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<blockquote data-quote="Samuel S" data-source="post: 129394426" data-attributes="member: 1754664">Excellent points.Recruiting has been quite stable at WVU for 30 years. From the time Nehlen elevated us to the present, we are a middle of the pack recruiting team when compared to other &quot;big time programs.&quot;&nbsp; Our best seasons come when we have a convergence of favorable factors coincide. When we have a good&nbsp; QB, substantial experience, no glaring weaknesses and just a sprinkling a &quot;star players&quot; (as opposed to recruits with a lot of stars) we are usually&nbsp; a very strong strong team 1998 might be the only exception to that and it was still a decent team record-wise) . the more of those elements you remove the less we accomplish.&nbsp; But, the best predictor is QB by far.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; It's probably not a coincidence that our winning percentage&nbsp; from 1980 forward , when Luck, Hoss, Major, Bulger,&nbsp; White and Smith started is approx. .700 and we're about .550 with others.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our down years, also largely coincide with&nbsp; either poor QB play or at least ones poorly suited for the offense. In such years, we were well below our average. We had very serious QB issues in 85-6, 90-91, 94 (Johnston improved some so I only put him at poor that year), 2001 (Lewis was only poor in Rod's system), and 2013. we were about .445 in those years with only 3 winning records and all of them were just barely.&nbsp;&nbsp; The only time we had a losing record with a really good QB was 1999 and Bulger was hurt much of the season.When you see the difference between .700 with our best QBs and .450 with our weakest, across 35 years and 4 coaches that tells you something. We average 3.6 losses per 12 games with our best QBs and that includes everyone but Luck's first year,&nbsp;&nbsp; 5.4 overall, and 6.6 with the weakest QB play.&nbsp;&nbsp; I would say&nbsp; it would not be unreasonable at all to say Howard puts us&nbsp; at -3 compared to what a great QB could do with this team. A great QB with substantial experience might add another game on top of that.,A steady one would probably be +1-2 over Howard.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think we need to see how the season finishes before we say whether that would make us just better, good or really good.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Samuel S, post: 129394426, member: 1754664"] Excellent points. Recruiting has been quite stable at WVU for 30 years. From the time Nehlen elevated us to the present, we are a middle of the pack recruiting team when compared to other "big time programs." Our best seasons come when we have a convergence of favorable factors coincide. When we have a good QB, substantial experience, no glaring weaknesses and just a sprinkling a "star players" (as opposed to recruits with a lot of stars) we are usually a very strong strong team 1998 might be the only exception to that and it was still a decent team record-wise) . the more of those elements you remove the less we accomplish. But, the best predictor is QB by far. It's probably not a coincidence that our winning percentage from 1980 forward , when Luck, Hoss, Major, Bulger, White and Smith started is approx. .700 and we're about .550 with others. Our down years, also largely coincide with either poor QB play or at least ones poorly suited for the offense. In such years, we were well below our average. We had very serious QB issues in 85-6, 90-91, 94 (Johnston improved some so I only put him at poor that year), 2001 (Lewis was only poor in Rod's system), and 2013. we were about .445 in those years with only 3 winning records and all of them were just barely. The only time we had a losing record with a really good QB was 1999 and Bulger was hurt much of the season. When you see the difference between .700 with our best QBs and .450 with our weakest, across 35 years and 4 coaches that tells you something. We average 3.6 losses per 12 games with our best QBs and that includes everyone but Luck's first year, 5.4 overall, and 6.6 with the weakest QB play. I would say it would not be unreasonable at all to say Howard puts us at -3 compared to what a great QB could do with this team. A great QB with substantial experience might add another game on top of that., A steady one would probably be +1-2 over Howard. I think we need to see how the season finishes before we say whether that would make us just better, good or really good. [/QUOTE]

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