West Virginia has played their way into another major opportunity at home with No. 11 Iowa State coming to town for a prime-time nationally televised kickoff.
It’s the second time the Mountaineers will have a chance to be one of the marquee games during the week with the 8 p.m. FOX kickoff. Both teams are sitting at 2-0 in the Big 12 Conference and it is a chance for either team to make a move even further up the standings.
West Virginia will be sporting their coal-themed black uniforms for the night game environment and the home team is hoping that they are prepared for this situation much better than the first time that the eyes of college football were in Morgantown.
That’s because, in the season opener against Penn State, the Mountaineers fell 34-12 in a game where both sides of the ball never really got going.
On offense, West Virginia was erratic early with a pair of issues with timing and snaps given the shifts and motions that were in the game plan. It was issues that didn’t occur in practice which made it even more frustrating. In fact, the problems early on in that department forced the Mountaineers to get away from their game plan until they got back on track because that is such a part of their offensive scheme.
The defense had struggles of their own, as well, but the end result was a very disappointing defeat where the Mountaineers really never made it competitive on their home field.
“What I’ll say is we didn’t win today. Was it a big game absolutely? Everybody was here, FOX was here, and we didn’t produce. We were not productive,” Head Coach Brown said.
Brown said at the time that his team appeared anxious and didn’t handle the moment well although he did reinforce that his team was capable of much more.
“There should not be this anxiety. There shouldn’t have been this lack of execution and there just was. We were anxious, we never got comfortable, and we didn’t execute. We didn’t give ourselves a chance, they didn’t necessarily beat us, we didn't give ourselves a chance,” Brown said.
However, this team has responded since that game and outside of what unfolded down the stretch against Pittsburgh the Mountaineers have played very good football with their most complete game of the season coming on the road in a 38-14 win over Oklahoma State.
"Just stay calm. It's just football," running back CJ Donaldson said.
Now, West Virginia has another chance at home to showcase that the program has made improvements and will be better prepared to handle being showcased in a prime-time situation.
“Last time on FOX it was not what we wanted to show,” safety Jaheem Joseph said.
Brown said that West Virginia plans to minimize the distractions that came with the Penn State game in order to focus on the game at hand.
"Put our blinders on and go," Brown said.
And in the end while that Penn State game hurt this one matters more given the fact that it is a league game with the goals of moving forward and competing for a conference title. The Mountaineers expect a physical, tough-nosed Cyclones football team that has played very well to this point in the season.
“Since we already had a big game like Penn State we know what to expect. I just think we’re more prepared going into this game,” senior offensive lineman Wyatt Milum said.
And now, West Virginia will have the chance to prove it.
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