Nineteen years ago, someone decided to start a blog about the West Virginia Mountaineers. Today, after a decade as site manager, I’m writing my last post for the site that grew out of that decision.
I’ve been sitting on this for a while, trying to figure out how to say it. The path forward for The Smoking Musket and the path I want to take aren’t the same road anymore. That’s probably the most honest way I can put it.
The writing has been on the wall for a while, but I’ve tried to ignore it. Some of that is on me — burnout is real, and life has a way of reshuffling your priorities. The rest is a conversation for another time and place, but I will tell you that what was once a team effort didn’t gradually become a mostly one-man operation by choice.
Ten years is a long time, and I’d be lying if I said I fully understood how I got here. This blog has taken me to places I never expected. I’ve made appearances on ESPN Radio and Sirius XM talking about the Mountaineers like I actually knew what I was doing. I’ve connected with and become friends with people that I would otherwise never get to meet. I’ve watched this community come together to raise money to help with recovery from the 2016 floods here in Greenbrier County and across the state, which remains one of the things I’m most proud of in my time here. I once paid way too much money for a deeply unsettling custom Dana Holgorsen action figure that somehow went viral and ended up making an appearance in an ESPN interview with Holgo himself. And yes, I’ve had a couple moments where I learned the hard way that having opinions on the internet comes with consequences, some of which included death threats.
I wouldn’t trade any of it. Even the death threats.
Before I log off and hand the keys back to the mothership, I need to give some folks their flowers.
First, I need to acknowledge and thank the forefathers of The Smoking Musket — Dr. Charley West, Fifth Year Senior and Country Roads. Without Charley making the decision 19 years ago to start a blog on WordPress.org where he could talk about the Mountaineers while also taking every opportunity to talk shit to our rivals, this site quite literally wouldn’t exist. I also want to thank everyone that contributed prior to my time here. The blog and Internet culture has changed so much over that span, but I’ve always tried to keep the spirit alive the best I could.
Next, I want to thank Mark (WVUIE97) for giving me the opportunity. As I’m writing this, I sincerely can’t put into words how much that made an impact and changed the trajectory of my life, as ridiculous as that sounds. I also want to thank John Radcliff, the OG WVU blogger, for sticking around long after he had any obligation to and for supporting every half-baked idea I threw at the wall — including the time he wrote and recorded a theme song for one of our ridiculous podcast mini-series. I’ll be forever grateful to both of you for your guidance and friendship over the last 10 years.
Before I go further, I need to thank the people who have played a role behind the scenes or have inspired me on this journey, whether they know it or not. Thank you to Matt Brown, Luke Zimmermann, and Wescott Eberts for trusting me to run the blog after Mark decided to hang up his keyboard. In addition to Matt, I want to thank Caroline Darney for their time as league managers and the work they both put into making sure we always had what we needed to make this thing work. Thank you to Spencer Hall, Holly Anderson, Jason Kirk and Ryan Nanni for creating and fostering an online community of insane college football fans (complimentary) that has allowed people like myself to be weird in all the best ways.
And now for the gang.
I want to thank everyone that has contributed under my watch. Andy, Nick, Robert, Matt W, John Lowe, Tyler, Priddy, Sheraz, Dre, Will, Dustin, Zach and Fake Bob Huggins. I’m sure I’m forgetting some folks and I apologize, but thank you for all you contributed to help make this era of The Smoking Musket what it was.
Thank you to Smitty and Bart for hanging in there with me after Mark stepped down. I can’t stress enough how crucial both of these guys were to the site during the transition from Mark to myself, how many content ideas came from them, and how much I wish I could talk them into lacing up their posting boots again.
Kirch, it didn’t hit me until I started writing this but thank you for basically being the Hand of the King for the last 10 years. Through all the episodes of West By Pod we recorded together and the thousands and thousands of tweets, Matt has been my right hand man and the first person I’ve gone to when I’ve needed to vent, talk through my half-cocked ideas for the blog, or just bullshit in general.
Jake, I don’t think I can ever thank you enough for being Mr. Dependable and always managing to find the time to write in spite of a ridiculously busy life offline. I can’t even begin to count how many times you bailed me out because news always decides to break the moment I’m unavailable.
For the podcast crew: Joel and Jordan, thank you both for taking on the mantle of West By Pod, making it yours and running with it, and for everything you’ve both written for the blog. Josh, thank you for joining up with us and making Unreasonable Doubt part of the family. I can’t wait to see where both shows go from here.
And last but certainly not least, a million thank yous to the regular and not-so-regular readers and commenters for sticking with us over the years. It’s all for nothing without you reading and engaging with us. Thank you to everyone in the Discord that has made it such a great community, and a very special thanks to M-TownJoe for being a real one and holding it down in the comments and Feed this whole time. You’ve been our strongest soldier. 🫡
So here we are.
I can’t tell you what comes next for The Smoking Musket. As of August 1st, the name and social media accounts will stay with SB Nation. I’m grateful for the platform and the opportunities they provided over the years.
What I can tell you is that I’m not done. Not even close. I’m taking everything I’ve learned here — the good, the bad, the chaotic, the rewarding — and we’re building something new. Something independent. I hope you’ll join us on the new journey. You can follow our new socials linked below to stay in the loop.
I’ve tried to find the right words to wrap this up and I keep coming up empty. There’s probably a version of this where I say something profound and poetic that puts a bow on this and perfectly captures what this place has meant to me, but that’s not really my style so I’ll let someone else handle it.
Take it away, boys.
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