Oklahoma State Notebook

STILLWATER, Okla. – West Virginia’s 34-10 victory over Oklahoma State reminded us once again of the true value of having a strong, reliable running game.

The Cowboys were not going to let wide receivers Kevin White and Mario Alford beat them deep so they played two-high safeties almost the entire game and rolled extra help over to White’s side to protect a young and inexperienced secondary that struggled mightily during last week’s loss to TCU.

That meant the box was light requiring West Virginia to run the football, even when it was third and 19 at its own 5-yard line.

“We just saw something there that we could take advantage of,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “I know the chatter, what people say, but it’s something that I felt was the best thing to do. Believe it or not, we try to call third-down plays that work, and we saw a few things that would make us think it would work. Giving the guys the ball when they're dropping nine people makes sense to me, so we're going to continue to do it. If they crowd the box, we'll probably end up throwing it."

In fact, West Virginia should have probably run the ball even more than it did because the Mountaineers were consistently running it effectively at a five-, six-, and seven-yard clip.

It was when WVU tried to get greedy and go down the field for the big play that it ran into problems.

“Yeah, we probably were a little too game-planny because there probably were some simple things that we could have taken that we didn’t (in the first half) that we did in the second half,” admitted quarterback Clint Trickett.

ANOTHER IMPRESSIVE ROAD VICTORY FOR THE MOUNTAINEERS

Saturday’s win over the Cowboys was impressive in a lot of ways. No. 1, because it was 110 degrees on the field and the heat definitely was a big factor in the game, especially after West Virginia’s first two possessions of the game.

No. 2, Oklahoma State’s strategy on defense was to not allow anything deep and make West Virginia play much more methodically than it would have liked, which the Mountaineers eventually did in the second half.

No. 3, the defense again took another major step forward by producing a plus-two advantage in turnovers, limiting Oklahoma State to just two of 15 on third down and one of five on fourth down, and allowing only 10 points – the lowest total in Big 12 game this season.

“I think Coach Gibby, with what we did schematically, did a good job of changing things up,” said secondary coach Brian Mitchell. “We made an adjustment (in the second half) that made (quarterback Daxx Garman) think about it and he had to hold the ball a little bit more and that I think made him a little bit more hesitant.”

And No. 4, this was a big game for both teams and Oklahoma State was clearly up for it. You could tell at kickoff by the excitement and enthusiasm the fans were showing that the Cowboys wanted this game badly.

“It’s hard to win on the road,” said Mitchell. “People can say what they want to say but that was a 5-2 team coming into this game and they play good football. They’re not 2-5 and they are going to win some more games as the season goes along.”

SECONDARY HAS ANOTHER A-PLUS PERFORMANCE

Oklahoma State quarterback Daxx Garman completed just 50 percent of his pass attempts on Saturday with two interceptions - one of those returned 52 yards for a touchdown by true freshman safety Dravon Henry. In the last two games opposing quarterbacks are completing less than 50 percent of their pass attempts and have been sacked six times.

Mitchell says there are a number of reasons why.

“Maturity, athleticism, experience and feeling comfortable within the scheme,” he said. “We have a bunch of guys out there that want to be good and that’s comforting to know. They work each and every day to do that.”

Going back to the second half of the Texas Tech game on October 11 (spanning the last 10 quarters) opposing quarterbacks are completing just 48.1 percent of their pass attempts (51 of 106).

Against the passing attacks West Virginia has faced the last three weeks, that’s really playing some ball.

Mitchell says all of the hard work the coaching staff has put in the last couple of years recruiting athletic defensive backs and edge pass rushers good enough to defend Big 12-quality passing games is really beginning to pay off.

“It’s a collective. You can’t play defense without a pass rush,” said Mitchell. “It’s a culmination of guys knowing what their role is and performing at the highest level that they can possibly perform in. And then can you finish and make a play? Our kids are doing that, whether it be at the linebacker level, whether it be (freshman) Darrien Howard getting there for the screen game … it’s just a culmination of good play from all three levels in our defense.”

Mitchell believes the genesis for what is happening right now on defense took place back in Atlanta on August 30.

“We played good against Alabama against arguably the second-best wide receiver in the country to Kevin White,” said Mitchell, referencing Alabama’s Amari Cooper. “Our kids are confident. If you master what you do in the back end, our linebackers and our front, can you be the master of your position? If you can good things can happen and that’s what these kids are doing.

“They are able to replicate play after play, proper technique, proper leverage; proper everything,” he added.

STREAKS END, BUT THE WINNING CONTINUES

Clint Trickett’s eight-game streak of 300-yard passing games?

Done.

Kevin White’s streak of seven consecutive 100-yard receiving games?

Gone.

West Virginia’s streak of 500-yard games?

That one ended two weeks ago against Baylor.

Yet the Mountaineers keep winning and they are doing so by doing things the old-fashioned way – effectively running the football and playing good, sound defense.

The Mountaineers’ 210 yards rushing against Oklahoma State on Saturday was the fourth time this season West Virginia has gone over the 200-yard mark on the ground. In fact, the Mountaineers ran the ball 14 more times than they threw it against the Cowboys.

Air Holgorsen?

“When you have games like that you have to be able to run the ball,” he said. “That’s the difference between being able to win games like this and not.”

The Mountaineers are now averaging 181 yards per game on the ground; last year West Virginia’s run game averaged 148.7 yards per game.

Those additional 32 yards per game on the ground have made a huge difference, that’s for sure.

POLL POSITION

West Virginia moved up three spots in the USA Today coaches' poll from 25th last week to 22nd this week, while the Mountaineers advanced two spots in the AP poll from 22nd last week to 20th this week.

TCU, meanwhile, is up to No. 10 this week in both polls. Saturday's game against the Horned Frogs will be the fourth against a top 10-ranked team this year, with possibly one more coming up on November 20 when the Mountaineers play host to Kansas State, which is currently 11th in both polls.

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