The Dana Holgorsen-led Mountaineers were a pleasant surprise last year, upsetting the Baylor Bears and competing with Alabama, although they finished a disappointing 7-6 (5-4) and lost in a controversial Liberty Bowl, 45-37.
WVU had a nice offseason of recruiting by improving there weaknesses and building depth at key positions. One thing will hurt the Mountaineers going into the 2015-16 season of college football; the weak schedule they put on themselves. The Big 12 is arguably the second-best conference so WVU's in-conference is no problem. The out-of-conference schedule they put on themselves is simply abysmal. Here are the teams they will face outside of the Big 12: Maryland, Georgia Southern, and Liberty.
Maryland is sort of acceptable since they are an average Big Ten team and has showed flashes of greatness last year. Georgia Southern, a former FCS school that made the jump to the FBS with the Sun Belt conference, will almost certainly get destroyed like ants in a magniflying glass by WVU when they meet on September 5th. I saved the best for last, the Liberty Flames. Liberty will easily beat the Mountaineers while on the way to a national championship. Wrong. WVU will probably play the fifth string when they meet the Flames on September 12th.
You didn't read that wrong. The Mountaineers face two low-tier boardwalks in the first two weeks of the season. Other than that however, the schedule isn't horrible. Going agaisnt teams like TCU and Baylor will always help your strength of schedule, but will it be enough for WVU to climb the rankings and reach the top 25? This writer doesn't think so!