Mountaineers climb CFP rankings
Holgorsen drives West Virginia into Playoff hunt after changes in style, approach
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen doesn’t watch the “reality TV,” as he puts it, that is the weekly College Football Playoff rankings. “It doesn’t do me any good,” he said. “It doesn’t do our players any good.”
“It does coaches no good to think about it and talk about it,” Holgorsen told USA TODAY. “I really, honestly don’t (watch). I get why that show is; it’s all advertising and all that stuff. Fans want to watch it, and it’s been great for college football. You guys want to follow it and write about it and read about it and talk scenarios and all that good stuff. It’s the most popular thing going.”
Not to say that Holgorsen is unaware of the Mountaineers’ climb up the rankings. Ranked No. 13 in the first release of the 2018 season, West Virginia moved to No. 9 last week — climbing on the back of a 42-41 win at No. 15 Texas. The Mountaineers held that spot Tuesday after Saturday’s 47-10 win against TCU. “We’ve made a lot of progress,” he said.
Now 8-1 overall, with that loss coming at No. 16 Iowa State, this year’s surge has the Mountaineers alongside Big 12 rival Oklahoma and a handful of fellow contenders from the Power Five leagues as the teams ready to pounce if given a window to slip into the top four.
It isn’t the first time West Virginia has played a national role under Holgorsen, the Mountaineers head coach since 2011, but this season marks something new: WVU entering the heart of November as a realistic challenger for a national semifinal, not as a team on the outskirts of a New Year’s Six bowl and playing the role of spoiler for opponents ranked higher by the selection committee.
“We’ve been knocking on the door a little bit, as we are this year, which is all we’re at right now — we’re just in the conversation,” Holgorsen said. “We’ve been in the conversation a couple other years and couldn’t get it done, you know.”
This year’s team is the culmination of a shift in style and approach, changes the Mountaineers embraced amid a run of middling success from 2014 to 2016 that have come to define the program in Holgorsen’s eighth season. While still rooted in Air Raid principles, the offense has forged a commitment to the running game even as senior quarterback Will Grier puts together a season worthy of Heisman Trophy consideration. WVU enters Saturday’s matchup with Oklahoma State ranked third in the Big 12 in yards per carry and sixth nationally in yards per play.
Holgorsen has also changed the Mountaineers’ practice habits and routine; drills now mirror how teams operate in the NFL, he said. Both changes, in how the team attacks on offense and in its practice habits, have been “a big help for our defense,” Holgorsen said. WVU ranks 43rd nationally in yards allowed per play, nearly a full yard better than a unit that ranked 98th in the same category a season ago.
In recruiting, the Mountaineers have gone from emphasizing Texas to sticking closer to home, in West Virginia and the nearby corners of Ohio and Pennsylvania. To this mix Holgorsen has added a heavy dose of transfers — players from junior colleges, graduate transfers and additions from fellow programs on the Football Bowl Subdivision level, such as Grier from Florida. The success rate with these transfers is about 50 percent, Holgorsen estimated.
“We weathered the storm and made some adjustments in terms of how we were recruiting and how we were playing football, how we were practicing,” he said. “I knew we had a lot of work to do because we weren’t where we needed to be in order to compete. There’s a lot of things that needed to change. It’s been fun to watch it change, and it’s change the way it needs to.”
With at least two and as many three games left in its regular season, new-look West Virginia’s path to the Playoff now goes through Oklahoma — first in the season finale, a home game on Nov. 23, and perhaps again a week later, should the two meet to decide the Big 12 championship. WVU has yet to defeat the Sooners in six tries since joining the conference, with just one meeting decided by a single possession.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers will be keeping tabs on the scoreboard. Notre Dame losing to either Syracuse or Southern California would open up a spot in the top four. Another scenario deals with the Big Ten and finds the winner of the Michigan and Ohio State matchup losing once more before the postseason, potentially to Northwestern in the conference title game.
“I think we’re at a point now where we have a chance,” Holgorsen said.