Big 12 Bowl Previews: Fiesta Bowl
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December 20, 2007 by
This appeared to be the best bowl match-up for the Big 12, that is, until West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez announced his departure to Michigan. Sure, his players might draw inspiration from their last night with their head coach, but in truth you expect his departure to be an enormous distraction that will cost his team on the field. To a lesser extent, the departure of assistant coaches from OU could even things out, but you don’t expect that to be nearly as distracting.
You wonder if West Virginia quarterback Pat White will be fully recovered from the dislocated thumb that sidelined him in the season-ending loss at home to Pitt. With a healthy White, the Mountaineers look like national championship contenders, without him they look pretty ordinary.
Their spread option offense is not all that different than Missouri’s in terms of alignment. Obviously, the Mountaineers run a lot more than the Tigers but in terms of responsibilities it might be a very similar task for a Sooner defense that twice beat Missouri this season. Likewise, West Virginia features a gimmicky defense (like Missouri) which didn’t seem to faze the Sooners at all.
Even at full-strength and without distraction, you’d probably give an edge to the Sooners. But with both the quarterback and head coaching positions in a bit of flux, it’s hard to see a West Virginia victory.
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Greg Morrow Dec 22 07
That has to be about as bad as it gets (apart from going 5-7). As a fan, you go from losing your QB, then losing the game, losing the bid for the BCS game, then losing your coach.
Talk about hitting for the cycle!
I would only wish that type of misfortune on the truly despicable- Colorado.
So now, a team with it's momentum thoroughly vacuumed out, faces another solid Okie team, excited about their new Quarterback, not to mention another Big 12 title for the collection and momentum for next year.
Hopefully, Pat White's thumb has healed enough to give him a chance to showcase a fine college career.
That's one thing about college ball, for the seniors, or juniors going out early, that bowl game is it- el finito.