How Things Could Have Lined Up

What if Pat White wouldn’t have injured his thumb?
If White hadn’t injured his thumb in the 2nd quarter of the Backyard Brawl with Pitt would the Mountaineers offense have stumbled so profoundly. WVU lost by 7, wouldn’t the dual-threat Heisman Candidate White have scored at least those 7 points, if not more? With White still in the game and WVU possibly winning it leads us to another thought.

What if West Virginia won?
I think it’s pretty obvious, West Virginia, then number two would have moved up to number one after Mizzou’s loss to Oklahoma, and thus would be playing in the National Championship, most likely against (current) number one Ohio State. If that’s the case then LSU would not be in the National Championship led by Les Miles which again brings us to another point.

What if LSU was not in the National Championship?
There wouldn’t be as much pressure on Miles to make a decision. And reading into his original words in the pre-game , “Thank you very much, Have a Great day” speech before the SEC Championship, he said “I am the coach at LSU” not necessarily I will be the coach next year. LSU had made him an offer, but he had not signed it yet. Michigan, his dream job, had also made an offer. Had LSU lost that game I’m about 40 (stay)/60 (leave) on whether he would be in Purple and Gold or Maize and Blue next year. Even if they won that game they would not have been in the National Championship, does Les stay or go?

How does this affect West Virginia?
If Les traded in his purple tie for the block M, Rodriguez would still be at West Virginia. Would LSU have offered him to replace Miles? Probably not, he would, most likely, still be in Morgantown.

How bad is Rodriguez leaving for WVU?
Pretty bad, not many people saw Rodriguez leaving for Ann Arbor. He met with Michigan on Friday, he signed with them yesterday. This coming after Rodriguez said he wasn’t going to leave for Alabama last year and that his alma mater (WVU) was his place. This was a shock to many and there is no possible way that West Virginia was prepared for this. Now they are in full panic mode. They have to find a coach to fill in at WVU and most of the programs looking for coaches, have already picked a lot of the market. And if Rutgers coach Greg Schiano isn’t going to Michigan, why would he go to Morgantown. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Mountaineer recruits who haven’t signed their Letters of Intent yet, dropping out soon. Especially if they were looking forward to playing in the WVU spread.

When all is said and done, you can’t trust a coach until he signs something, and the buyout clause that Miles has in his new LSU contract should start popping up in all contracts. Erickson isn’t destined to stay more than his typical 3-5 in Tempe, he’ll walk out, Saban can’t stay in one place too long as we’ve seen. Rodriguez actually was the most honest of all of these guys, but he’s just another in the line of coaches who leave after saying they won’t. What is the point in even signing contracts in this day and age in college sports. Other than the guys who are long termers (JoePa, Tressel, etc) these guys get fired before their contract is up or leave for somewhere else before their contract is up. It’s a sick fact in today’s game. I guess when it’s over Rodriguez will be in Ann Arbor, and if he needs someone to show him around, he can call former WVU/current Michigan basketball coach John Beilein.