At #8 in my preseason top ten is West Virgina.
West Virginia might be one of the more intriguing teams in the top ten because of the success they had in 2011 and they are joining the BIG 12 conference this season. Dana Holgorsen enters his second year as the Mountaineers' head coach. He is very familiar with the BIG 12, so that gives the coaching staff a pretty nice advantage. He coached at Texas Tech under Mike Leach and we all saw the numbers that team put up every season. The offense will have had two full off-seasons of working on perfecting Holgorsen's offense which averaged thirty-eight points a game in 2011. Not to mention the SEVENTY-plus points they put on Clemson in their BCS Bowl game. Geno Smith returns as the starting qb and he has some unfinished buisiness to take care of this season. Tavon Austin is coming back and as long as he stays healthy, he will put up big numbers. Austin's duties last year included kick return and punt return and played wide receiver. He catches well and he can take a few hand-offs. This is a guy that averaged 15 yds or more everytime he touched the ball. It doesn't matter where he is on the field, the guy is going to make plays.
This team has 15 starters returning, mostly on offense. The defense, on the otherhand, has some work to do this off-season. The Mountaineers' defense was very average all season long. But this didn't hurt them as much due to the high octane offense they were running. Even the LSU game had some impressive numbers. The good news for West Virginia is that they are playing in a conference that is not known for defense. Chalk up another advantage for West Virginia moving to the BIG 12. Don't get me wrong, this is going to be a challenge for them because they will be playing some tougher opponents. The defense already looks like a BIG 12 defense with the kind of numbers they give up. They may even look better because of the 3-3-5 type defense they run. No other team in the BIG 12 has really dealt with the 3-3-5 defense before. *yet another advantage for West Virginia. Yes, the element of surprise.....at least for the first few conference games anyway.
The Facts. The Mountaineers have a great qb returning in Geno Smith. He has thrown 55 td passes and only 14 interceptions in two seasons. Tavon Austin may set some records this season. He will have the oppossing teams' attention everytime he steps on the field. There really isn't any major pressure on the defense.....as long as the offense is scoring and scoring quickly. West Virginia's schedule got much easier since they backed out of playing against the Noles. I know it was a tough decision for them but in the end, if I had to play against the Noles and join a new conference, I might have tried to escape that loss any way I could. I see the West Virginia Mountaineers taking the BIG 12 by storm. They may not win that conference in their first year, but they most certainly will be up there with the best of the BIG 12. Don't sleep on this team......aimed directly at Oklahoma.
Next in my Preseason Top 10 Countdown are the South Carolina Gamecocks.
I am working on posting another segment to get YOU involved. Starting May 21, I will be accepting reader questions. This means....You have a question about college football, then email it to me and I will post my thoughts and answers. You don't see anything being posted about your team? Email me and I will break your team down on here. Let's make this really fun and exciting.....but I can't do it without YOU! So have your questions ready for next week and I will tackle them each week. Contact information will be posted by May 21 so that you can get your questions to me. Thanks!
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