The Shotgun/Throwdown: West Virginia’s future remains bright while the present looks bleak

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

Football

West Virginia's future remains bright, but the present is decidedly bleak | WV MetroNews
Only the most overzealous fanatics can deny that West Virginia is on a slow but nonetheless upward trajectory halfway into Neal Brown’s first season.

West Virginia opens as massive underdog at Oklahoma | WV MetroNews
Bookies are expecting a bloodbath when West Virginia visits Oklahoma this week.

Allison next man up as Kendall goes down | Blue Gold News
Coaches don’t have the luxury of panicking when a player gets hurt. They use the term “next man up” because that’s the only choice they’ve got.

Growing pains obvious for Mountaineers | Times West Virginian
Coaches will tell you you can’t coach experience and you learn best from doing things wrong so you can correct them. It’s called growing pains and they hurt not only the player but the coaches and the fans.

Why Martell Pettaway didn’t play vs. ISU, plus other WVU football notes | WV Illustrated
After Saturday’s loss to Iowa State, WVU coach Neal Brown revealed why senior running back Martell Pettaway didn’t appear in the game.

Injuries cost WVU game before kick-off | Times West Virginian
A beautiful autumn moon was rising over Milan Puskar Stadium just as the sun was setting on any chance for victory West Virginia had against a superior Iowa State football team Saturday evening.

Basketball

Huggins sees good, bad in Gold-Blue Debut | Blue Gold News
n any intrasquad scrimmage, there are going to be some things a coach likes and some things he doesn’t. So it was for West Virginia head basketball coach Bob Huggins, who saw both good and bad during Friday’s Gold-Blue Debut, which the Gold team won 67-54.

West Virginia Athletics

No. 1 Mountaineers Win Opener | West Virginia University Athletics
The top-ranked West Virginia University rifle team opened the 2019-20 season with a 4719-4642 win at Nebraska Saturday evening, held inside the Nebraska Rifle Range, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

No. 25 WVU Downs ISU, Ties OSU | West Virginia University Athletics
The No. 25 West Virginia University golf team picked up a win over Iowa State and tied Oklahoma State as the Mountaineers capped the Big 12 Match Play Tournament on Sunday in Houston, Texas.

Mountaineers Drop MAC Opener to WMU | West Virginia University Athletics
The West Virginia University men's soccer team opened Mid-American Conference play with a 3-1 loss to Western Michigan on Sunday afternoon at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

Around the Big 12

Texas Tech AD - Big 12 admits blown call in loss | ESPN
Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said Sunday that the Big 12 acknowledged that officials made an incorrect call in overtime of the Red Raiders' loss to Baylor on Saturday.

Around the NCAA

The Top Whatever, including 17 signs you’re being Muschamp’d | Banner Society
Almost all college football rankings are fleeting and meaningless. In that spirit, each edition of The Top Whatever will be deleted seven days after publish. Subscribe to The Read Option newsletter to retain permanent copies of future editions.

LSU jumps to No. 2 in AP Top 25; Georgia falls to 10th | ESPN
LSU moved up to No. 2 in the Associated Press college football poll, giving the Southeastern Conference the top two teams in the country for the 29th time.

Penn State takes players' shirts backing teammate Jonathan Sutherland | ESPN
Penn State personnel confiscated T-shirts bearing the words "Chains, Tattoos, Dreads, & WE ARE" that Nittany Lions football players were wearing during the pregame portion of Saturday night's contest at Iowa. According to ESPN's Holly Rowe, coach James Franklin was upset that his players did not discuss beforehand their intentions to wear the shirts.

Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in less than 2 hours. Human potential is undefeated | SB Nation
When a group of humans work together to achieve seemingly impossible goals, amazing things can happen.

Steph Curry is warning the NBA this is his year without Kevin Durant | SB Nation
Good luck stopping Steph this season.

The Lakers can’t afford injuries to LeBron or Anthony Davis. Welp. | SB Nation
We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.

‘El Camino’ Doesn’t Hurt—or Help—the Legacy of ‘Breaking Bad’ | The Ringer
Vince Gilligan’s new Netflix film puts a bow on Jesse Pinkman’s story, but doesn’t add layers to the overall story like ‘Better Call Saul’ does

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