MORGANTOWN -
West Virginia football's October schedule has it facing two top 10 teams, one on the road, then another at home. Between them, there is a trip out to Lubbock to play an unranked team with one loss.
The perception is that if a trap game can exist, it is there at Texas Tech.
What may work in WVU's favor, though, is the fact that its head coach doesn't believe in such things as traps.
"I don't understand what a trap game means. You play the same every week," Dana Holgorsen said this week. "If you don't have the ability to understand that every week is the same, you get beat. Whether it's a trap game or ‘big' game, it's a game."
At this point, it comes with the territory. West Virginia is the new member of the family in the Big 12 and though a record attendance at Texas Memorial Stadium may be special, it will not be held on a pedestal compared to the other venues.
"We need to get used to being in those types of environments and having those types of games," says Holgorsen. "That's why we wanted to be in the Big 12. If they thought that was fun, we have another one this week. I can't wait."
This team has its sights set on a higher goal. Sure, the conference title is always on the line as the season wears on, but with a No. 4 ranking, Holgorsen and his troops are looking – realistically now – at the possibilities that lie before them.
The Big 12 can still be won with a single loss depending on how the rest of the teams fair, but a one-loss WVU team will not be sniffing a trip to Miami for a Jan. 7 title game if there is even one setback.
So how, knowing that, could Texas Tech be treated as anything less important than Texas before it and Kansas State beyond?
"We're 5-0 and we have some lofty goals," says cornerbacks coach Daron Roberts. "You have 12 games and each one is pretty important if you want to end up at our goal. No one in this building is taking this game lightly. Obviously, this team is 4-1, so no one in the building here is underestimating what they've done because they're a really good team, they're coached very well and it's going to be a good game."
A year ago, West Virginia traveled to Syracuse in the final scheduled game between two schools that would ultimately head in separate directions to the Big 12 and ACC, respectively.
The Orange had beaten the Mountaineers once in their last eight tries. That one time was the year before and everyone in gold and blue promised they would not look beyond this next matchup to any other game on the schedule, seeking revenge.
Yet, after losing 49-23, there were some on the roster who admitted to overlooking. They admitted to underestimating their opponent.
This year, it is not Syracuse, nor any other familiar foe that could cause WVU to slip up. Entering the Big 12, there was a perception throughout the locker room that every game would feel like a bowl game in that the team or the venue was one they had never faced.
That mentality, to play for a championship each and every week, could be what eliminates any concern that the name on the front of a jersey could cause this team to slip.
"I think that's going to help out because we've never faced these guys, so there's really nothing to look past, per se, because we have a lot to look forward to with this game," senior quarterback Geno Smith says. "It's going to be a new atmosphere for a lot of us in a new venue versus new coaches and new players. It's all a new experience."
Roberts says he saw the same excitement before games against those same old Big East teams last year as he's seen from his players facing the newness of the Big 12. What he wants them to guard against is psyching themselves out over any one challenge because the task is to win a football game, which is something the Mountaineers have proven five times this season they know how to do.
"By kickoff, all of that goes out the window and it's just you're playing another team between the white lines," says Roberts. "I think our guys have done a really good job of keeping everything in perspective and not acting like they're tourists and just going and playing football and getting back on the plane."
The cliché of one game at a time is in full swing with this WVU team. This week, it is Texas Tech. After that, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.