West Virginia is sitting a 5-5 on the season and still needs one more win in order to qualify for a bowl game.
That leaves two games to accomplish that feat with the first being the home matchup against UCF this coming weekend and then on the road at Texas Tech to close the year.
Clearly, the Mountaineers would like to try to avoid trying to get that win on the road so that makes this weekend critical on that front although there are bigger goals in mind.
“We got two chances to win one realistically to get in another bowl game and that’s something we just kind of deserve and want to earn around here,” tight end Kole Taylor said. “Each and every one of us seniors want to play another game and put on the West Virginia uniform one more time.”
And while just getting one is focus, the Mountaineers want to try to close the season on a high note after a year that has been filled with inconsistencies and struggles.
West Virginia came into the season hoping to build off a 9-4 campaign and show that the program was ready to take that next step in the Big 12 Conference, but instead has struggled to find their footing and are at the .500 mark with just two games left.
“We understand there’s two to win one to get an extra game in and have an opportunity to play in the postseason. Whether we want it to be that situation or not that’s the situation we’re in and we’ve got to win at least one more to get a bowl game, but we want to win out and that’s the goal,” Taylor said.
It isn’t where anybody wanted to be and a large part of that is tied to the inconsistencies of this team and the struggles that they’ve had in playing complementary football in all three of the phases. So, while the goal is to win the ultimate goal for this team is to do so by putting better football on tape.
“But to me it’s about playing well. Special teams, offense and defense at the same time and we haven’t done that enough consistently. We’ve been an inconsistent football team. That’s why we’re 5-5 because we’ve been inconsistent,” head coach Neal Brown said.
That makes the primary focus on finishing out the season by playing their best in all three phases and if that comes together than the Mountaineers are going to have chances to win both of their remaining games.
It’s also an opportunity for the Mountaineers to find success at home, which has escaped them this season with a 2-4 record and all four of those losses coming by double-digits. That clearly isn’t sustainable if the program wants to have success and finding a way to close on a high note against a 4-6 UCF team that is fighting for the same potential of going to a bowl will be critical.
“We should play better at home than what we’ve played, and I think that criticism is fair,” Brown said.
With West Virginia effectively eliminated from the Big 12 title race, the focus for the coaching staff has been on simply trying to get the team to play their best down the stretch. And that includes staying in the moment and not getting caught up on either the past or the future.
And if things go according to plan there’s potential to close the year strong.
“We can’t dwell on what happened in the past, it’s in the past, it’s going to be our record moving forward whether we want it to be that or not. Just moving forward positive attitude just bring a good attitude to practice every day. Try to get two wins. It doesn’t seem like it now, but we can end 8-5 and that’s still a good season,” Taylor said.
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