West Virginia’s regular season ended with a thud on the road in a 52-15 loss to Texas Tech.
The opportunity to compete for the Big 12 Championship game was already out the window, but realistically was a long shot at best. This contest was about the Mountaineers trying to get to six wins in the Big 12 and building some momentum in an otherwise disappointing season.
Head coach Neal Brown set the table for the season saying that his group “looked like a contending power four football team,” and that’s true if he was simply discussing making a bowl game.
But it was clear that everybody in the football building had bigger goals after a 9-4 campaign last season and the goal was to try to elevate that win total further. The calling card from the players in the preseason was to cement a spot in Arlington. There was more buzz around the program than at any point heading in the season opener against Penn State.
The table was set. The results didn’t happen.
West Virginia finished the year 6-6 and lost to all six teams with a winning record on their schedule. Five of those defeats were by double digits, with the 38-34 loss on the road at Pittsburgh the only exception. And there’s not really any need to rehash what unfolded in that one.
The regular season finale was the icing on the disappointing cake that was the 2024 season. The Mountaineers trailed just 6-3 at the end of the first quarter, but found themselves behind 35-3 at half.
“Just not good enough in the first half. I thought our guys competed in the second half but just all three phases were just very poor. We handled the travel fine. We’ve played well on the road. We practiced pretty well this week, at winning time in the first half we were just not competing.”
The Mountaineers mustered just three points in the first half and gave up 35 points and 339 yards. By the time that the second half kicked off, the game was effectively over although West Virginia did play much better but in reality that isn’t saying much considering the way things started.
Admittedly, Texas Tech isn’t the best matchup for the West Virginia defense with their ability to throw the football and take advantage of the defensive deficiencies in space but the offense failed to respond. The Mountaineers understood that they were going to have to put up points in this game but the unit failed to generate any form of consistent offensive football.
“Wasn’t good enough. Not hiding from that. I don’t think the first half of football defines who we are. Who we are as individuals or who we are as a team but not pleased with that,” Brown said.
West Virginia now will attempt to regroup with a bowl game still remaining, but this team is one that is going to need to rest and recover after losing at least seven players due to injury in the game.
“It’s been a long year and those guys they have to listen to all the negativity. They need a little bit of a break, they need to catch their breath. The positive is that’s not going to be the end. We can always finish well in the bowl game. Our guys will bounce back, they bounced back in the first half. I hurt for them because the first half did not indicate who we are,” Brown said.
But Brown acknowledged that the 6-6 season isn’t what his team hoped for at the start of the year and he has no problems admitting that. There were instances of good and bad spread out throughout the season, but there were simply too many times that the team didn’t respond against quality teams.
Brown acknowledges there are simply areas that must get better moving forward and others where they can compete against anybody in the Big 12 Conference.
“We won five games in this league, we wanted to win more. There were some games there we didn't win that we’re capable of winning. I don't think we’re miles away but there’s critical areas we need to improve,” Brown said.
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