top 25 vote...

interesting stat about WVU, they rushed for 314 yards against MSU, Auburn and LSU combined for I believe 269, add in a third SEC team(name escapes me) and the total jumps to 300 yards by three SEC opponents which is less that WVU did in one game.

 

I'm guessing South Carolina since it was the season opener for both

 

Boise State will be 2006-7's Utah from a few years back.

 

I can see Louisville below Texas right now, based strictly on the competition they've played.

And, JW, if you want to rank Arkansas at No. 13, you should rank the team that beat the crap out of them at No. 2 Not No. 4.

 

Yes, and WV threw for 92 yards on 10 passes all game. Sure they can run the ball, but you seriously think that type of unbalanced attack works against the top of the SEC instead of the bottom of it?

If you want to throw Sagarin ratings out there, WV is No.15, and the highest ranked team it's beaten is No.65 Maryland. 110th toughest schedule in the nation.

LSU beat the toothless Bulldogs by a bigger margin the previous week, finished with more total yards that the Mountaineers while holding MSU to less total yards on defense. As Oz pointed out, WV's 11 penalties for 132 yards isn't going to help them against any serious competition either.

While the Big East may have moved ahead of the ACC, which at this point is looking like the Ass-Clown Conference, it still has a long way to go before it catches the big boys.

 

Umm, did you watch the Sugar Bowl last year? For the past year and a half I've heard "if you stop WVU's running game and force 'em to pass..." and I have yet to see it.

 

Amen, Amen and Amen.

 

Amen to what, a Georgia team that sleepwalked through the first quarter? That the Mountaineers were up 28-0 and nearly blew the game, giving up 500 yards of offense to the Bulldogs, never seems to get factored in.

The Mountaineers didn't win that game by three touchdowns, they won by three points. All everyone wants to remember is the opening quarter, and nothing beyond.

 

It's "Tennessee" by the way.

 

And if my mother had a dong she'd be my father. The bottom line is that a West Virginia team that wasn't given a snowballs chance in hell, that was going up against what many considered the best rush defense in the SEC, ran all over Uga. Georgia came back? Yes they did. That's because good teams make adjuestments. And maybe Georgia's adjustments were better than WVU's in the second half. Bottom line is Georgia didn't catch 'em.

And why is it West Virginia's fault that UGA under-estimated WVU in the first quarter? Throwing out that first quarter is as silly as the typical fanboy argument of "if that game goes on five more minutes, we win." Yeah, will, it didn't, and they didn't.

 

What, are you a fan or something?

 

Hey, lets argue by throwing silly metaphors out there.

I'm saying that the game was not as one-sided as people would say, and certainly doesn't give any credence to the inflated ranking West Virginia has received this season because of it. So the Mountaineers returned most of their team. So did Ohio State, Florida and others who have faced a much more demanding schedule than WV so far.

I thought we in the media were irritated by teams who load up on cream-puffs to make a run at an undefeated season, and gave those teams the lack of credit they deserve. I guess if you've won one significant game in a year-and-a-half, that argument goes out the window.

I thought the idea was to find out who the best team in the nation was by having top teams play each other. That's what made the home-and-home between Texas and Ohio State so great, as do the annual series between teams like USC and Notre Dame or Florida and Florida State. It gives us - the media - and the fans a chance to see how good teams are when they're under the gun, how they react to being behind in a hostile environment, not to see who could load up their schedule with the biggest number of soft spots so they could end up undefeated.

West Virginia may have a great team, but nothing they have done THIS season, and certainly no-one they've beaten, makes me think they are a better team than those who have proved it against strong opposition on the field.

Again, 110th toughest schedule in the nation.