Holgorsen's Take: Iowa State Postgame
Saturday night saw No. 6 West Virginia suffer its first loss of the season as the Mountaineers were dominated by Iowa State, 30-14 in Ames.
West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen didn’t hold back his thoughts regarding the offense’s performance against the Cyclones.
Offensively, the Mountaineers were held to a season-low 152 yards (lowest in a single game since 1995) as quarterback Will Grier completed 11 of his 15 passes for 100 yards with a touchdown and interception. The run game also struggled to get in a rhythm as the team rushed for just 52 yards on 27 carries.
“The worst offensive performance I’ve seen in my 30 years of coaching,” Holgorsen said. “(Are) they that good on defense? I don’t know, but Oklahoma State scored 42 (points), we scored seven.”
“Didn’t get them ready to play, it’s on me, gotta do a better job,” he later added.
Holgorsen simply said the offense didn’t do anything right during the loss.
This didn’t seem to have any build up according to Holgorsen, saying the team practiced, “alright,” during the week. The offense has racked up a lot of yards and points this season, but have had flashes of inconsistency in the past couple of weeks which came full circle Saturday night.
“We’re either the hottest, best offense in the country or the slowest, worst offense in the country. I don’t get it. I don’t. I don’t understand. Whatever it is, I gotta fix it,” Holgorsen said. “Whatever I’m doing is not good enough.”
According to Holgorsen, Iowa State disrupted West Virginia’s offense and passing attack by dropping eight players into coverage and blitzing with two extra players. West Virginia’s receivers struggled to get open and Grier was sacked seven times during the loss.
“They didn’t come up with a magical defense to be able to stop what we do,” Holgorsen said. “We didn’t do anything right. We didn’t make plays, we didn’t keep our eyes where they needed to be, we didn’t run fast, we didn’t get off coverage, we didn’t make good decisions, we didn’t call good plays, we didn’t play with effort, we didn’t block, we didn’t do everything.”
West Virginia’s defense didn’t impress Holgorsen either. He said the unit couldn’t tackle in the first half and struggled on critical downs, but eventually settled down and played decent.
“There’s enough blame to go around,” Holgorsen said.
Holgorsen praised the efforts of Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy and running back David Montgomery who he said is a different team with him in the offensive backfield. He also thought wide receiver Hakeem Butler was the difference in the game. Butler finished with six catches for 107 yards and a touchdown.
When asked about Leddie Brown’s absence from the game, Holgorsen replied, “(he’ll) be alright next week.”
The bye week may be coming at a good time for West Virginia following this loss and Holgorsen said the team will regroup this week. The Mountaineers will next face Baylor at home on Thursday, Oct. 25.
“We’ll reevaluate where we’re at tomorrow. We’ll stay on schedule,” he said. “They ain’t getting any time off. I can assure you that.”
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