MORGANTOWN — If ever there were a football season in which it would be beneficial to ease into, for head coach Neal Brown and the West Virginia football team, this is it.
Folks, it ain’t happening.
Here’s a coach who amost certainly needs a winning season to keep his job, coaching a team in a transitory situation which is picked last in a revised Big 12 Conference.
He probably needs at least seven victories and the over/under in the nation’s betting establishments on victories for WVU is 3.5 … and the suspicion is that most of the play is going toward the under across the nation.
If anyone is walking into the lion’s den — the Nittany Lions, at that — it’s WVU, who must debut against Penn State, which went 11-2 a year ago, the only losses to Ohio State and Michigan, and which ESPN’s latest preseason ranking placed that at No. 10 in the nation.
When you put ancient history into the mix — the one-time rivals haven’t played since 1992 and WVU stands just 9-48-2 against Penn State — it is obvious that this road season-opener is, shall we say, daunting.
And when you mix in after a “gimme” home opener against Duquesne that archrival Pitt comes to Mountaineer Field to face WVU, a game in which a victory can save the season for WVU, but also can ruin it for them, depending on the outcome.
Two Power 5 non-conference opponents, in addition to the Big 12 schedule, has WVU listed as possessing the third-toughest schedule in Power 5 football. It would be a challenge to a Top 25-rated team.
Only South Carolina and Michigan State have what is ranked as tougher schedules.
The Mountaineers face No. 10 Penn State, No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 17 TCU, No. 22 Texas Tech and No. 23 Baylor.
Ease into the schedule?
That’s three Top 25 teams before you get to October, three of the first five games.
The only break for the Mountaineers is they do not face the pre-season favorite and nation’s No. 5 team Texas this year … but they usually give the Longhorns all they can handle.
It seems WVU’s fandom has been piling on Neal Brown for some time now, but it wasn’t he who concocted this early mountain his team must climb to get off to a fast start and build confidence in a program that needs any boost it can get.
“First of all, my philosophy is not on this schedule,” Brown emphasized when it was brought up at the recent Big 12 Media Day. “We have 11 of 12 Power 5 teams.”
Which is worth more to a WVU team, the money out of a trip to Penn State and the exposure of national television or maybe a chance to win a game against a Group of 5 team and get a team in a tough situation off to a good start?
Brown leaves no doubt where he stands on the issue, especially this year.
“You look at our first five games and they really are challenging,” he said. “This is one of the toughest schedules in the country.”
He’s approaching it not as being a huge underdog without much chance, but instead this way.
“Going to Penn State is a tremendous challenge but also a great opportunity. It’s a prime time game, as well. It’s an opportunity to show we made the improvements we talked about in the off-season,” he said.
As a standalone it would be all right, but it comes with the Pitt game and then a trip to Texas Tech and then playing at home against TCU, which played in the national championship game last season.
“It’s not the schedule I would necessarily make, but for us, we talk about it being a 12-round fight,” Brown said. “In the Big 12, there’s no days off. You have to be ready to go every single week.”
Much of the conversation at Media Day was of the expected depth in the Big 12.
Coach Gus Malzahn, now at Central Florida after having done a lot of coaching in the SEC, put it this way.
“I think it is the deepest, I will say that. Our first conference game is on the road at Kansas State, and that’s no treat. Our first home conference game is Baylor. The last two champions, so that’s a huge challenge.
“You look at your schedule and there’s no off weeks. You have to bring your A game every week. That’s really what stands out to me coming in as the new kid on the block.”
And Joey McGuire, the Texas Tech coach, chimed in with this:
“I heard Dana (Holgorswen) say it yesterday, being back in this conference, there’s no easy week. I think every single team can beat every single team in this conference. It’s not like that in most conferences.”
That’s why the preseason poll always seems to be a bit off kilter.
“If you go back and look, K-State and TCU, I don’t know where they were picked last year, but I heard Sonny (Dykes) talk and maybe he said they were seventh … and they had such a great year. The year before that you had Oklahoma State and Baylor. I think in 2020 Iowa State played in the championship game and Baylor played in it in 2019.”
