Mountaineers to play all the football newcomers to Big 12

Dana Holgorsen is pictured prior to a game between his current team, the Houston Cougars, and the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2019. Courtesy photo
SHEPHERDSTOWN — The football game on Oct. 12, where West Virginia plays conference newcomer Houston, might not whet the appetite of Cougar fans, but in Morgantown and the hills and valleys of the Mountain State, people will take notice.
Houston is certainly not a natural rival, but it is coached by Dana Holgersen, the one-time football leader of WVU.
Houston joins the Big 12 this coming season along with Cincinnati, Brigham Young and Central Florida.
And West Virginia will play all of them in 2023.
Provo, Utah, Orlando, Fla. and Houston, Texas are the locales of three of the first-year conference teams. Might take a little getting used to — much like Lubbock in Texas, Ames in Iowa, Manhattan in Kansas, Lawrence in Kansas, Stillwater in Oklahoma, Waco in Texas and Forth Worth in Texas did when the Mountaineers jumped into the Big 12 themselves.
People know about Cincinnati on the Ohio River. And they are no more praiseworthy of the Bearcats than they are of the backyard Pittsburgh Panthers.
West Virginia’s 12-game schedule has nine Big 12 games on it. All the newcomers are there. But Texas, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State are not.
The Big 12 — at least for the 2023 season — will just about cover the country, ranging from Florida through Texas and Oklahoma and bending westward to Utah.
Iowa, Ohio and Kansas give geography lovers more states to get familiar with.
Texas and Oklahoma are leaving soon enough, scattering to the football-rich SEC to join Alabama, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina and Florida and others and be among the country’s heavyweights.
Now that football is dependent on the transfer portal as much as it is by head coaches, millionaire assistant coaches and fly-by-night athletes, it might become more difficult to evaluate from season to season. Load up or be stripped. Wholesale change could be coming any season.
West Virginia saw a slew of players move out through the turnstile-like transfer portal.
Did it get enough talent coming back to it from other directions?
Dana Holgersen will be back on Oct. 12. That game is in Houston.
If you want to boost your number of frequent-flyer miles, find a fall 2023 routine that can take you from Orlando on to Houston and Waco, Fort Worth, Norman and Provo, Utah and then relatively close to home to State College, Pa. for the season opener on Sept. 2 against Penn State.