Sunday Morning Thoughts: The Bar Has Been Raised

Recapping West Virginia's win over Baylor.

Winning in college football isn't easy. Winning eight games in a year where you were picked to finish dead last in your conference is an impressive feat, no matter how "easy" the schedule may have been. 

Throughout West Virginia's lifetime in the Big 12, they've had several bad breaks, challenging stretches of games, and in some circumstances were put at a disadvantage. This bunch could have thrown in the towel after losing back-to-back games to Houston and Oklahoma, especially after losing those games the way they did. But they didn't. They could have let the replay of the Houston game pop up in their heads during last night's game. But they didn't. 

This was a resilient group that fought, scratched, and clawed its way to eight wins. It may not have been pretty and it may have been a relatively favorable conference schedule, but it doesn't matter. You are what your record says you are, as Bill Parcells would always say.

In previous offseasons, Neal Brown didn't have much to pitch to recruits in the transfer portal except for potential. Now, he has concrete evidence that he and his staff can win football games in Morgantown. The one thing I can promise you is that those transfers that will be considering WVU will not do a deep dive of the 2023 schedule and say, you know what, if they had played Texas, K-State, Kansas, and Iowa State, I bet they wouldn't have made a bowl game. There's not a single recruit/transfer out there that does that. They take the record for what it is, they see what pieces the team has coming back and factor that in with their potential role.

The other part of this is it raises the bar from within. Wren Baker and Gordon Gee can continue on with Brown as the head coach in 2024, but with everything the Mountaineers should have returning, there's no reason that this team can't be in the mix for a spot in the Big 12 Championship game. Any significant step backward will then prove that this year was a factor of the favorable schedule and that Neal Brown is not the right coach. 

I fully understand not hopping on the Neal Brown train yet because honestly, I'm still unsure if he's the right guy or not. But the beauty of it all is 2024 is going to give us that answer. This will be the first time Brown will have a true answer at quarterback entering the season and have a solid young nucleus of offensive skill players to build around. It's about to be a long, long basketball season so enjoy the wins while you can.

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