Basking in the Afterglow

I'll admit, I'm still a bit giddy about WVU's Fiesta Bowl romp last night/early this morning. It's the feel good story of an otherwise uninspiring BCS season so far. It even ended WVU's search for a coach, as interim coach Bill Stewart coached his way to the gig with the win over Oklahoma.

Stewart was very sly about trying to get the job, repeatedly saying he "wouldn't politic" for it (whatever the hell that means). But both before and after the game, he pimped his Mountain State bona fides and declared his loyalty to the state and the University. For a fan base still stinging from Rich "Which Way to Ann Arbor?" Rodriguez's departure, it was music to our ears. I only hope that the emotionally filled decision to remove the "interim" tag proves to be the right one in the long term, once the rest of Rodriguez's assistants move to Michigan and such.

Oh, and, for the record, WVU has as much of a claim to be in the national title debate as the other two-loss BCS teams so far - USC and Georgia - do. Georgia didn't win their conference, USC has a loss at least as bad as the one to Pitt (Stanford!), and WVU walloped the most dangerous bowl opponent. Not that I think WVU deserves that kind of consideration, but neither do the other two.