The No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers defeat the Tennessee Volunteers, 40-14. Here are the three takeaways from this Power 5 neutral-site bout in Charlotte.
College football is back. Labor Day Weekend means that we will have our fair share of neutral-site affairs between Power 5 teams of note. One game that caught our eye in the second window on Saturday afternoon was between the No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers and the unranked Tennessee Volunteers.
This battle between schools located in the Appalachian Mountains took place in the Queen City of Charlotte, North Carolina at Bank of America Stadium. Interestingly, this was the first meeting between the Power 5 institutions ever. That’s odd given their relative nearness in that part of the country.
What wasn’t close was the level of play on the field, as West Virginia handled Tennessee comfortably, 40-14. It was a closer contest heading into halftime with the Mountaineers leading the Volunteers, 13-7. However, lightning in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Area delayed the game for about an hour.
This was Jeremy Pruitt’s first game as the main man in Knoxville, taking over the unpopular Butch Jones. Pruitt has won everywhere he’s been, but has some serious work to do in turning around this Tennessee program. Simply put, West Virginia was more polished and shined more brilliantly in the second half to win easily.
Here are the takeaways from the Mountaineers’ Week 1 victory over Rocky Top in Charlotte.
Keep an eye on West Virginia as a serious contender in the Big 12.
In the early part of Labor Day Weekend, we learned a couple of things about how the Big 12 could inevitably shake up. The No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners absolutely boat raced Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic Owls to the tune of 63-14. Kiffin’s Twitter troll game might be a little chill after that shellacking by the hands of Kyler Murray and Lincoln Riley’s OU offense.
In Landover, Maryland, the No. 23 Texas Longhorns fell to the unranked Maryland Terrapins for the second-straight year, 34-29. That game featured a lengthy weather delay as well. Even without D.J. Durkin on the sidelines, the Terps messed with Texas again in September. Tom Herman is left searching for answers in Austin early in year three.
So West Virginia finds itself somewhere between Boomer Sooner and Hook ‘Em Horns heading into Week 2. Will Grier is still here in Morgantown, and that bodes well for the Mountaineers. He may not end up winning the Heisman Trophy, but he’ll be a big reason for WVU’s climb up the polls.
Frankly, the Pac-12 looked a little shaky this weekend. No. 6 Washington lost to No. 9 Auburn in Atlanta and No. 13 Stanford got only 29 rushing yards on 18 carries from Heisman hopeful running back Bryce Love, albeit in a victory over San Diego State. West Virginia isn’t perfect, but might have what it takes to win the Big 12 and make the College Football Playoff for the first time because of it.
Tyson Helton’s conservative play calling was no match for Dana Holgorsen’s Air Raid assault.
What defined this game between Tennessee and West Virginia more than anything was experience. The Mountaineers had it, while the Volunteers are still on the hunt for it. Though he is a bit of a quarterback whisperer, new Tennessee offensive coordinator Tyson Helton was too conservative to hang with Dana Holgorsen’s battle-tested Air Raid.
Holgorsen allowed Grier to let the game eventually come to him. He trusted his starting quarterback to read the befuddled Pruitt defense of Tennessee and make plays. Helton essentially limited Vols starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano’s effectiveness as a passer.
Guarantano basically game managed, but wasn’t all that bad at it. He looked light years better than running whatever we want to define that debacle of an offense Jones threw out there a year ago. While Guarantano didn’t throw any picks, his 6.9 yards per attempt paled in comparison to Grier’s outstanding 12.6 average.
Sure, Guarantano completed 19 of 25 passes, but he needed to throw for more than 172 and a touchdown to beat Big 12 contender West Virginia on a neutral site. While Tennessee can be happy about running back Tim Jordan’s 20 carries for 118 yards and a touchdown, the Vols need to throw for more than 200 yards to hang with an offensive power the like of the Mountaineers.
Will Grier looked great and got better as the game went on.
This was a game of two halves down in Charlotte. Tennessee played sound defensively in the first two quarters, limiting West Virginia to only 13 first-half points. However, Grier settled in very nicely in the final two frames to thwart any notion of Pruitt starting his Tennessee tenure at 1-0.
We’ve seen Grier sling it in Holgorsen’s Air Raid before at very high level. It just wasn’t the case in the first two quarters. Maybe he just needed an extended halftime thanks to a lightning scare to channel his inner football-throwing beast? What we got in third and fourth quarters was one of the best quarterbacks in the Power 5.
The native Charlottean Grier completed 25 of 34 passes for a career-high 429 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. He carved up the Tennessee defense while averaging a ridiculous 12.6 yards per attempt. Yes, he missed on some throws and his footwork could have been better, but the results speak for themselves.
We are not even one week through the 2018 NCAA season, but Grier has a chance to win the September Heisman. He blew Guarantano, Pruitt and the rest of Rocky Top out of the water. Look for Grier and WVU to crank some John Denver on the way back to Morgantown this weekend. Grier is legit and so too is West Virginia.