Was a New Rivalry Born?

[bbwvfan]

I believe so.

There has been so much chatter about the fact WVU has no rivals in their new conference. Well… no shit. It takes time to build a rivalry with another team.

I think the game yesterday was full of emotion. The BU team plays with a level of smack talk that reminds me of the Miami Hurricanes. WVU did not bow down to the BU players.

While I wish the WVU players had avoided the multitude of penalties by being a little smarter, I certainly understand how and why some of them happened. The kids were playing with emotion, and sometimes it is hard to reign this in during the game. It is this emotion that I feel elevated their game.

Playing with emotion has been missing from WVU for years. It is great to see its return.

BU kicked WVU's ass last year. It was an embarrassment to the WVU program. I am an old fart, and I had never seen anything like the first half performance of last year's game… never.

But… this is a new year. And, WVU may have a new rival…

 

[Bat 20]

bb, I think you may be on to something here. For the first time since we joined the Big II, I found myself thinking how much I disliked a team and its coaches. Thought maybe it was just me

 

[bbwvfan]

Speaking for myself, this win felt different. It felt as good as any win over any of our old rivals when they were top ranked.

 

[DBAR4WVU]

This was our first win over a top 5 team since the Fiesta Bowl in 2007. You could tell that the Baylor players absolutely do not like WV - feelings seemed to mutual on our side. The number of personal fouls were almost comical and luckily, we benefited from them more than we suffered.

I said prior to the game that Baylor's offense was scary but, other than their win over TCU, the Defense had not been tested and probably didn't deserve their #10 D rank. I think the WVU offense exposed their gaps in the secondary. While they did get pressure on Clint a few times, I thought our O-line matched up well over the long haul and allowed the run to open up the pass (or did the pass open up the run, hmmm?).

But more than anything I saw yesterday was that our defense played a MONSTER game and frustrated and disrupted everything Baylor had planned for the offensive game. Hats off to the MOST IMPROVED aspect of Mountaineer football - our Defense. And Special teams has looked better the past 2 games as well. Anyone else think we have the best kicker in all of FBS right now?? It was a pleasure to watch.

Oh yeah - hat's off to Marshall as well for remaining among the few unbeatens. Hopefully now WVU joins them in Top 25 ranks.

 

[Mac_Bridger]

bb, I think you may be on to something here. For the first time since we joined the Big II, I found myself thinking how much I disliked a team and its coaches. Thought maybe it was just me

Not only thinking but yelling things like "you dirty, cheating bastards!"

 

[DCWV4life]

No we are never to have any rivals but Pitt, Cuse, Va Tech, and Maryland.........man I wish we were playing Uconn Saturday instead of Baylor.

 

[Mac_Bridger]

No we are never to have any rivals but Pitt, Cuse, Va Tech, and Maryland.........man I wish we were playing Uconn Saturday instead of Baylor.

Me too! I'd love to see KW score 14 TDs in one game.

 

[Slaton10]

No question. With Danas's ties to BrileS The similarities in style this is the rivalry

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Baylor is and always have been Harry High school. If they ever beat us and take something away like an undefeated season and a chance to be in they playoff. Baylor is not a rival in my mind yet. there are kind of like Marshall right now.

 

[GoldRusher]

We have 2 memorable games and WVU wins in Morgantown and one epic beat down by the Bears on us at their place. Pretty good start iyam, reminds me a lil of the Syracuse series when they had things rolling up at the dome.

 

[Mike]

The three teams I think we are building rivalry's with are Baylor, TT, and if we can start beating them Kstate. TCU may be headed there also.