Country Roads Confidential: A WVU Mountaineers podcast

Chase Harler and a friend have started a skill development business, and Harler’s basing a lot of it on his experiences as a high school and college player. The former guard talks about his business and his vision but takes some time to discuss his time at WVU, what awaits the Mountaineers and more.

And overlooked and underappreciated aspect of this time is how student-athletes deal with being displaced and having none of the routines they cling to on campus. It’s a major change, and it’s no wonder coaches are so concerned about their mental health. Mike talks with WVU’s Dr. Scott Barnicle about what student-athletes are enduring and how mental well-being has been more embraced in sports.

One set of ratings shows how the recruiting business says the Mountaineers fared on signing day. A second set explains how those classes performed for the team. We created the second and compared it to the first, and this episode covers that exercise and what can be learned from the data.

College football has an attendance problem, but programs have a time frame to fix it. Chris and Mike talk about the problem, the silver lining and the solutions and then turn their attention to moves to help student-athletes market themselves and moves to bring recruits into the fold.

The finish line is gradually getting closer, and schools have to have plans in place. West Virginia is progressing and should be ready when it happens. Chris and Mike discuss some of those events and when and how they can occur before using a magazine preview to talk about the 2020 season.

Bob Huggins, Neal Brown and Kenny Robinson have each given us a topic to explore and attempt to explain. Who’s tempting Oscar Tshiebwe? How could football have an extra scholarship? Why was an academic counselor targeted on Twitter?

It’s been a strange offseason, but it’s also been a good offseason for WVU sports. And now, there are encouraging signs for fall sports, for players returning to campus and for student-athletes to make some money.

Sports are back, and some WVU players and players with WVU affiliations will be picked before the draft is over. Chris and Mike discuss two candidates before reviewing Mike’s list of players who will be taken in the next few drafts.

The 2010 Gator Bowl was an oddly arranged celebration of Bobby Bowden’s career, and West Virginia was the invited guest for the Florida State legend’s final game. We look back at the stories from before, during and after the game and where the occasion rests in Mountaineer history.

Test your football knowledge and your math skills all at once as you try to assemble the best WVU roster with $24 to spend on eight players.

WVU basketball can use or stash an open scholarship, but Bob Huggins won’t steal from a colleague. WVU football is adding to an impressive recruiting class, but his colleagues will try to steal from his collection of talent. What’s the difference and how to the coaches navigate it?

Test your football knowledge and your math skills all at once as you try to assemble the best WVU roster with $66 to spend on 22 players. Chris and Mike conclude with 11 players and $33 on defense and explain their picks and the path they took to their rosters.

Test your football knowledge and your math skills all at once as you try to assemble the best WVU roster with $66 to spend on 22 players. Chris and Mike begin with 11 players and $33 on offense and explain their picks and the path they took to their rosters.

Today’s episode assumes college football will start on time for the 2020 season. It’s not guaranteed, and some alternatives are discussed, but fingers are crossed as Chris and Mike compare starting June 1, July 1 and Aug. 1. Any option will necessitate some changes, and the recruiting calendar will be affected, too, but that might bring about a necessary revision as well.

Eight months after reaching the 2010 Final Four, WVU basketball signed five players who only barely contributed to the program but contributed mightily to a situation Bob Huggins would have to rescue himself from years later. Today’s episode remembers the downfall and how the Mountaineers rose again

The quarantine continues, but Chris and Mike change things up. Rather than discuss what was lost, they spend the episode on what to expect next season. Returning players, a challenging schedule, an open scholarship and plenty of lineup possibilities fill the conversation.

The pause is a week old, but a Q&A should lighten the mood. Chris and Mike dip into reader questions and give the best answers available right now while previewing what’s ahead for sports and the website.

Let's go back to the mid-2000s. YouTube had just been invented, Reggie Bush had just conquered college football ... and a tiny running back named Noel Devine was about to go viral. Trey and Charles Power talk about the experience that was watching Devine's highlights, why he became a cautionary tale, and why his name still resonates all these years later. This is The Rewind with The College Footba...

Joe Mazzulla joins Mike to discuss the the sudden end to the NBA season, what keeps him busy these days, memories and regrets from his time spent playing for the Mountaineers and his coaching aspirations.

Sequestered in Legoland in California, Chris joins Mike on the scene in Morgantown for a conversation about the many reactions to the Coronavirus situation, what WVU has done and what everyone will do next.

There were only happy endings as the regular season arrived at the finish line Saturday and West Virginia did all that it could do by defeating fourth-ranked Baylor by a dozen points. The Mountaineers remembered and showed off who they are and what they can do and did it right in time for the Big 12 tournament.

West Virginia can feel like a winner again and doesn’t have to worry about a string of losses away from home any longer. The Mountaineers defeated Iowa State in a back-and-forth game that saw the best and sometimes the worst of this team. But wins matter right now, and WVU took care of a few lingering questions in snapping a three-game slide and a six-game streak away from home.

The script repeated itself once again Monday night as the Mountaineers committed turnovers, missed free throws, couldn’t rely on the 3-point line, ran players in and out of the game and lost on the road. They’re 1-5 in the last six games and 1-7 on the road in Big 12 play, and consequently they have a losing record in conference play. How bad is it and how bad can it get?

In a game it couldn’t lose, West Virginia build and lost a 10-point lead, fumbled key moments and lost on the road again to a TCU team it clearly outclassed at home last month. The Mountaineers are 1-6 on the road with four straight losses and have a prickly game Monday in Austin against Texas. Chris and Mike cover what went wrong, what continues to go wrong and whether WVU can do anything about i...

Neal Brown’s second spring begins on March 10, and there’s a lot to like and a few things to monitor once you put together the pieces of a two-deep. Chris and Mike discuss Wednesday’s EerSports.com prediction piece and wonder what changes might occur.