In the aftermath of WVU's Russell Athletic Bowl loss to Miami, social media - as it is wont to do - lit up Mountaineer coach Dana Holgorsen, athletic director Shane Lyons and others.
The offense's ineptness in the game was questioned. So was Lyons' decision to extend Holgorsen's contract a year early. On and on it went.
At the same time, in Orlando, Holgorsen was wrapping up a post-game press conference. He called it a "fantastic football season." And when someone referenced the 10 victories in a round-about way, he jumped on it.
"It's actually a positive question," he said. "I'm tired of these negative questions. We got beat by a good football team. I'm not going to allow it to be negative... A lot to be proud of. Ten wins. It doesn't happen very often. It's rare."
And, indeed, he's correct. It doesn't happen often. This marked the ninth 10-win season for WVU.
Yet, I'm a wordsmith. I try not to throw around "great" and "fantastic" easily. So let's take a beat and categorize this season correctly.
The Mountaineers had a good season. No one can question that.
Let's just stop at that point. It was good. No better; no less. There's no need to blow smoke. Holgorsen and company capitalized on a less-than-robust Big 12 conference. The program took a step forward. End of story.
"We may not have won today," center Tyler Orlosky said on Wednesday, "but we won the season."
Fair. Holgorsen also said in his presser the team had its best season since joining the Big 12. Also fair. But let's stop right there.
Great seasons are what Alabama and Washington are having.
This is not WVU's 1988 season, which culminated in a Fiesta Bowl loss to Notre Dame for the national championship. That was great. That was fantastic. The Mountaineers beat some fine teams along the way and finished ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll and No. 6 in the coaches' poll at 11-1.
This is likewise not West Virginia's 11-1 2005 team that finished No. 5 and 6 after beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Ditto this is not the Mountaineers' 11-2 2007 season that culminated in Bill Stewart's Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma. Despite the team's gut-punch loss to Pitt, yes, it was a great season. WVU finished No. 6 in both polls.
If you want to include West Virginia's 1922 10-0-1 season that was authored by coach Clarence Spears, I won't argue. Heck, I have no earthly clue if beating Gonzaga in the East-West Classic that year was awesome sauce or not.
I'll even classify Rich Rodriguez's run of 2005, 2006 and (mostly) 2007 as "great."
Yet let's reserve the word for its intended purpose. We know great when we see it, right?
WVU's 2011 season wasn't great. It finished No. 17 and 18. Yet that 70-33 Orange Bowl victory over Clemson was indeed great for the Mountaineers. It was fantastic. Get me?
This season's Mountaineer team is more like Jim Carlen's 10-1 Peach Bowl team that finished ranked No. 17 and 18. I'd even place it close to Don Nehlen's 1993 team that finished the regular season undefeated yet was crushed by Florida 41-7 in the Sugar Bowl.
We knew. We got it.
Those were good teams. You could even call them very good teams.
But great? Nah. Just like this team.
Yes, as Holgorsen said, the 2016 team has reason to be proud. It won 10 games. Perhaps it advanced the program. We'll see about that.
But certainly members can always say they were on a good Mountaineer team. They can say they had a good season.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.