Between The Eers: Is It Big 12 Title or Bust?
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Good Friday morning everybody.
00:11 It is fast Friday here on between the ears and
00:15 today we are going to dive into some big 12 title chasing talk.
00:20 So a lot of expectations around this 2024 football team Morgantown.
00:26 Many think they can get the big 12 title.
00:29 Many think they could potentially even get to the college football playoff and
00:33 I'm not here to say that that is impossible.
00:37 I'm not here to say either is impossible, but
00:40 it shouldn't be big 12 title or bust.
00:46 It should.
00:46 The reason I say that, the reasons I say that,
00:52 number one is health, obviously.
00:56 That's the first and foremost, the most important thing here.
01:01 Health can derail your season regardless of how much talent you have on your roster.
01:08 So that's the first thing, it's very cliche.
01:11 It's not a very detailed thing here, but I mean, that's obvious.
01:16 You have to stay healthy.
01:18 And number one, there's already a concern at the linebacker position because you
01:25 have Josiah Trotter who's coming off an injury that forced him to miss the entire
01:29 season, so you don't know what you're getting out of him.
01:33 Trey Latham's coming off a scary injury.
01:36 So there's two injuries in that linebacker and you're already worried about.
01:38 CJ Donaldson's been banged up a couple of years in a row now.
01:42 What does that look like?
01:45 Can he stay healthy?
01:46 So there's already some injuries in certain spots that you're kind of
01:50 concerned about, but there's no, at this moment, I mean,
01:54 obviously with us being months and months away from the season beginning,
01:58 there's no true concern at this point.
02:00 And that's just more something that we're gonna talk about maybe a little bit in
02:04 the spring, but more so when fall camp comes around.
02:06 So number one, you gotta stay healthy.
02:08 We can't project that.
02:09 No one can project that.
02:11 So, but you can say the same about every other team.
02:15 So that's kind of a moot point.
02:18 But anyway, number two, you have to look around the Big 12 conference because
02:24 West Virginia's not the only team that's gonna be returning its starting quarterback.
02:29 You've got Alan Bowman who is entering, I believe,
02:34 his record setting 28th year of college football.
02:37 Now he's been around for a while, but I don't think he's been around longer than
02:42 the Miami tight end that just got granted his ninth year of eligibility.
02:47 And that is not a joke, that he legitimately is getting his ninth year.
02:52 But Oklahoma State, Alan Bowman, is he a star quarterback?
02:58 No, not necessarily, but he's a veteran.
03:00 They just won ten games in a year.
03:02 No one expected him to win ten games.
03:05 They're gonna be a factor, as always, with Mike Gundy.
03:08 I've learned my lesson there.
03:09 Rocco Beck at Iowa State, he was a really good quarterback as a freshman.
03:16 Gotta feel like they're only gonna get better, they won seven games.
03:19 Kansas State, who went nine and four, they were a really,
03:22 really interesting quarterback.
03:24 And Avery Johnson, who's fairly similar to Garrett Green.
03:28 Gotta expect them to be at the top.
03:31 Obviously, Jalen Daniels at Kansas, he announced his return.
03:35 Many thought he was gonna be entering the portal, but that wasn't the case.
03:39 You expect UCF to kinda, I wouldn't say get in the mix, but
03:43 I think they're gonna be even more competitive.
03:45 TCU, I doubt that they go five and seven again.
03:50 Baylor, very rare season for them.
03:55 They go three and nine, so you expect them to maybe get back to,
03:58 like a six and six, seven and five type of year.
04:01 So the big toll is gonna be ultra competitive.
04:04 And then you add in Arizona, which, I mean, that roster is gonna look
04:08 completely different now with Jed Fish going to Washington.
04:12 But you add Colorado, Arizona State, Utah.
04:15 So there's a bevy of teams that you can make a case for
04:21 to go to the Big 12 title this year.
04:22 I don't think there's a clear favorite.
04:25 It's very competitive from top to bottom.
04:28 And West Virginia's in that cluster of teams that you could say,
04:34 hey, there's seven or eight legitimate teams that can make it.
04:38 That list will obviously get trimmed down once we get through the spring.
04:41 And you see who everybody adds and who they lose, and you get to the fall window.
04:47 And then August comes around, and then you really get a kind of a more clear
04:51 picture, but number two is the Big 12's deep, man.
04:55 Like it is competitive, it's deep, it's gonna be a more rigorous schedule for
05:00 the Mountaineers than they had this year.
05:03 And how do they handle success?
05:04 That's something that this program has yet to have to go through under Neil Brown.
05:09 I mean, I guess you could kind of say it in 21, coming off of a six and four year,
05:15 but it was a wacky COVID season.
05:17 It wasn't a full year, there's no fans in the stands.
05:20 I mean, that was a whole different situation.
05:23 So I don't really count that.
05:25 I don't think a whole lot of fans count that.
05:27 Hell, Neil may not even consider that as success, maybe for that season.
05:33 But I think when you look back on it, it was just such an outlier that
05:39 this is the true first year they've had to handle success in
05:44 a year where things were normal.
05:47 So I'm hesitant to put West Virginia all the way up there at the top
05:53 by themselves or in a group of three or four,
05:57 because I think it's more of an extensive list.
06:00 But I do think they belong.
06:02 I do think they deserve to be there, because they have proven with this roster
06:07 that they can win a bunch of football games, a bunch of close football games.
06:11 They can overcome adversity, they can win games on the road.
06:15 So I 1 million% believe they should be in the mix.
06:19 The third thing is, look, I get careful
06:25 with putting certain expectations out there for head coach.
06:34 Now, when we're talking about a coach that may have been on a hot seat or
06:39 something like that entering the season, you can feel a little bit more, okay,
06:44 yeah, he's got to get the seven wins, or he's got to get the eight wins to keep his
06:47 job, you can feel a bit more comfortable making those types of projections or
06:54 anything like that.
06:54 But when it comes to success, I'm a little bit more weary on it.
07:00 Because if you just say Big 12 title or bust, that's a little dicey.
07:06 Because you could go ten and two, and
07:11 because the Big 12 is so damn deep and competitive, and
07:16 there's all these different tiebreakers that come to play.
07:18 And say it's a top heavy league, and one of you go eight and
07:25 one in conference play, but two others go eight and one, and
07:27 you just happen to be the one that's left out.
07:29 I mean, that's not cool.
07:35 You're not going to get rid of Neil Brown for going ten and two, eight and
07:38 one in conference play, just because he didn't make the Big 12 Conference
07:43 Championship.
07:44 So I'm a little careful with things like that, but
07:48 I would say that they need to be in the mix.
07:52 They have to be in consideration going into those final couple of weeks of
07:55 the season, they can't be already eliminated.
07:58 They can't be three and
08:02 four heading into the final week of Big 12 play.
08:08 They can't be, I don't even know,
08:14 two and four with two weeks to play.
08:18 I mean, you've got to be in the mix, got to be in the mix.
08:22 And I understand that the schedule is going to play a big part in that,
08:26 but this is a much, it's going to be a tougher schedule,
08:34 but it's going to be a little bit easier now that you have that road trip at Arizona
08:38 not looking as challenging as it once was.
08:40 So I don't think it's Big 12 or bust, but
08:44 I do think they need to make an improvement, and they need to be in the mix.
08:50 So if you have a situation where they only win seven games and
08:57 they take a step back, now that's concerning.
08:59 You can't go nine and four and then take a step back and
09:03 go and win seven games with a senior quarterback, you just can't do that.
09:07 Again, I'm not going to put a number on a win total or anything to,
09:13 now I mean obviously that's two less wins, but I think you've got to feel
09:18 better about this program right now than where it's been, obviously.
09:25 You can finally for once say that the Big 12 title
09:31 is a realistic conversation that we can have.
09:33 But it's also realistic to say it's not,
09:37 it shouldn't necessarily be the end all be all, because it's not.
09:42 Again, there's so many ways that this thing can unfold, and
09:46 I don't think it's fair to put that on you.
09:49 I don't think it's fair to put that on these players, but it is fair.
09:55 It is fair for I think the fans to expect them to be in that conversation
10:02 late in November with a week or two or three left in the season.
10:08 You have to be there, have to be there to take that next step as a program.
10:13 And as I talked about earlier this week,
10:17 I think it was on Monday's episode, the plan's in place.
10:22 The plan is in place, you have Nico, Mark, y'all waiting in the wings.
10:27 You just came off a non-win season, if you can capitalize off of that,
10:31 win another nine or ten this year, you're setting things up for
10:34 Nico to take over a team that's a little bit more experienced.
10:38 This thing can really take off.
10:43 So this is a very crucial year.
10:46 And I think we'll ultimately, we'll look back at the 2023 season
10:52 as either the turning point or kind of like an oddball year,
10:58 depending on what happens in 24.
11:01 So we'll see what happens.
11:04 I think there's a lot of optimistic folks out there, and
11:08 I think they have every right to be.
11:10 I'm cautiously optimistic because it's only been one year of true success
11:15 here in the last five or so.
11:18 So I don't think it's big 12 title or bust.
11:22 It shouldn't be big 12 title or bust, but they've gotta be in that conversation.
11:28 If they're not, then we're gonna have another conversation that we probably
11:33 don't wanna be talking about.
11:35 So let me know your thoughts in the comments section here on YouTube,
11:40 here on this Fast Friday.
11:42 Let me know what you think should be the expectation for
11:46 West Virginia football in 2024.
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11:52 Give us a like, follow us on X at Mountaineers Now.
11:56 That'll do it for this week of shows here on Between the Ears.
11:59 We thank you for tuning in each and every single morning.
12:02 And we will be back tomorrow to recap West Virginia and Kansas.
12:08 That one's tipping off at 4 o'clock Eastern time on ESPN+.
12:13 So we'll have the post game coverage for you here on Mountaineers Now at this very
12:17 YouTube channel and in our site Mountaineers Now.
12:20 Thank you guys and we'll see you tomorrow night.
12:23 [MUSIC]