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Football Notebook: K-State is Looming
September 26, 2016 03:45 PM | Football
West Virginia is one of a handful of undefeated football teams still on the outside of the top 25 rankings this week, although the Mountaineers did accumulate 51 votes in the Associated Press poll and 46 votes in the coaches’ poll.
That puts West Virginia 29th in one poll and 30th in the other, which coach Dana Holgorsen admits isn’t No. 1 on his priority list this week.
“I really haven’t thought about it,” he said during Monday morning’s Big 12 coaches’ teleconference. “We worry about what we can control, which is going out there and doing our best on Saturday trying to win a game. We’ve done that the last three weeks and that’s what we’ll try to do this week as well.”
Twice under Holgorsen, West Virginia has started the season 3-0 and in both instances the Mountaineers were nationally ranked - No. 9 in 2012 heading into their fourth game against Baylor (a 70-63 win) and No. 16 in 2011 heading into their fourth game against LSU (a 47-21 loss).
The last time WVU had three straight victories coming out of the gate and wasn’t ranked happened in 2005 when the Mountaineers defeated Syracuse, Wofford and Maryland heading into a week four meeting at home against East Carolina. It wasn’t until a week seven win over 19th-ranked Louisville in triple overtime that Rich Rodriguez’s Mountaineers finally cracked the AP poll at No. 18 that season.
A win over Kansas State on Saturday - something that has eluded West Virginia since joining the Big 12 Conference four years ago - will likely take care of that for next week.
Briefly:
* Kansas State quarterback Jesse Ertz has attempted just 55 passes in three games so far this year, or an average of 18.3 pass attempts per game. Ertz has completed 56.4 percent of those for 418 yards and four touchdowns, while also leading the team in rushing with 145 yards and a 5.8 yards-per-carry average.
Holgorsen says Ertz is very similar to the other outstanding quarterbacks coach Bill Snyder puts on the field on a yearly basis.
“They ask a lot of those guys in the run game and to read defenses,” Holgorsen said. “They’re good football players and they like to play the game.”
* Through three games, West Virginia quarterback Skyler Howard has only been sacked once against BYU and Holgorsen questions whether that one should be recorded as a sack because he felt Howard got back to the line of scrimmage.
“Some of that is the O-line. We’ve got good continuity there, and coach (Joe) Wickline has done a good job of widening the pocket and I think Skyler is doing a great job,” Holgorsen noted. “He’s getting us in plays, we’re getting the ball out of our hands quick, our receivers are in the right spots and it’s just 100 times better than it was last year.”
One thing Holgorsen has noticed is the zip and accuracy on Howard’s passes this year, especially when he turns on the tape and watches some of the games Howard played at the end of last season when he was pretty banged up.
“We watched the BYU game and then we turned on the Kansas State game from last year and it’s a completely different person,” Holgorsen admitted. “He’s got good zip on the ball. He threw the ball as accurately as he ever has last week and, again, the receivers are in the right spots and he’s got some time to throw it so that makes a difference as well.”
* West Virginia’s out-of-conference wins against Missouri and BYU represent two of the better wins the league has had this year, yet there are questions about whether or not the Mountaineers are considered legitimate challengers for this year’s Big 12 title.
Holgorsen thinks they are.
“I think our team thinks that but we don’t really worry about that too much. You can’t,” he said. “The media does and that’s for you guys to talk about and write about, but we’ve got confidence in our abilities and we think we’re pretty good. We also know that we’ve got to continue to get better and better. The Big 12 is a challenging league. I don’t care what their records are each and every one of those games is going to be hard. Our job is to get better, prepare for the next game and we’ve got a tough test against Kansas State this weekend.”
Holgorsen was asked if he thought a league favorite has emerged.
“If you look back at who the favorite was and who actually won it I don’t know if it’s ever been right. There are no favorites, and then again, we don’t really care who is the favorite - we just go out there and play the next game,” he said. “All the coaches understand this. There are nine other teams that you’ve got to play and it doesn’t matter what their record is, it doesn’t matter what they’re ranking is it’s going to be a challenge, so get ready to play the next one and do your best.”
* Holgorsen got a question about LSU’s surprising decision to fire coach Les Miles just four games into the season. He once faced Miles’ LSU team in Morgantown in 2011 as a first-year coach.
“It doesn’t take you long to figure out in this profession that that’s just the way it is. It’s the same way every year so why would it be any different this year?” he said. “Whether you agree with it, like it, don’t like it, there is nothing you can do about it. I don’t get myself caught up with any of that. We just take it one week at a time and try and put the best product out there that we possibly can.”
* According to Matt Wells, senior associate athletic director for external affairs, tickets sales for Saturday’s Kansas State game are going really well. As of noon today, there were less than 800 tickets remaining for the general public while student ticket requests have also been strong.
Remaining tickets can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Reggie Rembert, one of the stars of the 1988 undefeated Mountaineer football team, will be back in town for this Saturday’s Kansas State game and will serve as the ceremonial team captain for the opening coin toss, according to WVU Varsity Club Director Dale Wolfley.
It might be a good idea to give old Reggie a helmet and some shoulder pads and slip him in for a couple of pass plays as well.
And remember, Saturday's game, to kick off at 3:30 p.m., is Stripe the Stadium and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
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