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Snyder finds no satisfaction in win, so imagine how bad WVU feels

Kansas State safety Dante Barnett celebrates a second-half interception—one of four turnovers that plagued West Virginia in Thursday’s 26-20 loss.

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Really, Really Ol’ Ball Coach had compiled 185 career victories at Kansas State, though he couldn’t recall any so deficient and disorderly as No. 186.

“None come to mind,” Bill Snyder said.

While Kansas State beat West Virginia to remain alive for the Big 12 championship, Snyder couldn’t swallow the statistical anomaly propagated by his No. 12 Wildcats: 102 yards in penalties and 1 paltry yard rushing. How that formula begat a 26-20 win confounded Snyder, who described the evening as “far more” frustrating than satisfying.

“I have no earthly right to take away the victory from the young people in our program,” he said. “But if we stay true to form and remain consistent about what we do, it’s about trying to make that weekly improvement. … For the most part we certainly didn’t.”

He doesn’t deal in delusions. Snyder recognized that against many opponents on many fields K-State would not have been lucky enough to win Thursday. Against a rapidly-depreciating team like West Virginia, however, even subpar work was sufficient.

K-State came in averaging 32 yards in penalties per game, and nearly sacrificed that many on one drive in the first quarter by drawing face-mask and pass interference flags. How did West Virginia capitalize? By fumbling a first-and-2 handoff at the goal line.

Clint Trickett stuck the ball squarely in Wendell Smallwood’s gut only to see it pop straight out—a scoring chance erased by an unforced turnover.

“You’ve got to be able to hand the ball off,” said offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson. “It was a simple quarterback/running back exchange that went wrong. We’re at the point of the season where we shouldn’t have to be talking about that.”

It wasn’t the last Trickett-Smallwood foible. On a third-quarter pass at the K-State 10, the running back hesitated on a deep-in route and the ball whizzed past for a Dante Barnett interception.

Dawson’s take on that one? “He throttled down. Clint thought he was going to stay on the move but Wendell throttled down. It was just a miscommunication. We throw and catch that route I can’t tell you how many times. That should be routine.”

What has become routine for West Virginia are special-teams screw-ups, and Thursday night gave us several howlers. Like the time Vernon Davis tip-toed into a crowd of K-State defenders to sneak a glimpse at a bouncing punt that—GASP!—grazed his leg. Silly move. Silly turnover. And what’s even sillier? That Wes Virginia was flagged for roughing the punter on the same play. Talk about blowing it out of both ends.

Then there was Nick O’Toole punting to the wrong half of the field, offering dangerous returner Tyler Lockett a clear path to the end zone.

“Our whole team went right. He mis-hit it left,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “I might could’ve scored on it. Horrible punt.”

Yet pretty much appropriate for a night rife with horrible execution on both sides. Between dropped passes, numerous misreads, six turnovers, three flubbed field-goals and a kickoff that caromed out-of-bounds, it was a shame someone had to win.

A crowd of 47,683 marked only the third conference game since 2008 in which WVU failed to attract 50,000. The 4-8 Rutgers club didn’t excite the folks in 2010, nor did the 2013 finale against 3-9 Iowa State. Yet this was 12th-ranked K-State, league-leading K-State, and even though TV dictated a Thursday slot, you wondered if the lack of bodies stemmed from the night of the week or a creeping belief that WVU’s best football was played weeks ago.

Likewise, K-State’s best performances may be yesterday’s news, but its glorious old coach won’t be fooled into putting frosting on the latest game his team won. Or rather, the latest one West Virginia lost.





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