I typed up this blog entry yesterday before heading out for Mass but imagine!  My luck with computers and it is off in cyberspace somewhere but not on my blog.

I spent Saturday watching a number of college football games.  The one of most importance to me, though not by any means the most exciting – that designation goes to the UConn-Temple matchup, was my beloved WVU Mountaineers heading into Greenville, NC to take on the East Carolina Pirates. 

I am sure that the bus ride back to Morgantown on Saturday night was a very long ride.  I seriously think Tropical Storm Hanna played harder than the Mountaineers did on Saturday. 

Todd Blackledge – former Penn State QB and NFL QB – did make a point for a real preseason for college football.  I have to say that I don’t see that happening but his statements made total sense to me.  The team that – the weekend before – had actually had to fight for their win, was actually tested played better this week. 

WVU played Villanova opening weekend.  I didn’t even know that Villanova had a football team.  Patrick White, WVU starting QB, even told press that they didn’t bring out everything against Villanova as they wanted to keep some things out of the public eye.  That did not do the team any good.  Now, WVU will spend the next week and a half – thankfully, they do not play again until September 18 at Colorado – working on those issues where ECU stopped them.

ECU, on the other hand, opened their season against a nationally ranked Virginia Tech team.  They had to scrape and get physical for the win.  It tested everything about their team.  This made the Pirates more ready to face WVU than the WVU-Villanova game did West Virginia.

For those of us who are diehard WVU fans, the team will get through this.  I am sure – although I haven’t been reading the local papers – there are those calling for Bill Stewart’s head on a platter already.  I don’t think that is necessary.  I think we all need to see how the team faces adversity, how they pull back together and where a few more weeks of the season go.  This is a team that should be playing in the National Championship game come January.  This is a team that will come back stronger than before.