West Virginia protects homefield, now looks forward
West Virginia understood the importance of the three-game homestand.
The Mountaineers won’t play inside Milan Puskar Stadium again for almost an entire calendar month with the next opportunity Oct. 21 against Oklahoma State.
That meant finding a way to protect homefield was paramount to a West Virginia team that will play the next two on the road against TCU and Houston with a bye week sandwiched in between.
The football team took care of the first two against Duquesne and Pittsburgh but the third was a matchup against a Texas Tech team that had won four consecutive games over the Mountaineers.
That’s now history after a 20-13 ugly, but very gritty win for West Virginia. It followed in the same mold as the win over Pittsburgh with the defense playing better than at any point last season, the offense doing just enough to push the Mountaineers over the hump and special teams contributing.
“We had a three-game home stretch, and we swept it. We went 3-0, beat a rival and today we beat a team that’s had our number,” head coach Neal Brown said.
It’s a strong start for the Mountaineers in Big 12 Conference play as well winning the opener for only the second time under Brown. For a team that was picked dead last in the league, it’s a reminder that the games are won on the field not in the press room as the Red Raiders were a trendy Darkhorse.
“They were kind of the darling pick in the Big 12 early in the year. They were picked two or three in a lot of these polls in the pre-season. This was a really good win,” Brown said.
West Virginia won three consecutive games for the first time under Brown and now needs just three more wins over the next eight games in order to qualify for a bowl game. No, that’s not the goal at this stage but more of a representation of how critical this stretch was for this team.
It was a team effort with contributions coming from every part of the team and while it wasn’t something that will be remembered as a thing of beauty, a win is a win. And the Mountaineers are now sitting at 3-1 through four games and the players have fought and competed every step of the way.
Brown has preached the importance of this three-game stretch since the clocks hit zero against Penn State in the opener and finding a way to win games in their own stadium is a recipe to give this football team a chance to win in the league. But this is just one week and there’s a lot left moving ahead.
And that wasn’t lost on the players either.
“Still a lot to prove. I don’t think we should be happy. Obviously, a win is a win but it’s not like we won the Big 12 championship off that. A lot more games to be played, a lot more for us to improve at,” junior safety Aubrey Burks said.
There will be tougher challenges ahead as the Mountaineers continue to dive into the meat of the conference schedule but so far so good when it comes to winning at home.
Related: PFF: Grades from West Virginia vs. Texas Tech
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