It’s easy to explain this thing away, to show the why and how and specifically where it all fell apart.
And where it all was found again.
“I didn’t know them, and they didn’t know me,” says West Virginia quarterback Clint Trickett.
Now they do.
How about that for easy? Yep, it’s simple. The Mountaineers are a completely different team this season because everyone has a comfort level with the guy playing the most important position on the field.
If you don’t think that’s reality, let me introduce Trickett’s good friend Jacob Coker: The anointed savior of the Alabama quarterback spot before he stepped on campus in June. The player Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher says can start for 99 percent of the teams in college football but can’t beat out a player who once had such little hope of playing quarterback for the Tide that he was moved to tailback.
So when West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen says there’s a comfort level now among the team’s players — when Nick Saban says Coker still lacks that comfort level to run the offense — that simple explanation of why West Virginia is suddenly a dangerous team again is much easier to grasp.
“Let’s put it this way,” Holgorsen says, “People follow him now.”
As opposed to last season, when Tricket had no idea where he was going — or what he was doing — for the first month of the season.
Gone are the days where Trickett didn’t know the system, didn’t know the intricacies and nuances of Holgorsen’s pass-happy offense or something as simple as hand signals.
Gone are the days when Holgorsen would scream at Trickett from the sidelines to change plays or formations because Trickett simply wasn’t comfortable with all that running Holgorsen’s offense involves.
Gone are the days where Trickett was so eager to learn everything and so focus on playing right away, that he ignored his weight, and, at one point last season, weighed all of 165 pounds.
He’s not exactly Hercules now (he’s about 190 pounds), but look at what happened last weekend against Maryland: 511 yards passing, 4 TDs. Look what happened against Alabama and Towson and how this Mountaineers team is full of confidence — and a completely different offense going into a key Big 12 game Saturday against Oklahoma.
“I just felt like it never really had the chance to take hold last year,” Trickett said.
There were highlights (the win over No.11 Oklahoma State) and lowlights (lack of arm strength, accuracy problems) and finally a head injury in November that impacted a majority of the last month of the season.
Wouldn’t you know it, now it’s Trickett who is playing like he could start for 99 percent of the teams in college football. Now it’s Trickett who, after a full year in Holgorsen’s program and system, is playing so well, the Mountaineers are a legitimate factor in the Big 12 race a year after winning only four games.
One of those eight losses last year — those losses that had many questioning not only WVU’s move to the Big 12, but Holgorsen’s ability to coach at the elite Power 5 level — was to Oklahoma in Norman. It was a game Trickett didn’t play, and a game WVU could have — and probably should have — won.
That’s why this weekend is so tempting. Anyone who watched WVU lose to Alabama in the season opener knows Trickett and the offense was hurt by dropped passes and missed opportunity, and the Mountaineers were deep into the fourth quarter with a chance to win the game.
The only difference this time around is this game is at West Virginia. And this time, confidence is soaring.
"We’re not talking about moral victories,” said West Virginia wideout Kevin White. “But we proved how good we can be (against Alabama). We showed what this offense is capable of.”
More than anything, the first three weeks of the season for WVU have showed the importance of knowledge of the system for Trickett, and the critical nature of team chemistry.
He’s the same person he was last year: the same skinny guy who often looks out of place in the enormity of the position. He’s a little heavier now, his arm strength is better and his accuracy has jumped an astounding 23 percent (52 percent to 75).
That, more than anything, tells the story. It has always been about accuracy and efficiency in Holgorsen’s offense. More times than not, that leads to a whole lot of comfort.
“It’s a totally different situation this season,” Trickett said. “We’ve changed as a team and as teammates. You can’t put a value on that.”
But it sure makes things a lot easier to explain.