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Fans judge their favorite team's season on myriad events--wins and losses, overall and individual performances, the level of competition, game-changing plays, untimely penalties, the cost of attending a game, and on and on.
But every season also develops its own narrative--a simple statement or two that summarizes everything that happened. As time passes and the specifics of individual games fade, the narrative becomes the condensed version of the season.
For WVU football, think back to 1988. The Mountaineers, led by quarterback Major Harris, played for the national championship but lost to Notre Dame.
The 2007 season? It can be summed up in two numbers: 13-9. The loss to Pitt kept the Mountaineers out of the national championship game.
The 2023 season? The Mountaineers beat North Carolina in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, and Coach Neal Brown had mayonnaise dumped on his head.
Now, on to the second Rich Rodriguez era.
Here is the short version of his first season back: After a surprising and controversial hire, Rich Rodriguez made a historic return to Morgantown--and won just four games.
So what will be the narrative for this season?
For simplicity's sake, it will probably hinge on wins and losses. After all, that is typically how fans judge coaches.
Five wins or fewer: The Mountaineers failed to improve during RichRod's second season, and the coach heads into year three on the hot seat. Most-heard fan statement: "I knew it was a mistake to bring RichRod back."
Administration and fan attention spans have shortened considerably. Three years is the new five years when it comes to the amount of time coaches are given to meet expectations.
Six to seven wins: RichRod is making progress and raising expectations for the following year. Sure, it would have been nice to have a couple more wins, but hey, we're going bowling.
Eight or more wins: Rodriguez has turned things around, and next year the Mountaineers will compete for the league title. Most-heard fan statement: "I knew it was the right decision to bring RichRod back!"
Of course, you may have your own narrative, and that is part of the fun of being a fan.
Over the next few months, Mountaineer Nation will find out together what this season ultimately means. Then, in the offseason, we can all compare notes.
That is one of the most entertaining parts of fandom. We get to tell friends--and complete strangers--what happened, what it meant, and why we were right about it all along.
At noon Saturday, we begin finding out what that story will be.