COLUMN: WVU players take a hard look at themselves after missed opportunities

MORGANTOWN – The West Virginia University football team locker room has a different atmosphere today than it did just a few weeks ago. Players admit that. The Mountaineers went from riding high on a pair of wins to open the Big 12 schedule to two disappointing losses to nationally ranked teams.

The chance to show the country that WVU belongs in the mix at the top of the conference slipped through their fingers like a missed third-down tackle or a dropped pass. It’s a tough situation to endure, but some of the team’s veterans said that whether they have digestive problems or not, it’s a dire situation for the players to digest.

The way to start, right guard Ja’Quay Hubbard said, was to do some self-reflection.

“I just look in the mirror, you know?” he said. “When we see what went wrong, what went right, continuing with what we were good at, and what we were doing poorly, really keep pushing it. Look in the mirror and try to solve it.”

Linebacker Reid Carrico added that simply acknowledging there are problems isn’t enough. After that look in the mirror, the players must actively work to correct the problems.

Yet it is also necessary to remain as positive as possible. Of course there are struggles, but that doesn’t allow the players to sink into a swamp.

“You have to acknowledge the loss and the mistakes that were made,” he said. “And then you have to look ahead. Because if we go into Arizona and we’re too focused on, you know… we’re in the dumps about what we did against Kansas State, then that’s going to be a real problem for us.

What WVU has in its favor is a slew of veterans who can help move the team forward. Seasoned players can be found throughout the squad. There are plenty of them in Hubbard’s offensive line room, where the entire starting lineup is made up of redshirt juniors and older. And it’s not just old Mountaineers like defensive lineman Sean Martin, left tackle Wyatt Milum or javelin Aubrey Burks. There are a lot of older players who have arrived in Morgantown from other schools and have been through a lot of battles.

Senior defensive lineman Fatorma Mulbah spent two years at Penn State before transferring to WVU last year. Both corner Garnett Hollis and cat safety Jaheem Joseph arrived this year from Northwestern, where they were both starters in 2023.

“Leadership is extremely important right now,” said Hubbard, a fifth-year senior. “We have a lot of great leaders. Each position room has at least one leader that the entire team can look up to. So basically we just lean on the older guys and take on the challenge. This period of five matches are very winnable matches. We just have to put our heads down and execute.”

Unless one of the next five opponents sneaks into the top 25 later this season, West Virginia’s streak of foes has stalled. That should give the Mountaineers a better chance to pick up wins to end the year. If they want to qualify for another bowl, they must win at least three of the last five games.

That starts Saturday with Arizona, and Carrico, who spent three years at Ohio State before transferring to Morgantown this year, said the journey to better days must start now.

“I’ve been part of some tough losses,” he said. “I don’t like losing. I hate losing. I hate losing more than winning.

“But really the only thing you can do is own it. So we have to look ahead. We have to get ready to play Arizona. It’s about winning 1-0 every week, no matter who we play.”

—Story by Derek Redd