Welcome to the home of the Morgantown forecast which seems to have decided to become 80° with a 100% chance of the sky falling. Luckily, Betty Draper is still modeling in this photo and it looks like Hurricane has became the choice of beverage right now. I don't blame her. Listerine doesn't make anything that washes away the taste in my mouth after two Indiana Jones style heart-ripping defeats. This week has been inspired by a reflective Smitty, a passive Smitty. Although I haven't been venturing to my favorite thinking spot in the nude, the mood is quite the same. Hurricane Thursday is predominantly fueled by 40s and a few rounds of Spades, but this one was pondered over a few days and a discussion with K-State fans after the game. Luckily, we have come up with some answers. And now, the topics include the most likely answer to all of awfulness that is WVU losing two in a row, why it always happens to us, a few things to look forward to outside of football, and a blatantly stolen title One Big Thing to mark the death of a great and historic public drinking establishment.
1. We've Lost Our Mojo
After a few conversations with both WVU and K-State fans, this is the conclusion that we've come up with. This is obviously the answer to all of WVU's problems concerning football. Somehow, an evil doctor has come up with a "time machine" in a plot to steal our libido. Do you have any other answer for the sheer turn around in offensive performance? We look just as lost as Spongebob in the boating exam (Holgorsen on the mic, of course.) Honestly, does this team look anything like the one we had against Texas? Do you even recognize the guys that are supposedly wearing our jerseys (outside of Tavon)? Was that effort against K-State, to just roll over, seem like any kind of attitude that a WVU team would have? Not even a little bit. I'm running out of metaphors, but hopefully Buggs and Michael Jordan hurry their asses up and defeat the MonStars so we can have our talent back.
2. This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
This was said to me by a John Stamos looking fellow and I couldn't agree more. WVU does a lot of this. Hell, Mike Casazza wrote a damn book about it. The West Virginia University Mountaineer football team has a helluva habit of building us up, buttercup, baby, just to let us down. Sure, it wasn't that we went to the National Championship game just to have our star QB get knocked out by Notre Dame and suffer listening to a Lou Holtz ramble on about puddin pops (reference #2)... but it still sucks. Dari Nowkhah was beating the Geno for Heisman drum louder than anyone even after the Texas Tech game and he was let down. Hard. "Several bad weeks before it gets interesting" eh? Actually, all it took is one more juxtaposed with a gift wrapped, record breaking performance for Collin Klein under the lights at Milan Puskar Stadium. Seriously though, Collin. I expect a call after the award ceremony.
3. On The Bright Side, Basketball is Near
I'm not saying to jump ship from football just yet, but if you do need some reassurance, Huggs is hear to help. I'm sure everyone has heard that WVU is predicted to finish 6th in the Big XII and the Huggins quote to follow:
"If we’re the sixth-best team in the league, it’s a hell of a league," he said. "This is a team that if I scheduled it that way could win 25 games. We probably won’t because of who we play, but we have a chance to be pretty good. I have not seen anything to make me think different."
If you have followed WVU basketball for the past couple years, you know that Huggins doesn't just say stuff because he feels like it. If Huggins says a team has a chance to be special, they end up going to the Final Four. If Huggs says a certain player keep saying the right things yet doesn't produce, you end up hearing Bob Knight pronounce his name seven different ways while criticizing him. While Bob Huggins is many, many things, he not a bullshitter. When he says that we have a chance to be pretty good, I have full confidence that we're going to make some noise. Not only that, we ended up going to the tournament last year with a very unbalanced team that was encapsulated by the KJ production. Not only that, we didn't have any personality to really get behind.
JFlow is going to go down as an all time fan favorite, but we might have found another: Keaton Miles.
This "Meetin' with Keaton" series is going to be a season-long series on the Coliseum video board that I'm sure will be just as popular as JFlow's Dougie videos. Also, I got a feeling that the Gary Browne salsa dancing will reach Victor Cruz levels. Any way you slice it, this year should be quite a ride with players that are truly likeable.
4. The One Big Thing: RIP Mutt's
And now..... some sad news. West Virginia University has purchased land from Houston to Third Street (WVU's Voice of Motown) in Sunnyside which includes the dearly beloved Mutt's Sunnyside. While this move is said to be opening space for more student housing, I'd rather it be referred to what is really is: Sunnyside Down. While this move is certainly to further the front lines on couch burning, it is sad to see the collateral damage such as Mutt's go down. Whether you loved it or hated it, Mutt's is always a constant in the WVU student life while living in the Sunnyside area and always came with the phrase "Mutt's drunk." If you were Mutt's drunk, life was good and memory was hazy. Although there hasn't been a timetable set by WVU, I might stop in sometime before the December graduation date just to get that last round in. We salute you, Mutt's.