MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After West Virginia replayed the storyline of too many turnovers and too many special-teams blunders, Dana Holgorsen replayed his postgame summary from previous losses.
“Once again, we came up a little bit short against a quality team,” Holgorsen said following Thursday night’s 26-20 to No. 12 Kansas State. “We didn’t get the job done, and that’s on me.”
A third consecutive loss, played before the smallest home crowd of the season (47,683), likely cemented a berth in the Liberty Bowl for West Virginia (6-5, 4-4 Big 12). It also means the Mountaineers must beat Iowa State to finish above .500 in the conference for the first time. That’s a steep descent from being in the thick of the Big 12 race earlier this month.
“If we want to be in the race for the Big 12 championship, and we’re going to have to beat good teams like Kansas State, like TCU, like Oklahoma,” Holgorsen said.
With four more turnovers, West Virginia fell to minus-15 for the season. With Tyler Lockett’s punt runback, West Virginia has allowed four return scores.
“Offense was garbage, I thought defense was below average and special teams were horrendous,” said Holgorsen. “It was all three sides of the ball.”
Watch his complete postgame news conference above.