OUInsider - Owen Field

All the talk you hear about WV is how many people they have coming back and how they beat Clemson in the bowl game. That’s all good and well but when you take a little closer look at last year it brings up more questions than answers about what to expect from them this year.

First take a look at their nonconference games.

Marshall – they won that game 34-13. That’s nice but something to think about is Marshall also lost to Houston 63-28, Ohio 44-7 and Tulsa 59-17. Sure Marshall was 7-6 last year but their wins weren’t all that impressive compared to their losses.

Norfolk St. – they won this game 55-12. It was Norfolk St does anything else need to be said here?

Maryland – they won this game 37-31. All I can say here is that Maryland went 2-10 last year.

LSU – they lost this game 47-21. I would say this game was a reality check.

Bowling Green – they won this game 55-10. I guess they might have been a little upset about the LSU game.

Then we can move on to conference play.

UConn – They won this game 43-16. Good conference win but UConn only went 5-7 last year and didn’t go bowling.

Syracuse – they were blown out by Syracuse 49-23. It wasn’t like Syracuse was all world last year they only went 5-7 and didn’t make it to a bowl.

Rutgers – they won this game 41-31. On paper this was a good win Rutgers went 9-4 last year and looked to be a good but not great team.

Louisville – they lost this game 38-35. Again the lost a game to a weak team with not that much of a record last year (7-6) I don’t know if you can say anything other than they lost another game to a so-so team.

Cinci – they won a close one here 24-21. Cinci was a 10 game winner last year and this week WV won a close game that they should have won.

Pitt – they won a nail bitter here 21-20. Again in this game they had problems with a 6-7 Pitt team that if WV is as advertised they shouldn’t have had that much trouble with.

South Florida – they won this one 30 – 27. Another nail bitter with a 5-7 team what else can you say.

WV won their last three regular season games by a grand total of 7 points against not all that much talent. I know a win is a win but I don’t see where it leads to all the talk about being a contender this year.

Clemson – they won their bowl game 70-33. Great win and hats off to them for taking care of business in this one. Bottom line is that I don’t think they were all that much better than Clemson over all I think this game was a perfect storm and a lot of thing fell their way that always happens in a game with a score like this.

Any college football team can beat any other college football team on any given week. That being said I don’t think there is any argument that WV played in a much weaker conference last year than the one they are going to play in this year. In their losses they ran into a much better team in their loss to LSU. The losses to Syracuse and Louisville are much harder to explain away.

I in all honesty look for them to be much more humble after their first season in the Big-12. They are a good team but it’s going to be much harder to come up with those 10 win seasons when they are going to be playing 5 teams that had 10 or more wins last year plus a very talented Texas team. They will win their fair share of game but I really look for them to end up more in the middle of the pack than at the top of the pack. I may be wrong, after all I was that one other time, but I think they are going to be getting a reality check this year.

As for your question I don’t think we should be buying all the hype about them this year. I may be proven wrong and if so all I can say is I didn’t see it. They are going to be a good team but they are going to be only one of many good teams in a pretty good conference.

I noticed that WVU has become a big topic in various DOK stories and blogs. One of them said that OU got waxed twice by them. I know the bowl game was a bad loss, but the '82 game in Norman wasn't a blowout. Even though the score looks like WVU dominated, as I recall it was a tie game until fairly late. The Hostetlers scored to take the lead with about 4-5 minutes left, then got a garbage-time TD, when the game was 34-27, and OU's defense was trying to "get the strp" on a ball carrier who kept running and scored with about a minute to play.

That was also annoying the next day for me personally, to see some TV news out of Amarillo (when I lived in eastern New Mexico). The guys at KVII-TV were basically gloating over it and called it a "sound beating." They managed to forget that their own station carried the Barry Switzer show on Sunday nights and served the whole Oklahoma Panhandle and several counties west of the Clinton area.