Big East Football Preview: West Virginia

Now we come to the last team in the Big East to preview, and we saved the (almost) best for last. Many bloggers and poll voters have

West Virginia as the lone Big East team on their preseason top 25 ballots, and even more have them winning the Big East this season. As you can see in our top 25, many of the Big East bloggers tend to agree. Look at my ballot, though. You'll find that mine is the only one that doesn't have West Virginia as the highest-ranked Big East team. Does this mean I'm biased? Maybe. But it also means that I see USF and West Virginia in a dogfight until the very end for the Big East title, and I think USF is going to come out on top.

2010 Record: 9-4, Big East Co-Champions.

The Mountaineers had a relatively successful regular season, but were almost as disappointed as the fans in Tampa when Connecticut K Dave Teggart hit that 52-yard field goal to seal the Big East championship and send an 8-4 UConn team to get thrashed by Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. It wasn't like they didn't have other chances to make some room for themselves, though. They followed their win over USF with the two sloppiest games they played all season, against Syracuse and Connecticut. It was that loss to UConn that kept the Mountaineers out of the Fiesta Bowl once again. They played a great game against LSU, who turned out to be a top-10 team, and against Maryland, who had their best season in recent memory. I don't know what happened at the end of the season, but not going to a BCS game must have really taken the wind out of their sails, as they got beaten down by a slightly-above average NC State team. So maybe West Virginia wasn't as good as we thought they were, and maybe they would have been beaten just as badly by Oklahoma had they gotten the ticket to a BCS game.

This coming season, the Mountaineers welcome in someone that is going to make a huge difference for the offense. Offensive Coordinator and future Head Coach Dana Holgorsen came over to Morgantown from the outrageously successful offense of Oklahoma State, and has plenty of tools to make his magic. He'll have a pretty easy time with the shot-caller as well, as QB Geno Smith has already appeared on several Heisman watch lists. I don't know if he's that good, but all that attention can't be a bad thing. They did, however, lose their two most productive offensive players in WR Jock Sanders and RB Noel Devine. Devine's vacancy has already been filled by Tavon Austin and Shawne Alston, who should each have an outstanding season on the ground, but Sanders leaves some pretty big shoes to fill. WVU will always have receivers, but Sanders's pure athleticism was what made Geno Smith look good for most of the season.

This season will be successful if: West Virginia wins the Big East. Personally, I don't think they're going to do it. There's one team standing in their way, and it's USF, the team who has had their number three of the past four years. And they're at home. All that is a recipe for a fantastic season finale at Raymond James, but the Mountaineers may have some road blocks in the way of their quest for a title. Out of conference, they take on Maryland and LSU again, which may just beat them up enough to allow Connecticut to catch them off guard. Syracuse beat them last year, there's no reason they can't do it again. Louisville is turning into the strong defensive power that Charlie Strong wanted, and they may just be a great match for Holgorsen's explosive offense. The hardest part of the schedule is going into the Backyard Brawl, which always has some physical toll on each team, and then having only six days to prepare for championship week.

2011 Record: 11-2. Like I said, I do think it will come down to the last game of the season, and they may even beat USF, but I think they also have a lot of potential to slip up with their arrangement of conference games. I think USF wins the conference this year, but I think it's going to take an undefeated conference record to do it. West Virginia is going to be excellent this year, but you have to think there's going to be some kind of drama with Bill Stewart in his last season. Remember what happened with Bobby Bowden? Florida State entered the year ranked #18 in the country, and ended up going 7-6 in Bowden's last year. They ended up being good after their coach-in-waiting took over, and I think that's what's going to happen to West Virginia. I think a second trip to the Champs Sports Bowl will be a nice consolation prize, and they'll likely meet up with (and beat) a formidable Virginia Tech team in Orlando. Better luck next year, WVU.