The good and the bad from West Virginia’s 49-14 loss to Texas Tech on Saturday:
Best postgame speech in light of a 35-point loss: Holgorsen telling his players “to hurry up and get on the plane.”
Best QB performance Saturday: For once this season, it wasn’t Geno Smith, who struggled with accuracy and pressure. Seth Doege, meanwhile, fired six touchdowns and threw for 499 yards.
Worst understatement: WVU cornerback Pat Miller on Doege — “He managed the game well.”
Worst four-legged depth chart: Midnight Matador, the horse normally ridden by the Texas Tech masked rider, was unavailable Saturday as veterinarians evaluated medical tests. Tech should probably look into some pony walk-ons.
Best effort by a player getting tenderized: Tech tight end Jace Amaro, who took a couple big hits but made five catches for 156 yards. “The kid looked like a piece of hamburger meat” in the postgame locker room, coach Tommy Tuberville said. “He threw up the entire halfime, but he came back and played.”
Worst pregame news for WVU: Junior defensive end Will Clarke was on the dress list but was ruled out of the game with a reported knee injury. Eric Kinsey started in Clarke’s place.
Worst pregame news for WVU, part II: Texas got hammered by Oklahoma 63-21, which was positive reinforcement for last week’s result for Texas Tech and not so much for WVU.
Best misdirection play that netted nothing: Doege used a play-action fake on an end-around to draw in the defense, as Tech receiver Bradley Marquez sped uncovered past the WVU secondary. But inexplicably, Marquez stopped his route and Doege overthrew him by 10 yards.
Best reason to keep coming to the stadium: Tuberville mentioned being disappointed at the roughly 3,000 empty seats at Jones AT&T Stadium, a by-product of Texas Tech’s five straight Big 12 home losses.
Worst day to watch the BCS rankings unveiled: If you’re a West Virginia player, it’s Sunday, when the 2012 BCS standings make their debut. WVU is no longer expected to be among the top 10.
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