FanPost

WVU Football Fans Get The Season They Deserved

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If West Virginia University's football team could have had a catchphrase to sum up its 2014 campaign, it would probably be "at least we didn't embarrass ourselves." This was a 7-6 season that veered between "Yeah, baby!" and "Close, but no cigar." Even in its losses, the Mountaineers exhibited either full halves of strong play or at least tantalizing/maddening quarters of promise.

There were no curb stompings where we were hopelessly outclassed by our opponents. Against the bluebloods of Alabama, Oklahoma and especially Texas, access to deeper rosters of 4- and 5-star athletes ultimately wound up putting competitive games out of reach.

Only the collapses against Texas Christian and Texas A&M were of the head-shaking variety — comfortable leads that WVU simply couldn't maintain. Yet even here, these were one-possession defeats.

Then there's Kansas State. I suppose the best you could say was that they weren't the behind-the-woodshed beatings administered by the silver-haired Bill Snyder in our first two years of Big 12 play. He's a wizard. Or a Russian winter. Once engaged, I'm not sure there's ever an escape. But this year, on a cold November night, we almost made it out alive.

Yet therein lies the rub. In the wake of a disastrous 2013 season, most Mountaineer fans would have given up a body part for seven wins and a quality bowl game. Being "almost" good enough seemed to drive the Gold and Blue faithful positively batty.

Like the wings of Icarus, this team wasn't built to fly to the sun. For all his guts, smarts and determination, quarterback Clint Trickett was a Band-Aid — and, after much wear and tear, a worn one — the bridge between Geno Smith and WVU's next franchise signal caller. The defense, like Dorothy's travel companions to Oz, discovered a viable identity but, similarly, could be a motley crew, sometimes at the worst possible moments.

This arrangement was well and good until the heat became too much. Things fell apart and earthward we fell.

Simply put, this wasn't our year. To borrow another analogy, if 2012 and 2013 were the Three Little Pigs' straw houses, 2014 was the house made of sticks. The team was stronger, but not enough to withstand 12 games' worth of huffing and puffing.

Playing better than we could have hoped for the entirety or large portions of games did indeed keep WVU from getting embarrassed this season.

Given such a modest and nebulous "goal" from a fan perspective, followed by the opposite directions in which expectations and results went as the season wore on, meeting near the middle was probably as much as we had coming.

It was a serviceable and vaguely unsatisfying off-brand version of success, but it will have to do until West Virginia builds its "brick house" — a complete team that can play complete games.