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Is This What Comes With High Expectations? |
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Written by Nicholas Tolomeo
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Thursday, 12 October 2006 |
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Morgantown, WV - Around these parts high expectations are not the tradition but recently West Virginia University football fans have had the opportunity to grow accustomed to them. The Mountaineers were ranked as high as No. 6 only two years ago and are coming off of a Sugar Bowl win and Top 10 consensus preseason ranking.
High expectations are generally met with joy by the fans and disdain from the coaches. All the teams on the schedule target these sometimes over ranked squads and. Funny thing is happening here in Morgantown though and its not just the opposing team targeting the Mountaineers. Fans, message board pundits and even Coach Rich Rodriguez have taken to public lashing out at the team, primarily the defense.Now I understand that the Mountaineers have had a extremely soft schedule so far this season that has included Marshall, D-1AA Eastern Washington, Maryland, East Carolina and Mississippi State. But these guys have not lost a game in over a year. Actually they have not even trailed a game in over a year. They have scored over 40 points in all but one contest this year and have never even been close to being threatened in a game. My definition of being threatened in a game is being on defense while the opponent has a chance to tie the game in the second half (hardly restrictive at all I must say.)
Alls this team does is go out and win, and win by a lot. Ohio State trailed Cincinnati in the horseshoe 7-0 for most of the second half. In back to back weeks USC allowed a school from Washington to drive down the field on them in the final two minutes with a chance to win the game. Michigan was only able to fend off Vanderbilt in the fourth quarter in a game at the Big House. No top five team is without its faults and the Mountaineers' fault happens to be something they cannot control, their schedule.
By throwing his team under the bus following a 42-14 blowout victory at Mississippi State I can only hope Coach Rodriguez had a larger plan. The top 5 ranking and 5-0 start simply will not be enough in Morgantown and maybe that was the point he was trying to get across. During summer practice he had his team breakdown to two different chants. One being “national championship,” which can you believe it was not the most important. The other was "stay hungry." Hopefully the criticism the team has received in the past week will allow them to do just that.
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