STAGE ONE --- This stage follows the bowl win... or bowl loss. This is typically a feast or famine stage. If we lose the bowl game, there are thoughts of ending the football program and using Mountaineer Field as a pond for the fishing and game department in the state of West Virginia.
A bowl win pushes momentum to a fever pitch where we start looking at our depth chart and laying it beside the one from Saban's team before each team starts spring drills. With basketball in full swing by this stage, Huggin's boys also have a lot of say in the general psyche of the Blue Lot as well during this off-season kick off moment.
STAGE TWO - This stage is typically steeped in optimism. After the bowl win (or bowl loss lately,) the Mountaineer fan base is in a rather expecting and hopeful mood. This stage which usually starts around the first Wednesday in February centers around the upcoming LOI class.
This stage has shifted a little with the early signing period, but it does separate itself between the end of the bowl season and the start of spring football. This is a rather uplifting and hopeful phase that is one of the more optimistic periods in off season, but nowhere near STAGE SIX in the late summer.
STAGE THREE - This was the start of Spring football. With COVID-19, this has been marred by a shortened spring ball period which essentially hurt development for a sub par Offensive Line (since 2007.) Lately, this has been categorized by a very vacuum-sealed lock on the program and a lack of information from Coach Holgerson. In the past, this was a time of depth charts puzzles and general hope pumped in by the previous coaching staffs. Presently, Coach Brown has been a little more transparent with the Spring period and the program overall in general as he tends to have a better feel with social media along with coaching staff in getting the information out to the masses.
In past regimes, this was steeped with optimism, experiments, and "what if" scenarios. In this current COVID-19 setting, ambiguity is the key buzz word nowadays which leaves the fan base oft feeling "meh" @Eers_Do Work. Stage THREE has now further evolved and it really hinges on how far we have went into March Madness (RIP due to C-19) and how much data is leaked out from the CDC or HHS as long as people "follow the ****ing guidelines" @GreebrierCzarJJ.
STAGE FOUR - In writing this amendment on August 5, 2020, this is the stage that we are currently in. It is the longest and most dull and lengthy STAGE of all SEVEN. At this point, recruiting is at a relative lull (BTW, Where is the Hotboard, @Keenan Cummings ? @Archetype XLIV ) and a lack of Spring Ball (Thanks, Prime Minister Xi) is over leaving us in more of a fog.
With basketball season long gone and the disaster of the plague shortened season fresh in our minds, we use this time to wonder. Mazey (and his wife.. Pics ??) has not helped at all, but our minds wander to pads popping and helmets crashing until we realize STAGE FIVE is about 5 months away (Thanks, Obama.)
This stage is oft characterized by members of the suicide bunch (@Gooch's_Ignore_List) walking to the edge of the Star City Bridge with a hopeful smile or conference realignment discussions @Hedgeman to fill the unavoidable dead air until STAGE FIVE starts. Lately, we have been more of an Infowars site with a view Rachel Maddow viewers chiming to balance the oft Red-hued Blue Lot. The saga with Coach Koennig and Pubic Enemy Number 1 @CapCougarKM made the STAGE FOUR Blue Lot pretty unreadable for a three month period. As we saw with @coalcountry52 , some folks go on a sabbatical from the Blue Lot and spend time with family. Others use it to hone in on their Blue Lot neurosis and choose to be more miserable or pump sunshine (@HPeer .)
With either choice, strap in, fellas.... It is a long way to STAGE FIVE and breathing is the key. And lately, we got a lot of mother ****ers holding their breath in this bitch.
STAGE FIVE - After a very long wait in STAGE FOUR where the Blue Lot mind plays tricks on you, we evolve into STAGE FIVE which is represented in the late summer by the COVID-delayed start of fall camp. This is characterized by a deep longing for anything sports related. We are thirstier than an 18 year old boy on Tinder on his iPhone while watching porn on his iPad. We need something.
Any news is deemed positive and we are excited for players to be enrolled (Thanks, @bobhertzel'ssweatpants for student directory updates...) and for freshman to move into Towers. This is mostly highlighted by the players running Law School hill for Mike Joseph (Polar Bears !) and summer camp starting for news and information from any source.
Out of the 7 stages, this is one of the most positive and uplifting stages of the off-season neurosis program. We are in unprecedented territory with COVID-19 (fake pandemic) and the amount of positive news may be destroyed with the uncertainty of the virus and the public response. In general, people are looking for anything and even the suicide bunch can look past their daily MO and type some good news and a few of them have even smiled and nodded in agreement with the resident sunshine pumpers (e.g. @HPeer .)
STAGE SIX - As summer camp progresses, the information from Morgantown swells more than the traffic during "move in" weekend. We are getting hit with so much information from the Blue Lot staffers (welcome @jaredserre ) that it is hard to keep up with the articles, videos, and interviews. At this point, we have begun setting up hotel reservations for the CFP locations and started planning the trip to Dallas in the second week of December.
We quietly glance over the schedule and etch out anywhere from 9-10 wins depending on the health of Saban's OL down the stretch. We have already acknowledged a great season and are just wondering "how great ??" It is also during this phase that we work on the depth chart and notice that we may deeper at all positions than any SEC team can shake a stick at. We remind ourselves that ESPN hates us... and we clearly admonish any fans from any other teams to ignore the talking heads and listen to us.
We are adamant and resolute in our feelings in STAGE SIX and even the most negative (i.e. realistic) of the Blue Lot bunch can even see how the team can reach these lofty standards. In this being our most optimistic STAGE of the off-season, this period is filled with hallucination, vivid dream scenarios of big wins, superstitious behavior, and delusion. Essentially, the word "fanatic" stems from STAGE SIX.... and as our fearless leader @Vernon once quipped, "Fans are gonna be fans... just let them be.... It ain't changing."
STAGE SEVEN - The final stage in this epic missive is littered with paranoia, worry, doubt, and negativity. It could be further exacerbated by bad news with the season, positive cases, mortality rates, coughs, sniffles, etc.. Roughly one week before the opening kickoff, the entire Blue Lot takes a major turn for the worst. All summer, we have quasi happily bonded (as much as we can here in this dysfunctional family) and created good will for the upcoming season. We have mapped out how we can back into the College Football Playoffs. We laugh at the pre-season magazines and the low rankings. In the past (pre-COVID,) we have spent May, June, July, and August becoming ONE fan base. Nowadays, hating each other "goes together like peas and carrots." ~ Forrest Gump, All-American Kick Returner, University of Alabama, 1966
With the season nearly here and the depth chart set, the fan base becomes more paranoid and reactive than Hunter S. Thompson on a quick breather to Vegas. We start worrying that James Gmiter (on an already turrible OL) will not get enough sleep because his infant daughter keeps him up at night crying with an ear infection. We get worried that Vandarius Cowan will hurt his shoulder jumping on the PRT at the Beechhurst Station. We build negative scenarios and can quickly find 6 losses on the schedule because Dante Stills was NOT at the photo shoot at the Children's Hospital which obviously means he is transferring.
In summary, it is a crazy ride during the off-season with a lot of ebbs and flows... but, the last week tests our collective patience as a fan base as we look to exorcise the demons of squinting coaches, haphazard mad scientist decisions, and prodigal sons that need to stay the hell in Arizona (or at the Wonder Bar.)
A bowl win pushes momentum to a fever pitch where we start looking at our depth chart and laying it beside the one from Saban's team before each team starts spring drills. With basketball in full swing by this stage, Huggin's boys also have a lot of say in the general psyche of the Blue Lot as well during this off-season kick off moment.
STAGE TWO - This stage is typically steeped in optimism. After the bowl win (or bowl loss lately,) the Mountaineer fan base is in a rather expecting and hopeful mood. This stage which usually starts around the first Wednesday in February centers around the upcoming LOI class.
This stage has shifted a little with the early signing period, but it does separate itself between the end of the bowl season and the start of spring football. This is a rather uplifting and hopeful phase that is one of the more optimistic periods in off season, but nowhere near STAGE SIX in the late summer.
STAGE THREE - This was the start of Spring football. With COVID-19, this has been marred by a shortened spring ball period which essentially hurt development for a sub par Offensive Line (since 2007.) Lately, this has been categorized by a very vacuum-sealed lock on the program and a lack of information from Coach Holgerson. In the past, this was a time of depth charts puzzles and general hope pumped in by the previous coaching staffs. Presently, Coach Brown has been a little more transparent with the Spring period and the program overall in general as he tends to have a better feel with social media along with coaching staff in getting the information out to the masses.
In past regimes, this was steeped with optimism, experiments, and "what if" scenarios. In this current COVID-19 setting, ambiguity is the key buzz word nowadays which leaves the fan base oft feeling "meh" @Eers_Do Work. Stage THREE has now further evolved and it really hinges on how far we have went into March Madness (RIP due to C-19) and how much data is leaked out from the CDC or HHS as long as people "follow the ****ing guidelines" @GreebrierCzarJJ.
STAGE FOUR - In writing this amendment on August 5, 2020, this is the stage that we are currently in. It is the longest and most dull and lengthy STAGE of all SEVEN. At this point, recruiting is at a relative lull (BTW, Where is the Hotboard, @Keenan Cummings ? @Archetype XLIV ) and a lack of Spring Ball (Thanks, Prime Minister Xi) is over leaving us in more of a fog.
With basketball season long gone and the disaster of the plague shortened season fresh in our minds, we use this time to wonder. Mazey (and his wife.. Pics ??) has not helped at all, but our minds wander to pads popping and helmets crashing until we realize STAGE FIVE is about 5 months away (Thanks, Obama.)
This stage is oft characterized by members of the suicide bunch (@Gooch's_Ignore_List) walking to the edge of the Star City Bridge with a hopeful smile or conference realignment discussions @Hedgeman to fill the unavoidable dead air until STAGE FIVE starts. Lately, we have been more of an Infowars site with a view Rachel Maddow viewers chiming to balance the oft Red-hued Blue Lot. The saga with Coach Koennig and Pubic Enemy Number 1 @CapCougarKM made the STAGE FOUR Blue Lot pretty unreadable for a three month period. As we saw with @coalcountry52 , some folks go on a sabbatical from the Blue Lot and spend time with family. Others use it to hone in on their Blue Lot neurosis and choose to be more miserable or pump sunshine (@HPeer .)
With either choice, strap in, fellas.... It is a long way to STAGE FIVE and breathing is the key. And lately, we got a lot of mother ****ers holding their breath in this bitch.
STAGE FIVE - After a very long wait in STAGE FOUR where the Blue Lot mind plays tricks on you, we evolve into STAGE FIVE which is represented in the late summer by the COVID-delayed start of fall camp. This is characterized by a deep longing for anything sports related. We are thirstier than an 18 year old boy on Tinder on his iPhone while watching porn on his iPad. We need something.
Any news is deemed positive and we are excited for players to be enrolled (Thanks, @bobhertzel'ssweatpants for student directory updates...) and for freshman to move into Towers. This is mostly highlighted by the players running Law School hill for Mike Joseph (Polar Bears !) and summer camp starting for news and information from any source.
Out of the 7 stages, this is one of the most positive and uplifting stages of the off-season neurosis program. We are in unprecedented territory with COVID-19 (fake pandemic) and the amount of positive news may be destroyed with the uncertainty of the virus and the public response. In general, people are looking for anything and even the suicide bunch can look past their daily MO and type some good news and a few of them have even smiled and nodded in agreement with the resident sunshine pumpers (e.g. @HPeer .)
STAGE SIX - As summer camp progresses, the information from Morgantown swells more than the traffic during "move in" weekend. We are getting hit with so much information from the Blue Lot staffers (welcome @jaredserre ) that it is hard to keep up with the articles, videos, and interviews. At this point, we have begun setting up hotel reservations for the CFP locations and started planning the trip to Dallas in the second week of December.
We quietly glance over the schedule and etch out anywhere from 9-10 wins depending on the health of Saban's OL down the stretch. We have already acknowledged a great season and are just wondering "how great ??" It is also during this phase that we work on the depth chart and notice that we may deeper at all positions than any SEC team can shake a stick at. We remind ourselves that ESPN hates us... and we clearly admonish any fans from any other teams to ignore the talking heads and listen to us.
We are adamant and resolute in our feelings in STAGE SIX and even the most negative (i.e. realistic) of the Blue Lot bunch can even see how the team can reach these lofty standards. In this being our most optimistic STAGE of the off-season, this period is filled with hallucination, vivid dream scenarios of big wins, superstitious behavior, and delusion. Essentially, the word "fanatic" stems from STAGE SIX.... and as our fearless leader @Vernon once quipped, "Fans are gonna be fans... just let them be.... It ain't changing."
STAGE SEVEN - The final stage in this epic missive is littered with paranoia, worry, doubt, and negativity. It could be further exacerbated by bad news with the season, positive cases, mortality rates, coughs, sniffles, etc.. Roughly one week before the opening kickoff, the entire Blue Lot takes a major turn for the worst. All summer, we have quasi happily bonded (as much as we can here in this dysfunctional family) and created good will for the upcoming season. We have mapped out how we can back into the College Football Playoffs. We laugh at the pre-season magazines and the low rankings. In the past (pre-COVID,) we have spent May, June, July, and August becoming ONE fan base. Nowadays, hating each other "goes together like peas and carrots." ~ Forrest Gump, All-American Kick Returner, University of Alabama, 1966
With the season nearly here and the depth chart set, the fan base becomes more paranoid and reactive than Hunter S. Thompson on a quick breather to Vegas. We start worrying that James Gmiter (on an already turrible OL) will not get enough sleep because his infant daughter keeps him up at night crying with an ear infection. We get worried that Vandarius Cowan will hurt his shoulder jumping on the PRT at the Beechhurst Station. We build negative scenarios and can quickly find 6 losses on the schedule because Dante Stills was NOT at the photo shoot at the Children's Hospital which obviously means he is transferring.
In summary, it is a crazy ride during the off-season with a lot of ebbs and flows... but, the last week tests our collective patience as a fan base as we look to exorcise the demons of squinting coaches, haphazard mad scientist decisions, and prodigal sons that need to stay the hell in Arizona (or at the Wonder Bar.)
