WVU's preseason ranking

#5
#5
Haha yeah the media hates us so we have to prove everyone wrong. Good thing is when UT is underdog we always (mostly) outperform. But if we beat WV the. I say we jump just a spot or two , bc as I said the media hates Ut and wants us to somewhat fail. If you’re not a OSU ,USC, Bama, gator, or Mich fan you're just crap.
 
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#6
#6
Haha yeah the media hates us so we have to prove everyone wrong. Good thing is when UT is underdog we always (mostly) outperform. But if we beat WV the. I say we jump just a spot or two , bc as I said the media hates Ut and wants us to somewhat fail. If you’re not a OSU ,USC, Bama, gator, or Mich fan your just crap.

Personality grammar disorder?
 
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#10
#10
SI says #10 ... Coaches say #20 ... CBS Sports says #20 ... Steele says not in his top 25 ... ESPN FPI says #39 ... AP hasn't said anything yet.

So they're kind of all over the map. The higher the better, of course, because we want to gain as much respect as possible when we beat them. :)

Almost certain that AP and Coaches will drop WVa from the Top 25 after they lose their first game. Very little chance the Vols get ranked from that game, either.

But if we're 3-0 going into the Florida match, and we win that, THEN we'll appear in the polls for the first time this season (sadly, very unlikely we'll stay there long, with the gauntlet approaching).

Go Vols!
 
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#12
#12
What’s really crazy is that SI has them preseason #10.. I’m guessing Grier’s Heisman potential has a lot to do with it ? Just don’t see it based on last year’s record and getting smoked by Utah in their bowl game..

SI's Preseason Top 25: Clemson claims the top spot

I can understand why you would say that but it's not that simple. Had Grier not gotten hurt I think we would have finished out 2-1 instead of 0-3. We would have beaten TX and probably Utah. I say probably Utah only because we lost 7-8 starters for that game. Holgs abandoned his offense early when he realized we were incapable of performing with the players we had left and ran the wildcat for most of the game, something I don't think we did more than 5 times all year. With Grier we beat Utah. There's no way we would have beaten OK, even with Grier. That would have made us 9-4 and Grier would have ranked even higher based on stats. Grier is that good. Check out his highlights below.

Add in that there are multiple people saying we may have one of the best WR corps in the country and I don't think there is any worry we won't be better than last year offensively. IMO there's one reason for the diversity of the predictions. I think a Magic 8 Ball has a better chance of predicting what we will be able to do on defense than our coaches do. We don't recruit anywhere near where you all do or even near the top of the Big 12. We need some help on D to step up. Holgs tried hard to plug holes with grad transfers this offseason but our DC has to piece it all together, something he's excelled at...and failed miserably at in the past. Our season will be derrtermined by our defense, not last year's record or the very skewed result against Utah.


 
#14
#14
Hey ML, That’s fair enough and I did know about his injury. I will also say that WG is undoubtedly a very high caliber QB and deserves the hype he’s getting.
Also, I know preseason rankings are based on many assumptions and projections (along with results from prior year) that obviously can’t be validated until games are actually played. Also WVU may very well be a top 10 team and you guys may boat race the Vols on Sept 1. That said, here are a few reasons for my skepticism—>
1. If one player makes that much of a difference between Ws and Ls (especially against a team like Utah), I would question whether that team has the balance, depth and overall talent/capability to deserve a top 10 ranking.
2. 0-4 against top 25 competition
3. 2-pt win against a Baylor team that finished the year 1-11.
4. Even with WG, they didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard against decent teams (24 vs VT, 20 vs IA St, 28 vs KS St).

Again, at this point it’s pure speculation... one thing’s for sure - we’re all looking forward to 9/1 !!
 
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#15
#15
Haha yeah the media hates us so we have to prove everyone wrong. Good thing is when UT is underdog we always (mostly) outperform. But if we beat WV the. I say we jump just a spot or two , bc as I said the media hates Ut and wants us to somewhat fail. If you’re not a OSU ,USC, Bama, gator, or Mich fan you're just crap.
Yep, I hear sportswriters all over the country talk about their hatred and bias against Tennessee. I thought it was just local guys till hearing a Pennsylvania writer who writes for the Amish newspaper speak openly about the “TN freeze”.
 
#17
#17
No. 13 catches a lot of passes. Looks like some major busts on defense though on 3 or 4 of these touchdowns. Still won't deny he's got a rocket arm and can hit on the run. Hope we got the "revenge" thing going for his UF days, and looks like there is much film on him. I trust Pruitt's defensive mind to slow this guy down with whatever weapons he has. Nigel Warrior, should your Heisman campaign start Sept. 1 as well? If you can get about 3 pick sixes on this guy, I'd say you are well on your way!
 
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#18
#18
Hey ML, That’s fair enough and I did know about his injury. I will also say that WG is undoubtedly a very high caliber QB and deserves the hype he’s getting.
Also, I know preseason rankings are based on many assumptions and projections (along with results from prior year) that obviously can’t be validated until games are actually played. Also WVU may very well be a top 10 team and you guys may boat race the Vols on Sept 1. That said, here are a few reasons for my skepticism—>
1. If one player makes that much of a difference between Ws and Ls (especially against a team like Utah), I would question whether that team has the balance, depth and overall talent/capability to deserve a top 10 ranking.
2. 0-4 against top 25 competition
3. 2-pt win against a Baylor team that finished the year 1-11.
4. Even with WG, they didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard against decent teams (24 vs VT, 20 vs IA St, 28 vs KS St).

Again, at this point it’s pure speculation... one thing’s for sure - we’re all looking forward to 9/1 !!


Some counter points:

1. First, I'd bet that for all but a lucky few (AL, tOSU, etc.) there is always a significant drop off from a potential Heisman candidate to his backup. Second, our backup last year was woefully inadequate, great kid, but never should have gotten a schollie. Also, I mentioned we were down 6-7 starters vs Utah, including #1QB and #1RB and most of our OL IIRC.

2. Valid point, sucks, but true. Except you missed we beat #24 TTech. That aside, point stands. In defense, our average pts lost by for all ranked teams other than OK last year is only 9.7 pts.

3. I'm gonna use the "they did the same thing to OK defense". AP article takeaway from that Baylor game:

"Baylor: The Bears have mastered the art of giving a ranked team a scare at home. The next step is winning one. Baylor had a third-quarter lead and pushed then-No. 3 Oklahoma to the brink in a 49-41 loss its last time out at McLane Stadium on Sept. 23."

4. 352 yds, 5 TD, 1 INT against #24 TTech. Plus all that other stuff that the folks who are saying he'll be in the Heisman talks must have seen.


Let's turn this around. Instead of me pleading my case about why our offense will prevail. How will your O prevail over our admittedly weak D given only 12 schools in the country had a lower scoring defense? cfbstats.com - 2017 National Team Leaders

Obsolutely agree about looking forward to it!
 
#19
#19
Some counter points:

1. First, I'd bet that for all but a lucky few (AL, tOSU, etc.) there is always a significant drop off from a potential Heisman candidate to his backup. Second, our backup last year was woefully inadequate, great kid, but never should have gotten a schollie. Also, I mentioned we were down 6-7 starters vs Utah, including #1QB and #1RB and most of our OL IIRC.

2. Valid point, sucks, but true. Except you missed we beat #24 TTech. That aside, point stands. In defense, our average pts lost by for all ranked teams other than OK last year is only 9.7 pts.

3. I'm gonna use the "they did the same thing to OK defense". AP article takeaway from that Baylor game:

"Baylor: The Bears have mastered the art of giving a ranked team a scare at home. The next step is winning one. Baylor had a third-quarter lead and pushed then-No. 3 Oklahoma to the brink in a 49-41 loss its last time out at McLane Stadium on Sept. 23."

4. 352 yds, 5 TD, 1 INT against #24 TTech. Plus all that other stuff that the folks who are saying he'll be in the Heisman talks must have seen.


Let's turn this around. Instead of me pleading my case about why our offense will prevail. How will your O prevail over our admittedly weak D given only 12 schools in the country had a lower scoring defense? cfbstats.com - 2017 National Team Leaders

Obsolutely agree about looking forward to it!

Hey, been trying to poke around on UWV boards. Either I'm in the wrong place, or there are more/better UWV postings about the game over here from UWV fans than over there. It's gonna be a good game. I've wanted a matchup with UWV for a long time. Always liked the Mountaineers. You know, we have a "dude in a coonskin outfit too". Those guys need to have a turkey shoot or something.
 
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#20
#20
Some counter points:

1. First, I'd bet that for all but a lucky few (AL, tOSU, etc.) there is always a significant drop off from a potential Heisman candidate to his backup. Second, our backup last year was woefully inadequate, great kid, but never should have gotten a schollie. Also, I mentioned we were down 6-7 starters vs Utah, including #1QB and #1RB and most of our OL IIRC.

2. Valid point, sucks, but true. Except you missed we beat #24 TTech. That aside, point stands. In defense, our average pts lost by for all ranked teams other than OK last year is only 9.7 pts.

3. I'm gonna use the "they did the same thing to OK defense". AP article takeaway from that Baylor game:

"Baylor: The Bears have mastered the art of giving a ranked team a scare at home. The next step is winning one. Baylor had a third-quarter lead and pushed then-No. 3 Oklahoma to the brink in a 49-41 loss its last time out at McLane Stadium on Sept. 23."

4. 352 yds, 5 TD, 1 INT against #24 TTech. Plus all that other stuff that the folks who are saying he'll be in the Heisman talks must have seen.


Let's turn this around. Instead of me pleading my case about why our offense will prevail. How will your O prevail over our admittedly weak D given only 12 schools in the country had a lower scoring defense? cfbstats.com - 2017 National Team Leaders

Obsolutely agree about looking forward to it!

Thx for the dialogue.! All good points... I guess my take is that I have a tough time seeing WVU as a top 10 team. My gut says more in the 20-25 range.. but as I said before I could very well end up eating those words.. especially if the DL grad transfers end up significantly improving your defense at the LOS.

As for our offense, I don’t anticipate top 40 national stats but I do think we’ll be much better - purely from a coaching and Xs/Os standpoint. Butch Jones’ offensive scheme was flat out abysmal - ultra predictable with little creativity and a severe misuse/underuse of talent. We also have 2 grad transfers (OL (Bama) and QB (Stanford)) that could very well help drive that improvement.

On 9/1 I think we have to find success in the run game and be able to make key completions on 3rd down. If our OL struggles to open up holes in the run game, it’s gonna be a looong night.

For the record, my prediction for the game is WVU 31 UT 27.
 
#21
#21
Haha yeah the media hates us so we have to prove everyone wrong. Good thing is when UT is underdog we always (mostly) outperform. But if we beat WV the. I say we jump just a spot or two , bc as I said the media hates Ut and wants us to somewhat fail. If you’re not a OSU ,USC, Bama, gator, or Mich fan you're just crap.


Auburn did it a few years back...went from 3-9 to the penthouse. The key is to not lose any games.
 
#22
#22
Hey, been trying to poke around on UWV boards. Either I'm in the wrong place, or there are more/better UWV postings about the game over here from UWV fans than over there. It's gonna be a good game. I've wanted a matchup with UWV for a long time. Always liked the Mountaineers. You know, we have a "dude in a coonskin outfit too". Those guys need to have a turkey shoot or something.

You'll have better luck on the WVU boards...those UWV boards don't get much Mountaineer traffic. The only WVU site I really use is the 247 site (West Virginia Mountaineers Football). There have been several threads about our game/fans but I think you're right, there's more posts here.

A turkey shoot would be a hoot! The Mountaineer doesn't miss.
 
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#23
#23
It's cracking me up that this dude is trying to make the case that they were blown out because they missed a few players due to injury in one game, so they are obviously the better team overall.

While the Vols had the most starts lost to injury for two straight years in all of CFB.

Guess what? We're getting at least a year's worth of lost starts back in game one. WVU is getting a game's worth of starts back...

WVU may win this one, but it won't be because of a lack of talent on the field for the Vols.
 
#24
#24
It's cracking me up that this dude is trying to make the case that they were blown out because they missed a few players due to injury in one game, so they are obviously the better team overall.

While the Vols had the most starts lost to injury for two straight years in all of CFB.

Guess what? We're getting at least a year's worth of lost starts back in game one. WVU is getting a game's worth of starts back...

WVU may win this one, but it won't be because of a lack of talent on the field for the Vols.

6-7 starters isn't a "few" starters, especially given which starters, but I'm guessing you knew that given that you followed that with the absurd assertion that I used that to claim we were obviously the better team. First, I've never claimed we were the better team. I've only provided "the rest of the story" for some of the points brought up, with a little confidence. In no way should we be arrogant.

Who said you didn't have the talent to win? If total stars equal team talent you all should beat us by about 3 TDs. Factor all the variables in and I think we win. We will see.
 
#25
#25
Hey, been trying to poke around on UWV boards. Either I'm in the wrong place, or there are more/better UWV postings about the game over here from UWV fans than over there. It's gonna be a good game. I've wanted a matchup with UWV for a long time. Always liked the Mountaineers. You know, we have a "dude in a coonskin outfit too". Those guys need to have a turkey shoot or something.
I believe the game should begin with a duel between both mascots with their rifles and may the best man win.
 

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