Finally, after way too long of an offseason, college football in West Virginia is back! After all, it's been another quiet few months in the Mountain State.

Um, yeah, right.

Four schools have changed head coaches, two of those schools have overhauled nearly their entire coaching staffs, the conference's best wide receiver jumped ship and followed his head coach to a little town up north called California, a non-football member is going to be starting football next year, and there's talk of further conference expansion south of the border.

At some point over the next week, I'll be touching on all of these topics, but for now, I'm just happy to have the season start in earnest (since, no offense to our NSIC and CIAA brethren, but the Bemidji State-Minot State and Saint Augustine's-Virginia Union games last week were rather uninspiring). I'll talk about Saturday's seven games tomorrow, but here's a look at what's on tap tonight:

Clarion at Fairmont State

If you watched last year's game between these teams in what has turned into a very good rivalry, you may have come away with the same conclusion I did: Fairmont State was very lucky to win. The Golden Eagles were better in most statistics for the entire game and pretty much controlled the first half. But Clarion committed four turnovers while Fairmont State had none, and that made all the difference.

This year, it's the Falcons who look to be the favorite on their home turf. Sophomore quarterback Logan Moore returns under center after slowly but surely learning the fundamentals of a difficult Fairmont State offense (patterned on Florida State's offense, thanks especially to offensive coordinator Bryan Fisher). Damon Waters finished strong at runningback toward the end of 2010, and this year, he has help from Florida State transfer Daniel Monroe, who's only a redshirt freshman. The loss of Perry Baker is (hopefully) the Philadelphia Eagles' gain, but the receiving corps is deep and gets an extra hand from Tim Orange, a junior who transferred from none other than Florida State. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) The defense returns nine starters, most notably the senior backfield of Dewey McDonald and Greg Underwood and two imposing figures on the front line: Luke Black and Devin Johnson.

Clarion took a while just to get a win on the board last season but finished with wins in four of their final six games (although two of those wins were over perennial cellar-dweller Millersville and one of Division II's worst programs each year, Lock Haven). Quarterback Ben Fiscus seems to be the difference maker here, as he brings both a capable arm and serious running ability to the team. But he may have trouble finding people to give the ball to at first: Matt Ward and Tarrean Barrett are the leading returners for Clarion, but neither of them brings much experience, plus star runningback Alfonso Hoggard is gone, and very few other backs even touched the football last year. With nine defensive starters of their own returning, the Golden Eagles will look to win early on with their defense and bring back a solid safety in Shawn Sopic, who has recovered from an injury that kept him out of the entire 2010 season.

Fairmont State is coming into this season with more confidence than they've had in several years. There's too much experience for this team not to be somewhere in the top half of the conference, and as I kept saying last year, Logan Moore is the real deal at quarterback and will be the best QB in the conference in 2012 and/or 2013. If the Falcons can effectively stop the run (something they often had trouble doing last season), they can dominate this game. But like most of the games in this series, this one will stay close throughout as the home team wins this one.

Prediction: Fairmont State 27, Clarion 21

Carson-Newman at Glenville State

How different are these two teams from each other? Let's compare:

Carson-Newman...

...has a head coach in Ken Sparks will almost certainly pick up his 300th career win this season (he's at 294 right now), something only 11 other coaches have done all time.
...is out of the preseason top 25 for the first time in several years (and isn't very accepting of that).
...still runs a split-back veer option offense that may not be exciting to watch (by modern standards) but effectively tires and confuses opponents (think of the old Nebraska offenses of the 1980s and 1990s where the Cornhuskers would win and the quarterback would go 4-of-6 passing on the day for over 100 yards).

Glenville State...

...has a new head coach in David Hutchison that's going for win #1 of his career.
...hasn't been in the top 25 in, um, a while.
...looks to be running a spread offense with, according to the coaches, likely a 60-40 pass-run balance.

Oh yeah, this should be fun to watch.

At least now, the Pioneers have some experience returning that proved something last season. RB Joe Mesadieu didn't start seeing action until the middle of the season, but he proved he's far and away the #1 rusher on the team. There's stability at quarterback with Darold Hughes solidly having the starting job, and he'll have two big targets to throw to: senior wide receivers Jordan Griffin and Antwan Stewart (who will be spread on opposite sides of the field to break up opposing defenses). In all, 19 starters from last year return (10 on offense, nine on defense), which should help improve a team that was consistently inconsistent in 2010.

The Eagles, meanwhile, have some questions of their own after a 7-4 season, deemed a disappointment by their very high standards back home in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Expect to see some rotation at quarterback: sophomore Jason Brown looks to get the starting nod, but both Johnny Foster and Brandon Haywood will likely see playing time in the game as well, particularly since Brown was Carson-Newman's leading receiver last year (notching just 18 catches: I told you passing wasn't a key part of their offense!). RBs Nate Inman and Brandon Baker will be very tough for the Pioneers' defense to deal with, and there are top players in the South Atlantic Conference at every position on defense: defensive linemen Zeke Andrews and Byron Bell, linebacker Ryan Helton, and defensive back Oliver Davis. Add in the fact that the backfield had 20 interceptions last year, and it's clear that this is a defense that doesn't mess around.

Both teams struggled with turnovers throughout last year: Carson-Newman lost the turnover battle 3-0 in last season's opening loss to Winona State and looked mediocre through three quarters before finishing strong to pull out a win over an average Bentley team. Meanwhile, Glenville State averaged three turnovers per game in 2010. Each of these teams has plenty of questions coming into this season, and I expect things to stay close through a surprisingly high-scoring first half. But after halftime, look for the Eagles to get back in gear and wear out the home team.

Prediction: Carson-Newman 35, Glenville State 21