MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — When the Mega Millions jackpot hit one billion, University football coach John Kelley and his staff went out and did as many of their fellow American had — they bought some lottery tickets.
Never mind the odds of winning, of course, which are lower than the odds of you getting struck by lightning. It’s all about the big bucks — why not take the risk?
Now Kelley heads into another situation where the odds aren’t exactly in his favor — the state playoffs. Headed into the final week of the regular season, which coincides with the Hawks’ bye week, UHS sits at 14th in the rankings with no odds to improve their chances and a few different ways they can drop lower.
While a lot of folks agree the odds are good that they’ll at least get in, nothing is for certain — and finishing 14th or lower will likely mean drawing one-loss Capital or an undefeated Spring Valley or top-ranked Martinsburg. But unlike the lottery, Kelley isn’t headed in with too much doubt that his team can win.
“There’s 16 teams that get in the playoffs. It doesn’t make a difference what number you are, you all have a chance to win it,” Kelley said. “We’ll prepare like we would a regular season game against a quality opponent. It’s sudden death — if you lose you go home.”
For every impressive game the Hawks have played, such as their 24-7 rout of Parkersburg South, they have also had a not-so-pretty showing. The Hawks looked abysmal against foes such as Fairmont Senior and Mountain Ridge (Md.).
The Hawks aren’t worried about what outsiders think, though, their focus is solely on beating whoever they draw in the first-round.
“It is for sure a motivator to get the chance to prove the whole state wrong. It is no easy task to go on the road and play one of those teams whoever it may be,” senior Derek Richardson said. “We respect all of the teams we play but we cannot have fear going into the game wherever it may be.”
Hawks’ fans may have concerns regarding their last appearance on the turf, a brutal 55-10 loss to Morgantown in the Mohawk Bowl, but Kelley dismissed the thought of any negativity still affecting the team from that game.
It was the first thing he addressed Monday as the Hawks opened practice.
“We had a team meeting and talked about the things we can and can’t control. We’re going to focus on things we can control,” he said. “That game is in the past. It’s over with. It’s meaningless to us.”
Richardson believes there is one final piece to the Hawks’ puzzle, but it is nothing Kelley can accommodate for in practice — it’s something that must come from the players.
“The biggest thing we need to focus on is simple and that is just that we have to believe,” Richardson said. “Coach Kelley said it best and the only people that think we can pull off an upset is the people in the locker room and that’s all we need to win a game.”
