SCHOPP: No looking back

Last Friday, in my usual way, I announced that I might never watch another college football game. Just didn't want to go a whole day without making a footprint I guess. I figure, the sport already owns enough of my life for me to give it Saturdays, and with all the college game's corruption I can do better.

But there I was Saturday checking Twitter and seeing about Baylor-West Virginia and its pinball score. 35-35 at halftime. 70-63, the final. My wife went to Baylor and her sister to West Virginia and if ever there were a game to watch in this house it would be between these teams, no matter the score.

I watched golf.

Still, think of what I missed. There were two 300-yard receivers in this game. Nineteen touchdowns. West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith on 51 passes threw for eight touchdowns and only six incompletions. Read that again. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the quarterback mismatch Bills fans saw here Sunday, Smith's name came up twice on our show Monday. Yep, if you missed it some fans after a loss that dropped the Bills to 2-2 are already talking about next year's draft and West Virginia's quarterback. Who could blame them, I guess.

Let's talk about their coach first.

His name is Dana Holgorsen. He's 40. He worked at Texas Tech for Mike Leach, another pass-happy scientist. (So did Art Briles, the Baylor coach.) He went to Houston where there were more monster numbers. Then, West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck (Andrew's father) hired him at West Virginia where 70-63 is happening and Holgorsen's quarterback is the first name up this season as the guy the Bills should draft but won't.

You know what name also came up on the show yesterday? Bill Polian. That one, or some variation of it, you've heard hundreds of times. Since the Bills haven't been good since so-and-so left why can't we bring back so-and-so? That would solve our problems, wouldn't it?

I say enough with the past. I don't need Polian at age 70 and I don't need Jim Kelly or Darryl Talley mentoring Bills players and I sure as hell didn't need Marv Levy running the football department.

No offense or anything. I know Buffalo loves its past to the point of obsession. But that's not how I would try to make this team good.

I wouldn't look to the past. I'd look to the future.

I dare say teams like West Virginia and Baylor are the future of the sport. There are more and more tremendous athletes at quarterback. Why shouldn't there be? Shifting to the pros for a moment, look at the quality and size of athlete playing tight end in the NFL. Rules -- and the way they are interpreted -- continue to be adjusted to make it easier for teams to move the ball. If you can't measure up to them physically and they're fast enough and you can't touch them after 5 yards, then how exactly are you supposed to cover Rob Gronkowski?

I know you've heard this over and over from me but if Ralph Wilson had had even the slightest amount of vision and courage these last 10 years the Bills might be in a totally different state. Nothing substantively has ever been tried here to account for the fact that New England has Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and we have neither. Rather, let's just line up against 'em twice a year and hope for the best. Mostly it's been a string of demoralizing losses that cut from the soul of the fans, if not the players' too.

Chan Gailey. Dave Wannstedt. Dick Jauron. No, the Bills gave up mining coaches like Holgorsen years ago. Their preference is guys who maybe were pretty good in the 90s.

Just like themselves.