Photo Credit : Randy Scott
Nothing screams “deadline” like a hurricane ripping through Northeast Pennsylvania with the threat of losing power at any given hour. As I look out the window and see Mother Nature going to work, I can’t help but have the weather on my mind. Nevertheless, with that being said, I will try to explore this TCU vs. WVU match up as long as Sandy works with me.
The Mountaineers’ bye week couldn’t have come at a better time after suffering consecutive losses to Texas Tech and Kansas State. The West Virginia squad had a chance to hunker down this past weekend and watch a TCU team that had a tough outing against Oklahoma State. Even though, the Horned Frogs took an early five-point halftime lead, the Cowboys thundered back in second half to win 36 to 14.
The Horned Frogs have had some problems this season with starting quarterback Casey Paschall suspended for allegedly drinking and driving. Freshman Trevone Boykin has taken over the offense with Paschall out of the lineup and TCU has only won a single game since the switch. During Saturday’s game, Boykin injured his left knee on a late fourth quarter play and Matt Brown was sent in to finish the game.
With all the woes going on with the Frogs, this could accumulate the perfect storm for the WVU defense and finally attack an offense. West Virginia has been struggling all season long and has felt more pressure to improve on “D” than the Atlantic City boardwalk trying not to collapse during high tide on Monday morning.
It could greatly benefit WVU to get back on Mountaineer Field, earn a win and gain some confidence before heading into a whirlwind schedule with the Sooner State: first OSU and then Oklahoma. West Virginia’s Geno Smith will hopefully be able to connect with one of his favorite targets again this week in Stedman Bailey. The wide receiver suffered an ankle injury against Texas Tech and looks like he is still trying to recover from it. The junior tops the charts with 800 offensive yards and 14 touchdowns for the old gold and blue squad.
If West Virginia can weather the next three weeks and come out with at least two wins, brighter skies are ahead for them in the Big 12 conference. The Mountaineers are still in the latest Bowl Championship Series (BCS) polls at No.21. There is no need to panic just yet; however, lose all three of those games and consider it a state of emergency with five losses on the overall record.
But as any coach at any level will preach… you have to take one game at a time and it starts with Texas Christian University. Just like you can’t shovel out a path until the snow sticks to the ground, you have to deal with the blizzard as it comes…one snowflake at a time.
It will be interesting to see how this week develops as WVU gets back on the field for a 3 p.m. kick off in Morgantown. I’m hoping like most East Coast viewers electrical power will be restored by game time and we will be talking about Stedman instead of Sandy.
