Unlike Chas, I actually picked the West Virginia Mountaineers to upset us last week (see the comment after the post). Although I never foresaw us getting absolutely dominated like we did, I’m not surprised in retrospect.

I said that because West Virginia had a solid running back and an offensive line that was even stronger than Virginia Tech’s, our defensive front would have to genuinely step it up or the Mountaineers would run all over us. Our defensive front didn’t, and the Mountaineers buried us alive for 307 freakin’ yards on the ground. To be fair, I’m not sure if our defensive line could have ever handled that offensive line anyways. We are simply too weak physically.

But fire Paul Rhoads anyways.

I said that our offensive line would have to genuinely step it up or Rod Rutherford would get pressured and start to panic just like he did against Notre Dame. Our offensive line didn’t, and our finesse passing game (while still piling up 419 yards) came apart and quickly fell behind the Hoopies’s powerful ground game. Of course, our easy-to-defend-completely-one-dimensional offense and the roaring Mountaineer faithful were hell on our aerial attack too.

I said that West Virginia would have a clear advantage on special teams. And boy, did they ever. Adam “Pac Man” Jones damn near took it to the house every time he touched it.

Here’s a few more random thoughts while I try to put last night’s train wreck together in my head…

–Mountaineer Field is still one of the most comfortable on-campus stadiums in college football. Plenty of leg room, plenty of bathrooms, and good sight lines. But it sure ain’t no Heinz Field. I had forgotten how much I appreciate arm rests and seat backs (yeah, I’ve admittedly gone soft in a pro stadium).

–However, Mountaineer Field’s security was an absolute joke. At kickoff, probably 10,000 fans (including me) were still standing in long lines outside waiting to get in. When I finally did get up to gates, there were only two guards frisking the approximately 25,000 fans that had to sit on the press box side of Mountaineer Field. After waiting for a half hour in one frisking line, I just walked behind the security guard in the other while he was frisking somebody else. I didn’t even show my ticket. All that security, and they never even checked to see if I had paid to be there.

–John, who most of you know teaches at WVU, gave me a great tour of the campus yesterday afternoon. And you know, I genuinely liked the place. A bunch of neat old buildings piled on a steep hillside overlooking the Monongahela. And as much as it may be a Robert Byrd-sponsored pork barrel waste of taxpayers money, the PRT lines give that campus a look unlike anywhere else in the country. I really think that I could have gone to WVU and liked it. Too bad the academics absolutely suck. (Besides, the Cathedral of Learning trumps all the buildings of Morgantown put together.)

–Even though they hate me, I do like Mountaineer fans. They are much louder, drunker, and more supportive of their team than us Pitt fans often are. And I like the “WAAAAAAAAAH… WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, (clap), FIRST DOWN!” chant too. It’s a lot cooler than the “YELL, YELL, YELL… OOP!” crap that Texas A&M does. And it certainly beats “LET’S GO PITT! LET’S GO PITT!” ad naseum.

–Speaking of alcohol, I’ve never seen so much public drinking or empty glass bottles scattered on the ground anywhere in my life (and keep in mind that I went to grad school at Ohio State). If WVU really is serious about curbing its image as a hard-drinking party school, they got a lot of work to do.

–WVU’s Marching Band is the best in the Big East, period.

— I-68 from Cumberland, Maryland to Morgantown, West Virginia is perhaps the most fun-to-drive Interstate in America. It goes up, down, left, and right like any good Appalacian road. However, it does so at Interstate highway geometry standards with (usually) six lanes. Thus, you can easily handle it at 80-plus MPH… not that I did, mind you…

Incidentally, I got one win (WVU beat Pitt), one loss (did anybody foresee Penn State just getting off on Indiana like that?), and one push (Ohio State beat Purdue by a field goal) on my picks for the week. This takes my season-long record against the spread to 20-22-1.

Hail to the Hoopies. They certainly deserved to win that one as well as the Big East Conference. Hail to Firing Paul Rhoads. And Hail to Walt Harris’s realizing that he has to recruit good linemen as well as good quarterbacks and receivers if Pitt is going to win.