A lot of talk about Oregon since it's the first game but what does West Virginia return and does playing them in MT concern anyone?
I think if we can get past Oregon, we should have little trouble with WV. Unless there's a let down... Don't they run the same style of offense? And didn't Devine graduate?
If anyone is planning on making that trip, I would advise you wear some really thick skin, and bring some mace. I have never run into a group of worse fans in my life. Some hillbilly tried to start a fight with me at the WVU game, and all of them were cheering every time one of our players went down with an injury. They are classless, sacks of sh!t. And on their home turf, I wouldn't expect the red carpet.
Any given Sunda...err Saturday as the saying goes. So yes, especially on the road in very unfamiliar territory vs. a very unfamiliar opponent, this game is a least a moderate "concern". I think it'll be a close game for at least the first half then we pull away if we are on our game. We'll have to weather the storm of a Big Least team trying to take down an SEC powerhouse. If we don't start to pull away by the end of the 1st half/beginning of the 2nd, then it could be anyone's ball game.
WVU shouldn't be as good as last year, IMO. I'm a little bit biased against them, but I think the top of the Big East is Louisville, USF, and Syracuse, not necessarily in that order, but they should finish top 3, IMO. I question how having a lame duck coach will motivate the team, however, in the instance we are playing them they should have plenty of motivation. Their OC was their problem last year, and they've replaced him with that Dana H. guy that is supposedly really good. Still remains to be seen what they do without Devine. Geno Smith was inconsistent last year and it cost them games. I have to point out that the SEC won only 5 road games out of conference. Alabama @ Duke, Miss St @ Houston, UK @ Louisville, SC @ Clemson, and Ole Miss @ Tulane. There were a few losses, Vandy @ UConn, Georgia @ Colorado, and UF @ FSU. The SEC wasn't really challenged much in true road games, and when they were they lost. Not to mention that most SEC teams stay within their own state or go to one nearby. WVU is not the case for us. None of those teams are LSU, who is used to playing road games in the non conference.
Spare me. I get that thrown in my face often on a USC board I post on. They can't hang that on us anymore though, LSU has been beefing up our OOC schedule and there are none stronger. I'm sure the players love it too. I guess they like playing one other Louisiana wannabe since they have HS friends on those teams but I can only imagine how much of a downer it must be to practice knowing the upcoming game was a rent-a-win. I know as a fan it's not nearly as exciting- number of tickets available outside the stadium for those games says a lot of our fans agree with me.
I never said it's a bad business model for the conference as a whole. There's a lot more that goes into it as well, such as most teams having another major uni in state that they play every year. Of course, there's teams like UF that play tough games like FSU, but they also having left Florida in 20 years for an out of conference game. You might say Miami is also a really tough instate game, but they haven't played Miami that much in the last 20 years. LSU is the exception. I said in the last sentence that we already play road games. We played UW 2 years ago, plus WVU this coming season, and TCU in a couple of years. Not to mention we piled Oregon on that in a year we already had 5 road games. Georgia is also decent with playing road games.
In terms of quality OOC road games, can't leave out Tennessee. Georgia has GT but recently has added some much better quality ones in home-and-away series.
Wvu will play hard at home especially if lsu is undefeated and# 1. All it takes is a couple turnovers and we could lose. Remember the loss to Kentucky in 07. Could be same set up with wvu this year. A top ranked lsu team playing a highly motivated team with a score to settle in their house. With Kentucky they had the bluegrass miricale to pay us back for. Wvu will want to settle the score for beating them down in baton rouge. I do not see this as a game that will be a cakewalk. This will be a bar room brawl in Morgantown.
