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Mountaineer Retweet: A Look Back At WVU's Win Over Towson

The Mountaineers put one in the "W" column against an over-matched FCS foe. Let's look at what Twitter had to say during the game. Shall we?

By Abpriddy
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

It's nighttime in Morgantown and the expectations have changed after what we saw in Week 1. Let's look back at West Virginia's masterful performance to see what we learned with the Mountaineer Retweet!

The Mountaineers raised expectations with their tough loss to Alabama and we were all ready to glean what we could from a game against FCS team Towson 7 days later. And as befits a major FCS power, we were doing things under the lights, baby! But with it being a night kickoff, I had most of the day to sit and watch other teams. So I'll confess to looking past the Towson Tigers to next week's opponent, the Maryland Terrapins who were playing old nemesis South Florida.
But first one final longing glance over the shoulder at Bama.

Bama fan knows how close they were to losing. They know it. I need to stop re-watching that game. Tear off those damn rear-view mirrors Huggins-style.

Quite simply Maryland looked like crap. They couldn't move the ball, their offensive line seemed suspect and they were just generally a sloppy football team. But we'll get to them in a few days.

If you've read much of my stuff you know I'm a bit of a uniform curmudgeon. Having said that, if you're going to wear golds, this is the scheme to wear them in. Looked sharp.

New scoreboards looking sharp! The new optics at Milan Puskar Stadium got a lot of play leading up to, during and after the game. I don't think anyone will be missing the gray walls.

See that? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

If anyone from Root Sports is reading this, please know that you are all quite awful at your jobs. This was the first time I found myself jealous of SEC teams with their network, because their lower-tier games get put on by actual professionals, not a half-assed channel that pre-empts the WVU home opener for a damn Pirates game. Here's hoping WVU can find a new broadcast partner for their third-tier rights in the near future.

Unfortunately WVU picked up right where they left off in the red zone on Saturday night getting stuffed from the one by Towson and then missing a field goal on the next trip. This continues to be my biggest concern heading into Maryland. Sure WVU got back on track later in the game and scored

And I'm guessing we'll be talking about it more this week, too.........

Given that he's about a quarter of the way there already I don't think I'd take that bet.

That doesn't happen last year. It's really fun to have these moments where you can actually see how this team grew in the offseason. Lot of credit to the coaches for scheming and the kids for putting in the time.

Beautiful playcall there. My favorite thing about it was when Jed Drenning asked Holgo about it as he came off the field at the half he said "yeah we can't let somebody empty the box against us down there like that. That's an easy touchdown." You could all but hear him add "you f-king hear that, Randy Edsall?"

Obviously an FCS team is an FCS team, but this was by far the most focused effort we've seen out of a Holgorsen team in his 4 games against squads from the lesser division. There was the 2011 team that was actually trailing Norfolk State at the half, an uninspired effort from the 2012 team to get by James Madison and the stink-fest against William and Mary last year. At this point we've all watched enough football that, even against an out-manned FCS team, we all know what a good football team looks like in these types of games (right Nebraska?). West Virginia looked like a good football team.

Boom. Helluva stat line there.

Let's take a minute for some Schadenfreude here. It's September 6th and the Big 10 is effectively eliminated from the college football playoff. But hey, at least they've got their network, right?

The final piece of the special teams puzzle may have fallen into place with Squirt putting on the best performance BY FAR we've seen from him fielding punts. Now, I realize that it's just one game against one not really good team, and to (kinda) quote ‘Pulp Fiction', "let's not start (bleeping) each other's (bleeps) just yet gentlemen." But it's a step in the right direction and hopefully gave him the confidence he needed to exorcise some punt return demons from last season.

Ask me in a week, Sheed.

Like I was saying earlier, those are the types of numbers a good team puts up against an FCS opponent.

Getting' that swag back, baby........

Yup. And FWIW word seems to be that Wes Tonkery should be good to go for Maryland.

Things got fun and silly in the second half......which is how these games are supposed to go (right, Nebraska?)

This absolutely needs to happen.

ALSO NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

(seriously, we were deep into the goofy weeds with this one and it was a welcome departure from the nail-biter against W & M last year. This is what these games should feel like.)

"Andrew Luck's Dad" made me laugh. Somebody told the kid that was WVU's athletic director, right? Right?

Depending on when you were talking, both would have been appropriate.

Hell, who says he's waiting for Big 12 play to break the young man out in special red zone packages? For all the great things we saw there are still legitimate questions about WVU's ability to score in the red zone. If nothing else, William Crest's appearance gave Maryland just a few more megabytes of tape to watch in preparation for the Mountaineers. And if things stall under Trickett in the red zone who's to say he doesn't throw Crest out there to see what happens. Or how about this, line Crest up at receiver and motion him in to play QB if you get some matchups you like. No shortage of options when you're able to integrate a guy with that kind of talent into your offense.

Unlike some of the attractive young ladies that drew my college attentions, this squad has some real depth. And it's a beautiful thing to behold.

Kevin White is a damn monster and your kids check under their beds for him before they lay their little heads down to sleep.

Hey let's check in on Texas - BYU......

The night was won by Fake Beebe, though:

Maybe it was the beers or my general giddiness at how WVU looked or it being late but that seriously made me giggle for like 5 straight minutes.

(someone please explain to Andrew that he's missing a pretty important component for baby-making)

Nice to see.

Marshall and WVU have also combined to win 3 BCS bowl games in the last decade.

Damn right.

Was nice to see how seriously the backups took the charge to maintain the goosegg and bring it home.

Amen.

Well done, good sir!

I'll take it a step farther and say, aside from shocking Alabama, these first two games have gone as well as anyone could have reasonably hoped. We're watching a well-coached team play sharp football and how many times in the last few years have we honestly been able to say that? Furthermore there were no significant injuries (assuming Tonkery is good to go). This team couldn't possibly be in a better frame of mind to face Maryland.

Which is more than you can say for Maryland.

Gonna be hard to concentrate at work this week.

Very hard.

Oh look, nightmare fuel....NOW I CAN'T SLEEP OR WORK AND I HAVE LIKE 100 SOME HOURS TO KILL BRING ON MARYLAND DAMMIT!!!

So there you have it. A solid win for a Mountaineer team that seems to be growing into itself as it prepares for a trip to College Park that has the potential to set an unbelievably positive trajectory for the season. Soak it in, stay with us here at the Musket as we prepare for the Terps and pour yourself another glass of optimism.

Until next week,

LET'S GOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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