I know this is a stretch. But isn't it always? I figure, if I'm going to dream big I might as well dream HUGE.

Here's how we fix the next two years of scheduling mess and at the same time enable both the BIG 12 and the BIG East to run at warp speed towards a bright future:

• In addition to WVU, Louisville and Cincinnati will also move to the Big 12.
• All three will play in the Big 12 and Big East for two seasons. 13 Games total each year.
• The Big 12 immediately adds Cincinnati & Louisville, splitting the Big 12 into two divisions of six. Each year the teams play five Big 12 division games and 3 rotating non-divisional Big 12 opponents (like the SEC).
• Because the Big 12 will assure that WVU, Cincinnati and Louisville will all be in the Big 12 East Division, they are guaranteed to play each other for the next two years. These games will count for both B12 & BE league championships, although neither conference will start a "Championship Game" until 2014.
• For 2012-13 & 2013-14, WVU, Cinci & Louisville must fill their non-conference schedule with the five remaining teams from 2010’s Big East football conference (UConn, South Florida, Rutgers, Syracuse and Pitt) for two seasons. All three teams will play each other for two years in joint Big 12/Big East games – with revenue split evenly between the conferences.

By 2014-2015, the Big East will have a bunch of new members, the BCS as it is now may just be history (there is talk of eliminating the AQ status that was partially responsible for the predicament we’re all in now), and we will be firmly ensconced in a power conference that can and will rival any in the country.

With the defections of coaches Casteel, Kirelawich and Lockwood, the WVU football staff needs some replacements. The three most heavily rumored have been Joe DeForest, Brian Stewart and Zac Spavital. These are just the rumored possible coaches. Nothing is official until a release from the WVU Department of Athletics says it is. Now Brent Venables' name is also being mentioned. In the meantime, we've put together some basic info on the possible coaches to help everyone become more familiar with them. DeForest has already publicly stated he's coming (details remain to be worked out), so we'll look at him first:

Joe DeForest

• Most recently Safeties and Special Teams/Assistant Head Coach at Oklahoma State
• Previous stints at Duke and Rice
• Coached 2008 Ray Guy Award winner Matt Fodge and the 2010 Lou Groza Award winner, Dan Bailey
• OSU's special teams showed marked improvements in his first year, going from 73rd to 10th in net punting, from 67th to 12th in punt returns and from 92nd to third in kickoff returns
• Mack Brown calls DeForest's kicking units "not good, but great"
• Known good recruiter, especially in the talent rich Houston area

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Once again, we've managed to dig up the team's pre-game video a bit beforehand (HUGE h/t to ShadyMountaineer for the find). This one, as with the previous editions, re-visits the last game (South Florida in this case) and then looks ahead to tonight's match-up against Clemson in the Orange Bowl. It's almost game time. Can you feel it?

Something the West Virginia defense has had trouble with this every year is tight ends. Most notably against Syracuse. Nick Provo had a field day with six catches for 61 yards and three touchdowns. And not once was he touched at the line of scrimmage. If you go back and look at the drive charts from that game, the Syracuse tight ends were the go to receiver every time the Orange got in a jam. Evan Landi was able to have similar success for South Florida as was Ryan Griffin for Connecticut.

The eyeball test tells you Dwayne Allen is a match up problem for any defense. But considering all the other weapons on offense for the Tigers, it's understandable how teams could lose sight of Allen. But when you have to keep a drive alive, a reliable tight end is a great advantage. That's how I would describe Allen. He's been reliable all year. He went eight games in a row this season with at least four catches. He was third on the team with 54 receptions, and turned eight of those into touchdowns. And if you didn't hate him enough already, he's funny.

"Coach Morris came down after practice and he was talking about his son, Chandler. He said his son Chandler went to the bathroom and came out, like, ‘Dad, you’ve got to come here and see this water fountain. There’s nothing like it.’ It was actually a bidet. That’s had me rolling for a couple days."

So let's get a bump on this guy off the line before he gets into the secondary. Throw off their timing. That's when interceptions and other goodies happen. If you just give him a tap or nothing at all, you might see a lot of this.

Hyundai Sun Bowl – Georgia Tech v. Utah: Over/Under on the number of shots of hand-job hill the producers are willing to try. +/-3 It's possible if they get one good one, they'll rerun that rather than...

ESPN UTEP HANDY (via Caspernaut)

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl – Illinois v. UCLA: Toss up! More people in the stands or on the field?

AutoZone Liberty Bowl – Cincinnati v. Vanderbilt: Number of Cincinnati fans that look at Vandy fan's chili and ask "where's the noodles?": +/-100.

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WVU ranked 32nd in the nation for average football attendance in the 2011 season with a 56,532 per game attendance (up two spots from 34th last year). Attendance overall for 2011 was 395,726, good enough for 30th in the nation among FBS schools (ranked 27th last year, but with lower overall attending). With a stated capacity of 60,000, the attendance numbers work out to 94.2% of possible capacity given the seven game home slate.

This is all despite not even reaching the 47,000 mark in attendance for the Bowling Green game, after which Coach Holgorsen publicly called out the lack of support from the fans. Helping in the attendance capacity percentage especially were the Marshall, Pitt and LSU games, all of which had stated attendance over the 60,000 mark. Obviously, the prevailing opinion is that WVU's attendance should only increase with a more attractive home slate that the Big 12 will provide. Whether or not that schedule will come to fruition in 2012 remains to be seen, pending the lawsuits with the Big East.

HERE is the link for the 2011 NCAA FBS attendance figures. HERE is the 2010 sheet for comparison. And HERE are historical attendance figures for Mountaineer Football throughout its entire history.

That bitter taste in my mouth from Thursday’s game has been replaced with the sweet taste of oranges. I never knew oranges could taste so good. Then again, I didn’t know orange juice came without vodka mixed in.

While some teams would be disappointed about backing into the BCS, we’re West Virginians, we love backing into things. Just walk around the parking lot at any Walmart in the state and look at all the big trucks backed into spaces. That is our style, it is how we roll.

Overall: B-
I’m grading this high because we ultimately won the game, but for the life of me I have no clue how it occurred. We did everything in our power to give away this game away. I’ve heard some say, probably myself included, it just shows that Dana is a better coach than Stew because we are winning these games. “Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Huh? Think, McFly.” We are winning the same percentage of these games as we did under Stew.

We just got lucky other Big East records fell the way they did.

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Another win for the WVU defense. Another "experience" in Tampa. Another reason I’m really excited to get to next season already.

Not that Holgorsen 1.0 has been bad, it just has some bugs. They were all exposed here in Tampa: Depth on both lines (once Bruce Irvin got nicked up we were less effective on D); Depth at skill positions that would enable us to field superior special teams units (that said, minus one punt and a missed field goal, Thursday night’s performance by special teams was its the best of the season).

With any luck, we’ll hit the BCS lotto and have a month to prepare to play a premier team in a big-time atmosphere. And atmosphere is what I think this WVU squad needs.

Here’s my assessment of this 2011 Mountaineer Offense: they play to their competition. It’s the only way to explain how an offense that piled up 500+ yards against the #1 team in the country couldn’t score an offensive touchdown against a bowl-ineligible USF team, until the 4th quarter.

The atmosphere in the stadium got hot just after Geno Smith threw a Pick-6, the Bulls went up 27-20 and USF’s mini-crowd went crazy. In response, our offense picked it up. They were looser, tougher, faster and STUDman Bailey’s catch on 4^th & 10 has my vote for play of the game and should be a WVU season finalist. Balls.

Here’s the problem with Holgorsen 1.0 – it’s too much software for the platform, that being the conference that is the Big Least (I can say that now and enjoy it as much as my ACC friends have for the past decade). Every week in the BIG 12 we’ll face packed stadiums with intense crowds, who fill seats before their legitimate band runs through the school’s storied pre-game traditions.

Raymond James Stadium was half full at best, and as the game progressed many WVU fans moved from their 3rd deck seats into the unoccupied premium seats (official attendance 41,743 - can you say USF Bulls#!+). The band’s pre-game "Show" could only loosely be called so. Like playing in Pittsburgh, there is something less than impressive about a college team that is "redecorating" their NFL stadium to make it look like their own. At least Pitt has similar colors to the Steelers – you could actually see the Buccaneer red and black under a lot of the USF banners. And the enormous pirate ship in the end zone is a dead giveaway that this is a borrowed facility.

All this speaks to the atmosphere and excitement of the experience for the players. It also significantly impacts recruiting. Seriously, USF's public address announced that if the Bulls got over 100 yards of offense, fans would get a coupon to a local establishment. You know your program is in the crapper when you celebrate 100 yards of offense. They ought to burn Skip Holtz in effigy if they ever gain less than 100 yards of offense.

This year’s WVU team has played hard when it had to do so. We can always hope that next year’s crew will play with intensity regardless of the opponent or the stadium. The good news is that Holgorsen 2.0 will be operating on a Big 12 platform next year and beyond. Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State: if the players can’t get up for those games, they really don’t deserve to win.