MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia spent more than a week preparing for Oklahoma before it was postponed Nov. 25 with COVID-19-related issues with the Sooners.
The Mountaineers then shifted their focus to Iowa State, with the Thanksgiving holiday thrown in between.
It was three weeks between the 24-6 win over TCU on Nov. 14 and Saturday’s 42-6 drubbing at the hands of the Cyclones, and while many believe the extra rest would be good for a team this late in the season, WVU coach Neal Brown doesn’t think so.
Regardless, it is not an excuse for losing by 36 points to the Cyclones.
“This is the first time where we’ve had a lot of adversity,” Brown said. “We had some calls that didn’t go our way. We played against some elite guys who made some plays. We lost one-on-ones on offense that didn’t go our way, and quite frankly, we just didn’t handle it very well. We got exposed in some ways that we hadn’t been exposed all year.
“Did it hurt us not playing in three weeks? Absolutely. Is that the reason we got our tails whipped? No chance.”
The Mountaineers and No. 8 Sooners will finally play next week at either noon or 3:30 p.m. at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Ryan shines with receivers out
Before the game, it was announced sophomore receivers Sam James and Bryce Ford-Wheaton did not make the trip to Iowa State. This week, it was reported there were COVID-19 concerns with Wednesday’s round of tests, and a few players were going to miss the game due to contact tracing.
Tight end T.J. Banks, safety Noah Guzman and offensive lineman Blaine Scott also stayed in West Virginia.
With two of their top two receivers unavailable, the Mountaineers needed others to step up, and the title was given to Sean Ryan. The junior was targeted 10 times and had five catches, finishing with 79 yards.
Defensive players return from injury
It’s been a long road for defensive end Taijh Alston, but he returned to the field for the first time in nearly 15 months against Iowa State.
Alston suffered a knee injury in the second game of the 2019 season at Missouri and missed the rest of the year. Expected to be a major rotation player this season, an Achilles injury in fall camp sidelined Alston for what many thought would be half the year. Instead he missed the first eight games, but finished with one stop against the Cyclones.
Another return was bandit linebacker VanDarius Cowan, who followed a similar path to Alston. Cowan served a four-game suspension to start the 2019 season and played in just two games before he suffered a season-ending knee injury against Iowa State.
In the second game this season at Oklahoma State, Cowan got hurt again and missed the last six games before returning Saturday, finishing with two tackles.
“For Taijh, it’s been over a year since he went down,” defensive end Jeffery Pooler said. “He’s only really been in 1 1/2 games before he got on the field [Saturday]. That was definitely fun for Taijh, and the same thing with VanDarius. We’ve only played in two or three games together and he’s been here three or four years, due to injuries. It was great to have those guys back out there.”
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