WVU looks to rebound against Jayhawks

West Virginia shouldn’t need any reminding what can happen if you don’t bring your best against all of the teams in the Big 12 Conference each time out.

Sure, it’s cliché as they come but there is clear evidence to point to that being the case and in the recent history to boot. In 2013, the Mountaineers fell on the road to Kansas 31-19 in a game that snapped an 11-year bowl streak for the West Virginia football program. The low point of a 4-8 campaign that season.

Now, sitting at 6-1, 3-1 in the Big 12 Conference following the first loss of the season to Oklahoma State, there aren’t any bowl streaks at jeopardy this time when the Mountaineers meet up with the Jayhawks. But there is still a lot to play for with five games remaining on the slate.

The Mountaineers had three turnovers against the Cowboys leading to 17-points, which proved to the difference in the game. Those mistakes can’t continue moving forward if West Virginia wants to make a claim to be a serious contender for the Big 12 championship down the stretch.

“There’s only a few teams in college football over the course of the year where if you don’t play your best you still have an opportunity to win. That’s not us,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said.

Kansas enters this weekend sitting at 1-7 on the season and hasn’t won a Big 12 Conference game since 2014 against Iowa State. The Jayhawks haven’t won a Big 12 road game since beating the Cyclones Oct. 4, 2008, that’s a span of 34 consecutive games.

What does that mean on the outcome of Saturday’s match up? Nothing and West Virginia is well aware of that as the Jayhawks have shown improvement under second year head coach David Beatty.

“One thing that you’ll see on their team more than anything is the amount of energy that they play with, so we have to get out there and start fast if we want to get accomplished what we want to accomplish in this game,” Holgorsen said.

West Virginia, on the other hand, will look to bounce back and keep itself firmly in the conference race against the Jayhawks. While there is one loss now on the schedule that hasn’t deterred the overall goal as running backs coach JaJuan Seider reiterated that this is still a good football team.

So far the West Virginia coaches have seen exactly what they wanted to see out of the group in early prep for the game as the Mountaineers were able to put the Oklahoma State game behind them and get to work on the Kansas prep. The Jayhawks offense features several big play options such as sophomore Steven Sims and former Texas A&M wide receiver LaQuvionte Gonzalez on the outside.

They have shown the ability to go to two different quarterbacks this season in junior Montell Cozart and sophomore Ryan Willis, although it was the former that started in their last game against Oklahoma.

And with a night game, at home, West Virginia will need to respond to show its fully over the hang over from losing its first game of the season.

“If take them lightly they’ll beat us. We have to make sure we do everything we need to do to have these guys ready to play,” defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said.