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West Virginia is probably going to be a bad football team this year. Let's just go ahead and get that out there, because it's a crucial factor in this game. The Mountaineers are eighth in the Big 12 preseason consensus, which might not sound too dreadful until you consider that Iowa State and Kansas are also members of the ten-member conference. This is going to be an ugly, ugly game.
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Which is why, maybe, this is the perfect opportunity for Blake Sims to start and Jacob Coker to be worked into the game. If you're going to see how well two quarterbacks can do, an outing against the 96th-best passing efficiency offense in the country last year -- with only half of its starting secondary back -- is probably about s good an opportunity as you're going to get in live game action. And it could also be something of a practice run for when Alabama faces Kevin Sumlin's offense, given that Dana Holgorsen was once an offensive coordinator for Sumlin.
But Clint Trickett is no Johnny Manziel; he's not a threat to run and his passing efficiency numbers last year were terrible. Barring a bout of first game-itis -- something Nick Saban appears to be immune to -- there's just not much of a reason to think that the Mountaineers can push the Tide. Alabama has made much better teams look much worse to open the season.
That's not to say that there's no reason to watch this; if nothing else, it will be our first opportunity to get a sneak peek at Lane Kiffin's offense in action. But while it's tempting fate to come on too strong in a preview like this, if the Tide loses this one, or even comes close, it will be time to seriously re-examine our views of the SEC West race.
Game Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: ABC, mirrored on ESPN2 in some areas (coverage)
Radio: Alabama | West Virginia
Live Stream: WatchESPN