Loss in the past, WVU moves ahead

No. 14/15 West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen believes his team learned a valuable lesson in its first loss of the season to Oklahoma State.

“You have to play your best each week,” he said.

Turnovers doomed the Mountaineers on the road in the 37-20 loss in Stillwater as the Cowboys cashed in three miscues for 17-points, which was ultimately the difference in the game. All three of those Oklahoma State scoring drives started inside the red zone and Holgorsen pointed to the fact that while you can’t take away those mistakes it would have been an evenly matched game otherwise.

Senior quarterback Skyler Howard was responsible for all three turnovers, with the first coming on a fumble where he held onto the football and attempted to make a play before being stripped. That would result in an Oklahoma State touchdown to put them ahead for good.

“He made a bad decision,” he said.

But even with the loss the Mountaineers still have a lot to play for sitting at 6-1, 3-1 in the league and Holgorsen reminded his team that no team that has won the league since it moved to the round robin schedule has finished the nine-game conference slate undefeated.

The head coach also was encouraged by the normal day at practice Sunday and believes that his group has responded well so far and are anxious to get back on the field.

“And try to get another win this week,” he said.

West Virginia will now host Kansas this weekend for a 7 p.m. kick and Holgorsen believes that overall the Jayhawks have shown improvement across the board in all three phases.

“They’ve gotten better. You can tell all three sides of the ball they’ve gotten better. They play with a lot of energy early,” Holgorsen said.