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Mountaineers returning to scene where 2012 meltdown began

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — This week marks the two-year anniversary of a humbling—nay, humiliating—trip to Lubbock, whereby West Virginia was banished from college football’s elite and made to feel fraudulent for having been there in the first place.

Texas Tech and Seth Doege went guns up from the get-go in a 49-14 whipping that punctured the No. 5 Mountaineers’ swagger and created an extended spiral.

Benchmarks don’t ring any more distinctive than what happened that gusty Saturday in 2012: West Virginia entered with a 15-3 record under Dana Holgorsen and has gone only 9-16 since.

Thinking back to the blowout, Holgorsen suggested his team was unprepared for the Red Raiders’ intensity and rattled by the rowdiness of 57,000 fans—many of whom stormed the turf at game’s end.

“We just didn’t understand what the situation was,” Holgorsen said. “I think we’re in a much better spot now.”

Better because about 35 players remain from that terrible trip to Lubbock, players like middle linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, who also lost to Texas Tech last season in Morgantown after squandering a fourth-quarter lead.

“It’s a great atmosphere in Lubbock,” Kwiatkoski said. “They got us the past two years so we definitely want to go down there and win.”

Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege burned West Virginia for six passing touchdowns and capped off the 49-14 upset by crowd-surfing in 2012.

 

Wind worries overblown? Despite the occasional gusts that earmarked the 2012 loss, Holgorsen doubted wind was a factor. Geno Smith threw for 276 yards on 30-of-56 passing, the lowest completion percentage of his two seasons under Holgorsen.

“The wind in that stadium that day did not affect the game,” Holgorsen said. “Did it get in Geno’s head a little bit? Probably. And it probably was a little bit more because he didn’t have Stedman Bailey because he went out in the first quarter.

“There were a lot of issues in that game other than the wind. It dang sure didn’t affect (Texas Tech), because they threw for about 500 yards and had 49 points.”

Travel worries overblown? Though Saturday’s kickoff is 11 a.m. local time, it’s still noon for the WVU biological clocks—the same start time as the Mountaineers faced at Maryland.

“And it’s a shorter trip,” Holgorsen said, “because airplanes go faster than buses.”

“We will actually have less travel time to Lubbock, Texas. It goes back to the wind, to tail winds and frontal winds and all that stuff. I’d imagine (the flight) is 2 hours and 30 minutes, where the bus ride to Maryland was 3 hours and 30 minutes.”







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