West Virginia at No. 14: The Outrage!

I recently scanned Mark Schlabach’s 2008 Top 25 college football teams on ESPN to see where the Mountaineers fell.

Not in the Top 5. 

Okay, I thought, and scanned further down. 

Exiting the Top 10…no Mountaineers, say what? 

I scanned further.  Numbers 11, 12, 13...what the...? 

I whizzed past Mizzou, Clemson, and Texas Tech.

Finally, I found WVU at No. 14.

No. 14!

Here’s what Mark had to say in his ranking (clearly written before Steve Slaton went to 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.”

Outraged, I e-mailed Mark, a former colleague at The Washington Post and a fine Southern gentleman.  In the most polite of terms, I questioned his judgment, pointing out that WVU had soundly whipped the nation’s No. 3 team, Oklahoma, in the Fiesta Bowl and had done so largely without its star running back, Slaton.  

I noted also that the team had perhaps the best quarterback in the country, Pat White, coming back, and that the coaching change is a plus not a minus.  The former coach’s claustrophobic control is history, and Coach Bill Stewart is a welcome breeze of fresh air.

Yes, the defense lost a number of excellent starters.  But at WVU it’s more about scheme, and so their defense can’t really be compared to other teams in this way.

Mark e-mailed right back, throwing a dash of cold water right in my face.  He said he thinks about WVU in 2008 as Louisville in 2007: great quarterback and offensive weapons returning, new head coach and a defense that needs rebuilding.

Ouch.  That’s Louisville, the squad that ended up 6-6 and couldn’t have defended against a team of eight-year-olds.

As much as I hate to admit it, Mark has a point.  There are some similarities.  The only returning starters I see on WVU’s defense are DT Scooter Berry, LB Reed Williams, DB Quinton Andrews, and LB Mortty Ivy.

WVU lost its top WR, Darius Reynaud, to the NFL, and has no proven backup to Devine.

And Mark and others do well to point out that the new coach, while terribly experienced, has never before been tested in this way. 

Coach Stew had a brilliant half-month of December.  Yes, he’s a coaching lifer and has the wisdom that WVU’s former coach did not.  But can he maintain the feel-good love story for an entire spring, integrating new players, conducting summer drills, and running the entire season?

I think Coach Stew is terrific, but as the head coach of a big-time program over a longer haul he is unproven.

One key difference distinguishing WVU from Louisville, however, is that Coach Stew has already demonstrated that he will not tolerate any Willie Willamses on his team, having booted off Cheech, Chong, and Spicoli last week.

While it seems silly to get worked up over a preseason college football poll, especially in FEBRUARY, the truth is that these early rankings affect the impressions of the writers and pollsters who produce the more meaningful August preseason polls.  These evaluations, in part, determine the starting positions of all national title contenders.

Throughout last year’s topsy-turvy season, starting position mattered not a whit.  And while I believe that last season was an aberration in its extremes, I believe it to be the first year of a new era of parity in college football that will begin to diminish the meaning of the word “upset.”

It is my opinion, however, that last season’s extremes will not be duplicated over the course of next year, which means that starting position will matter.  And even if WVU goes undefeated—as I believe it has a chance to do—if the team starts far back in the polls, climbing to No. 1 or No. 2 will be almost impossible.

Of course, it is not Mark’s responsibility to place the Mountaineers or any other team in position for the national championship.  But it is most certainly the responsibility of fans and partisan bloggers like myself to attempt to influence the opinion-makers, like Mark.

Call me a lobbyist for WVU football’s poll position.

After all, this is Washington.