Country Roads Confidential: A WVU Mountaineers podcast

West Virginia has another top-shelf Big 12 opponent coming to town Saturday, but the defense is now officially without a former starter and the offense won't be have all its personnel at its disposal. Upon additional review, Chris and Mike discuss exactly what happened (and who's to blame) on big plays against Texas and who has to make the big plays against Iowa State. The Cyclones have a rare defense and an efficient offense, but it's nothing WVU hasn't seen already. Will that help?

West Virginia doesn't feel like it was that far away from a different outcome Saturday, and the stats and the scoreboard don't completely disagree. Texas won 42-31, but the Mountaineers know turnovers, missed field goals and some iffy defense at inopportune times were too much to overcome against the talented Longhorns. This episode explores all of that, plus Neal Brown's aggressive defense of Austin Kendall, whether WVU should be encouraged and how the rest of the month looks.

Chip Brown of Horns247 joins the podcast to discuss with Chris Anderson the upcoming game between West Virginia and Texas. 

Following an open week, Chris and Mike are back, and business has picked up. Today's episode covers immune systems, whether chili is a soup, former players getting stiff-armed, future players getting paid, expectations for a new performer on defense, the ... rivalry? ... against Texas. 

Change has been good for different parts of WVU's football program, and the increased investment in digital media is one of the most obvious beneficiaries. Neal Brown has been interested in that part of the program and what it needed to succeed from the very beginning, and Grant Dovey and Austin Gaines are key parts of the operation. This episode gets to know both as well as where they come from, what they do, how they do it and where they see this going in the future.

The football team is off, but Chris and Mike soldier on to discuss the latest in transfer trends, what's going to happen at Kansas, how much longer Josh Sills will be part of the team and what redshirts might still play this season. 

WVU is 3-1 following an eventful 29-24 win on the road against Kansas. There was plenty to like, plenty to question and plenty to talk about as the Mountaineers head into an open week. How do Chris and Mike feel about the season so far and what's ahead? How did key coaching decision turn out? Who's the new running back with the French name? All that and more in this episode covering the latest victory.

Phog.net's Scott Chasen joins Country Roads Confidential to discuss the expectations in Lawrence, what changed for Kansas from Week Two to Week Three, and his predictions for this weekend's game against West Virginia.

The Mountaineers are playing more games than expected on ESPN+, and it's happening earlier than expected, too. This episode explains the marketing logic behind this decision and spend some time describing how this is not great new for WVU fans in a few different aspects. But there are other interesting aspects to examine that deliver other pluses and minuses this season.

WVU's season is definitely different today than it was a week ago, and a road game against suddenly interesting Kansas is the next chance to continue the improvement. But the Mountaineers have to address some personnel issues with their depth chart, travel roster and redshirts. Chris and Mike have some ideas, Chris has a question about the Jayhawks quarterback and Mike has a take about the outcome.