WVU football to flush Oklahoma State loss faster than usual
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MORGANTOWN -- This time last week, West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez talked about how he was in a celebratory mood. He was going to take his red solo cup, put something in it, and not have his pinky out after beating top-25-ranked Virginia in Charlotte. However, Rodriguez wasn't going to party too long because he has a 24-hour rule. You can only think about a game for 24 hours before moving on to the next.
A week after the victory over the Cavaliers, the mood shifted. Oklahoma State handed the Mountaineers their first loss of the season at home in front of a packed Milan Puskar Stadium crowd, 41-24. After a 3-0 start and being on the cusp of the top 25, WVU was brought back down to Earth.
Rodriguez has changed his 24-hour rule regarding past games.
"Typically, we take 24 hours to move on to the next one," Rodriguez said. "I don’t want to take that long. Go about 12 hours and then start getting ready for the next one."
Twelve hours isn't a lot of time. Most of that time will be filled with sleep, so it doesn't leave a lot of time for correcting the mistakes from the loss. And there's plenty.
The defense allowed the Cowboys to put up 41 points and tally 609 yards. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker had 389 yards and three touchdowns, completely dismantling the defense in the second half to win the game. The defense was all out of sorts.
Linebacker Ben Cutter, who was on the team last season, stayed on the field after the game, making sure to pick up his teammates to keep their heads high after the loss. As a leader and returner, he'll be someone the team looks to, especially on defense, to turn the page.
"We spit this out tonight," Cutter said. "Come back tomorrow. Get ready for Iowa State."
The offense also struggled in the second half. WVU couldn't move the ball on the ground as efficiently, and couldn't find much success through the air when trailing.
Mountaineers quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. said he's going to spend time getting into the film room to sort out the offensive mistakes.
"Cleaning up the little things we need to fix and being on the same page and moving forward as a whole is probably the biggest thing,” Hawkins said. “You know it’s a long season, so we got a lot of games ahead of us.”
There were a lot of problems. But Rodriguez's biggest takeaway from the loss was he needs a better plan. He has 12 hours to find a new one.
"The plan we had failed," Rodriguez said. "I mean, pretty obvious. I’m a head coach, and I’m responsible for making sure our plans succeed or fail. That falls on me. But the plan we had failed for sure. It’s pretty obvious. 609 yards, obvious."
This same situation feels all too familiar. The Mountaineers were riding high last year after a comeback win over Pitt in the Backyard Brawl to close out non-conference play, and a week later, WVU lost 41-10 on the road to Kansas to start Big 12 play.
From there, the season spiraled out of control. The Mountaineers lost the next four games and won just two games the rest of the season.
WVU has to avoid snowballing losses. It starts in less than a week, when the Mountaineers head to Ames, Iowa, to play Iowa State at noon.
The Cyclones were picked to finish last in the Big 12 by a lot of outlets. Iowa State lost long-time coach Matt Campbell to Penn State and went into a complete rebuild. The Cyclones have a new roster under a new regime and are 2-2 on the season. Iowa State played ranked Iowa close and wasn't completely blown out by Utah.
At home, the Cyclones could put up a fight. But it still should be a game WVU should win. It's an opportunity to get the season back on track because, as Hawkins and Cutter said, there's a whole lot of season still left.
"One game is not going to define us," Rodriguez said. "We got a lot to learn."