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Following West Virginia’s 62-38 loss to No. 2 Baylor last weekend, there was a clear sense of frustration from Mountaineer fans across the country.
WVU suffered its third-straight loss and fell 0-3 in Big 12 Conference play, dropping its record to an even 3-3 on the season. West Virginia is in danger of falling to 3-4 as its next test comes against another highly-ranked opponent in TCU.
Since Dana Holgorsen’s first year as head coach with the Mountaineers, a season in which West Virginia defeated Clemson in the Orange Bowl 70-33 as a member of the Big East Conference, there were times where WVU, and Holgorsen in general, showed lots of promise.
In its inaugural season in the Big 12, the Mountaineers lived up to the challenge at first, opening up the season with a 5-0 record including a win against Texas in Austin. Some experts believed WVU could be a national title contender at that point in time.
Reality began to strike, however, when WVU finished the season 7-6 and a bowl loss to Syracuse in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. You can make the claim that the Mountaineers would make their mark once they got adjusted to life in their new conference.
The next two seasons saw more disappointment, as West Virginia had a 4-8 season in 2013 where it didn’t make a bowl game, marking the first time it failed to reach a bowl since 2001. In 2014, the Mountaineers upset then-No. 4 Baylor, started 6-2 and had the Big 12 title in reach had they defeated TCU, but once again, West Virginia dropped four of its next five, finishing 7-6 with yet another bowl loss to Texas A&M in the Liberty Bowl.
Holgorsen has recruited some very good players in his time as head coach, but at the end of the day, results are the only thing that matter. There are a myriad of reasons why ‘The Holgorsen Experiment’ may have not worked out entirely up to this point, especially since the Orange Bowl, but Athletic Director Shane Lyons has some serious thinking to do as to whether there are better options as head coach, or just figure out why what he has right now hasn’t worked out to the expectations a lot of people envisioned.
If WVU falls to TCU Oct. 29, it will be 0-4 in the month of October – a month the Mountaineers haven’t had much success in since Holgorsen took over. Under Holgorsen, West Virginia has struggled in the second half of the season since it left the Big East.
Time span for coaches continues to be limited – even fans were calling for Charlie Strong’s dismissal before Texas’ win over Oklahoma, and he came into a much more difficult situation in Austin, so he deserves some time to rebuild the program.
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When WVU hired Holgorsen in 2011, it took a chance with somebody who had no head coaching experience, only time as an offensive coordinator. Perhaps it is a failed experiment, but at some point, the question of whether change is needed will be brought up. Following the Baylor loss, it is starting to linger.
In the Mountaineers’ first year in the Big 12, they lost to Kansas and Iowa State – two programs that have struggled mightily on the football field in recent years. Even with the difficulty of adjusting to a new conference and having a down year, WVU soon learned that nothing would come easy.
Under Holgorsen, WVU is 11-19 in the Big 12, 21-23 overall as a member of the Big 12 and 31-26 overall including the 2011 season in the Big East.
One thing is for sure – the amount of patience WVU fans/spectators have had is starting to diminish.
https://twitter.com/FLMountaineer/status/655459589253545984
https://twitter.com/Hill_22/status/653680483390332928
There are still plenty of fans who defend Holgorsen as well, believing that it takes time to produce a quality program.
Now, Lyons may want to take into consideration that starting over may be just as difficult as continuing this run with Holgorsen. Finding a suitable replacement if WVU falls short of expectations again could be difficult, and then the factor of players having to get used to a new system again is not an easy thing to deal with.
The best thing for West Virginia to do right now is wait the process out and go from there. There are still six to seven games left in the season, and anything can truly happen, even if things don’t look ideal at this current time. Who knows, perhaps patience could be the best thing moving forward.
Until WVU gets back to being consistent, though, Holgorsen’s seat will remain hot, however long that may be.