WVU ready to get back on track after bye week

After getting off to a strong 5-0 start, the No. 21 West Virginia football team is looking to get back to form following two devastating losses to Texas Tech and Kansas State.

In those two losses, the Mountaineers trailed by a combined score of 104-28 and scored just three touchdowns in the last two games after scoring 33 in the first five.

"West Virginia’s not used to this. I don’t remember the last time we lost two games in a row, but it’s the reality of the situation," said head coach Dana Holgorsen on Monday’s Big 12 Conference coaches’ teleconference. "It’s our job as coaches to mix the two and keep the attitude good."

The Mountaineers used their bye week to recruit and work on individual things that they struggled with in their two losses.

"You’ve just got to take advantage of your practice opportunities," Holgorsen said. "You get so caught up in the week-to-week preparation – as far as what your game plan is – that throughout the grind of the season you tend to forget what a lot of the fundamental aspects that being football players is all about. And that’s ultimately how you improve is by getting better at the technique. Being able to visit that and get better at that will hopefully show up on the field," he said.

Storms could affect WVU’s preparation for TCU

With Hurricane Sandy making its way along the East Coast, the storms could make West Virginia change the way it practices leading up to Saturday’s game against TCU.

"We’re monitoring it right now. It’s going to all be out of here by Friday," Holgorsen said. "It’s probably going to affect our preparation a little bit. Whether it affects our outside work or not, I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to affect anything from a school standpoint or any of that."

A large group of Mountaineers are from the areas where the storm is expected to hit the hardest.

"We’ve got a lot of kids from that area – from New Jersey and Baltimore and Washington D.C., so we’re monitoring those kids and their families to make sure that everything’s fine. Our thoughts and prayers are with that part of the country, no doubt," Holgorsen said.

WVU will have challenge in TCU’s Boykin

Coming into the 2012 season, TCU was expected to have one of the Big 12’s top quarterbacks in Casey Pachall.

But when Pachall left the team to enter a rehab program after a DUI arrest early in the season, redshirt freshman Trevone Boykin was bumped into the starting job.

The Horned Frogs are 1-3 since Boykin took over.

"Any time you play a kid at that spot as a freshman, you’re going to have some ups and downs," Holgorsen said. "I know he’s turned the ball over a couple times, but not only has made a bunch of plays in the air but he can keep plays alive with his legs and still look to get the ball downfield."

Boykin has completed 101 of his 164 passes for 1,122 yards and 11 touchdowns while throwing six interceptions.

"He’s done a good job stepping in after Pachall wasn’t there anymore. He’s been getting better each and every week, and we’ll be shocked if he doesn’t continue to get better the rest of the year," Holgorsen said.