late night post

because it's easier to write about things others might care about instead of just yourself, i'll go to my standby because, well, the things that are keeping me up at 1 in the morning are way too complicated for something as frivolous as a public, online diary.

thanks to the tumble my west virginia u mountaineers have experienced in the past two weeks, the natives are restless -- teetering between the foaming masses who are demanding a return on their investment in the preseason speculation of the football team's fortunes and a more patient minority who don't believe being handed the keys to a ferrari instantly makes one a race car driver.

while i'd hoped the transition would be seamless, i'm seeing that there are still kinks to be worked out not only between the coaches and players, but likely the coaches and the coaches. the importance of chemistry can't be underestimated.

still, it bugs me to see us stumble, watch the vultures circle and hear the "i told you so's" as we try to shake out the cobwebs. believe it or not, i'm still on the fence -- i'll expect the worst and hope for the best.

thud

that is the sound of hope after it falls from the top shelf.

the hope was a dream of gridiron glory for my west virginia university mountaineers set high on the lofty heights of national championship contention.

now, well, they're a little bit more down to earth, courtesy of a 24-3 keel-hauling at the hands of the east carolina pirates.

going into the season, i had my doubts about whether new head coach bill stewart was a one-hit wonder after the fiesta bowl or if he'd learned from his years as a top assistant at some good schools.

well, the doubts are still there, which i suppose is a good thing, given that i can't rightly say whether his tenure is a success or failure based on two regular season games.

his boys ran into the same buzz saw that virginia tech's hokies did last week, so this was no flukey loss to a no-name squad. ecu will probably be the talk of the season if they keep up this pace.

by the same token, we knew all that -- and failed to rise to the occasion.

what does all this mean?

well, it takes the bull's-eye of high expectations off our backs, that's for sure.

and as i commented on this fellow's sober blog, wvu's football teams have a proud tradition of fighting hardest when our backs are against the wall.

i suppose it's best we got our warning shot early in the season. our young defense is going to have to grow up really fast. 

and our coaches -- well, they're just going to have to do a better job getting a game plan together and our boys ready.

me? let's just say i'm not going to mothball my mountaineer football fatalism any time soon.