MORGANTOWN — For the first time in program history, West Virginia has lost four straight season openers.
The latest, Saturday’s 34-12 disappointment against Penn State, matched the pattern set by the preceding three. All four losses have come against power conference regional opponents.
The streak began with a 30-24 loss to Maryland in 2021. Pitt then won 38-31 in 2022 and Penn State won 38-15 in 2023 and 34-12 this season.
Saturday’s loss was the ugliest of the bunch. The Mountaineers (0-1) didn’t keep the score close for most of the game, only scoring one touchdown while turning the ball over three times.
“The worst thing about this is when you see this coming, you can do something about it,” WVU coach Neal Brown said after the game.
Penn State outgained WVU 457-246 on Saturday and 478-308 last season. Maryland held a 496-325 yardage advantage in the 2021 game. The only game during the streak where WVU’s offense was better was in 2022 against Pitt. WVU outgained the Panthers by 20 yards, 404-384.
“Especially offensively, we have a veteran group,” Brown said. “There should not have been this anxiety, there shouldn’t have been this lack of execution and there just was. We were anxious, we never got comfortable and we didn’t execute.”
The Mountaineers have also never won the turnover battle during this losing streak. Neither team turned the ball over in Happy Valley last season, otherwise, Maryland had a 4-0 advantage, Pitt won 2-1 and Penn State had a 3-1 edge this year.
“We’ve just got to be better overall,” said safety Anthony Wilson, who finished second on the team with nine tackles. “There were a lot of plays that we left out there, but all we can do is put our heads down and go to work.”
The last time West Virginia began a season with a victory was in 2020 when the Mountaineers defeated FCS Eastern Kentucky 56-10. WVU topped JMU, then at the FCS level, 20-13 in 2019, Brown’s first season in Morgantown. Brown is 2-4 overall in season openers with the Mountaineers.
“It’s on the leaders of the team to right the ship and understand that all of our goals of playing in Dallas (in the Big 12 Championship) are still in front of us,” quarterback Garrett Greene said.
“It’s on us to get the guys going.”
WVU rebounded after the loss to Penn State in last season’s opener to win the next four. An even better turnaround would be needed this season for the team to make the Big 12 Championship.
“One game doesn’t define us,” Wilson said. “We’re going to be better and we’re going to continue to get better. All we can do from this is learn from it and that’s what we’re going to do moving forward.”
