Okay, so when I first told WVUIE97 that Dari Nowkhah picked WVU as his 2012 NCAA football preseason #1, his reaction was “Dari who? I have no idea who that is.” Which, of course, is a fair reaction for a guy who spends his free time as the frontman for the alternative band The Fray. Relevant to our discussion, though, Dari Nowkhah is an anchor for ESPN’s Sportscenter. Which means that until WVU moved to the Big XII, he was required by contract to hate us. Now? That’s about the farthest thing from the truth. After the Mountaineers’ 37-point beatdown of Clemson in the Orange Bowl, Dari has jumped on the bandwagon, thrown the driver out the window, and engaged the Nitrous. As you can tell, Dana Holgorsen and company have a new fanboy in the media, and frankly it’s not one that any of us would have expected.

Not that Dari hated WVU before all this. Well, he might have, given that clause in his contract. But frankly, nobody really knew or cared what he thought about college football. He’s a Sportscenter anchor, not a college football “analyst” like Kirk Herbstreit or Mark May, or even a “columnist” like Ivan Maisel or a “blogger” like Andrea Adelson. (And yes, I use those terms loosely.) Well, suffice to say he has now endeared himself to Mountaineer fans across the country by picking WVU as his preseason #1 team.

Full Article at: Smoking Musket