MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia equalized a dreadful first half with an inspired second, which only got Dana Holgorsen’s team into another overtime pickle.
And recent history reveals that OTs at Mountaineer Field don’t go the Mountaineers’ way.
This one didn’t.
After No. 21 Oklahoma State escaped with a 33-26 win, Holgorsen wasn’t sure he had an immediate fix for his players’ psyche.
“There is nothing I can say to them that is going to make them feel any better,” he said. “Those guys are pretty hurt down there. The only way to make that feeling go away is to get back to work.”
This stung like TCU’s 2-point conversion in 2012 and the Texas end zone interception of 2013. And for the few thousand diehards who actually stayed through that Iowa State triple-OT finale, maybe it seemed familiar too. West Virginia fell to 0-4 in home overtime games since joining the Big 12.
Yet Holgorsen couldn’t pin the loss entirely on what happened during the extra session, not when West Virginia trailed 17-2 after a clunky, lurching first half.
“We put ourselves in a big hole,” he said. “I really commend our players for coming in at halftime. We challenged them, and we came out in the second half and played a lot better. We were at a point where we could win. At the end of the day, it was not good enough.
“You have to play four quarters if you want to win in the Big 12. Right now, we are not capable of doing that.”
Watch Holgorsen’s complete postgame news conference above.