Trust the climb. Well, perhaps now more than ever this West Virginia football team is going to have to take their off-season motto to heart.

That’s because the Mountaineers now find themselves at 3-4, losers of three straight against the upper crust of the Big 12 Conference, and still starring down some very difficult matchups over the final five games. For the third consecutive week, the second half was the undoing for Neal Brown’s team against Oklahoma as the program was outscored 24-0 allowing the Sooners to run away with things.

In large part that’s a testament to a young team playing a lot of inexperienced players because they don’t necessarily have a choice due to a rash of in-season injuries and attrition but that’s where the program finds itself in the first season under Brown.

The month of October was always going to be a daunting task with home games against the three teams picked at the top of the league with home games against Texas and Iowa State before hitting the road to take on Oklahoma. That’s before you consider how surprising Baylor has been to date.

Now three losses into it, it’s becoming clear that those thoughts were justified. Still, with a bye week on tap there is time for some reflection on what has unfolded as well as what is left on the schedule.

The good news is the bye comes at a good time as the Mountaineers can hopefully get back some of those players that have been dinged up of late. Austin Kendall played with a pec injury against the Sooners, while some others left with injuries such as Josh Chandler and Quondarius Qualls. The defense has been hit particularly hard with subtractions as several players have been lost for the season and others have been out of the lineup with ailments.

That’s not the best news for a roster that already was thin on experience.

“What happens when you don’t have much depth and there are some injuries there is a considerable drop off at some of those positions,” head coach Neal Brown said.

He isn’t wrong. But that is the hand that this West Virginia football team has been dealt.

That attrition forced some movement across the defense with players in different spots which in turn caused some communication issues. The upcoming bye week can afford time not only to get on the right side of healthy in some spots but with getting some of the younger players up to speed.

“We may have to go back and see who we’ve got left and we may have to adjust some things we do because we’re running into some number issues where we’re on the edge of not having 11,” defensive coordinator Vic Koenning said. “We’ll do the best we can and figure out what we’ve got.”

The challenge now for the coaches and the players is to follow the battle cry. They must trust the climb with the possibility of bowl eligibility still hanging in the balance. Can this team find a way to win three games out of the remaining schedule of at Baylor, Texas Tech, at Kansas State, Oklahoma State and at TCU? That has to be the goal and that will only happen if the coaching staff can keep this team together.

“Got to try to find a way to be positive,” Koenning said.

And he’s right. This is a time to help guide some of these young players as the schedule will lighten up some and the goals of post-season play are still within focus. Yes, a Big 12 championship is likely out the window but based on pre-season comments that was almost assuredly always a long-shot at best.

The toughest stretch of the year is now in the rear-view mirror and now we’re going to find out just how much trust that this football team has in the climb as Brown remakes the program in his image.

That starts on the practice field and extends to all other areas as the goal moving forward is to continue to show improvement week-to-week and win some games in the process.

“We can’t lose our mojo. We have to continue to understand we can win these and we’ve got to go out and keep working hard in practice and keep fighting,” co-offensive coordinator Matt Moore said.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @PatrickKotnik

•Like us on Facebook