Sunday Morning Thoughts: It's About to Get Real
After a slow start to Thursday night's game, the West Virginia Mountaineers did what they were supposed to do against a rebuilding Virginia Tech team, blow them out. West Virginia's offensive line completely dominated the line of scrimmage which led to the team rushing for 10.2 yards per carry for the game, allowing OC Graham Harrell to do whatever he wanted against the Hokies.
Beating a rival and doing so in convincing fashion makes everyone feel good, as it should. But beating an inferior FCS opponent in Towson and Virginia Tech isn't going to be enough to keep everyone happy. Is this mini two-game winning streak fool's gold or have the Mountaineers really figured things out? I would tend to believe the latter considering Kansas is 4-0 and seems to be legit for the first time in well over a decade.
That said, these next three games will say a lot about where this program really is; at Texas, home against Baylor, and on the road against Texas Tech - a team Neal Brown has yet to beat.
"The story of our downturn was exaggerated," said head coach Neal Brown. "Pitt was a good football team. We had a chance to win. As a coach, you look back and say that [pick-six] was a fluke play. All the other plays, we could have won the game. And Kansas did a nice job. We were kind of our own worst enemy with that late hit on the quarterback. But I knew we were close. We didn't hit the panic button. I really like our staff. I felt good about our team going into the year. We're back to even now. We have a big trip down to Austin for another big-time atmosphere."
Was the downturn really exaggerated, though? We'll see. I'm of the belief that the outcome of this season will be determined by what we see over the next three weeks. Does the winning continue and we see WVU sitting at 5-2 with a legit shot to make it to Dallas for the Big 12 Championship game? Or could a road loss at Texas derail all the momentum and confidence that was gained over the past two weeks?
It's about to get real and we'll find out how good this team is.
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