WVU’s fortunes in athletics starting to gain momentum
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MORGANTOWN -- Just as Thursday night's football meeting with Baylor turned out to be no normal game, the Mountaineers scoring in every way imaginable save for a safety, the 43-40 result was no normal victory.
Over the past few years, there has been far too little to rejoice in athletically in Morgantown or around the state if you are a fan of West Virginia, and the start to this football season seemed to be leading down another difficult path.
But a football victory, no matter what the atmosphere coming into the game, seems to flash a light on all that is good.
And believe it or not, despite difficult times in recent football and basketball seasons, WVU seems to be reaching out for an athletic renaissance, and it comes at a time when the focus should shift from the dreary recent past into the present and beyond.
Perhaps it is crisp early fall weather and the beauty of the West Virginia leaves getting their yearly burst of color that puts us in a pleasant mood, but do not cut short the effect that football victory has on the community and the state.
We've all grown weary of mediocrity in sports, of failure to reach or win in postseason play, be it football, basketball, baseball, soccer or even the old fallback, rifle.
It was Bob Huggins, welcomed back to the Coliseum on Friday night for the first time as a Nasmith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, who spoke for all when he made his introductory remarks of the new season.
Huggins has nearly an entirely new roster, which led his coaching brethren to place his mystery team ninth among 10 teams in their pre-season poll.
He, however, would beg to disagree, as he told the crowd:
"Well, we were picked ninth in the league," Huggins began. "What do you all think? Are we going to be ninth?"
That might as well have been a rhetorical question, for they roared back, "No!"
"We're not going to do that again," Huggins vowed. "I'm tired hearing about Baylor. I'm tired hearing about Kansas. To say it in a rather proverbial way, let's just go kick their (butts)."
You expect no less a statement from Huggins, and the Big 12 is too tough a league to expect miracles, but the point is that there's a newfound optimism beginning to shine through.
Why?
Well, Huggins' long-overdue election to the Hall of Fame is the kind of thing that can be taken as an omen of good things to come, but all around us, such omens are popping up.
West Virginia and West Virginians seem to be stepping up wherever you look.
Geno Smith has risen from the NFL dead to take over the Seattle Seahawks from Russell Wilson and has taken a long drink from the Fountain of Youth as he's played as well as any QB in the league.
You turn to baseball, and former Mountaineer Alek Manoah became something of a baseball folk hero with his entertaining comments on live television while pitching in the All-Star game, having propelled himself in two years into one of the game's top pitchers.
NBA? Huggins' former guard, Joe Mazzulla, has made a headspinning climb in the coaching ranks, from Fairmont State to the Boston Celtics, beginning the season as the interim coach of the team that made the NBA Finals a year ago.
He brings the same kind of toughness and dedication to the sport that allowed him to become one of the most popular and grittiest athletes ever at West Virginia.
Another guard, one out of the same playbook as Mazzulla, has elbowed his way into the NBA in Jevon Carter, taking the hard work and defense he developed while at WVU into a league that ignored so many other WVU players over the years.
In the midst of all this, "The Legend" and "The Logo" that is Jerry West has been celebrated by a tributary song by Nashville songwriter Kevin Major, a longtime resident and native of Morgantown.
At the same time -- which is right now -- cross country runner Ceili McCabe is pushing her way not only toward a place alongside the all-time great distance runners at the school, but, perhaps, even into an Olympic place for her native country, Canada.
Another female athlete, Mary Tucker, has burst onto the scene in rifle as a transfer from Kentucky. She has led WVU rifle to two consecutive victories, leading in all three disciplines, having lived up to the All-American billing she had at Kentucky.
WVU also breaks in a new women's basketball coach in Dawn Plitzuweit, who comes in with strong credentials, about to create her own legacy at the school.
Toss in young potential football stars in CJ Donaldson and Kaden Prather, and one can find it easy to accept the premise that things may be rounding the corner at West Virginia.