Dale Wolfley, our jack-of-all-trades Varsity Club Director/radio-TV analyst/motivational speaker extraordinaire lumbered down to my cluttered office the other day sporting the same puzzled look I usually give my kids when they ask me to help them with their math homework.

 

“Johnny,” the Wolfman howled, “where’s the love for this year’s West Virginia football team? Don’t those guys down in Dallas realize there are a bunch of good players coming back from a team that won seven games last year and could have won a couple more? What gives?”

 

Yeah, what gives?

 

That’s an excellent question because the Wolfman is right on target: The Mountaineers do have one their most experienced teams returning in years. West Virginia has six starters coming back on offense, nine on defense (including a league-high eight overall senior starters returning), not to mention 44 lettermen and a boatload of juniors and seniors on this year’s squad recruited specifically to play Big 12 football.

 

“I feel pretty confident - pretty comfortable - with our team,” admitted coach Dana Holgorsen earlier this week in Dallas. “We’ve got 40 juniors and seniors in the two-deep. We’ve got 22 guys that have started Big 12 football games. We’ve got over 50 guys that have played Big 12 football games so a lot of the guys that are on our team right now are guys that have been there and done that and understand what Big 12 football is all about.”

 

It is easily the most experienced football team Holgorsen has fielded here at West Virginia. Instead of putting wide-eyed redshirt and true freshmen into the game as replacements, Holgorsen will be using battle-tested sophomores, juniors and seniors this year. That was not the case in 2012 when West Virginia was picked to finish second in the league based mostly on the reputations of three outstanding offensive players.

 

“We were equipped for the Big East and we won the Big East my first year, but we weren’t equipped for the Big 12,” Holgorsen recalled. “We had a couple of really good players with Geno (Smith), Tavon (Austin) and Stedman (Bailey), but a lot of the guys that you see on our defense right now were having to play in year one in the Big 12. That’s a losing formula.”

 

Indeed, it is.

 

You can’t begin to put a value on the amount of experience West Virginia has come November when the afternoons become much colder, the aches and pains are more profound and the games are much more difficult to win.

 

The problem for West Virginia is the rest of the league has a ton of players returning, too.

 

Preseason favorite TCU has 10 out of 11 starters returning on offense, five starters on defense coming back and 62 total lettermen (out of 85 scholarship players) returning.

 

Baylor, the other team receiving first place votes in this year’s preseason media poll, has 18 starters coming back from last year’s team that dropped the Cotton Bowl Trophy just before the awards ceremony. The Bears have 56 lettermen returning.

 

Oklahoma? The Sooners have 13 starters and 44 letterman returning from last year’s team.

 

Oklahoma State? The Cowboys boast 16 starters and 46 lettermen returning.

 

Texas has 12 starters and 42 lettermen returning; Kansas State has 12 starters and 46 lettermen coming back, while Texas Tech has 17 starters and 50 lettermen returning.

 

Even Iowa State has a healthy 13 starters and 47 lettermen back from last year’s two-win season.

 

Kansas is the only Big 12 team in rebuilding mode this year under first-year coach David Beatty.

 

What this means is West Virginia is going to have to beat some pretty good (and pretty experienced) football teams this year to finish at the top of the league standings.

 

People all summer have asked me what I think about this year’s football team and I have given the same answer: I don’t have a clue. This team could be really, really good like the 1993 West Virginia team was with all of those veteran players returning and the quarterbacking tandem of Jake Kelchner and Darren Studstill performing far better than anyone’s wildest expectations.

 

Or, with a couple of bad breaks here and a few bad bounces there the season could end up just like Bobby Bowden’s 1974 team that won only four games with one of his most experienced teams, including a stunning season-opening loss to Richmond in Morgantown. Bowden went home after that Richmond game and had to pull a For-Sale sign out of his front yard.

 

For the record, I don’t think that’s going to happen to this year’s team, though.

 

The defense this season is finally settled with some much-needed continuity on the coaching staff and the most Big 12-caliber football players on that side of the ball since the Mountaineers joined the league in 2012.

 

That alone will make any coach sleep a little better at night.

 

“Without a doubt, it should be the best (defense) that I’ve had potentially since I started coaching 20-some years ago,” said Holgorsen. “I’ve just got a bunch of guys with experience.”

 

The special teams should also be plus-plus for the Mountaineers with Josh Lambert and Nick O’Toole, perhaps the best returning kicking tandem in the country this year - particularly if the coaches can locate someone willing to catch a punt in the air this fall.

 

The offense has some proven blockers returning up front, a versatile, explosive playmaker in the backfield in Wendell Smallwood and a capable power back in Rushel Shell who has the ability to keep the chains moving on third and short. There are no Kevin Whites or Mario Alfords returning at wide receiver this year, but Holgorsen has always come up with an answer at that position, and I have no doubt he will do so once again this year.

 

Will speedster Shelton Gibson be the next great Holgorsen creation at wide receiver? Will it be senior Jordan Thompson or will it be someone else?

 

Stay tuned.

 

The straw stirring the drink is junior quarterback Skyler Howard, who completed 51 percent of his passes last year for 829 yards and eight touchdowns with no interceptions in 2 ½ games. Howard also ran the ball 22 times for 140 yards.

 

All eyes in the Mountain State are certainly going to be on Howard this fall.

 

“I think the No. 1 thing that we got to talk about when it comes to the quarterback position is he’s taking care of the football,” said Holgorsen. “He did play in 2 ½ games last year and didn’t throw a pick; (he) had one fumble he learned a lesson from. We’re going to use our quarterbacks in the run game a little more, which is going to put a little burden on him when it comes to ball security.”

 

Then there is backup quarterback William Crest Jr., one of the most impressive physical specimens on the team. Holgorsen has always come up with interesting ways of getting his best athletes the football (think back to Tavon Austin’s incredible game against Oklahoma in 2012), and you wonder what he has up his sleeve with Crest? We got a glimpse of what Holgorsen had in mind for his redshirt freshman quarterback during last year’s spring game.

 

Again, stay tuned.

 

If the pieces all fit together, West Virginia gets a few breaks it hasn’t gotten the last couple of years and the key players stay healthy, this team has a chance of being really good.

 

But will it be 1993 good?

 

Will it be good enough to get the love the Wolfman believes it deserves?

 

We are about to find out.