So far this has been one of the best weeks of my blogging career. It is unbelievable the articles that are coming out of West Virginia publications and quotes from message boards. I had some ideas about West Virginia and their fan base from the whole Rich Rod scandal but it is clearly to a level that I cannot really comprehend. I am probably a bigger Broncos fan than you will ever know and Denver is a pro football town and we don't ever get like this. Certainly the Colorado Buff fans don't have this so called passion (that is a nice way of saying it...dementia might be a more accurate way of saying it) about their team. Even the newspapers are calling their readers, their way to make money fair-weather, bandwagon fans. Head coach Bill Stewart is calling his boosters, his fan base bandwagon fans. I want the Buffaloes to win for the program and it would be a banner win on Thursday night with every recruit watching. But now I have other reasons to root the Buffs on to a win...to watch the hysteria that will ensue in Morgantown on Friday morning.
Here is an example of what I am talking about:
This article is from The Register-Herald in Beckly, West Virginia. The title reads "Truth be told, some WVU fans no better than Michigan's." What is the best part of the article:
How long till a Sack Stew site appears as a Fire the Fridge did for poor old Ralph Friedgen at Maryland?
Come on, people.
Sensibility has walked out the door.
What it means is a lot of WVU fans are no better than anyone else's when it comes to taking to the boards, behind the cloak of anonymity, and bashing the coach. No better than Michigan, Marshall, Notre Dame or anyone else.
Next week we will be doing a "tell me all we need to know about West Virginia" session with mountainlair, a West Virginia blog, and we will tell him all they need to know about Colorado to get us all prepared for the showdown Thursday night. In the meantime, tell us what questions you would like us to ask them about West Virginia and the upcoming game.
Get your college pick's in before the Kansas Jayhawks take on the South Florida Bulls tonight. Also if you haven't participated in our State of the CUnion Address, get in on it.
This is always a good site to read, Coaches Hot Seat Blog, as they rank West Virginia coach Bill Stewart "Goat of the Week" after the ECU game. These guys put a lot of work into this site.
The state of West Virginia has the highest stress rate in the United States. Researchers said that their is a connection between poor health and stress that is prevalent among West Virginia natives. My research shows that the stress level has increased 20 fold since the Rich Rod incident.
Fellow SBNation blog, Card Chronicle (Louisville) put together this eerily similar list comparing the Louisville program before its recent downfall to the current state of West Virginia. The list is amazingly done and yes it is eerily similar in a ton of aspects. Here's to hoping that the Buffaloes assist in the spiral.
We at the Ralphie Report are also worried about how Colorado will match West Virginia's speed. I will probably have nightmares of Noel Devine and Pat White before the game.
The Buffs will once again play that game where we don't name the starting guards until the last minute...I do like the statement that "there was some anger during film study of the Eastern Washington game." Guys like Daniel Sanders need to lead this young offensive line.
Tim Griffin of ESPN successful describes CU Buffs WR Josh Smith's play in "Big 12 Hot and Cold."
Catch up on CU commits QB Jordan Wynn and QB Clark Evans as they lead their respective California High School teams. Something tells me it is going to be hard to keep Clark Evans off the field in this new spread offense we are running. In case you haven't seen video of him yet, check this out. At 6'5" 225 lb quarterback has some skills and size.
The Buffs will honor former coach Eddie Crowder with a moment of silence before the West Virginia game Thursday night.