It just occurred to me ......

[eers-to-ya]

WV has been playing football for 125 yrs., + or - a couple, as an independent, in the Southern Conf. and in the Big East and has a winning % just under .700, averaging about 7 wins a year; yet I had great hopes WV would be a major player in the BigXII immediately. Nothing wrong with hoping, but, too high expectations only lead to disappointment. Now that the Mounties are in a major conference maybe the chance to attract better recruits and build depth will, in time, increase that winning % and allow them to be competitive year in and year out. Or, maybe not. The point is, time, and only time, will tell. Is it frustrating? Hell yeah. Especially at my age, when each passing year diminishes the chances I will live to see a natty in football. But, "que sera sera". The above stats are not news to me and probably not to most of you, but the euphoria of the Pat White years, the Orange Bowl tromping of Clemson and the first five games of the initial BigXII season kind of made me forget them. Well, in the wake of the last 3 games I've taken the rose colored glasses off and settled in to enjoy the rest of the season as best I can, win or lose, a Mountaineer fan forever. Now, have at me all you who believe WV is or can soon (please note the qualifier) be a national power.

 

[MountaineerWV]

Yeah. Lower our expectations of championships established by our previous AD who everyone loved and agreed with. Rich Rod had us close, had us at the pinnacle. Since then, we have fallen off drastically. Sorry, but Baylor was dead to the world about 6-7 years ago. K-State was NOTHING before Snyder. TCU was in a mid-major (Mountain West) and look at them now. Utah was, too.

But, yeah, let's lower the expectation and be happy with 7 wins.

 

[Orlaco]

You lost me at 'Mounties'... ....although seeing such a huge opening post pretty much gave away that you were not just making a comment about something that just occurred to you.

 

[eers-to-ya]

My humble apologies. Should have said "it just re-occurred to me" I guess. Would that better meet your approval? As for "Mounties", I will admit it sounds a bit too Canadian, though I often heard the term in the sixties. Should have said Eers maybe? As for expectations; nowhere in my post did I say those were my expectations. Those are the statistics to date. My only real point is, and to each his own, I've decided not to walk around pissed off for the rest of the season. Things are what they are.

 

[Orlaco]

Fair enough... ...but I prefer to walk around pissed the rest of the season (although I wouldn't be shocked if we won this weekend).

We're a middle of the pack Big 12 team that got stacked against the best in the conference (mostly on the road ) early in the season... ....but it can't be argued that it hurts both our team confidence and the perception the rest of the country has of our program.

 

[torontoeers]

My humble apologies. Should have said "it just re-occurred to me" I guess. Would that better meet your approval? As for "Mounties", I will admit it sounds a bit too Canadian, though I often heard the term in the sixties. Should have said Eers maybe? As for expectations; nowhere in my post did I say those were my expectations. Those are the statistics to date. My only real point is, and to each his own, I've decided not to walk around pissed off for the rest of the season. Things are what they are.

It's all good...we love our 'Mounties' up here! :wink:...but those Mountaineers. ...well I'm with you...I'm not pissed off, but I do expect better...we'll have to make the best of it rest of the year it seems...
[WVU]

 

[MikeRafone]

It was Mounties before you were born, it will be Mounties after you're dead, Lowco.

You're dead on the mark, Eers-to-ya. Seven wins with one or two good runs a decade has always been the pattern at WVU when they play respectable schedules.

People forget Rich made his three big runs against a glorified MAC. As Nehlen said in 2005, "A trained ape could go 8-3 with that schedule." He was right. Don would have been hard pressed to lose a game against that kind of competition. He sure as Hell wouldn't have backed into a season ending shot at the NC against 4-7 Pitt team at home and blown the game.

 

[Orlaco]

It was Mounties before you were born, it will be Mounties after you're dead, Lowco.

You're dead on the mark, Eers-to-ya. Seven wins with one or two good runs a decade has always been the pattern at WVU when they play respectable schedules.

People forget Rich made his three big runs against a glorified MAC. As Nehlen said in 2005, "A trained ape could go 8-3 with that schedule." He was right. Don would have been hard pressed to lose a game against that kind of competition. He sure as Hell wouldn't have backed into a season ending shot at the NC against 4-7 Pitt team at home and blown the game.

Orwhacko....Orlacko(knowledge)....Orhacko.... ....are slightly clever. Lowco, not so much.

I'm pretty damn old and in person I've NEVER heard anyone refer to our team as the Mounties.... ....And if it happens in the future I'll verbally bitch slap the person.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

It was Mounties before you were born, it will be Mounties after you're dead, Lowco.

You're dead on the mark, Eers-to-ya. Seven wins with one or two good runs a decade has always been the pattern at WVU when they play respectable schedules.

People forget Rich made his three big runs against a glorified MAC. As Nehlen said in 2005, "A trained ape could go 8-3 with that schedule." He was right. Don would have been hard pressed to lose a game against that kind of competition. He sure as Hell wouldn't have backed into a season ending shot at the NC against 4-7 Pitt team at home and blown the game.

Supporters of RR & Stewart conveniently forget how weak the schedule was when they were here. Not only did 3 of the better programs defect to the ACC, but most of the remaining Big East schools were fighting the image problem of a dying conference and thus were extremely weak (Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn).

Nehlen's winning percentage wasn't that much better than Holgorsen and he was here for 20 years. Dana will occasionally need to achieve some 9 and 10 win seasons to be here that long, but he has demonstrated that his teams can be competitive with wins over Clemson, Texas, OSU, Pitt, TCU, Baylor, etc.

 

[MikeRafone]

Orwhacko....Orlacko(knowledge)....Orhacko.... ....are slightly clever. Lowco, not so much.

I'm pretty damn old and in person I've NEVER heard anyone refer to our team as the Mounties.... ....And if it happens in the future I'll verbally bitch slap the person.

Lowco, or Loco describes you to a "T". It's too bad you don't have the grey matter of squirrel, you might have appreciated it. Perhaps I should have went with ignoramus, you're a textbook example.

You must have went deaf at very young age. I've been attending WVU games since the early 60's and it's always been Mountaineers or Mounties until that eer foolishness started after the '81 Peach Bowl. In fact you once commented to me on this forum that the fan base didn't like the name Mounties, so you must have heard it, or it wouldn't get under your skin as it obviously does. Your memory must be failing you.

I'm sure you're quite good at trying to bitch slap someone. You certainly meet the criteria of a bitch in all it's definitions.

BTW, how many sock puppets do you hide behind to spew your venom here? Cowardice of that level must be crippling for you. Perhaps you should consider seeing someone about your issues?

Good luck with your goal being the premier drama queen and attention whore of the internet. I'm rooting for you.

Go Mounties!

 

[jpf578]

Yeah. Lower our expectations of championships established by our previous AD who everyone loved and agreed with. Rich Rod had us close, had us at the pinnacle. Since then, we have fallen off drastically. Sorry, but Baylor was dead to the world about 6-7 years ago. K-State was NOTHING before Snyder. TCU was in a mid-major (Mountain West) and look at them now. Utah was, too.

But, yeah, let's lower the expectation and be happy with 7 wins.

So didn't Dandy Don. If you can't be a realist and recognize we will never be a national power, then you'll just walk around pissed at the world. Any Texas team can recruit better because of the location.

 

[Orlaco]

Lowco, or Loco describes you to a "T". It's too bad you don't have the grey matter of squirrel, you might have appreciated it. Perhaps I should have went with ignoramus, you're a textbook example.

You must have went deaf at very young age. I've been attending WVU games since the early 60's and it's always been Mountaineers or Mounties until that eer foolishness started after the '81 Peach Bowl. In fact you once commented to me on this forum that the fan base didn't like the name Mounties, so you must have heard it, or it wouldn't get under your skin as it obviously does. Your memory must be failing you.

Good luck with your goal being the premier drama queen and attention whore of the internet. I'm rooting for you.

Go Mounties!

I see I've upset you again. Perhaps a few more personal insults make you feel that it adds validity to your post...which is fine by me...as I actually enjoy your emotional outbursts.

I did write that I don't like the Eers referenced as Mounties after a tv broadcaster, which I should have clarified, used the term (never from a WVU fan I've met in person).....just like I don't like hearing 'Neers. Sure, I see it used on forums from time to time but usually just part of a posting alias.

Maybe Mounties was used in the past.....but there's a good reason it's a reference that's all but dead. A Mounty (or Mountie) has absolutely nothing to do with WV, WVU, or our mascot.

....maybe if our school was located in Canada it would make some sense.....

 

[GoWVU]

I don't know anything about the history, but personally I've always thought the various shortened forms of our nickname were all terrible and have never once used any of them.

We're the Mountaineers, not a bunch of Canadian cops or severed Van Gogh body parts.[cheers]

 

[Low Mountains Drifter]

The thing with Nehlen is that even though his first season was only very slightly better than Cignetti's last in term of record (very similar to Holgorsen's first being a very slight improvement over Stewart's last), anyone with eyeballs and a more than superficial understanding of the game could see that the team was better coached, more focused, more disciplined and that Nehlen had a better grasp of how to use the personnel to maximum advantage.

Then, of course, he went 35-13 over the next four years and won 3 bowl games when it was much harder just to make a bowl game. During those first 5 years, he beat Penn St. for the 1st time in 28 years, beat Pitt twice when Pitt was still a very good program and chalked up big wins over Florida, Oklahoma, ranked Maryland and BC teams, etc.

It was undebatable that he elevated the program substantially. By the time he had any struggles, he had earned his stripes many times over. No one who calls himself a Mountaineer should ever think about denigrating what Don Nehlen did for our program. Period!

 

[Low Mountains Drifter]

This might not be one of the great controversies of our epoch but, "Mountie" is short for mounted, as in Mounted Police. O No one ever called a real life mountain man or woman a mountie.

I hate 'Eer because it came into vogue when some people ripped off UGA's, "how bout them dawgs," and needed a monosyllabic nickname to fit the meter. It's dumb sounding and unoriginal.

 

[VaultHunter]

West Virginia University Mountaineers

West Ontario University Mounties

Not the same

 

[Orlaco]

West Virginia University Mountaineers

West Ontario University Mounties

Not the same

Did we just agree about something...

...or is this yet another 'misunderstanding' ??

 

[82EE]

Mounties has been used in both official, and unofficial instances as a nickname for the "Mountaineers" sports teams @ West Virginia University for decades. Those of you that actually attended WVU, you may (should) remember that the WVU Student Handbook, provided to you when you enrolled, is named "The Mountie" and has been for a long, long, time. The Debit Card that is provided to current WVU students has bonus $$ provided to them officially know as "Mountie Bounty". Mounties occurs in numerous written accounts over the years and was often used by Jack Fleming in his flowery descriptions. It has been used as a nickname for a much longer period of time than "Neers", or "Eers". It is still used today by WVU "spirit" squads. If you have a personal problem with it fine, don't use it. But anyone that want to use it has many years of history behind them. I have used "Mounties" in the past and will use "Mounties" in the future, sorry if it offends anyone (it should not) - but I am not going to stop.

http://wvucard.wvu.edu/mboffcampus

http://www.worldcat.org/title/mountie-a-complete-a-z-guide-for-the-wvu-student/oclc/575710297

"
Maryland @ West Virginia 3:00 PM Eastern Fox Sports 1

This is one of those rivalry games that everyone on both sides of the field gets up for and it promises to be a high scoring affair. The Mountaineers have the potential to do some damage in the Big 12 this year if they can maintain the edge they have shown thus far. Skyler Howard leads the nation's most efficient passing attack, but he has yet to face a defense the caliber of the one he will find waiting from Maryland. The Terps are getting it together on offense as well. If Caleb Rowe can keep from throwing passes to the greedy WVU defense this one will be interesting. I'll take the Mounties this time, but it will be much closer than the nearly two touchdown spread some experts are giving."

 

[eers-to-ya]

Thank you 82EE.

 

[MikeRafone]

Well, isn't this interesting. I go away for a day, our resident dog shows it has no bite, and 82EE has the pictures to disprove the pup's original point. Rough day for the doggy.