West Virginia football will focus on 'basic football' during off week, Dana Holgorsen says

The West Virginia Mountaineers enter their second idle Saturday of the season searching for answers, coming off two blowout losses in the Big 12. The Mountaineers' defense continued to allow points at a blistering rate, but the offense dropped off dramatically in losses to Texas Tech and Kansas State. Head coach Dana Holgorsen said during his press conference that his team team will spend the week getting back to the basics (via Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail):

"At this point, I think it's more important to get out there and focus on the fundamentals of football," Holgorsen said. "Playing so many young kids, as we are, the first thing that goes in the heat of battle is the technique - and there have been examples of that all across the board. We'll focus a lot on fundamentals and basic football."

It's a far cry from the Mountaineers' first off week of the season in early September, when Holgorsen and the offense were fine-tuning an operation that crescendoed to a top-five ranking. That all came tumbling down in Lubbock, Texas, and it worsened last week in primetime against the Wildcats.

Holgorsen is hoping a mentality change will yield results when WVU takes the field next. TCU is slated to make a visit to Morgantown, and hopefully the bye week will have paid dividends for both the offense and the defense.