical odds. Secondly,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 6: I always have had a healthy respect of snakes, but
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 6: I grew up with parents and grandparents that educated you
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 6: about them. I've not been fearful of them. And now
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 6: every time I sit on anything, I'm like jerking my
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 6: feet up, looking under it. So they're in my head
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 6: a little bit.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: The surprise isn't that you lost a road game. Like
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: if you had been over that hill trying to antagonize,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: I could see you taking the L. The fact you
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: got beat at home. You did get beat at home.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: That's a game you shouldn't lose. Got beat at home.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: You're right.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: I can't decide whether you're really lucky or really unlucky.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, maybe it's– He's eventful.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: Eventful. He's very eventful.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 6: I will say I like to live life. You guys
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 6: know I take my side of a side on the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 6: side of mountain roads like I could– But I'm not
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 6: going to sit at home in a bubble.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: No.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: There's no chance that you were transported to the hospital
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: in Heather's MG, was there?
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: No.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: Because that would have been awesome.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 6: MG's almost out of the shop, though. It's been in
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 6: the shop all summer.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: All summer?
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: It's been like three years now, this thing.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: I wish it would have been the MG to your rescue, though.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: I wish you would have had to put some respect
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: on its name.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 6: So I will just close with this, Brad. You're part
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 6: of me being deeply offended. Carper Messerly is up for
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 6: homecoming queen at Morgantown, I believe.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: She is.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 6: As is Kaylee Kellogg. I did not know Kaylee was.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 6: So we're dominating the court.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: We're covering homecoming.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 6: And so April, who's probably a friend of the program,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 6: but definitely a friend of my wife's. I don't know
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 6: if she's been a guest. Maybe you need to have
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 6: April on here sometime.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: Haven't done a whole lot with facilities.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: I feel like she's made an appearance, though.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: Urinal discussions one time. I can't remember if that was sports,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: sports liner here, but neither here nor there.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 6: So, uh, she reached out to Heather. It's like, Hey,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 6: tell me about this convertible of your dad's could be a,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 6: you know, a homecoming car, I guess at some point
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 6: now that there's a parade or something like that.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: Homecoming parade. So it has to sit on the back
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: of a convertible there as they go down high street.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 6: So Heather's like, well, my, my car is getting fixed,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 6: but I'm not sure if it'll be fixed in time. Um,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 6: But she said, you know, Wren's got the convertible Bronco
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 6: out there. So for those of you that don't know,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 6: I have a car that the school provides that's not
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 6: my car. I just drive it. But I also have
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 6: a Bronco Raptor that I special ordered like back before
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 6: I even took this job. And it took like three
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 6: years to build it because of the chip shortage and
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 6: all this stuff.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: High demand for those Broncos when they first came out.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 6: So, like, it's– Wonderful cars. Heather says it's my favorite child.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 6: Might be. Depends on how sassy the girls have been
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 6: that day. But I love this Bronco. And so, Heather's like, well,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 6: you know, Wren's got that Bronco out there. I think
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 6: it's the baddest Bronco in West Virginia. I'm trying to
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 6: build it that way. Maybe some people don't agree.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: She goes, yeah.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 6: We thought about Bronco. You know, Brad House got a
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 6: really great one, too. And I was like, his is great.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: Very nice.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 6: And I was like, again, with all due respect, Brad's
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 6: got a great Bronco. But, like, I mean, I've built
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 6: the best one in West Virginia. Like, if you were
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 6: going to use a Bronco, why wouldn't you just.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: You did go off-site and modify it heavily.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 6: I ordered it black, but I've wrapped it in the
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 6: matte black. That's nice.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's– Mine's not parade ready, though. My roof doesn't
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: come all the way back down.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah, I paid to put an electric roof. You
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 6: just push a button, it goes back. Because you never
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 6: know when you're going to have a rainstorm here.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 3: And you don't want to get hit by lightning.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 6: They are great, though.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: The top comes off very easily. Pop it off, pop
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: it right back on. Two clips, we go.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: So you're a car guy, then?
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, huge car guy.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 6: The only reason I don't have more cars is I
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 6: don't have more garage space. Rocky Simmons, he may be efforting.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: Build you an auxiliary garage?
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 6: Vision Homes is a friend of the program.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Rocky's one of the all-time greats.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: Hey, how's your leg now? Everything back to normal?
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so I told it... Your foot. When I was
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 6: lobbying to get to Anna Venom early, I said, hey, Doc,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 6: I said, listen, I've got a football game here in
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 6: a couple weeks. And on football Saturdays, I'm always north
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 6: of 20,000 steps, sometimes closer to 30. So I was like,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 6: you know, I've got work to do. And so.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 6: He said, yeah, I understand. So anyway, first football Saturday came.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 6: By the end of the day, there was a little swelling,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 6: but I'm 99%. I was probably 85%, 90% by then.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: He plays.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 6: So I'm going to close with this because these guys,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 6: I can see they've been going forever, and I've been
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 6: going forever. West Virginia is a small state obviously people
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 6: know things so when I go to the hospital and
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 6: I'm registering I said hey I've seen this on the
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 6: movies can't you block other people from seeing name who's
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 6: in here and why you know it's like they're like
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 6: yeah we can we can do that and I was
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 6: like I just don't want a bunch of people that
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 6: are making a big story out of it.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 6: I'm in the hospital the next morning, and Mike Kaziza
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 6: calls like, I'm not going to put this out, but
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 6: I just want to check and make sure you're okay.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 6: I'm like, how do you know this? start getting texts
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 6: and tweets. I was supposed to stay at home or
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 6: text and messages. I was supposed to stay at home
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 6: for a week with it elevated. Like by Thursday, the
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 6: coaches are texting, checking on me. I was like, well,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 6: I've got to go in now. If they think I'm dead,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 6: can you imagine how much NIL money they're promising out?
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 6: Like they think I'm on my deathbed. So I told Heather, well,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 6: I'm going to go in. So I was really like upset.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 6: Like who is putting my business out there? Okay. Cause, uh,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 6: and Tony wanted to do this earlier. President Benson had
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 6: asked if he could mentioned it freshman convocation i was
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 6: supposed to speak that night freshman convocation sunday i watched
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 6: it from the hospital window and so uh but i
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 6: think i figured out how everybody found out what was
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 6: it what was it so the guy that uh that
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 6: wrapped my car um also it uh details cars and Um,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 6: after I wrapped my Bronco, I decided I need my
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 6: side-by-side wrap. So I have it wrapped in the same mat. Um,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 6: so I know that really agitated my wife, but nonetheless,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 6: he was doing that and delivering it while the same
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 6: time this all happening. And so he says, Hey, I
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 6: didn't get a chance to talk to you. Did you
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 6: like the wrap job on the side-by-side? And also how
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 6: is the snake bite? Heather told me about it. And
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 6: I'm like, you're just like, you know, I'm trying to
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 6: keep this a secret and you're telling every random week.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 6: You're telling every random person in the world.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: There goes HIPAA. Yeah.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 6: And so, um, So I'm sorry for assuming it was
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 6: West Virginians spreading the news. My wife, it was inside
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 6: the house, as they would say. The call came from
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 6: inside the house.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: Tony and Brad knew. They kept it. They didn't tell me.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: I didn't know until you called me or I called
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: you or something.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 6: You called to ask me for a favor. Hoppy wanted
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 6: to come to practice.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 6: Then he said, will you be there? And I said, well, probably.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 6: I'm still recovering. And he was like, from what? And
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 6: I was floored that. You two knew and didn't tell him.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: They kept their word. You can trust them.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like an organized crime thing. We weren't
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: going to break the code. Well, we're glad that you're good.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: Thanks to WVU Medicine and all that anti-venom, which costs
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: probably about $ 70, 000, and we appreciate that. They'll be coming
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: up here on Textual Healing.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 6: All right. Appreciate you guys.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: Hey, we'll see you this weekend. Good job on the
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: press box, the contract extensions, the backyard brawl, basketball. Let's
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: get UVA here.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: Hey, ticket sales. You know anything about ticket sales for
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 3: the game Saturday?
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 6: When we've talked to the folks in Charlotte, they've been
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 6: very pleased with the Mountaineer turnout. They're concerned about the
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 6: Virginia team.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: Contingent.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: But we're not worried about them.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 6: But lots of Mountaineer. Of course, they're doing what they do.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 6: So I'll be shocked if it's not a heavy pro
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 6: Mountaineer crowd.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 4: Good.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 6: So we'll look forward to seeing people there. Let's go, Mountaineers.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: Director of Athletics, Vice President Randy Baker with us. There
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: he goes. Survive the snake. Three guys before the game.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: It's time for Spreads on Stats. And it is brought
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: to us by the fine folks. At Conley CPA Group,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: they provide full service public accounting, and you can outsource
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: your accounting and your CFO services, whatever it might be.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: From A to Z, no job too big, no job
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: too small. Contact the folks at the Conley CPA Group.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: Spreads on stats. Here's our deep dive into Saturday's contest
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: with the University of Virginia Cavaliers. I'm going to ask
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: you what I always ask you, and you always say no.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Would you just say yes once? Is there anything once
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: you started digging in that made you go wow?
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of stuff in here.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Any wows?
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: A lot of stuff in here.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: What's that mean?
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: We'll give you a lot of stuff here. Now, remember,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: our standard disclaimer early in the season, Some of these numbers, Hoppy,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: haven't matured necessarily yet. But I do think what it does, guys,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: it backs up. Like, if you step back from this 30,000
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: feet and say, hey, what's the game? What's going to
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: determine the game? I think we can all agree. Which
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: team can run it better and which quarterback avoids a
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: costly mistake?
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: If you were boiling this down to two, we could
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: probably make it those two things.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: Big plays are going to matter. Down-to-down is going to matter.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: Early downs are going to matter. But who can run
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: the ball, one, And who avoids the big mistake at
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: the quarterback position? I think those are the biggest things
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: you're watching. Couple numbers. These are the top two teams
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: nationally when it comes to run play percentage. West Virginia,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: number one in the country, running it on 80% of
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: its offensive plays so far. Virginia, number two nationally, running
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: it on 69% of its plays so far.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: Game over in two hours and nine minutes.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: Up from 48% to start the season.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: Give me that number again on UVA.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: UVA is running it on 69%, basically 70% of its plays.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: West Virginia on 80% of its plays. Pretty big, huh?
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: Huge.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: This is more wishful thinking than it is rooted in
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: anything that matters for Saturday's game. I've mentioned this before, though.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: Last year, what a wonderful season for Virginia. 11 wins.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: And you know you've had a great season when you
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: win 11 and you walk away feeling like you left
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: something on the table. That team thought it should have
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 2: won the ACC and been in the college football playoffs.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: Just fell one game short in the championship game. But
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: how about this for last season's success in close games?
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: You ready for these numbers? This was kind of a wow, Tony.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: If you want a wow, this wowed me. They played
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: in eight one-score games last year. Went 7-1 in those games.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: Hmm.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: So when you're going to have a great season, that's
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: the things that happen, Hoppy, right? But how about this,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: just to niche it down a little bit. They had
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: an overtime win against Florida State. They had two defensive
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: scores in overtime to beat Louisville. They had a game-winning
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: safety in the final minute to beat Washington State. They
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: had a goal-line stop against North Carolina on a potential
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: game-winning two-point conversion. And they had a pick six in
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: the final 30 seconds to hold off Cal, who was
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: making a comeback.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: You know what I say to that?
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: That is some play-in in close games.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: Regression to the mean. They used up all their luck
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: last year. Now we'll win a close one against them.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: Hop, can you see what that says in all caps
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: right there? Can you just read that word real quick there?
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: It says regression.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: Regression.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: Regression. So again, what happened with last year's team really
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: has nothing to do with Saturday Hoppy.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 3: It doesn't, but.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: that close wins and turnover luck a lot of times
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 2: have a way of balancing themselves out. Could this be one?
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 2: And again, more wishful thinking. Those games comes back to
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 2: the pack a little bit. It'd be a nice time
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: for that to start. Just keep an eye on that.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to talk about their offensive line much.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: That's been talked about ad nauseum. The depth they have
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: and how good they have been so far, there's no
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: question that's been a key to this team. And they're
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: going to try and lean on that. The question becomes
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 2: with Bo Pribula is what do you get from him?
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: He started this season about as well as you can
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: start a season from the quarterback position. And Hoppy, we've
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: seen him before, as we mentioned previously. We saw him
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: in the season opener in 2023. He was a freshman
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: at Penn State. Three carries, 18 yards, one touchdown. He
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: went one of one through the air for seven yards.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: Faced him again in the season opener in 2024. Just
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: one for one passing, but it was effective. He had
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: a 19-yard touchdown pass in that game. Ran it four
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: times for 25 yards against West Virginia in 2024. Two
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: of those four rushes went for 10 yards or more.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: That's going to be something to keep an eye when
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: he tucks the ball. If you look at his career
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: stats when throwing, they're really good overall. 25 touchdown passes,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: 11 interceptions. But here's the number that if you're a
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: Mountaineer fan, you hope shines through. Let's go to last
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: year at Missouri, as some call it, Missouri.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: He played there last year, yes.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: 11 touchdowns, 9 interceptions. Just eight big-time throws and 12
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: turnover-worthy plays. So it actually tells you on the underlying numbers,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: probably should have had more turnovers than what he did.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: That's the version you need to show up on Saturday.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: Can you make that version reemerge? Because so far, it
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: has not. So far, he looks like he's in a
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: system that matches his skill set really well. They can
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: run it predominantly. He can run it, then when he
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: has to throw it, they're safe, good throws, and you
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: can take your shots down the field. You've got to
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: change that equation, Hop. If you let them do what
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: they do, you've got a big problem here, and he
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: will have a very effective game. So keep an eye
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: on that. I'll come back to the quarterbacks, because I
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: think the play of both Hawkins and Pribula are keys
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: to this game. Defensively for Virginia, that's what they made
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: their living off of last year. They were tremendous. Forced
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 2: 24 turnovers in 2025. had a third down conversion rate
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: of just 28% and held 10 opponents to 21 points
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: or less. They feel like they've got another really good
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: defense this year. They get back one of their best players,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: Cam Robinson, linebacker, who returned last week. He got a
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 2: few snaps in against Norfolk State, but he is back
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: and will be a major part of this Virginia Cavaliers
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: defense at linebacker. They are without defensive lineman Jason Hammond.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: He left early in the Norfolk State game with an injury.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: He's out for this game. That could matter, guys. He's experienced.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: Fourth year at UVA. He's played 600-plus snaps, most of
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: those at the interior defensive tackle. Fourth on the team
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: last year in pressure. So to move him off the
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 2: defensive line, that helps, Hop. You'll take anything you can get.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: West Virginia already without one of its key defensive linemen.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 2: Now Virginia matches that with one of its. Start to
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 2: look at some keys. Let's dive a little bit deeper
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: here on these. As I said in the open, the
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: obvious number one overarching key here, which team can run
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: it when it wants to run it? UVA's defense right
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 2: now is 16th nationally in yards before contact. So teams,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: the two teams they've played, granted one of them's an FCS,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: but NC State got no push on that particular group.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: You're getting just 0.4 yards per carry before someone's hitting you. 0.4, guys.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: That's got to change. West Virginia's got to be able
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: to move the line of scrimmage. The UVA offensive line
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 2: is averaging 2.1 yards before contact. So you're flipping it
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: around against a West Virginia defense that is giving up 2.5
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 2: yards per carry before it contacts. So that's the flip
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: side equation to watch is what can West Virginia do
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: against Virginia's run when it lines up and wants to
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: come right at you? Can it hold the line of
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: scrimmage and try and slow some of this run down?
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: West Virginia's defense owns a very good 30% stuff rate
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: so far this season. So even though teams on average
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: are getting good distance before their contact, West Virginia has
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: stuffed a bunch of runs. Obviously critical on first down
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: to get some stops. Can you get that early and
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: set up a second and nine, a second and 10,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: where you get them off schedule a little bit? Now
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 2: you're forcing them to have to go to the air.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: West Virginia's defense so far has only faced a running
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: play on 37% of its plays. Big leads and style, right,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: have led to teams throwing so far. So West Virginia
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: is going to flip that. West Virginia opponents have only
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: used play action 19% of the time. Watch for a
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: heavy dose of play action here, which makes sense, right?
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: They want to run it first, give you some play action,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 2: and then hit you downfield when you suck it up.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: Who's that sound like? Who else is going to do that?
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: West Virginia.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: West Virginia is going to do that. Virginia's used play
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 2: action so far at the sixth most frequent rate in
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: power four. So early on, when maybe they didn't even
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 2: need to do it as much, Hop, they've used it
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: a lot. So play action is going to be massive
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: this particular week. All right, number two, if the run
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 2: is slowed from either side, which quarterback slash team can
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 2: throw it better? I think this is an important part
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 2: of this game plan as well. I mentioned Pribula last
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 2: year struggling when he threw the ball at times. Also
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: struggled under pressure. Can you get to him? Last year,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 2: he was just 45% completion percentage with two big-time throws
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: and five turnover plays when the opponent heated him up.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 2: Can you get there? West Virginia's been very good at
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 2: pressure so far this season. This is a different animal
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 2: going against Virginia, obviously. On the flip side, Virginia's defense
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: has been one of the best nationally against the pass
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 2: so far. Having a lot of passing touchdown in the
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: two games so far. Have four picks. the opponent's yards
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 2: per attempt are only 4.3 yards. So you haven't been
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: able to even push the ball down the field on
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: them at all. Two areas to watch when West Virginia
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: goes to the air. West, or Virginia, excuse me, is
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 2: only allowing 2.5 yards per carry on quarterback scrambles. Now,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 2: Mike Hawkins hasn't been asked to scramble too much, but
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: that feels like that might be an important part of
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 2: this game. If you're getting pressure when Hawkins drops back, Hoppy,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: He clearly has the ability with his legs to take
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: off and go. How much can that come into play?
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 2: Will that come into play? How much of a backbreaker
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: would that be on a couple third and longs if
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: he can take off and get some effectiveness with his legs?
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: Let's look. I got a graphic for you. Can I
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 2: show you a graphic?
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: Excuse me?
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 6: We got a graphic.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 3: How about that?
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: I'm aware of this.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 2: Jake, can you put that graphic up there? Hopper, go
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: to something here so you can see this. This is basically,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 2: I want you to look over on the right side
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: of it. That's the pressure rate for each team. Look
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 2: how close that is. Both of these teams early in
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: the season have done a great job getting pressure. That's
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 2: basically what that tells you. On the left side, that's
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: the pressure allowed. So West Virginia is allowed pressure on
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: 36% of its offensive snaps. Virginia just 25. Can you
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: flip that? Can you win the pressure with your defense?
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: And can you penetrate this veteran Virginia offensive line when
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: they go to throw? I think that will be a major,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: major part of that. Another area through the air. We
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: have seen West Virginia be very, very good at explosive plays.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: In fact, West Virginia is third nationally when it comes
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: to explosive play rate right now. Against a Virginia defense...
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: that's fourth nationally in opponent explosive rate. So you want
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: another good-on-good matchup. West Virginia's ability to hit the big
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 2: play in the pass game versus Virginia's ability to stop it.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: I'll give you one more on the quarterbacks. We said
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: both of them want to run it first. They're both
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 2: extremely talented runners. But through the air, limited sample size
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: for both. They haven't been asked to throw it a lot.
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: Hawk is the third-rated national passer in terms of rating. Third,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 2: in all the country, Pribula's 19. So it's two guys
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: that have been asked to do it a lot, have
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 2: been very efficient when they do it. So you almost
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: wonder if the running game's the obvious choice here, which
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 2: team has success when they go to throw it, and
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 2: it's not just a big play or efficiency, it's who
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 2: can avoid that interception in a moment when it could
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: really hurt you. This feels like that's one of those
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: games that's almost as much about limiting mistakes and negative
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 2: plays as it is the big plays that come on
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: the other side.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: Totally.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 3: Agree?
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: 100%.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about... Get moving here. We'll do some things
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: on the mistakes here real quickly. I mentioned only nine
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: teams have a better turnover margin than Virginia through two games,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: but West Virginia isn't far behind with that. Virginia's plus four,
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 2: West Virginia plus two. If you want another thing to
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: root for in terms of regression, Hoppy, let me give
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: you this one. If turnovers are really luck-based... This would
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: be nice for this to show up. Virginia last year,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: 21st nationally in turnover margin. Very good, right? Part of
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: why they had such a great season. They fumbled it
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: 15 times in 14 games. Only lost four. So you
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: want two polar opposite stats? What did we talk about?
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: West Virginia's ability to recover fumbles last year.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Couldn't do it.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: They didn't get a lot.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: Getting them now.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: Virginia fumbled quite a few times, more than once a game.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: Got the majority of them back. This would be another
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: nice time for that to switch. We've seen it early
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: with West Virginia forcing those fumbles and getting back on it.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it there. I've got a bunch more, but
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: I know we've been here for a while, so I'll
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: leave it there. What are you thinking? Those are a
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: lot of numbers to say, run the ball, and if
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: you can't run the ball, hit some explosive plays. Get
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: a turnover or two, and you have a good shot
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 2: of walking out of there with a win.
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: Don't beat yourself.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: That's what it's going to come down to. Who beats themselves?
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: As much as it is big play pluses, it's who
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: commits the fatal mistake. Who gets the pump block? What
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: quarterback gets hit? Ball comes loose, scooped up, run into
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: the end zone. Which quarterback has a pick six?
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: I think quarterback playing this one is absolutely massive.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 3: One of the points that you mentioned stood out to
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 3: me is that both teams want to run. Will both
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 3: teams be able to run? And if one team is
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: not and is forced to the air, like, yeah, Hawkins
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 3: has good numbers so far, but a very limited sample size.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 3: So if Mike has to throw the ball 25 times,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: how does he perform in that environment?
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, same exact truth on the other side. I mean,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 2: the same thing there, right? He hasn't had to throw
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 2: it either. The difference is with Pribula, you've seen him
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 2: struggle in those situations. I mean, last year, if you
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: put him in a situation that he had to pass
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: more times than not, it didn't work out in Missouri's favor.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 2: So if you'd like a trend to continue, we talked
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: about two trends you want to see reversed. If you'd
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: like one to continue, it would be that stays consistent,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: that you're able to get some pressure, that forces a
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: key turnover or two from him. You take advantage of
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: their turnovers and get out of there with the win.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: Let's do this now. Oh, yeah. Time for textual healing,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: which is brought to us by the folks at WVU Medicine.
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: You know, the WVU Medicine Outpatient Rehabilitation Center at the
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: University Town Center offers state-of-the-art physical, occupational, and speech therapy services.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: providing focused outpatient care for illness, injury, or disability, or
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: to improve the quality of your life and your independence.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: You can trust the experts, WV Medicine, to handle your
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: outpatient rehab. You can visit them at wvmedicine.org slash outpatient rehab.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 3: Saved Wren's life.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if he went to outpatient, but
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: he was at the ER there.
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, ER, okay.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: Or you can call 855-WVUCARE.com.
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 3: You know, ever since that happened to Wren, like, I
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 3: got a woods behind my house.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: You scared?
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 3: Will not go in it.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 2: Will not go in it. You're also not a snake expert,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 2: so it's doubly dangerous for you.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: Exactly. I'm not a snake expert.
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: Been shot, plane crash, snakes. That is weird, isn't it?
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: Dino in Morgantown. Ciao, Amici. I don't mean to start
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: off on a bad note. I carry my radio and
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: my Bluetooth headphones in the games to listen to you.
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: There's a 10-second or so delay on the radio, which
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: puts the broadcast about a play behind the offense. We're
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: headed down to Charlotte to stay with my cousin this weekend.
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: Anything going on with you guys down there? Well, these two,
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: because of legal reasons, can't go into the state of
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. in fear of arrest. But the Alumni Association
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: is doing something on Friday night. In regard to that
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: delay on the radio, we will have a non-delay feed
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: in the stadium in Charlotte Saturday night, 89.5. Oh, good.
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: And I'm also efforting... that we use the same low-frequency
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: deal in Morgantown because the delay is just too big
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: because it's a digital signal which delays the audio. So
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: we're going to try to go and use the same
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: device on the road at home. Jake from Pittsburgh. I
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: brought a lifelong Penn State fan. I'm going to paraphrase this.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: Can I? I brought a lifelong Penn State fan to
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: his first West Virginia game against UT Martin. He spent
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: the whole weekend talking about how much better West Virginia
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: is As far as the tailgating goes, it was better
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: than Penn State. He couldn't walk down a row in
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: the blue lot without people passing him beers and shots
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: of moonshine. That must be a first. He said to
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: people with much fun, he's coming back for the Kansas game.
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 3: Happy to have you.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Greetings, three guys. A question on the defense of
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: development help. Where does Ja'Cory Thomas fit? What does he
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: bring to the table? Expectation as a starter or quality depth?
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: He's got legal stuff that he has to get through,
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: but he would be a superiorly experienced back half of
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: the defense safety guy that would give you experience and speed.
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: Not a whole lot of experience back there when you
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: start to take a look at the twos and threes.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: Chris in Nashville, my first game ever watching West Virginia
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: was the 0-2 Tire Bowl against Virginia. I might have
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: been 10. But I have not forgotten that terrible game,
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: the awful halftime show where the fans who had those
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: inflatable thunder sticks, they clapped the entire game.
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's right.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: I've wanted revenge for it ever since. I hope it
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: comes Saturday. You're not alone. Sean and Christy write up.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: Greetings from the Maine folks. They discovered your podcast the
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: summer of 2022. Regular listens since. Been coming to West
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: Virginia games since Colin's freshman year in 22. They were
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: at our tailgate. Yeah, well, here it is. Show that
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: picture if you would. There they are.
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: Front center. So they're from Maine.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: Maine's my new favorite state.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 2: Their son was a manager here for the basketball. One
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 2: of the all-time greats.
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 3: Now they're just devotees of the Mountaineers.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: This other gentleman who writes a lot does a really
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: good job of overviews on what's going on legally in
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: these court cases. And I'm just, again, going to paraphrase it.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: But he says... This is not trending well of late
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: for the student athletes that are trying to get that
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: fifth year of eligibility. Basketball-wise, West Virginia's got two. This guy,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: I'll close what he's basically saying. He's saying that case
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: out in Colorado, the briefing has been completed, but the
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: court has yet to set the matter for oral arguments.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: That could happen any day. However, given the recent rulings
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: of the Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit, which covers West Virginia,
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: the Seventh Circuit, and the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, Things
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: do not look good for student-athletes on the five-year age-based
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: eligibility changes. That's not good.
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 2: Long way to go there. I wouldn't be concerned yet.
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: Three guys, first-time texter, long-time listener, lifelong fan. I know
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: there have been concerns about the defense, but two stats
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: that matter in football that give me great hope. Getting
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: off the field on third and fourth down. West Virginia's
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: doing that. Scoring and stopping red zone opportunities. Timothy out
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: there in Barbersville.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 3: Brad, I thought that Virginia was not great on third down.
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 3: 32% maybe, something like that? Is that right, Tony?
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but one of their areas, they're averaging third and
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 2: four to go. They've been in some great situations there.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 2: West Virginia is at a mind-blowing 58%, averaging about third
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 2: and five. So those are going to be big things.
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 2: West Virginia holding opponents to almost third and eight situations.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 2: Virginia's been good in that category. That's why early downs
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: are so important. Get them behind... the sticks before you
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 2: even get to third down and have a chance to
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 2: close them down.
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: Mike from Charlottesville. Brad, Tony Hoppe enjoyed last Saturday's Blue
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: Lot festivities along with getting the W. Our group of
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: 84 grads loved meeting the senator and basketball assistant Johnny
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: Estelle in the Blue Lot. We were able to retell
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: the story of our friend Todd getting into a fight
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: with Jimbo Fisher in Clarksburg over a girl. Brad seemed
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the story immensely. They had a picture with you,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: Brad and Todd, front and center. So there you go,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: Mike and Charlottesville.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 2: Had a great time with you guys.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: Colin from the Outer Banks in North Carolina. As I
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: was watching the game, doing my look to look past
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: an inferior opponent. Look no further. Anytime DJ Epps touches
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: the ball, makes some incredible cuts and speed. Da-da-da-da-da. Ashton
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: Woods made a great effort. Great linebacker interception. Matt Sig
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: all over the field. We saw some great athleticism, if
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: you ask me. The wait staff is doing something right.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: These guys are explosive. There you go. Texter said something
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: about Tony having a mullet. Made me laugh and gave
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: me an idea. I present to you Thursday's photo for
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: the podcast. There you are, Hoppy.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 2: Those are classic old school sweats, too.
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: Pretty swifty guy right there. Texter says the wife, doesn't
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: even say the wife. He just says wife and I
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: went to Cafe Oliveira for our 18th anniversary tonight. And
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: I had to try the Renfredo. Sorry, Tony. I have
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: to say that it was delicious.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: Look at that. Looks beautiful.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 3: Oh, boy.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: You know the Oliverios are now going to do their
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: own sauce? Really? They'll be in some supermarkets here.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: Coming up soon.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: They had that pizza they brought. I'm looking forward to
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: trying this.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: Hot Paws Pie, if you like the hots.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: Jack from Morgantown. The UVA game is the biggest swing
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: game since when? It feels like if you win this one,
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: you set yourself up for an 8-7-8 win season, which
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: would exceed my expectation, especially with the gold rush against
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: OK State looming. Texter said, hearing all these stories about
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: West Virginia Connection, a couple friends and I decided we're
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: going to make a long trip to Belgium for the
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: Formula One race. After the race, walk in two miles
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: back to where the shuttle was, pick up, and we
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: take a train to hear someone yell out, let's go Mountaineers.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: One of my friends said, wearing a West Virginia jacket.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: Some people there saw it and gave him a shout-out.
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 3: Big in Belgium.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: Listening to the UT Martin recap, Brad, when someone keeps
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: hammering quality of opponent every time stats come up, I
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: simply remind them West Virginia wasn't pulling that off last
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: year against Robert Morris or Ohio.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 6: Good point.
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: I'd rather have good numbers against weak teams than not
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: and be 2-0 rather than 1-1. Your friendly neighborhood beard, Williamstown. Yeah,
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: I agree. I know it isn't Pitt, this texter says,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: but do you think because of the 85 and the
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: ought to UVA pep band fiascos, there's a little extra
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: to this game? I think for the fans.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 3: For some of the fans, not the players.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: The players weren't born. Gary and Elkins, I can honestly
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: say the last time West Virginia met Virginia in the
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: Tiger Bowl, I want to forget it. Traveling from Elkins
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: to Charlotte on a charter bus full of Mountaineer fans
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: with the goal of cheering them to victory. Unfortunately, when
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: the clock met zeros, we're on the wrong side. And
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: then I had to insult the atrocious, heartless rendering and
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: rendition performed by their band. 24 years have passed. It's
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: time to discard those memories and replace them with golden
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: blue winning memories. Don't let up. Hopefully karma does not
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: have a statute of limitation.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: You're right.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know that any West Virginia players will have
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 2: been born yet, but that Virginia offensive line, those kids
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 2: were 18 during that Continental Tower Bowl.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 6: That was their first year.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 3: That was their first year of the UVA program.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: Redshirt freshman year.
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 3: Who was the quarterback on that Virginia team?
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: Matt Schaub. Yeah. Wally Lundy.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 3: Wally Lundy. Wally Lundy, hello.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: Heath Miller.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: These people were in Panama City, Florida. They're at the beach.
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: Lady comes up to us. They're sitting next to them,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: literally sitting next to them on their beach chairs. Turns out, oh,
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: what would you know? It was her and her sister
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: from Morgantown down there for a week. They're going to Charlotte. So, Kelsey,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: have fun. She's a day one listener. Day one of
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: this show.
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 2: Kelsey was?
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 3: Nine years.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Sitting in this morning, Dee having a water cooler
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: press conference heading into the game. Is no one going
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: to mention how their average O-line is 25 years old?
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: How does that even happen? We'll be in attendance in Charlotte.
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: Can't wait to see the dogs get an upset. Juan
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: from Orlando.
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 2: That's actually become that now. The age of their offensive
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 2: line has become this week's contain.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 2: That has moved into.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: Someone called this the Grecian formula bowl.
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 3: How do you get a 7th year?
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: How do you get an 8th?
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 3: Who's got eight?
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 2: Some of those guys, they're still operating. They got a
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 2: COVID year in there.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: They got an eighth year. They got an eighth year guy.
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 3: An eighth year guy.
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 5: Eighth.
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 6: Injury.
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: They have 31 players that are in their fifth year
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: or older.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 3: It's like BYU.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is the only, like I said, arguably this
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: is the oldest team West Virginia has ever played. I mean,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: potentially back in the old days, like when Greasy Neal
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: and like Rhett Rogers and those guys, like those guys
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: would come back from like wars and stuff. They'd be
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: like 30 years old playing. But I think, like, as
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: far as the density of the age, this is probably
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: overall the oldest. I'm getting a good pregame meal filled
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: with a lot of micronutrients before taking my Lou Wendell
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: pontoon down to Charlotte. See, he knows what he's doing. Sam,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: who came in second last week in your wing eating challenge,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: is one of my dearest friends. Next wing challenge, we
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: need to see the director of WV's basketball operations, Alex Mergner, participate.
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: Signed by Ed Ronsford. Well, I mean, Alex has been
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: ducking that thing for over a year. He's soft. Kevin
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: from Kingwood with the football roster budgets for P4 schools
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: released by the athletic. Do you think it's possible for
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: West Virginia schools to be competitive? It's got to change.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: My girlfriend and I had the opportunity to be in
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: Morgantown for the first two games. We stayed the week
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: between games in Morgantown at the KOA. We were lucky
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: enough to be able to come to the Rich Rod
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: show at Kegler's and the three guys show at the BW3.
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: We had a blast. Got to meet Brad and Hoppy.
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: Talked to Brad for a good little bit. nicest guy
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: ever and treated us like family even though we had
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: never met.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 3: That's Brad.
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you for all doing what you do. We love
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: your show and always look forward to listening. Patrick and
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: Brittany from Charlotte. There they are. Remember, they were right there.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 6: That's Patrick.
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they sat right at that first booth there.
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 2: Patrick and Brittany. There's Brittany Hoff.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: Remember, you met them.
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: He said, nicest guy I'd ever met in the world.
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 2: They're going to come to the North Carolina West Virginia
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 2: basketball game.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 2: When we come down there.
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: That'll be fun.
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 2: Good to see them.
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: Last one. This is off music, or this is off
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: sports to music. Scott in the Woodlands, Texas. I see
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: that the city of Syracuse is denying Charles Wesley Godwin
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: the permits to perform. I'm assuming Marvin Graves is now
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: a city official and somehow involved. Yeah.
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 3: What's the story on that?
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: What happened there is nothing to do with Charles or
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: anything like that, but two entities that like the city
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: and one that runs the event, whether the convention center,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: theater that they're going to do. They are fighting against
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: each other. And so as a result, Charles takes a
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: stray and he can't perform there.
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 3: Can't we all just get along?
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: That's what Chuck's probably. Chuck's probably out there. He's willing
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: to go anywhere out there in Syracuse. You know, probably
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: over there. Dinosaur barbecue. Pull up a couple of tables.
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: He could play over there and maybe go down Erie Boulevard.
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: Something like that.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 3: Syracuse references.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 4: Well done.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right there. So anyway, that's what we got. Boy,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: that was a long show.
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 2: There's a lot going on.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, I told you when we started, it was
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: going to be different. It was a little bit special.
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: We had Nick. We had Nick Cray. Nick Cray is
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: now out of his meetings, his practice. And Nick Cray,
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: he's lost eight pounds since he started.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 6: Might be in Charlotte.
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 2: Team might already be in Charlotte.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: I might have missed the bus.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 2: Is that Oliveria's pizza still out there?
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: It's there.
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 3: I know because we should have. The show was so long.
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 3: We should have had a meal during the show.
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 6: Well, we had one before.
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 2: Now we're getting one after. It's two meal day.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: All right, so here is one note. Here is one
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: note for those of you that are just really, really
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: P1 listeners and you don't miss a beat. Next show,
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: which is a recap of Virginia, won't come out until
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: Monday at about 11, around 11 o'clock Monday. Normally we
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: record on Sunday, but we literally can't on Sunday because
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: because we've got another commitment that we have to do.
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 3: Well, the pontoon boat you're taking back is going to
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 3: take a while, so.
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: You won't get back to it. Yeah, I'm pontooning up.
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: So our show will come out Monday at about 11
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: o'clock on Monday. We'll be a recap, and then we'll
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: get back to speed. Three guys brought to us by
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: GoMark at the GoMark Rewards card. Go to GoMark.com for
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: the details. Don't forget triple rewards points on Saturday. Triple
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: reward points Saturday. Three guys brought to us by Lewendl
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: Marine Sales in St. Albans. They... Well, they sell family fun.
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: Visit LewendlMarinesSales.com. By Tudor's Biscuit World, start your day the
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: homemade way with a Tudor's Biscuit. By Jan Dill's Attorneys
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: at Law, they won't take no for an answer. Spreads
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: brought to us by Conley CPA Group, providing value beyond numbers.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: And Textual Healing brought to us by the exclusive health
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: care provider for all Mountaineers. Including you. And that's WV Medicine.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: Special thanks to producer Jay. He's busy getting people on
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: Zoom call, ran in, ran out. I mean, I don't
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: know what else he's doing.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 3: Snakebite serum because you never know when you'll need it.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: All right. Be good. See y'all.