Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Tony's Take, Presented by West Virginia Tourism
August 31, 2018 09:00 AM | Football, Tony's Take
Tony's Take is a monthly sports column written by veteran West Virginia University play-by-play man Tony Caridi and is presented by West Virginia Tourism.
I've spent time this week sniffing around trying to find a clue or two on what will happen when the Mountaineers and Volunteers tangle in Charlotte. With no exhibition games, college football is the most difficult of all sports to truly get a sense of whether a team is meh, ehh, or wow!
We spend the entire month of August prophesying what will happen only to often be more wrong than right. Some players we've elevated to heroic standards will enter into the witness protection program. Others, who received no love, will flourish to levels of productivity we never imagined. It's just how it works. Summertime has a way intoxicating our reality, which we must be ok with since we let it happen every year.
Chalk it up to part of the college football experience.
My aforementioned sleuthing did bring me to a season opener, about which I either forgot or more than likely repressed the memory, for obvious reasons. Eighteen years ago this Saturday, West Virginia found itself in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to kick off a new era of Mountaineer football. Rich Rodriguez had come home, and the Mountaineers were going to play like their hair was on fire. Spot the Ball was the battle cry. The bewildered Eagles were sure to run out of players.
I recall a WVU assistant who showed me the special game ball he had made for the postgame locker room presentation to Coach Rod. That ball never made it out of the trunk: Boston College 34, West Virginia 10.
Ouch.
But wait, WVU had pounded BC the previous season in Morgantown, 34-14, with the same quarterback (Brad Lewis). How in the world could that have happened?
The reality is that no matter how excited a fanbase gets over a new coach and the optimism that it generates, it simply takes time to get "new" figured out. Brad Lewis and Rasheed Marshall played in that game because Rodriguez was searching for answers. It's why Jarrett Guarantano and Keller Chryst will likely see action for the Volunteers at quarterback this weekend.
If you pour hot water on instant oatmeal, it's ready to eat. It normally doesn't work that way with a football team. After all, it's just like life in that nothing truly good comes easy. WVU finished 3-8 in Rich Rod's debut season; a year later it won nine games and went bowling. There was some pain to suffer before he rolled off one of the great runs in WVU football history.
It's hard to win in your first season no matter who and where you're coaching. Look no farther than Jeremy Pruitt's former employer and one of West Virginia's favorite sons, Nick Saban. In 11 seasons at Alabama, Saban has lost 20 games total. That's it, just 20 games; six of those defeats came in his first season.
I don't pretend to know what will happen this weekend in Charlotte, but history favors the Mountaineers when it comes to continuity and communication among the coaching staff and players.
So what will Saturday bring? Meh, ehh, or wow! We'll find out together. See you on the radio.
I've spent time this week sniffing around trying to find a clue or two on what will happen when the Mountaineers and Volunteers tangle in Charlotte. With no exhibition games, college football is the most difficult of all sports to truly get a sense of whether a team is meh, ehh, or wow!
We spend the entire month of August prophesying what will happen only to often be more wrong than right. Some players we've elevated to heroic standards will enter into the witness protection program. Others, who received no love, will flourish to levels of productivity we never imagined. It's just how it works. Summertime has a way intoxicating our reality, which we must be ok with since we let it happen every year.
Chalk it up to part of the college football experience.
My aforementioned sleuthing did bring me to a season opener, about which I either forgot or more than likely repressed the memory, for obvious reasons. Eighteen years ago this Saturday, West Virginia found itself in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to kick off a new era of Mountaineer football. Rich Rodriguez had come home, and the Mountaineers were going to play like their hair was on fire. Spot the Ball was the battle cry. The bewildered Eagles were sure to run out of players.
I recall a WVU assistant who showed me the special game ball he had made for the postgame locker room presentation to Coach Rod. That ball never made it out of the trunk: Boston College 34, West Virginia 10.
Ouch.
But wait, WVU had pounded BC the previous season in Morgantown, 34-14, with the same quarterback (Brad Lewis). How in the world could that have happened?
The reality is that no matter how excited a fanbase gets over a new coach and the optimism that it generates, it simply takes time to get "new" figured out. Brad Lewis and Rasheed Marshall played in that game because Rodriguez was searching for answers. It's why Jarrett Guarantano and Keller Chryst will likely see action for the Volunteers at quarterback this weekend.
If you pour hot water on instant oatmeal, it's ready to eat. It normally doesn't work that way with a football team. After all, it's just like life in that nothing truly good comes easy. WVU finished 3-8 in Rich Rod's debut season; a year later it won nine games and went bowling. There was some pain to suffer before he rolled off one of the great runs in WVU football history.
It's hard to win in your first season no matter who and where you're coaching. Look no farther than Jeremy Pruitt's former employer and one of West Virginia's favorite sons, Nick Saban. In 11 seasons at Alabama, Saban has lost 20 games total. That's it, just 20 games; six of those defeats came in his first season.
I don't pretend to know what will happen this weekend in Charlotte, but history favors the Mountaineers when it comes to continuity and communication among the coaching staff and players.
So what will Saturday bring? Meh, ehh, or wow! We'll find out together. See you on the radio.
Rich Rodriguez | Dec. 3
Wednesday, December 03
Reid Carrico | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Jeff Weimer | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Rich Rodriguez | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
