MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Whether it’s merely an oddity or an actual trend, there’s something up with West Virginia’s offense in the third quarter of games.
Last week’s 45-41 loss at Oklahoma State marked the fourth time this season that the Mountaineers were held scoreless in the third frame. The other instances were against Texas Tech, Iowa State and Texas.
That fact probably wouldn’t jump out if West Virginia wasn’t ranked ninth in the nation in scoring offense. But given the unit’s usual success, it is a head-scratcher.
“It’s hard to find one specific thing to point at other than a lot of these times we’ve been up, and we’ve come out at halftime flat and not going out to play like we played like we played in the first quarter,” said quarterback Will Grier. “Instead, we play to not lose. That can’t be the mentality.”
Coaches have attempted to make the start of the second half more like the start of the first.
“We’ve tried all that stuff,” said offensive coordinator Jake Spavital. “I know Coach [Dana] Holgorsen is big on that, too. Even when we’re playing teams where you have a huge halftime lead, Coach Holgorsen is big on putting that first unit out there to start the third quarter to get them in the rhythm of coming in at halftime, having that break, coming out and starting fast.”
Grier doesn’t think it’s a matter of opposing coaches making better adjustments than West Virginia.
“You can’t go in at halftime and say ‘Well they’re gonna do this, so let’s completely change everything on our offense and do this,’” Grier said. “Effort takes care of a lot of that stuff. I think the main thing that’s hurt us in the third quarter is we’ve come out flat. And then there’s times where we didn’t come out flat and we just got out-executed or out-played. That happens as well.”
One commonality of WVU’s scoreless third quarters is that all of them have taken place on the road. In fact, the Mountaineers haven’t scored a single point in the third quarter of a true road game this season. In its five home games, West Virginia has 68 third-quarter points.
Dana Holgorsen, turkey enthusiast
Holgorsen can’t get enough of Thanksgiving.
“This is the best week of the year for a lot of reasons,” Holgorsen said. “This is my favorite holiday, like every coach is going to say in his press conference. It’s the best week of the year – Thanksgiving, food, family, football, it doesn’t get any better than this.”
Holgorsen even plans on having the Oklahoma coaching staff over to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. He used to work with several members of the staff at Texas Tech. The guest list includes Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley, offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons and interim defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill.
“I’ll probably have them over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night,” Holgorsen said. “We’ll hang out, watch some NFL games together and talk about the good old days.”
Mountaineers fans probably wouldn’t mind if the turkey Holgorsen serves his guests is packed with an extra injection of tryptophan.
Linebackers remain decimated
West Virginia’s prospect of slowing Heisman contender Kyler Murray and the nation’s most prolific offense are not helped by the health of the linebacking corps.
Starting middle linebacker Dylan Tonkery, who has been out since the Iowa State game, was finally declared unable to play by defensive coordinator Tony Gibson.
Tonkery had dressed for multiple games, but finally didn’t make the trip against Oklahoma State. Brendan Ferns and Quondarius Qualls, who had previously been declared ready to play down the stretch, also aren’t ready to contribute.
“Ferns is more game-ready than what Qualls is, but it’s not fair to that kid to throw him in there,” Gibson said. “Now, we may have to. He’s dressed, ready to go and getting reps. If I had to say, he’s probably 85 percent game ready. His knee is 100 percent cleared, but there’s still a mental makeup to that, and there’s six months of doing nothing with football with that as well.”
Long-play record
West Virginia goes into the Oklahoma game as one of two defenses in the country that hasn’t allowed a single play longer than 50 yards this season. Mississippi State is the other.
That feat stands to be tested by the Sooners, who are second in the country with 16 plays of at least 50 yards.
“If we can do that and come out of this game without that, then we’ll be in pretty good shape,” Gibson said.
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