West Virginia can’t change what unfolded in the non-conference schedule.
There’s no magic wand to turn back time to prevent what’s happened to this point to prevent the 1-2 hole that the Mountaineers find themselves in as they prepare to open Big 12 play against Kansas. But that’s where the helplessness ends because the football program can control what’s next.
There’s no excuse for what has happened to put the Mountaineers in this spot but there’s also no time to sit around and worry about what could have been. Because in the game of football, things can change quickly and despite an off-season of momentum, West Virginia finds themselves in a tricky spot.
“We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves or be miserable. There’s people with real problems in this world and it’s not us. We didn’t play good enough in the game of football and we’ve got to get it fixed and we will,” head coach Neal Brown said. “You go to work and the mentality has to be we have one football game and the focus is on Kansas.”
West Virginia isn’t ignoring what has unfolded to get them in this position but instead is using it as an educational piece on how to proceed moving forward. Brown believes that the tram will take the direction that he and the rest of the coaching staff do and they’re choosing to own it and move forward.
Football matters at West Virginia and when you lose a rivalry game the way that his team did, Brown understands that it’s going to spawn a lot of frustration in the fan base.
“I’m not going to allow them to hang their heads. We’re going to get better,” he said. “We have good players, we’ve got a staff to get it turned and we will.”
Easier said for Brown who admittedly can hunker down and focus on that aspect while the players have to battle that outside noise on a daily basis both on campus and online. But that’s where veteran leadership can come into play and it’s something that the Mountaineers are already utilizing.
That’s because those experienced players on the roster held a leadership meeting among each other and discussed what they needed to do from this point forward to turn the ship around. And even with the disappointing 1-2 start, those players realize that conference play brings opportunities.
If they can take advantage of them.
“Challenge for us mainly just based on the fact there’s a lot of outside noise that can easily creep in and separate us, and our biggest thing is we’ve got to stay together now more than ever,” center Brandon Yates said. “We have to focus on ourselves and really focus on the things we need to get better at because we’re trying to play a perfect game.”
In order to do that there’s a lot of introspection involved and transfer wide receiver Jaden Bray said that it starts with looking at what has gone wrong and working to fix those issues. The past isn’t a place where the players can live because each week brings a different challenge, but adjustments are critical.
Bray, who transferred in during the off-season, saw this first hand when he was with Oklahoma State last season. The Cowboys started last season 2-2 with a dominating home loss to South Alabama and then dropped the Big 12 opener on the road at Iowa State before reeling off seven of eight wins to get themselves a spot in the league title game.
It’s two different situations with two different teams but the approach was the same.
“Not looking at the outside noise and realizing the only players and people that know what’s going on with this football team are the people that are here every day and are out there practicing and out there working with us,” he said. “Keeping the outside noise out and focusing on what we know we’re capable of because we know what we’re capable of and what type of team we are and what we can put out there on Saturday so at this point it’s just about doing it.”
For what it’s worth, Bray believes that the coaching staff has done a good job when it comes to addressing what has gone well or wrong and then going back and fixing those things. Meeting the problems head-on is important and the Mountaineers are attacking what they need to work on in practice in order to take those steps toward improvement.
Still, ultimately the season will be decided by what happens on the field Saturdays and the first chance will be this weekend against a Kansas team that also has their backs against the wall. It’s the first of nine remaining opportunities for West Virginia and while there are lessons to be learned in the non-conference portion of the schedule the focus now must be what comes next.
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