By Bill Nestor
It is finally here, after months of waiting for die-hard Mountaineer fans! It’s time to kick off the football season as West Virginia Head Coach Rich Rodriguez can’t wait to spot the ball. Once this campaign begins, RichRod can finally put 2025 in the rearview mirror and move forward.
Looking ahead is something that everyone around the program is doing and when you break down this year’s schedule, it really favors Rod and his team. This year’s edition will go as far as they are led by the signal caller and it appears that Rod will not name a starter prior to the opener with Coastal Carolina. It appears as if Oklahoma transfer Michael Hawkins Jr. has the edge over returning starter Scotty Fox Jr. as Sept. 5 draws near. Hawkins is pulling in an estimated $1.3 million more than Fox, which is another reason that he might get the nod over the Chanticleers.
The opener is scheduled for a noon start at Milan Puskar Stadium. The second game of the year is a 1 p.m. kick versus the University of Tennessee-Martin, once again in Morgantown. A perfect setup for a new quarterback. A pair of beatable opponents, early starts which leave less idle time to allow thoughts to get in the way, and playing in Touchdown City where everyone is on your side.
Rich Rod himself has to be happy with the schedule and how it sets up his squad. The Mountaineers don’t play a true road game until Oct. 3, a month after the season starts. Having Coastal Carolina and UT Martin at home to start gives him the ability to pick up a pair of wins that would give his group some confidence without having to show too much to future conference opponents. As a matter of fact, Morgantown will be the site for five of the first seven games on the schedule. One of the two out of state lock ups will be a neutral site battle, which is much better than heading into enemy territory.
Game three is against Atlantic Coast Conference foe Virginia at Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Big 12 schedule opens up the last weekend of September when Oklahoma State comes to Mo-town. The game with the Cavaliers is a prime time affair scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. If the Mountaineers would come out of that battle undefeated, the game with the Cowboys could be another late night affair which would turn the spotlight on the Old Gold and Blue.
Oct 3rd will be the first road test on a campus with a trip to Ames to tackle Iowa State. Back-to-back battles at home kick off with a Rich Rod reunion with Arizona. He led the Wildcat program from 2012 to 2017. He was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2014 when he led Zona to the Fiesta Bowl.
The following week, Cincinnati is in the house.
The last game of the month sets up the only back-to-back away tilts. But there is a silver lining in this scenario because there is an off week between these battles. Texas Christian University is scheduled on Oct. 24, then West Virginia gets Hallowe’en off before heading to Texas Tech. The trip to Lubbock could have a lot riding on it and its placement on the schedule is perfect. The regular season concludes on November 14 when Kansas comes to town for Senior day.
The schedule sets up well for a team that has a golden opportunity to make Mountaineer Nation forget about 2025.
That will do until next week. Until then . . . take care and God Bless!!!