MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia Mountaineers are in need of a bounce-back in the worst way.
It’s only week four, but a win in the team’s Big 12 opener against Kansas on Saturday (noon, ESPN2) would be a good first step to getting the 2024 season back on track.
“When you lose, and lose a rivalry game when you were ahead in the final minutes, there’s going to be negativity,” WVU coach Neal Brown said of losing to Pitt in last week’s Backyard Brawl. “You just have to process it, own your own mistakes and go about being better.”
The Mountaineers believe that defeating Kansas and beginning conference play with a win would be the perfect way to build momentum heading into the team’s bye week.
“I’m not going to allow them to be miserable, not going to allow them to hang their heads,” Brown said. “We’re going to get better.”
As the team prepares to face the Jayhawks this week, players are pulling from past experiences of regrouping after a loss and keeping a season heading in the right direction.
No team had a bigger turnaround last season than Oklahoma State. The Cowboys suffered a stunning loss to South Alabama in non-conference play and then lost their Big 12 opener to Iowa State the following week. OSU rebounded, however, to win seven out of its next eight games to earn a spot in the Big 12 Championship.
“That came from not looking at the outside noise and realizing that the only people that know what’s going on are the people that are here every day and out there practicing,” said receiver Jaden Bray, who transferred to WVU from Oklahoma State this offseason. “It all comes from what type of team we were and what we thought we could achieve.”
A win Saturday would improve the Mountaineers to 2-2 on the year, exactly where Oklahoma State sat at this time last season.
“It’s locking in and making more sacrifices on and off the field,” Bray said. “If we want to get where we really want to be then we’ve just got to do the extra.”
A fellow first-year transfer had a similar experience to Bray last season as defensive lineman TJ Jackson and the Troy Trojans found themselves sitting at 1-2 after a disappointing loss to James Madison.
“An intentional grounding call got us out of field goal range and we lost,” Jackson recalled. “After that game, we sat down and said, ‘This isn’t the end of our season, let’s turn it around.’ We played that next game and we were locked in and ready to go.”
Troy went on to win its next 10 games following that loss, including the Sun Belt Championships against App State.
“I feel it’s a similar situation here,” Jackson admitted. “I’ve been telling guys in the locker room, ‘Let’s keep our heads up, we’ve got another opportunity on Saturday.’”
Center Brandon Yates, one of the longest-tenured Mountaineers, thinks back to the 2021 season when WVU couldn’t capitalize on an opportunity to turn a season around.
“I think back to 2021 when we lost against Texas Tech,” Yates said. “We were expected to win that game and that was a turning point in that season because I feel like if we would’ve won, it would’ve changed the season. There were a lot of times after that game when I felt like we could’ve turned it around and fixed it.”
WVU lost to Texas Tech on a last-minute field goal to fall to 2-3. The following week’s loss to Baylor had the Mountaineers sitting at 2-4. The team won four of its final six games to qualify for a bowl.
“When things don’t go as well as you want them to go, you have to hunker down, you have to deal in truths and you have to own your mistakes,” Brown said. “Coaches and players have to own our mistakes and go about the process of getting better.”
After playing Kansas this weekend, the Mountaineers have their bye week and then face a gauntlet of Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas State, all currently ranked in the AP Top 25.
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