West Virginia FB: Mountaineers Falling Behind the '08 Field

Never mind that West Virginia routed a supposedly far-superior Oklahoma team in the Fiesta Bowl.

Never mind that they did it without star running back Steve Slaton.

Never mind that his replacement, Noel Devine, is coming back next year.

Never mind that quarterback Pat White, maybe the best player in college football, also is coming back.

Never mind that WVU has seven home games this season, as opposed to six last season.

Nope, never mind all of that if you're a college football prognosticator. No, in their world, it's either Georgia, USC, Ohio State or the same Oklahoma team the Mountaineers shelled in the desert who will be the preseason No. 1. And WVU may be lucky to crack the Top 15.

Sports Illustrated's Stewie Mandel has WVU 14th (Georgia is No. 1), behind such powers as Clemson, Missouri, Wisconsin and Texas Tech.

Wha? Who?

He also has Auburn, a 2008 WVU home foe, ranked ahead of the Mountaineers.

"Even with stars White and Devine, 2008 figures to be a transition for the Mountaineers, with a new coaching staff and a defense that loses seven starters," Mandel writes.

ESPN's Mark Schlabach also has Georgia No. 1 and WVU No. 14.

He writes, obviously before Steve Slaton decided to leave for the NFL: "The Mountaineers should have plenty of weapons coming back on offense, including quarterback Pat White and possibly tailback Steve Slaton. Noel Devine, who will be a sophomore in 2008, returns as well.

"But how will new coach Bill Stewart fare now that he's not on an interim basis? He had the Mountaineers ready to play in the Fiesta Bowl, but now Stewart has to prove he can recruit and motivate on a weekly basis. Coaching transitions are never easy, even with a boatload of talent coming back (ask Louisville's Steve Kragthorpe).

"At least seven starters will have to be replaced on defense, and fullback Owen Schmitt and receiver Darius Reynaud also are leaving."

It's true that WVU loses Reynaud, the team's top receiver, and the irreplaceable (in spirit, in any case) Owen Schmitt, not to mention much of the defense.

And we'll see, now that WVU has handed the keys to a Ferrari to Bill Stewart, if he can keep it between the lines.

And I'm not going to shatter the "WVU gets no respect from the national media" trope, because it's past being true: It's a truism and there's nothing, not even back-to-back-to-back 11-win seasons with two BCS bowl wins, that can change it. So Mountaineer fans just live with it and know better.

What concerns me is the effect these early assessments will have on the real preseason polls when they come out in the summer.

It is tough to climb the polls once the season starts; if WVU starts at, say, No. 10 and wins 10, 11 or 12 games, it might still not get to No. 1 or No. 2 and have a shot at the title game, not with the better-regarded teams already ahead of it.

WVU had two shots in the elite poll air last season: in preseason, when it was ranked No. 3, and prior to the Pittsburgh game, when it was ranked No. 1 in one poll and No. 2 in the other.

I don't know if WVU will get that chance next season, especially if it starts the season outside the top five.

I do have a feeling that last football season, or perhaps a milder version of it, will become more the norm than an anomaly, as parity spreads throughout college football.

And, to WVU's delight, it will continue to play in the Big East which, though no patsy conference, has fewer pitfalls for top teams than the SEC. Schlabach has three SEC teams in the Top 10; it's hard to imagine all of them ending up there.

Nevertheless, it is starting to look like last season was WVU's best shot at a title so far, at least given its early pole position.

It looks like WVU is destined to start 2008 in the third row.