Schedule puts WVU in position to have success in 2016

Why THE year ... the year West Virginia wins a national championship in football.

I’ll give a moment to stop laughing.

We know, they are coming off an eight-win season ended by barely pulling out a victory over a mediocre Arizona State team in a bowl that had far more excitement than prestige.

The Mountaineers are unranked in the preseason and, to be honest, do not command a great deal of respect.

So why ask this question?

We’re just thinking, if not this year, when?

Like West Virginia has more all-time victories than any FBS team that has failed to lay claim to a national championship — 727.

Virginia Tech, BTW, is next in line with 718.

If ever ....

First of all, you have a coach in Dana Holgorsen coaching for his job.

No more building, no more talking about improvement. The time has come to get back to the 10-game winner he inherited.

Certainly, the schedule will never be more tuned toward drawing national attention.

Let us begin with the non-conference schedule. WVU plays two well-known, highly respected schools with a strong football history in Missouri and BYU ... and has to go to neither place.

Missouri, coming in with a new coach off a down year, gives WVU a high-profile but lower risk opener than you might expect. They are coming off a disappointing season and without high expectations.

They then play Youngstown State, a lower division team with a high profile, which should not offer much resistance in Morgantown.

Then comes a good BYU team, but one that will be playing what amounts to a road game as the game is being played down the road in Landover, Md., which when last checked out figured to bring in a whole lot more Mountaineer than BYU fans.

WVU comes into this with one of the nation’s most prolific returning quarterbacks, a stable full of dangerous receivers, a running back in Rushel Shell who once was recruited as a potential superstar.

And the conference schedule is as accommodating as it ever will be.

To begin with, this is one of those years when three of the league’s top programs — TCU, Oklahoma and Baylor — all have to make the trip to play WVU at Milan Puskar Stadium.

If things go right, it’s highly possible that the Sooners, who figure to be the best in the Big 12, could stub their toe right out of the gate, playing a dangerous non-Power 5 opponent in Houston.

And that’s on the road.

A loss there by Oklahoma and you can take all those preseason magazines, put them in a bundle and set them ablaze because it’s a new ball game.

But the whole national picture could be scrambled that first weekend. Alabama entertains USC, Clemson and Auburn play and on Sunday night, and Notre Dame goes to Texas for a dangerous game.

Is West Virginia good enough to pull it off? Can they beat all three of those teams at home and go to Texas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State and win?

It never has been, so it’s probably absurd to think they can pull it off, but if they do go into the season’s final game needing to win to finish off an unbeaten year and to get into the playoffs, could there possible be a better time or place to be playing Baylor?

A pipe dream?

Sure.

But what is July for, anyway?