First the bad news. I was planning an elaborate celebration to commemorate the record number of comments and e-mails from this week, but Mark Richt never got back to me. Now the good news. It’s Friday, which not only means the weekend is imminent and ESPN can only suffocate us with Colts-Patriots hype for two more days, but that it’s time for Friday Feedback.
As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, I’m getting pretty good at Ctrl-V.
Joe says:
Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out… this is the best Mountaineer team ever. I don’t think anyone would expect this team to lose to the New England Patriots as badly as the 1993 team lost to the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl.
If Patrick White got hurt on the first series of the national championship game, I think this year’s Mountaineer team would be better off than the 1989 Fiesta Bowl team.
If this year’s Mountaineer team would have played the 2005 team early in the season, it would beat it by at least 40 points. That team, while great at the end of the season, was less than mediocre at the beginning and was lucky that its schedule was cupcake-filled early (not to mention the Big East was attrocious that year).
This team has a great offense and a great defense and the only things that can keep it from running the table are:
1. not getting the “breaks†(like Matt Grothe escaping a tackle and then finding a wide open receiver in the end zone) or the center deciding he doesn’t know how to snap the ball every time they get near the end zone.
2. injuries (like Steve Slaton fumbling two or three times before pulling himself out of a game).
I don’t think West Virginia will get into the national championship game just because there are too many teams ahead of them… but I think it’s entirely possible that the Mountaineers are actually the best team in the country this year… which is the only time that has ever happen in the history of college football. Â
For starters, this team has a chance to submit a claim as the best ever and I’ll be careful to keep this topic away from Mickey Furfari, who is quite fond of yesteryear. I think the one thing you see from these Mountaineers that you didn’t always see from others is a cocky competitiveness. They know they’re very good and they know they can play. As such, you really don’t expect this team to leave it in the locker room because they absolutely believe they’ll play well enough to win every game. Obviously, it doesn’t work out that way, but it’s not for a lack of effort. In fact, that shows in what we’re seeing. WVU fell early in the season, but did not fold and has responded so impressively that it finds itself right in the position most people thought they could not rediscover. Remember the loss to Boston College in 2004 with everything on the line? That just doesn’t seem as likely this year and WVU would be more apt to hammer someone when it matters.
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