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There is some good news for WVU sports fans:
Basketball season is underway.
The football season continued spiraling downhill with another hard to watch performance on the road in a 31-14 loss at Iowa State. It was a battle to avoid the cellar of the Big 12, and the Mountaineers fell far short.
The Cyclones had the best defense in the league so it was known that scoring points would be a challenge. This was particularly true with WVU being without its first two running backs and other starters on offense. But even with those limitations the performance of the offense was abysmal. Until the final meaningless drive in the waning minutes of the game, the West Virginia offense had all of seven first downs, 125 total yards, and seven points. Seven times the Mountaineers were three and out.
For most of the past two seasons, Mountaineer fans complained that we could not win consistently with Jarret Doege at quarterback, and it must be acknowledged that some of that criticism came from this corner. When JT Daniels transferred to WVU, optimism abounded. Now, Neal Brown finally had a quarterback, we said, and we would see the difference.
Only the numbers tell a different story. In the 2021 season, Doege completed 65% of his passes for an average of 7.3 yards per pass attempt and had a quarterback rating of 135. Through eight games Daniels has completed 61% of his passes, for 6.5 yards per pass attempt and a quarterback rating of 124.
Admittedly, a couple of good receivers departed after 2021 through the transfer portal and WVU has had running back injuries the last 2-3 weeks. But over the season Daniels has had a better running game to compliment, an entire offensive line returning and a new offensive coordinator. The bottom line is that quarterback play has not significantly improved in 2022, if at all.
Despite the offensive futility, West Virginia was still in the game trailing only 10-7 early in the fourth quarter and forced an Iowa state punt. Maybe somehow the Mountaineers could put together one last scoring drive similar to what they did at the end of the first half. But a roughing the punter penalty gave the Cyclones a first down, and the discouraged WVU defense basically threw in the towel and gave up three fourth quarter touchdowns.
With deficiencies on both sides of the ball, a team cannot survive multiple penalties. But Mountaineer offensive linemen twice grabbed players or jerseys thinking an official wouldn't see. A defensive player has one hand on a shoulder and reaches out with the other and grabs a face mask, and a defensive back not bothering to turn around and look for the ball and getting flagged for interference. Throw in a false start here or there and you get run out of the stadium by the 9th place team in the league.
THIS SATURDAY: WVU has never beaten Oklahoma since joining the Big 12 ten years ago. This year the Sooners have their weakest team in years, having already lost four conference games and yielding nearly 40 points per game in conference play. The Mountaineers play better at home so If there ever was a year to break the streak, this would be it. Only it probably isn't. OKLAHOMA 42 WEST VIRGINIA 31.