Pat McAfee Sounds Off: “the MAC school is going to play against Penn State”

Pat McAfee, the former West Virginia Mountaineers kicker and Indianapolis Colts kicker/punter turned media personality has sounded off about the current state of the Mountaineers. Pat, who appears on multiple media outlets, including ESPN Gameday was the only person to pick the Mountaineers against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday.

Now, following the game, Pat sounded off about the current state of the program.

“Boh, oh boy. West Virginia fans are about done with ole Neal Brown. Because he’s seven years in, six years in, I forget what it is...should not just be such a miracle to think that we would beat Penn State six years into a guy’s tenure. We’re in the Big 12. Got a lot of money. We got an NIL thing that spends money, pays money. Like, you’re six years in. It shouldn’t be where people are like well, they were able to cure COVID, so we should be able to beat Penn State. Like that’s not how people should be looking at that game six years into your regime. And then when it goes down the way it does, they don’t even cover.

“But honestly, six years in, this is all your people. This is all your culture. This is all your thing and we’re a Big 12 school. We’ve had a lot of success before going against these big schools. Although the national audience may be like, ‘What a surprise? Little ole West Virginia.’ That should not be how it’s viewed. You’re in charge of winning games and building. And instead, it’s like, oh the MAC school is going to play against Penn State. That’s how people are viewing it.”

So, its only year five, or year 1.25 or whatever math former Athletic Director Shane Lyons was using, but Pat has hit the nail on the head here. Yes, the Mountaineers went into Beaver Stadium to face the #7 team in the nation but this game featured the Mountaineers as a 20.5-point underdog. In 2019, Brown’s first year, Oklahoma was a 32-point favorite and covered. In 2017, with the Mountaineers facing Oklahoma without their star quarterback Will Grier, the Sooners were a 23-point favorite and covered in a wild 59-31 game.

Pat is echoing many thoughts about the program currently, the lack of growth over four plus years, the lack of creativity on offense, the lack of defensive coverage in the secondary, all that has put the Mountaineers 14th in the Big 12 preseason poll.

What are your thoughts here? Is Pat right?