It may be folly to get ahead of oneself, but I am not a football player, nor am I superstitious, so I'm going to go ahead and do so. The crushing victory over Connecticut propelled the Mountaineers into a virtual dead heat in the polls and BCS standings with Missouri, with Ohio State lagging in third place. Barring a collapse against the Pittsburgh Pussycats, West Virginia is going to the National Championship game in January.
After West Virginia fell to USF and back into a double-digit poll position, the necessary scenarios for WVU to get a berth in the BCS championship game looked too improbable to contemplate for long. After all, early in the season, it didn't even seem guaranteed that an undefeated Mountaineers squad would get the nod over the anticipated perfect seasons of LSU, Oklahoma, et al. Bizarrely, however, those unlikely events have come to pass.
The most important game next week, of course, is against Pitt. I'm sure Wannstadt is salivating over the prospect of a season-redeeming upset that would crush the spirit of his rivals to the south, not to mention give him a reprieve from the angry mob of a fanbase that is *this* close to setting fire to his metaphorical thatched-roof cottage.
But other than the Backyard Brawl, the game to keep an eye on, of course, is the Big 12 championship. An Oklahoma win in that game would allow Ohio State to supplant current #1 Missouri as the other Championship entrant. I'm uncertain which one would provide a more favorable matchup, but my sense is that OU is going to beat Mizzou, and the Buckeyes will get the nod.
If that's the case, there are a few observations I've made lately that may be of relevance to their likely fate if they line up across from the Mountaineers. Essentially, the Big 10 is a conference living in the past in more ways than one. Having browsed some OSU message boards, it appears that many folks in and around Columbus rely on past years' accomplishments as a proxy for current realities. When discussing how OSU would do against West Virginia, their fans point out the fact that West Virginia has never won a championship as a reason that Ohio State would prevail.
West Virginia may never have won a championship, but one thing Ohio State has never done is successfully defend against a decent spread offense. Not to disrespect Juice & Co, but there's a reason that a second-rate spread attack at Illinois has become the second best team in the Big 10. It's not that Illinois is a top-notch team; it's that the Big 10 still thinks it's 1935, and generally hasn't made the necessary defensive modifications to compete with any decent opponent that plays a modern style of college football. Besides Illinois' achievements, look at the success that Oregon had against Michigan. And why do you think Ohio State decided to stop playing Cincinnati? Maybe someone in the program realizes that the Big East's Bearcats are a threat to OSU's intra-Ohio winning streak.
Do I think that a WVU-OSU matchup would be as noncompetitive as Oregon-Michigan? No. But if West Virginia plays Ohio State for the national championship, I think that White, Slaton, Devine, Saunders, Reynaud and all the rest will be licking their chops. I'd go so far to say that Collington might even get a few carries in the Big Easy.
2 comments:
Civil war may break out in the Geek's family. It's a well known fact, the Geek's brother is an OSU sympathist.
He is behind enemy lines that is true, but never question his loyalty to the Mountaineers. In fact my guess is he will respond in kind. He has a similar feeling of contempt for the bind arrogance regarding that program.
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