That bowl game did not go very well, but time passes and things, for the most part, start anew when all the bowl games are complete. West Virginia has no upcoming business with anyone still playing, and already there’s some news that allows you to at least project a little bit.

Let’s begin at the beginning. WVU’s Week One opponent is Virginia Tech. The Hokies were enjoying perhaps the best momentum this side of USC and Alabama/Clemson with the way the season ended.

The story is very much different now. The Hokies just lost their three best offensive players to the NFL Draft. It’s difficult to paint an optimistic picture here apart from the fact Justin Fuente is in charge.

He’s experienced turnover and graduation and still put a pretty good offensive product on the field ever since he started as a coordinator. The system is a big thing in all of this. Yes, you need someone to run it. And finding a capable quarterback is going to be a big deal in the upcoming months. And yes, more talented players helps, so losing guys like Ford and Hodges is a setback. But the scheme has succeeded for many years because it’s well-designed and flexible to adjust to the talents of the roster. In some years, Fuente’s teams have passed more. In others, they’ve run more. This year, the quarterback took on a larger role running the ball because the Hokies couldn’t simply line up and run it down people’s throats in a traditional manner. That may change as the personnel does. The point is, Fuente usually finds a way to adapt his offense to make it successful. His year-long comments about not caring which ballcarriers gets carries as long as the Hokies get yards rankled some, particularly some of the more old-school Virginia Tech fans who wanted to see a featured running back, because that’s the way it had always been done around here. But it speaks to Fuente’s larger attitude about offense: it doesn’t matter if certain individuals are racking up big yards. It matters if the offense does, no matter who’s doing it. This just might test Fuente’s ability to find different ways to move the ball.

Inside the Big 12, Oklahoma walloped Auburn, and Bob Stoops thumped the Big 12 tattoo on his chest at the expense of another SEC team, but I have to think Oklahoma State will be the preseason favorite. Mason Rudolph and James Washington are coming back, and one or the other or both will get some Heisman hype in the offseason. After that? It’s interesting.

Samaje Perine is leaving Oklahoma. Baker Mayfield is coming back and Joe Mixon is undecided, and I can’t imagine why he’d come back to put up with more of the scrutiny he’s put up with for a while now when he can just go and be Tyrek Hill on a 53-man roster in the NFL. (Dede Westbrook is a senior.)

Texas Tech is losing Pat Mahomes early, and that really puts Kliff Kingsbury on the hot seat, doesn’t it? Texas will be without D’Onta Foreman and Baylor will be without K.D. Cannon.

That’s just early entries, and more of those, as well as transfers, could follow and further shape the look of the league and the offseason.