Cummings and Goings: The WVSports.com: 3-2-1
WVSports.com continues with our popular feature: The 3-2-1. We'll break down three things we learned that week, two questions we have and give one prediction.
Here is the next installment of the 3-2-1 looking at the West Virginia football program, the latest on basketball and what’s happening in recruiting.
3 things I learned:
1–West Virginia playing the disrespect card, again. Last season West Virginia used the No. 14 as a battle cry all season. The Mountaineers were selected dead last in the league and head coach Neal Brown made it clear that his team was better than that.
It was used as fuel all season for the Mountaineers and they used that to propel themselves to a 9-4 campaign and the first time being ranked under Brown. West Virginia also won the Duke's Mayo Bowl against North Carolina to give the program even more momentum heading into the off-season.
And after a successful season keeping the bulk of the roster together and bringing in some quality transfers to fill the holes that were on the roster it seemed that the Mountaineers would not need to worry about any disrespect.
This is a team that returned a bulk of their production across the board and used the transfer portal to fill holes in the areas where there were question marks such as at defensive back.
Well, while the program wasn't picked dead last, the Mountaineers were selected No. 7 in the league and had only one player on the all-conference team. That is something that Brown and company can again use as motivation for them during the upcoming year and is something that shares the same dynamic as last year.
In fact, Brown made it a point to say that he hasn't noticed his football team in any of the pre-season top 25 lists as well his individual players haven't received recognition.
West Virginia has embraced the underdog mentality over the past two years and while this isn't quite the same disrespect as last season, the Mountaineers have plenty of ammo to choose from on that front. It worked to nine wins last year, can the same formula work for perhaps even more this season?
2–Depth chart features little surprises. The release of the 2024 football media guide in time for the Big 12 Media Days meant that we would get our first peek of what the preseason depth chart currently looks like for West Virginia.
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