Initial Thoughts: The Mountaineers Came to Play Despite the Circumstances

Rapid reactions to West Virginia's loss to Memphis in the Frisco Bowl.

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

West Virginia fell short in a high-scoring affair in the Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl to Memphis, 42-37.

Here are a few of my initial thoughts from tonight's game.

They came to play

After falling behind 17-0 at the start, the game could have gotten out of hand very quickly. The Mountaineers continued to chip away and finally got a defensive stop in the third quarter to keep things in reach for the offense. For a team playing in a bowl game that it probably didn't want to be in at the beginning of the season and with their head coach getting fired at the start of the month, this could have been a completely flat outing, yet it wasn't. Hats off to the players for being locked in and the coaching staff for keeping the team engaged despite all the distractions.

Garrett Greene, the warrior

Sure, things didn't go as planned for GG in his final year at WVU, but the young man never stopped battling. As I mentioned on the In the Gun podcast earlier in the week, it's a shame he won't have the opportunity to play for Rich Rodriguez. He's the perfect quarterback for the style of offense he wants to run. He runs the ball well, and more importantly, he's a willing runner. He could have mailed it in many times this season, but that was never in his DNA. He may not go down as one of the best QBs in program history, but his toughness and grit should always be remembered.

A lot of change is coming on defense

Whenever you have a unit play as poorly as West Virginia's defense did this season, a major shuffling of the deck is certainly in the cards. Rich Rodriguez has to find his defensive coordinator and decide what scheme to run, but personnel-wise, you can expect a lot of new faces populating that side of the football. The biggest thing WVU needs to address is getting more speed across the board. Obviously, the secondary needs a complete overhaul.

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