West Virginia has one game remaining in the 2024 regular season and for now that is the sole focus.
Yes, the Mountaineers have already clinched a bowl berth which means there is an additional game coming as well as the start of the early signing period Dec. 4 but for now the primary objective for the football program is to try to finish the season strong in Lubbock.
West Virginia is at 6-5, 5-3 in the Big 12 and will take on a Texas Tech team that sits at 7-4 and 5-3 in the league. For the Mountaineers, the motivation is obvious in the sense that they could each their seventh win of the season and also secure six wins in the Big 12 for the second consecutive year.
That has yet to happen since the program joined the league in 2012.
“What we’ve really talked about is kind of putting blinders on. You know, the, the season’s really long. If you think about it, it’s kind of like a marathon. Well, you’re here at the, at the last leg of the regular season. It’s really a sprint, you know, it’s a sprint. And we need to be focused on what’s at hand,” head coach Neal Brown said. “The finish line in the Texas Tech game. And so, I think anything after that be premature.”
Once that game is wrapped up there will be time to sort out potential bowl destinations for the program, but Brown is happy for his team that it’s gotten to that point. The moment wasn’t lost on him at the conclusion of the UCF game when he admittedly was happy for his senior class to go out at home with a win.
“I think this has been a long year and we haven’t played as well as home. And so, it’d been a while since we’d actually done country roads at home. And that’s because we hadn’t played as well as a home as we’re capable of. So not real emotions, more probably there’s some relief when you win too. I mean, in pure honesty, but I think I was happier for our seniors in the moment,” he said.
The Mountaineers are currently 3-0 on the road in the Big 12 this season beating Oklahoma State, Arizona and Cincinnati and can cap the year off with a strong showing against the Red Raiders. That isn’t lost on Brown as he believes despite how unique the trip is overall, it’s a great opportunity for his team.
“I think a lot of times in these early kicks, it’s the team that’s ready to go at kickoff or are the ones that have success. We’ve got to, we practice in the mornings, so it shouldn’t be much different to their body clock. But we’ve got to have a really good week of preparation,” he said.
It’s always a challenge to play on the road and the Mountaineers will need to handle the trip as well as they have in other Big 12 matchups but there is still plenty of motivation to close things out strong.
With full attention on the task at hand.
“Our guys have accepted the challenge and they’ve got to do it one more time,” Brown said.
