Auburn vs West Virginia

The FATE of Auburn vs. West Virginia

I am actually blogging this less than an hour before the game kicks off, and wanted to get my thoughts out there before the game starts. Tonight is a pretty important game for two schools and the conferences they represent.

Now, I realize that there is another game, New Mexico vs. Air Force, but I doubt that we’ll actually be able to see that game. I would love to have been flipping back and forth between the two, but I’ll settle for the game we have.

This game tonight between Auburn and WVA is one both conferences need. We know that the SEC claims to be the best conference in the nation, but some argue about the Big 12. But the Big East has been underachieving this year, and could use some help from West Virginia. A win by the Mountaineers could be a shot in the arm to the conference, let alone the team.

As you know, Auburn started out doing fine, beating Louisiana-Monroe 34-0, then beating Southern Mississippi 27-13. A so-so record against foes that won’t really matter, but the conference win vs. Mississippi State by ONLY 3-2 sounded like a baseball game.

Still, who’s to sneer at a 3-0 record?

Things started to fall apart with a loss to LSU 26-21, but the Auburn Tigers pulled it together with a win over Tennessee (though barely). It seemed to mark the continuation of problems when they then lost two games back to back to #19 Vanderbilt and Arkansas, a team supposedly in “rebuilding”.

The Tigers have some interesting games ahead of them, beginning with this one tonight. They still need 2 more wins to qualify for a bowl, and the West Virginia game is not a gimmie. They should be favored against Mississippi and certainly against Tennessee-Martin, but their last two games are against Georgia AND Alabama.

Good luck with that. I won’t rule out them NOT beating Alabama, but only if we see something tonight against West Virginia. I think LSU may end up taking the division, but Auburn could contest for second place.

West Virginia on the other hand, may have some work to do. And you’d argue that with me knowing that WVA’s record is 4-2, and undefeated in conference play. But take a closer look:

Beating Villanova 48-21 was not impressive, and losing to ECU 24-3 and to Colorado 17-14 showed that there are some problems that wasn’t there last year. West Virginia lost a great running back, and a coach, at least those two seemed to truly affect the team.

Beating Marshall 27-3 and a struggling Rutgers 24-17 may have put them back on track, but in truth there are no real quality wins. The 17-6 win over hapless Syracuse adds a win in the column, but not much respect.

If you don’t count the Villanova game (not Division I game), then West Virginia has to win 3 more games out of 6 to qualify for a bowl. Odd to say that about a team in second place in the Big East, but this is because they have not met the “meat” of the schedule yet…they are about to.

That makes this game vs. Auburn a big one, in fact 4 of the 6 games remaining are against teams that are ranked or have been ranked this year. We know Auburn is currently ranked, and we know Connecticut was ranked. I am not sure if Louisville has been ranked this year, but we know that Pittsburgh and South Florida are currently ranked. This is a very tough schedule for West Virginia, but this is what they need to get back into the spotlight that they enjoyed last year.

Both teams need this win; Auburn needs it to keep pace with their SEC foes and stay in the top 25, and West Virginia needs this win to stay above water. To date they have not really been tested this year, and there have been a lot of questions about this team. We’re gonna get a few answers tonight.

Game on!