COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Prior to Saturday, the only Big 12 teams West Virginia’s senior class hadn’t beaten were from the Sooner State — Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
The Mountaineers had one last shot at the Cowboys, and it just so happened to be Senior Day, so it was also one more chance to get a win in front of the home crowd, which hasn’t happened since Sept. 14 against N.C. State.
Unfortunately, neither came to fruition in a 20-13 loss, and not only was in another chapter in a down season at Milan Puskar Stadium — West Virginia went 2-4 at home this season, losers of four in a row — it wiped out a chance for a bowl game. It will be the first team the Mountaineers haven’t gone to a bowl since 2013 and only the second time in the last 21 years.
With a major overhaul in personnel both on the field and on the sidelines with the coaching staff, this wasn’t unexpected from the outside looking in, and maybe even on the inside looking in the mirror.
Athletic director Shane Lyons even warned last summer what could happen this season.
“We do have to be patient,” Lyons said in January. “We live in a world that wants instant gratification, but college football is very, very tough. We play in a very tough conference in the Big 12. We lost five guys in the NFL draft, and probably should have had more chosen than that. Those guys are hard to replace. We’re young and we’re inexperienced, but still we have some great players. It’s a matter of them coming together as a group and playing together.”
It was going to take time for coach Neal Brown to get his footing, and most are willing to let that happen. But for the 2019 WVU seniors, that future vision did not include them. As this season went along, a bowl game looked less and less likely, but a win at Kansas State last week reinvigorated the idea, but with that off a table, especially with a loss on a their last game playing on Mountaineer Field, Brown feels a touch of sorrow.
“I just hate it for them,” WVU coach Neal Brown said of his seniors. “There’s a lot of guys who have played well this year, but obviously, their senior years haven’t gone the way they wanted to, but they have played a significant role and have played their best football. I met with all of them [Friday] and I told them, ‘Listen, I appreciate you guys. You didn’t ask for us to come in here as a staff or some of the adversity that’s hit us this year, whether it’s attrition or being young, or stuff like that — you didn’t ask for that. But to your credit, you showed up and did the work.’ ”
Offensive lineman Colton McKivitz, who started his 46th-straight game Saturday, played in his first game in 2016, the season-opener against Missouri. Yodny Cajuste went down with a torn ACL and McKivitz stepped in, and the rest, as they say, is history. Part of a 10-win team in 2016 and the 2018 team that helped compete for a Big 12 title until the last week of the season, this isn’t the way McKivitz wanted to go out, but he understands the process.
From the time Brown arrived on campus, it was clear McKivitz was one the new coaches could lean on inside the locker room to help the transition go as smooth as possible. And for him, that’s a pretty good legacy to leave behind.
“It may not have been a change that we wanted to happen our senior year, but I’ve had multiple talks with coach Brown about the future and what this group is building,” McKivitz said. “We may not see the fruits of our labor now, but in a few years, hopefully, the end goal is bringing something special here, and I think that’s the way it’s going to go.”
Brown agreed, believing this senior class will have a long-term impact.
“They set a standard here, and unfortunately, they’re not going to see the fruits of it, but they will be paid off down the road,” he said.
