In the game of football things often tend to balance out over the course of a season. West Virginia has gotten a crash course in the subject over the past two weeks with very different outcomes for the Mountaineers.
After giving up a 10-point lead with 4:55 remaining in a stunning loss to Pittsburgh, the Mountaineers did the same to Kansas rallying from 11 points down with only 5:39 on the clock to move to 2-2 on the season.
“We came back and flipped the script this week,” head coach Neal Brown said.
It was a gut-check game for West Virginia and a direct reflection of the character of the veteran team after being dealt with difficult circumstances of their own creating throughout the week. That required blocking out the outside noise and focusing on themselves in order to try to turn the page and move forward.
“What I really tried to speak to them all week was about this really says who we are. Who are we individually and who are we as a team? How do you respond to adversity?” Brown said.
It was a message that the players on the team took to heart as while the season certainly didn’t start the way that the Mountaineers wanted it to there’s still plenty left to play for with the entire conference slate ahead. The focus was coming out and winning the first game on the schedule, and Kansas was that first opportunity. It certainly didn’t start well, but West Virginia was able to finish the game.
“We had a fighter’s mentality all week we knew we were going against some adversity. Things hadn’t turned out the way we wanted to last week, it was all about bouncing back and showing not only ourselves and our coaching staff but also you guys that this is the team that we are,” linebacker Tyrin Bradley said.
Now, sitting 1-0 in the league the Mountaineers enter a bye week with a date at Oklahoma State on deck following that. That again won’t be an easy task, but the off week comes at the right time.
That’s because West Virginia is able to recover not only physically with some injuries but emotionally and mentally after a difficult four-game stretch to open the year.
But the Mountaineers certainly know what lies ahead.
“And so, we’ve got to figure out a way. We have to stay in this mindset of just one game. We got back to even now we have to get back in the plus column,” Brown said.
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