All shit talking aside, Western Michigan is returning quite a few starters from last years team that did lose horribly to the Hoosiers of Indiana. That bested the Cavaliers of Virginia in a duel. That drank too many beers with Frank Solich in Athens before and after the game with Theeee Ohio University. Who did almost scalp Bobby Bowden and the Florida St. Seminoles. And who did come screaming back from a 24-0 deficit to lose by three to the Polecats of Cincinnati. I meant Bearcats. Seriously!
So what to make of these folks from Western Michigan. Good program? Seems to be. They are predicted to do well in the MAC this year. Now that Marshall is gone from the MAC, we can give credit for that again.
As I started to say above, they have 8 starters returning on offense and 7 on defense. They have confidence that they can play with just about anyone in the country. But they also proved that they can lose to just about anyone in the country.
In the only other meeting between these two schools, West Virginia won 34-9 in 1996. Western Michigan was ranked #6 defensively in the country last year against the run and 11th in total defense. In the only game against a proven runner, they held Garrett Wolfe of Northern Illinois to 25 yards on 18 carries.
Ok, that's it! I'm feeling too much like Lou Holthsssss. This should not even be a game. Maybe close for the first few series, but after that it should be a one sided track meet. This is a cupcake game and West Virginia should feast. Everyone should get a chance to play. And if I'm going to make a prediction I'll go with WVU45, WMU 10.
And I'm a little confused by the whole thing. Not how it is going to work. It seems pretty easy to understand. Band does something we get excited. Band does something else, we get a little more excited. Band does speed metal, we all start breathing fire and intimidate the shit out of the visiting team and their fans. Wouldn't that be fun? I'm confused as to why anyone needs to get the crowd more fired up.
West Virginia University plans to amp up the football team's entrance this year.
The new entrance is a collaboration among three people: Rita Rodriguez, the wife of Coach Rich Rodriguez; Jay Drury, the director of the marching band; and Dusty Rutledge, video coordinator for the football program.
"We started talking about it a couple of years ago, how we can excite the crowd," Rutledge said. "The more excited the crowd gets, the more excited your team will get."
I mean, isn't this West F'ing Virginia (we take the uck out for the kids)? Aren't we supposed to be crazy and loud just to spite anyone that isn't? Here's the thing. Every year, Mountaineer field gets a little more lame. It's been a slow, steady decline. People just don't get up and start drinking at 6 am like they should. And I can't do it for them, they have to want it!
I've been disappointed in the folks that have been siting in front of me the last couple years. And last year I finally got some evidence. This video is from last years Rutgers game. Yeah, the three freaking overtime Rutgers game when you would think crazy Mountaineer fans would be, well you know, F'ING CRAZY!!!1!
Yes, yes, it's a timeout. But what the f? It wasn't that cold, maybe 30. But that's the time you need to jump up and down just to keep the blood flowing. Make some noise. It's the job of the fan to bring their "A" game every week, no matter what the time or weather!
You might think I'm being cruel, but it's tough love that gets results. Not what the band plays right before the team comes out. However, if they ever mess with this again, I will absolutely kill someone!
One of our new blogosphere friends, Eric from Saturday Sound Offs recently sent us some interview questions about the upcoming season for WVU. We are happy to say that we were able to shake off the whiskey hangover long enough to put forth some answers! It's always a plus when we can speak coherently!
Ah, but the reputation is a bitch to live up to sometimes...
At any rate, head over to Saturday Sound Offs and check out the interview, and many other goodies Eric has to offer! We must admit he's been working his tail off looking at every team, or nearly every team in college football with his two-a-day's, that are quite impressive by the way. We'll have to make sure to use him as a source if we ever decide to do any real research of teams, players, etc.
Ok, let the nitpicking begin. Per blogpoll roundtable 3.1, I went in and made some changes. I think for the better. I have until Wednesday at 10 am to make any final changes, so if you want to persuade me to make any moves on this poll don't send anything smaller than a twenty. I need the kind that folds, not the kind that jingles. M'kay? Or just leave a comment. My rational below the poll.
Rank
Team
Delta
1
Southern Cal
--
2
LSU
--
3
Texas
--
4
Michigan
--
5
Wisconsin
1
6
Oklahoma
2
7
Virginia Tech
--
8
Florida
3
9
Louisville
2
10
West Virginia
1
11
Georgia Tech
2
12
Penn State
4
13
Georgia
1
14
Florida State
4
15
California
1
16
Auburn
1
17
Nebraska
--
18
UCLA
--
19
Ohio State
--
20
Tennessee
--
21
Rutgers
--
22
Arkansas
4
23
Boston College
1
24
TCU
1
25
Hawaii
--
Dropped Out: Miami (Florida) (#24).
Most of the ones at the top really don't need any explination, so we'll start with #5, and may skip a few if we have already discussed them in detail.
5. Wisconsin is a bit of a sexy pic in my book. I think they are a very good team, but without a proven starting quarterback I wonder. Don't get me wrong, unproven quarterbacks make Sport Ccenter highlights all the time. Especially against West Virginia. Matt Grothe, Dustin Grutza, Taylor Bennett......La la la la la. Defense is a little more impressive in the Big 10. PJ Hill and the offensive line should carry the team through most of the season, until Tyler Donovan get's his feet under him. He's a fifth year senior and should be familiar with the system by now, but there's probably a reason he hasn't started until now.
6. Oklahoma- Whatever I said above probably applies for the Sooners. Except I don't think their running back's name is PJ Hill. Red shirt freshman Sam Bradford gets the nod to start the season at quarterback. All he should have to do is hand the ball off and complete 50% of his passes to be effective as long as he doesn't turn the ball over. The defense should be smothering and won't be fooled by the Statue of Liberty play again, dammit!
8. Florida has the talent, but with only one returning starter on defense, could make some stupid mistakes at critical times. And then they will be caught in the gaze of Urban Meyer. And we all know how that works.
9. Louisville has way too much talent on offense for anyone. Brohom, Urrutia, and Douglas have been together for three years. The offensive line should be very strong. And the defense only has to hold the other team to 35. Or make that 34.
13. Georgia is going to be thin on the offensive line. They only have two returning starters and not much depth. I have a world of respect for Mark Richt, but I had them too high to begin with. With only three starters returning on defense, 13 might still be to high.
14. I like the coaches that Bowden brought in, but the more I think about it the more I think it might actually take two years to get this team back to running the ball. You don't go from one of the worst rushing teams in the country to one of the best over night. They'll be better, but not top ten better.
15. California- Tony Milano would be dissapointed in me for not knowing more about this team. Nate Longshore is a fine quarterback and he has his top three receivers back. The defense looks to be a little thin, but it is the Pac 10 after all. Zing!
16. Auburn-Maybe I just have too much respect for the program to put them anywhere below this point. They don't have much of anything returning on the offense besides Brandon Cox, but a good portion of the D is returning. And they will probably need it.
22. Arkansas- I can not believe no one said anything to me about not having them in my initial poll. Darren McFadden should get you a top 25 all by himself. And he might be all by himself, but he needs not your quarterback. He can pass it to himself or hand it off to himself with just as much success.
OK, I'm spent. 23-25 you do not impress me yet. And Miami? Ummmmm! Why oh why did I ever rank you to begin with?
About half the google search hits that I get are for people looking for Owen Schmitt jerseys. And even though I've told Football Fanatics this on more than one occasion, they still refuse to have one made up for me. So that's why you see the t-shirt on the left. I know it's not as cool as anything else, but hey, it's cheap. Price, not quality. And if you want one, head over to the Mountainlair Blog t-shirt shoppe and get one for yourself and one for your best friend.
Roundtables are a group discussion amongst the members of the blogpoll normally, but for our purposes this time a little more introspection is needed. The exercise, brought to us by Blogpoll founder Brain at mgoblog, is to look back at my pre-season blogpoll and decide if there was anyone overrated and underrated. Well, if the picture to the left is any indication, yes and yes!. I swear, the more I look at my first poll the more I feel like I'm back in college.
Something you have to remember is that you don't want to pick someone's rank based on their schedule. Otherwise, you get teams at the top of your poll that wouldn't last five minutes in some of the other conferences. And they usually get stomped in the bowl game and make you look ridiculously silly.
Overrated
The first and biggest mistake that comes to mind is Miami. How much did I have to drink that night? Sure they're down at the bottom of the poll, #24. But are they even that good? They return nine starters on offense and seven on defense, but they were 7-6 last year. And they barely beat Nevada, 21-20 in the MPC Computers Bowl for crying out loud. They have a new coach and Kyle Wright is still there. What more do I have to say?
Honorable Mention: West Virginia (what, too self deprecating?), Florida St., Florida, Georgia.
Underrated
Lou Holths vocabulary, only because we can't understand a word he says. I don't know, how bout Penn St.? I'm not saying they are going to win the Big 10 or the Big 11, but 16 seems a little too far down. They'll be young on defense with only 5 returning starters, and a plethora of underclassmen moving into starting positions. But the offense has eight returning starters. And they actually did show us something against Tennessee last year in the bowl game. The 9-4 record from a year ago is kind of misleading, because outside of the Notre Dame loss, they played everyone tough. Ohio St. needed a very late charge to make the 28-6 win look like they had it under control, and losses to Michigan and Wisconsin were seven and 10 points respectively. If the defense comes through at all, they should be a lot better than the #16 team in the country.
Because really, what else could make a WV fan want to drink more than knowing that two projected starters on the defense, J T Thomas and Ellis Lankster were arrested for stealing being found in possession of a stolen lap top? And suspended for at least the first two games or more depending on the outcome of their legal proceedings. This is the defense that was not very good at stopping people from passing all over the field on them last year. A defense that is admittedly thin up front. A defense that is getting more offensive with every passing day. In my eyes at least.
“Right now we’re working on a shoestring budget in the defensive line,” Kirelawich said at the time. “We have only about five ready to play.”
So yeah, I'm going two fisted tonight and thinking about moving WV down even further in my blogpoll. And I could be in need of some puppy uppers! Not ready for the goodbye cruel world speech just yet, but fucking fuck fuck fuck!
Ok, I need to take this in a completely different direction. I had the pleasure, and I really mean that, to tour with Hasil Adkins for a short time. And nothing has surprised me since then. The sad thing is that he really was a rock star of sorts in Europe. And was probably screwed out of a ton of money. But hey, that's the music biz for you.
-French Maid? Check! OK, let's get down to business. I've made some adjustments to the blogroll, but if I didn't fix you link please let me know. Several of you have changed url's, and some of you have just quit writing.
-The Big East previews are almost complete over at the FanHouse. The link will take you directly to the previews. We should have everything up by tomorrow.
-Am I the only one that has a thing for French Maid outfits?
-The AP Top 25 is out and three Big East teams are in it: #3 West Virginia, #10 Louisville, and #16 Rutgers. And South Florida is about #35. I love West Virginia, but are they really the #3 team in the country? I think honesty is the best policy here, no. Is Louisville too low? Probably. And Rutgers is too high. I guess that's ground I've already covered in my blogpoll, but since the smarty smart people made that list up I thought I would chime in on it.
-I'm still looking for an intern to fetch me coffee, fix the interwebs when they break down, and to write a little bit. So if anyone is interested, let me know. The job mostly involves writing since no one makes a better coffee than me, and I have mad IT skillz, so fixing the interwebs isn't really a problem. I promise the same pay I get for writing on here. I just got my latest Football Fanatics check for $6.19, and half of that can be yours if you're willing to put in 20 hour weeks. Just please keep in mind that I only get paid by them once a quarter.
-I understand we are playing some directional Michigan team in a couple weeks. I'll have to do some research and find out who they are, etc. I remember they lost to Cincinnati last year. Other than that, I'm not hip at all.
Big East FanHouse bloggers Matt Glaude, Chas Rich, and I will be rolling out the 2007 Big East Preview starting tomorrow(Wednesday) and going through Saturday. Be sure to check back often as we will have about four posts per day to get you ready for the season. Woot!
I'm not saying, I'm just saying. Happily it is season two for me on the Blog Poll. Brought to us by Brian over at MGO Blog. There was a time that I wasn't sure if I was going to keep this blog going or not. So thanks to all the well wishers and google searchers that kept me afloat until we got to this point.
The season is just around the corner and I'm fully stocked on beer and rolling papers. The dart board is warmed up, so let's pick a top 25!
I'm not going to go through an explanation of each pick I have on here, just the ones that kind of peak my interest, or ones that I know you are going to have questions about.
Rank
Team
Delta
1
Southern Cal
25
2
LSU
24
3
Texas
23
4
Michigan
22
5
Florida
21
6
Wisconsin
20
7
Virginia Tech
19
8
Oklahoma
18
9
West Virginia
17
10
Florida State
16
11
Louisville
15
12
Georgia
14
13
Georgia Tech
13
14
California
12
15
Auburn
11
16
Penn State
10
17
Nebraska
9
18
UCLA
8
19
Ohio State
7
20
Tennessee
6
21
Rutgers
5
22
Boston College
4
23
TCU
3
24
Miami (Florida)
2
25
Hawaii
1
7. Virginia Tech-With the relative weakness of the ACC, I think if Va. Tech can beat Florida St. and LSU, they could be looking at an undefeated season. Now someone is going to have to step up and wear the big boy pants at the quarterback position. But outside of that I think this team is very talented and has a chip on it's shoulder of sorts after the tragedy that took place in Blacksburg earlier this year.
9. West Virginia-What? Look I picked them to finish 10th last year and you might remember that they were 10th in both the polls and the blogpoll at the end of last year. So settle down and listen to me. The defense isn't where it needs to be yet. The defensive line is in bad shape with the loss of Pat Liebig. There starters are good, but there are a lot of depth questions still out there. So until the defense shows me something, I'm sticking with this prediction. I'll be more than happy to eat my words if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any reason to believe I am.
10. Florida St.- Rick Trickett. Nuff said! Florida St. is going to run the ball effectively this season and not force their quarterbacks into bad situations. That alone should be worth 10 wins.
13. Georgia Tech- No Reggie Ball, no problem. Seriously, if Chan Gailey wasn't the coach I might push them up higher. I know, that's mean, but probably true.
19. Ohio St.- You never know, they might reload and be really good, but I think Wisconsin and Michigan are really looking forward to this.
21. Rutgers- I'm just not feeling it for this team. They have seven starters returning on offense and six on defense, but the loss of Leonard et al. could really hurt more than most people think. The OOC isn't too bad, but I don't think they will be able to hang with the likes of Louisville and WVU. And South Florida might be a little bit better this year.
As always, feel free to leave your comments. We are rolling this out a little earlier than last year so that we can get some comments and make some adjustments before we do the final pre-season poll.
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