Sporting News Ranks WVU Near the Bottom of All Power 5 Teams

Sean Taylor   |  
Aug 6, 2019
Ranks WVU Near the Bottom of All Power 5 Teams

Former college football handicapper Danny Sheridan wrote a piece for Sporting News where he chooses the 16 worst Power 5 teams in the nation for the upcoming season.

It would be worse if he was currently a college football handicapper. After all, if he was any good at it, why would he quit? Did he get tired of winning? Did he run out of room to store all of his money? No, he did not.

Sheridan has the Mountaineers as the 10th worst Power 5 team for the 2019 season. Here’s what he had to say about the 2019 Mountaineers:

Once Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Will Grier and four other top offensive starters left Morgantown behind for greener NFL pastures, head coach Dana Holgorsen decided that the Cougars in Houston looked much more attractive. New head coach Neal Brown comes over from the mythical land of Troy University, where Brown’s undermanned program defeated the giant armies of LSU and Nebraska on the road.

Oklahoma transfer quarterback Austin Kendall will answer the question, “What do you get when you ride the bench behind two Heisman Trophy winners?” as he battles Miami transfer Jack Allison for the job. But the winner gets to work behind an offensive line that makes the Fyre Festival look well organized. Defensively, the Mountaineers seem more equipped to make a climb, particularly with Alabama transfer linebacker VanDarius Cowan.

Be patient, West Virginia fans. College football isn’t like the NBA, where you can put an entire team of new players together a week before the free agent market opens – it takes time.

Sheridan managed to slide in a few backhanded compliments. Nevermind that Kendall battled Kyler Murray for the job until August. He compared the offensive line unfavorably to the Fyre Festival. Danny, you ever hear of Colton McKivitz and Josh Sills? They’re both on the Outland Trophy watch list, In fact, McKivitz was named to the 2019 preseason All-Big 12 team. It might take some time for this line to gel, but they are nowhere near the debacle you described.

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Then there’s the Mountaineer running backs, which return three different guys who had 100 yard games last season. You can learn about them in this piece where I showed my complete lack of creativity by naming them the Four Horsemen.

On the bright side there are two teams on the Mountaineer schedule that are ranked lower. Kansas checks in at No. 3 and West Virginia barely edged out the No. 9 Kansas State Wildcats.

It could be a tough season for the Mountaineers, but Neal Brown has this team fired up to take the field. We’ll learn a lot in the opener which is just a little over THREE WEEKS away when the Mountaineers take on FSC powerhouse James Madison.

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