THE WOLVERINE • PAGE 4
to a third consecutive crown. However,
they open this season with a young team in
transition coming off of a 4-8 debut under
Satterfield — that marked the school's worst
ledger since 1993 — so the confidence level
has done a 180-degree turn.
College football is even in a different place
now with the spawn of super conferences and
the proliferation of the option offense that
Cinderella used to topple the big dog seven
years ago. The Mountaineers have gone from
a dominant FCS presence to the new kid on the
block at the highest level of college football,
and that is far from an easy evolution.
"I think, for us, it's all about the process,"
the coach said. "We've been trying to get
as good as we can possibly get. What we're
trying to do is reach our potential, wherever
that ceiling is for us as individual players and
for us as a team.
"We know it's a big and a loud stadium,
but the size of the football field is the same
in Boone, N.C., as it is in Ann Arbor, Mich.
We're going to do the things that we do to try
to get ready to play.
"We just signed our first FBS class this
year, so we're not full strength as far as that
goes in recruiting, but you throw all of that
stuff out the window. You don't care if you're
Division II, Division III, FCS, FBS; it doesn't
matter when the whistle blows and it's time
to kick the ball off.
"It's the team that's the most prepared,
that's playing together and makes the least
amount of mistakes that will come out on
top." ❑
