There Is Still Some Good Football

[WarezEER]

There is still some good football to be played by the Mountaineers in 2015. They have a very good team and will win the majority of the remaining games. Understand this: They play Top Tier opponents in this new league. I can promise you this: The games will be exciting and keep us on the edge of our seats! The only sports I give a hoot about is West Virginia Mountaineer sports! Now, get behind the players and the coaches and come on along for the ride.

 

[HurdyGurdyEer]

Gimme some odat pickle juice yer suckin down! I need a shot of optimism!

 

[Cuyahoga Falls Eers]

Look at the remaining schedule after TCU.
After playing Big 12 teams with a combined 24-1 record, WVU will play Big 12 teams with a combined 12-19 record. It doesn't take a genius to see that the final 5 games will have more W's in them than the first 4 Big 12 games. By a lot!


M ighty defense throttled Georgia Southern, 44-0

O utstanding defense obliterated Liberty, 41-17

U nilaterally decimated Maryland, 45-6, on defense and offense

N oxious offense & special teams against Oklahoma, 44-24

T urnovers lose to Oklahoma State, 33-26 in OT despite impressive comeback from 15-point deficit.

A wesome Baylor too much, 62-38.

I nch by TCU

N ip Texas Tech

E scape Texas

E rectile dysfunction Kansas

R oll past Iowa State

S lip past Kansas State

 

[gorats]

You have to expect that TCU will most likely be a loss just as much as Iowa St and Kansas will most likely be victories. That leaves three potentially tough games with Texas, Texas Tech, and K State. If we lose all three of those, then this season is a bust and we probably need to find a new coach. Win just one of those three, and it becomes iffy whether we give Holgerson another year or not. If we win at least two of those three games and end up either 7-5 or 8-4, I'd Holgerson would absolutely get another year.

 

[oceantide83]

There is still some good football to be played by the Mountaineers in 2015. They have a very good team and will win the majority of the remaining games. Understand this: They play Top Tier opponents in this new league. I can promise you this: The games will be exciting and keep us on the edge of our seats! The only sports I give a hoot about is West Virginia Mountaineer sports! Now, get behind the players and the coaches and come on along for the ride.

If WVU has a "very good" team what would you consider the other 50 teams ahead of them in the rankings, including Pitt?

 

[GoWVU]

After playing Big 12 teams with a combined 24-1 record, WVU will play Big 12 teams with a combined 12-19 record.

So you're saying the 5 opponents we play after TCU aren't very good as a group given their collective 12-19 overall record, right, Cuyahoga?

I guess that is fortunate, because in a not-so-surprising coincidence the coach those 5 opponents will be facing has just an 11-19 career record in Big 12 conference play.

 

[Cuyahoga Falls Eers]

So you're saying the 5 opponents we play after TCU aren't very good as a group given their collective 12-19 overall record, right, Cuyahoga?

I guess that is fortunate, because in a not-so-surprising coincidence the coach those 5 opponents will be facing has just an 11-19 career record in Big 12 conference play.

Let's re-visit this discussion Dec. 6 and see who has egg on his face. Shall we?

Yes, the 5 opponents WVU plays after TCU aren't nearly as good as the 4 WVU will have played after the TCU game. NO ONE can dispute that with a straight face. So the door will be open for WVU to go 5-0 or 4-1 in those 5 games. If not, then maybe I'll hold the tar and feathers for you when you ring Dana's door.

M ighty defense throttled Georgia Southern, 44-0

O utstanding defense obliterated Liberty, 41-17

U nilaterally decimated Maryland, 45-6, on defense and offense

N oxious offense & special teams against Oklahoma, 44-24

T urnovers lose to Oklahoma State, 33-26 in OT despite impressive comeback from 15-point deficit.

A wesome Baylor too much, 62-38.

I nch by TCU

N ip Texas Tech

E scape Texas

E rectile dysfunction Kansas

R oll past Iowa State

S lip past Kansas State

 

[TruWVblu]

Look at the remaining schedule after TCU.
After playing Big 12 teams with a combined 24-1 record, WVU will play Big 12 teams with a combined 12-19 record. It doesn't take a genius to see that the final 5 games will have more W's in them than the first 4 Big 12 games. By a lot!


M ighty defense throttled Georgia Southern, 44-0

O utstanding defense obliterated Liberty, 41-17

U nilaterally decimated Maryland, 45-6, on defense and offense

N oxious offense & special teams against Oklahoma, 44-24

T urnovers lose to Oklahoma State, 33-26 in OT despite impressive comeback from 15-point deficit.

A wesome Baylor too much, 62-38.

I nch by TCU

N ip Texas Tech

E scape Texas

E rectile dysfunction Kansas

R oll past Iowa State

S lip past Kansas State

This post speaks volumes about the state of our program. You are fine with our team having a chance to win enough games to finish at the middle of our conference. By the way...that is not given. There is a good chance we lose to Kansas State, Texas, and Texas Tech. I should also remind you that we are the only conference team that Kansas has beaten in the past 4 years and they are getting better.

 

[eers1foru]

Wonder where all of that moral victory talk is? The kind that abounded after the Alabama loss. Fans as a majority want Dana's head on a stick. Hoping to beat the doormats of the Big XII to fight our way to mediocrity isn't what they had in mind when OL sent the turnip thief packing. TCU, K-State and Texas will beat us. That means we have to look to lowly Kansas and Iowa state for some victories. So yet again at the end of the season we will have beaten no more than three power five teams with a winning record. Not three ranked teams. Teams with a winning record. How can anyone say we are getting better? This is a carbon copy of the 2012 season! Only the dates of the games have changed.

 

[MikeRafone]

Stop making sense Warez, you're scaring me.

 

[BornAgainEer]

At the beginning of the season I predicted WVU would go 8-4. The heartbreaker against OSU makes 7-5 more likely. With a bowl win we are an 8-5 team. Is it great? No. Respectable? Hell yes. I guess some of these fans weren't around for the Nehlen years when we prayed for a bowl victory. Must be the new generation of what have you done for me lately.

 

[GoWVU]

So the door will be open for WVU to go 5-0 or 4-1 in those 5 games.

Heck, the door is still open to finish 10-3 and assuage most of our doubts...but I think we're all smart enough to know that isn't going to happen.

I would phrase it and evaluate it another way, Cuyahoga. We have a coach whose last 3 teams all faded badly in November. By an amazing quirk of scheduling, we draw all of the 5 mediocre-to-bad Big 12 opponents after October this year--each of whom has already shown serious flaws equal to or worse than our own.

In other words, if Holgorsen can't finish 5-0 or 4-1 in conference play against those schools then when is he ever going to do that against anyone in the Big 12?

That's the actual predicament we are facing here. To ever make noise in the Big 12 race and have a serious chance at winning it one day, that achievement by definition is going to require several mathematical stretches of being able to go 5-0, 4-1, and even better...and not just against the bad conference teams, but the good ones as well.

If Holgorsen can't start showing it in November against this incredibly lucky sequence of schools, then the most likely reason is because he lacks the ability to do so. If not now, when?

 

[Low Mountains Drifter]

You have to expect that TCU will most likely be a loss just as much as Iowa St and Kansas will most likely be victories. That leaves three potentially tough games with Texas, Texas Tech, and K State. If we lose all three of those, then this season is a bust and we probably need to find a new coach. Win just one of those three, and it becomes iffy whether we give Holgerson another year or not. If we win at least two of those three games and end up either 7-5 or 8-4, I'd Holgerson would absolutely get another year.

I fully agree with your 1st two sentences. At 7-5 (4-5, conference), though, I think we need to look at how we looked. If we win 2 squeakers among UT, TTU and KSU not because we are playing better but because they manage to be more mistake-prone and inefficient than we are, I will see it differently than if we win two well-played ballgames. We have to consider that a 4-5 conference record will represent a step backwards from last season even though the overall record is identical (Alabama > Georgia Southern). It would also mean we have posted losing conference records 3 of our 4 Big 12 seasons and have an overall conference record of 15-21.

That would be 15 wins when we have played Kansas, ISU and TTU a total of 12 times. Just winning less than 10 of those games is underachieving, and even if we win all three of them this year we would only be 8-4 in those games. There are numerous non-Power 5 teams that could equal that.

We would also be 7-17 against the rest of the conference. You can talk all you want about how tough the Big 12 is but winning less than 1 out of 3 against the top half of this conference is "unspinnable" into anything but poor. And, let's be honest, Texas has been way down since we joined, Oklahoma has been down compared to its history, TCU has had 1 1/2 good seasons, OSU is a slightly above average program and only Baylor has managed to put together (assuming it finishes strong) three straight good years.

If we were 10-2 against the bottom 3 and say even 10-14 against the top 6, I could see believing we have not seriously underachieved. but, in a league with 2 cupcakes a year, averaging only 3.7 wins a year is not good.

 

[dolemitebmf]

At the beginning of the season I predicted WVU would go 8-4. The heartbreaker against OSU makes 7-5 more likely. With a bowl win we are an 8-5 team. Is it great? No. Respectable? Hell yes. I guess some of these fans weren't around for the Nehlen years when we prayed for a bowl victory. Must be the new generation of what have you done for me lately.

I would settle for 8-5, if we start making progress, and have something to build on, for next year...

 

[countryroads89]

If WVU has a "very good" team what would you consider the other 50 teams ahead of them in the rankings, including Pitt?

Pitt hasn't played anyone yet. They only have two top 25 teams on their entire schedule and one of them is Duke.

Start following college football if you are going to post here.

 

[Low Mountains Drifter]

I don't think we should wait for the Bowl game. If we're going to keep Dana make the call in early December and remove the weight on the team preparing for the Bowl and avoid hindering recruiting at a crucial time by having a coach whose status is up in the air.

If we are going to fire him, make a clean break, let an interim coach a pretty meaningless game. Get the new guy without risk he'll accept another job while we're twiddling around, let the new guy have as much time as possible to get his recruiting done and begin planning for 2016, and to be fair, give players who might want to leave if he is fired more time to find a new team.

 

[Rootmaster]

When does the "new league" excuse end? this year? year 10? ever?

 

[oceantide83]

When does the "new league" excuse end? this year? year 10? ever?

My guess is that it won't end until WVU wins the league. We might be waiting a while.

 

[GoWVU]

Agreed that the excuse will continue to be used dishonestly by apologists long past its actual expiration date.

I fail to see how it could have any application beyond this season.

This year's redshirt seniors signed in the spring of 2011. I can understand a little doubt lingering in their minds at the time whether legal obstacles would block our exit from the Big East, but by the spring of 2012 after the Orange Bowl that was no longer the case.

Those spring 2012 signees will be next season's redshirt seniors, and they've known all along they were signing up for Big 12 duty.

 

[VaultHunter]

Is the "New League" an excuse or reality?

My god some of you are really lost.

 

[WarezEER]

Pitt hasn't played anyone yet. They only have two top 25 teams on their entire schedule and one of them is Duke.

Start following college football if you are going to post here.

Heck......................if you match 50 very good teams up and play 25 games..........................25 teams go home with a win and the other 25 teams go home with a loss. I figured this out a long time ago. There just ain't enough wins to go around these days. Never will be! And I ain't gonna put up with it any longer! The question becomes............'are the losing teams no longer 'very good' teams even if the games are played close? You know the answer. YES they are!

 

[countryroads89]

Heck......................if you match 50 very good teams up and play 25 games..........................25 teams go home with a win and the other 25 teams go home with a loss. I figured this out a long time ago. There just ain't enough wins to go around these days. Never will be! And I ain't gonna put up with it any longer! The question becomes............'are the losing teams no longer 'very good' teams even if the games are played close? You know the answer. YES they are!

Two, is half of four, which is the number of top 25 teams we play in October alone.

 

[TruWVblu]

At the beginning of the season I predicted WVU would go 8-4. The heartbreaker against OSU makes 7-5 more likely. With a bowl win we are an 8-5 team. Is it great? No. Respectable? Hell yes. I guess some of these fans weren't around for the Nehlen years when we prayed for a bowl victory. Must be the new generation of what have you done for me lately.

First of all, Don Nehlen built this program. By year 5 in his tenure at WVU we had more than enough evidence that he was a very good head coach. We do not have the same with Holgorsen. He has done nothing at this point to show he will be successful at this level.

 

[BornAgainEer]

First of all, Don Nehlen built this program. By year 5 in his tenure at WVU we had more than enough evidence that he was a very good head coach. We do not have the same with Holgorsen. He has done nothing at this point to show he will be successful at this level.

When you find a head coach with proven success at this level willing to coach WVU let me know. I am not talking about pie in the sky delusional coaching hires either. Please proceed. This is fun.

 

[Low Mountains Drifter]

How much proven success at this level did Urban Meyer have when he took over at Utah? How much did Saban have when he took over at MSU? Art Briles when he took over at Baylor? Jim Harbaugh when he took over at Stanford? I could obviously go on forever.

A word of advice. If the only argument you have is a truly stupid one, it's better to say nothing at all. If you feel a compelling need to say something, at least be clever enough to subtly change the subject to one where you have something to say that isn't ridiculous.

 

[BornAgainEer]

You are upset. When you calm down and can proceed without the name calling please provide for the board the next Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Art Briles or Jim Harbaugh that is going to come to WVU and lead us to the promise land.

 

[Low Mountains Drifter]

Again, saying something stupid hurts your cause. The point isn't whether anyone can predict in advance that a particular person will or won't become a good or great coach. No one is arguing anyone is clairvoyant.

What people with brain waves at a measurable frequency, an understanding of the subject and FIVE YEARS EXPOSURE can tell is when the person in the position is not a good coach.

 

[WVex-pat in GA]

Mark Stoops.

 

[countryroads89]

Mark Stoops.

No thanks.

 

[WVex-pat in GA]

LOL!