Holiday Classic: West Virginia Football - Trapped In Paradise

Welcome to the Big 12 guys. Here is what you can expect. Oklahoma coming into town with the Heisman favorite. Traveling to Austin to see our boys play in front of 100,000 fans. Winning a thriller in Lubbock only to have to travel to Oklahoma State the following week. You play the Horned Frogs in front of a clad of purple on a crisp Saturday in November and turn around 6 days later and you have to play our new buddies from Iowa State on a black Friday. You beat the 2003 Walter Camp Coach of the year in Bob Stoops only to have to play the 2004 Walter Camp Coach of the year in Tommy Tuberville.

You watch the next RG3 at Baylor and wonder how he does the things he does. You wonder how in the world you are going to stop a beast like Adrian Peterson. You game plan against a player like Vince Young and that goes out the window when he turns a safety blitz into a 40 yard TD romp. You put up 50 points and barely win. You give up 400+ yards of offense and win by 10. You put up 60 points and lose to the next Geno Smith who put up 70.

You think you have an easy week with Kansas only to remember they went 12-1 in 2007. You see an absolute class act walk the sidelines in Bill Synder at a noon kickoff and watch an absolute hysterical rant by coach Gundy on ESPN at night, how old is he again? You watch as Kansas State destroys their out of conference schedule in September and know they are looming in 2 weeks.

You watch the best receivers week in and week out reset the record book. One minute Crabtree has a record, next year it goes to Blackmon, this year Bailey and somewhere some high schooler in Texas is licking his chops because he knows hes got more game than all of them. You see dynamic performances from Darren Sproles, Wes Welker, Tavon Austin and think to yourself its not fair at all to have that much speed.

You see fans travel with their team because they care about football. You have prime-time nationally covered games to look forward to. You have high profile bowl games to look forward to. When you get your scheduled you know with the SOS if you take care of business you are in the National Championship Game. You wonder how in the heck you are going to take care of business.

Week in and week out you see the best players. You tailgate with the best fans. You get better recruits, better facilities, better coaches, and better match-ups. To see how far West Virginia Football has come over the years is truly remarkable. It might not always be easy, we might lose a few close ones, we might get blown out, but eventually we'll over come, eventually we'll run the table, eventually we'll hoist the trophy. If you are a football fan, which I know you are...we are Trapped in Paradise.