I was at the gym yesterday and saw that Pitt vs. UCLA was on one of the tv's. I silently cheered when UCLA went ahead with under a minute left. And almost threw up when Pitt came back to win. I remember, not so long ago, I would go to the Pitt board and read their comments questioning why Pitt could not be more like WVU. Why Pitt could not hire good coaches. Why Pitt could not get a good athletic director. Why Pitt did not have a Provost that actually cared about athletics and winning. Why Pitt was so far behind WVU in almost every athletic category. And, of course, I would read the usual refrains that Pitt was so much better academically which hurt their ability to compete with us. And I would attend those rivalry games knowing we may not have the better talent, but we had the better coaching.
And now, the tables have completely reversed. Pitt is beating UCLA in a bowl game and we are sitting at home. Pitt fans are optimistic about their program and we are not. Pitt fans still stink and they rarely get close to filling the Steelers' stadium, but they have a decent coach, win a fair share of their games and go to bowls. And we are not.
It is a tough time to be a Mountaineer football fan. And watching Pitt win a bowl game is almost too painful. On the optimistic side, we won't stay down for much longer, imo. Brown has one year left and given the dearth of talent on the team, I expect this upcoming season will be his last. I am still rooting for him to somehow, someway, turn it around. But that is a massive hill to climb.
After next season, the buyout will be lower. And perhaps our major donors will step up even bigger given just how irrelevant we have become. And this hopefully leads to a high quality hire with enough NIL support to enable us to start competing. Doing anything less is too depressing to think about.
And now, the tables have completely reversed. Pitt is beating UCLA in a bowl game and we are sitting at home. Pitt fans are optimistic about their program and we are not. Pitt fans still stink and they rarely get close to filling the Steelers' stadium, but they have a decent coach, win a fair share of their games and go to bowls. And we are not.
It is a tough time to be a Mountaineer football fan. And watching Pitt win a bowl game is almost too painful. On the optimistic side, we won't stay down for much longer, imo. Brown has one year left and given the dearth of talent on the team, I expect this upcoming season will be his last. I am still rooting for him to somehow, someway, turn it around. But that is a massive hill to climb.
After next season, the buyout will be lower. And perhaps our major donors will step up even bigger given just how irrelevant we have become. And this hopefully leads to a high quality hire with enough NIL support to enable us to start competing. Doing anything less is too depressing to think about.
