West Virginia QB Skyler Howard Ready To Lead The Mountaineers

Howard put together one of the best year’s in WVU history in terms of throwing the ball last season while taking over as the offense’s leader, something that will be needed a good deal this season as they try to integrate some new talent in with a lot of the holdovers from last season’s eight-win team.

By Michael Miller@michaelmillerWV Jul 1, 2016, 9:00am EDT

Welcome, By-Godders, to the Shotgun/Throwdown: WVU's best place for sports links, information, sophomoric humor and daily distractions.

Football:

This is the final summer of Skyler Howard's checkered collegiate career, one that has seen him first win over Dana Holgorsen and then West Virginia fans as the Mountaineers' quarterback. The question in Howard's case becomes whether he's a leader because he's a quarterback or a quarterback because he's a leader.

Dana Holgorsen has always been proud of the family-type atmosphere he's developed during his five seasons running the Mountaineer football program. WVU leads college football with 5 sets of brothers on this year's roster.

West Virginia University assistant coaches and select members of the West Virginia University football team met with the media on Thursday, June 30

Mini-packages and single-game tickets for the 2016 West Virginia University football season will go on sale to the public on Wednesday, July 6, at 9 a.m. Tickets will be available for purchase online at WVUGAME.com, by calling 1-800-WVU GAME or in-person at the Mountaineer Ticket Office inside the WVU Coliseum.

Around The Big 12:

ESPN is continuing their prediction series. Things are percolating in the Big 12 as the season hits Week 4, and ESPN thinks Oklahoma State's visit to Baylor could be the highlight of the weekend.

Bill Self favors giving players "an extra protection layer" in case reality swats them down on draft night. But some players can't be protected from their own inflated sense of self.

Around The NCAA:

Utah loses enough on offense that a fourth straight year of improvement appears unlikely. But the Utes' defense should again be strong, and ... it feels weird to have low expectations for a Whittingham team.

Mac Jones is happy after flipping from Kentucky to Alabama. He's trying to add more stars to the Tide's class.

Complaining about the Big Ten's bowl slate is one of college football's grandest traditions. It can come from all sides, be it fans of Big Ten teams tired of seeing their teams get creamed in faraway bowl games, or fans of other teams hypothetically tired of non-competitive bowl games.