COMMENTARY
WACO, Texas — Nearly overlooked by the winning side was the mention that Baylor became bowl-eligible Saturday. Sure, some of the Bears acknowledged the accomplishment, but only in the way we acknowledge the salesman informing us our new sedan comes with floormats.
Baylor aspires to more memorable heights than bowl-eligibility. West Virginia would love a set of floormats.
The distinction, hammered home emphatically by the Bears winning 62-38, concluded with Art Briles mercifully expiring the clock with his second-string offense on the brink of another score at the West Virginia 3.
No more stats for the backups. Time for the Mountaineers to pack up.
Minutes later Dana Holgorsen eulogized it as “another hard-fought loss,” a generous description considering West Virginia trailed 48-24 entering the fourth quarter. (Remember Lamar’s hard-fought loss in September?) But we’ll cut Holgorsen some slack: Starting 0-3 in league play—with a roster he pronounced fully stocked—can force a coach into spin mode.
The last time a West Virginia club dropped its first three conference games was 2001, the dawn of the RichRod Era, and the Mountaineers promptly trucked Rutgers 80-7 the following week. (Wonder if Trevone Boykin and TCU realize the kind of history they’re up against?)
Briles spent the week publicly denying history played any factor in Baylor’s preparation for West Virginia. Then he led off his postgame news conference with this:
“We didn’t feel like we had a good name in West Virginia after last year, so that was our motivating factor. It had nothing to do with rankings or getting bowl-eligible or anything other than the fact that when people talk about us up there, we want them saying good things about our football program.”
There’s no shortage of people complimenting the 6-0 Bears at this juncture, particularly from the Mountaineers’ locker room. Holgorsen practically nominated Corey Coleman for the Heisman after Saturday’s three-touchdown performance, and Tony Gibson suggested he has never encountered an offense so lethally versatile.
“If there’s one better, I don’t want to play it,” he said. “I’d be shocked if we’re not talking about them in December in the playoff and eventually the national championship.”
Along with praising the Bears, however, Gibby recognized West Virginia exacerbated Saturday’s four-quarter crisis with bad technique and poor tackling. The great expectations heaped upon the defense—mostly validated during four home games—hasn’t translated in two road losses. They’ve come face-to-face with a string of the Big 12’s best teams and learned they can’t keep up. With top defender Karl Joseph beginning rehab from knee surgery in Pensacola, Fla., the prospects don’t look promising for WVU turning it around 10 days from now in Fort Worth.
And come December, I’d be shocked if we’re not talking about another so-so Mountaineers team that barely managed to make itself bowl-eligible.