Cover Photo: WVU Athletics
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — After finishing the 2023 season with a 9-4 record and a huge win in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, the West Virginia Mountaineers now have a ton of momentum heading into the 2024 season. The Mountaineers return much of its talented offense and several key returning defensive players, and they are primed to make a legitimiate run at the Big 12 Conference Championship and perhaps a shot at the expanded twelve team Playoffs at the end of the season.
In fact, 247 Sports’ Cody Nagel listed West Virginia as one of the college football programs on the rise in 2024. According to Nagel, the Mountaineers are a team ready to make a major move in 2024.
Nagel said the following about the team in his latest article: “What a difference a year makes. West Virginia was picked to finish last in the Big 12 preseason media poll for 2023. Neal Brown was arguably on the hottest seat of any Power Five coach before the season even began but guaranteed the Mountaineers would not finish at the bottom of the conference. They did not. Instead getting to nine wins with a win at the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. It is the second-highest single-season win total for West Virginia since 2012. And despite everything seeming to be doom and gloom from the outside looking in at Morgantown, the Mountaineers have an opportunity to expand on that success in 2024.”
The other teams Nagel mentioned were SMU, Ole Miss, Colorado, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Notre Dame and Texas.
