If you’re keeping score at home, the ratio for West Virginia is three to two.
That’s because through the first five weeks of the season, the Mountaineers have now played three football games and had two bye weeks during the 2020 football season.
Considering that the season began Sept. 12, that’s certainly an interesting ratio, but that’s where we find ourselves in this very unique college football season. Granted that will change following this open week with the next bye not occurring until Nov. 21 meaning that the Mountaineers will play five consecutive games.
But it's another bye week and the coaches have a plan for it.
While the first open week was used as essentially an extension of camp where the Mountaineers worked more good-on-good situations than normal to gear them up for the start of conference play, this will serve in a more traditional sense. The goal will be to get better at areas of weakness, with a focus on Kansas at the end of the week but there will be an emphasis on getting refreshed.
The Mountaineers will use this week to help get their legs back after playing 170 offensive snaps and 142 defensive snaps in the past two games against Oklahoma State and Baylor. This team certainly has issues it needs to work out namely on the offensive line and with generating more plays down the field in the passing game, but there have been some real positive developments as well.
But with the traditional bye week comes a focus on the recruiting trail, albeit in a different sense. With the ongoing recruiting dead period coaches will not be hitting the road for in-person evaluation but there will still be a lot of activity in the Puskar Center this week on that front.
“A lot of time spent this week on recruiting,” head coach Neal Brown said.
The Mountaineers will be dedicating a lot of time to hitting on top targets that still remain in the 2021 class. The program currently has 16 total commitments in the group with an average star rating of 3.25, good for the best since Rivals.com started keeping records in the 2002 season.
But there are still spots to fill. Because of adding transfers in the off-season, the program took several of those available scholarships from the 25 allotment so there should be anywhere between five or six remaining leading up to the December signing period.
That won’t be the only focus though, as the coaches will dedicate a lot of time to getting ahead in future classes and holding multiple virtual visits and contacting key 2022 prospects, too.
“We’ve been really active for the 2022 guys,” Brown said.
So, while it might be different in some areas, this bye week will resemble the ones that typically happen during a college football season with a main emphasis on the two R’s. Rest and recruiting.
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