Neal Brown said something during fall camp that caught my attention.

If West Virginia wanted to be a good team this year, it had to find ways to win games even when it wasn’t playing its best football. At the time, the bad was really bad and that needed to be elevated to at least O.K. if the program wanted to compete in his first year atop the program.

The Mountaineers did that at home in a 20-13 season opening win over James Madison. It wasn’t pretty but in the end, they got the job done. But doing it at home is one thing, the road is a different animal.

Well, that really bad that Brown had mentioned was fully on display in the 38-7 loss to Missouri on the first road trip of the season as that game wasn’t ever even as close as that final score would indicate.

To put it frankly, it was a mess.

After rebounding at home by outmuscling N.C. State 44-27, the next road trip to Kansas offered another opportunity for the program to take a step forward by winning away from Morgantown.

This time the results were a little more in line with what the first year Mountaineers head coach wanted to see from his team in handling the road and overcoming adversity.

It was far from a perfect outing but the Mountaineers were able to do just enough to score a Big 12 Conference opening victory on the road against the Jayhawks 29-24.

“Didn’t play our best but we found a way,” he said. “That’s what I talked about to them this week. You’ve got to find a way to win on the road, you have to grind it out.”

It took until the final play of the game to put a bow on it, but the visitors did just enough to walk into Lawrence and leave with a 3-1 mark to start the year and an unblemished record in the league.

The offense struggled at times and couldn’t put the game away, while the defense had its ups and downs as well but ultimately the only statistic that counts is the final score. A team that is structured with plenty of young players across each phase didn’t flinch. That is a sign of maturity.

“Thought we showed a lot of poise today,” Brown said.

West Virginia got it done in a physical fashion. The Mountaineers rolled up a season-high 192 yards on the ground and dominated time of possession by 15-minutes plus. The total play count was +29 in favor of the visitors as they utilized just enough of a passing attack to keep the Jayhawks off-balance.

Even when the Mountaineers allowed a 75-yard pass play to bring the score to within three points, the visitors didn’t panic. No, instead for the second week in a row, the offense responded itself by tacking on a field goal.

This won’t be a game that will be considered in many beauty contests as the two teams struggled to a 10-7 score at the half before trading some blows in the second frame.

But it might be looked back at as a significant point in the season for the Mountaineers. That’s because a young team is starting to grow up and even when West Virginia isn’t at its best it’s still a lot better than it was. And that is exactly what Brown wanted to see.

“Going home 1-0 in this league, 3-1 in the month of September with the schedule we played I think is a successful month,” Brown said.

I’d tend to agree.

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