In a meaningless bowl game, who needs an expensive coach? Who needs a Heisman Trophy caliber running back? Clearly not West Virginia, which was lacking both Wednesday night in Tempe, and still absolutely buried Oklahoma, 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl. It was 6-0 before Gossip Girl even came on. We would check over during the commercial break and two things always seemed to be happening: 1) a penalty (223 yards!) or 2) West Virginia on the move. 13-3. 20-6. This was at the point when we gave up. (And it’s a good thing, at least for the health of our TV screen: Oklahoma got within 20-15 when it inexplicably tried an onside kick and failed. WVU then scored four touchdowns on its next seven plays.) Anyone at Michigan feel like begging Rich Rodriguez to bring Noel Devine to Ann Arbor with him?

How did we not see this coming? When everything points to a lock – no interim coaches had won a bowl game, the Big East is garbage, Oklahoma was on a roll, WVU lost to Pittsburgh, blah, blah – the opposite is bound to happen. So are we to believe the same will take place tonight between Kansas and Virginia Tech? Hold your thoughts on that one for later in the day.

Just because we’d rather not spend another nanosecond giving thought to this wretched game – how about an early look at the top five teams in the country next year, in no particular order? Georgia will be there … USC will be there … Virginia Tech probably returns enough to warrant consideration … if White and Slaton return, WVU will be in the mix … and then the fifth team seems like a tossup between Ohio State (depends if all those defenders leave early), Florida (you’ll hate this, we know) and Missouri.

Stoops runs out of magic; and Sooners’ BCS struggles continue (Oklahoman)

Photo: Nick Doan/Icon SMI