You saw this coming. The timely topic is WVU’s turnover trouble, which is more troubling than it is trouble. I’ll explain…

Is it an issue? Well, sure. It directly contributed to one loss and could have contributed to another. If I invested in season tickets or a road trip to Auburn, I’d be more concerned with the fact WVU was somewhat fortunate to beat ECU — um, maybe they’re not that good — and wasn’t compelled to take note and thus paid dearly for similar errors against Auburn.

So, yes, in that regard it would behoove the Mountaineers to hold onto the ball. Same goes for 119 other Division I-A Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Should I expect “WVU needs to score more points than the other team!” columns?

I’m not going to grab my laptop and tap out a 30-ince tome about how “IT’S NOT A BIG DEAL!” I just wonder — and you may worry — if this becomes a bigger deal than it really is. Bill Stewart, for example, is paying close attention.

Stewart knows, though, that his team can’t compete against the better opponents on its schedule without better ball security. He joked that he was beating his head against the wall all day Sunday about the turnover problem. He hopes practice can help fix those problems.

“We can help with some playcalling and help by putting them in some pressure situations,” Stewart said. “They know what to do, and we’ve just got to make sure they do it over and over and over, so it becomes old habit.”

Play-calling? So lower the risk…and the reward? This is a pretty potent offense, but there are some chance-taking moments involved. WVU needs to throw deep and screen passes to open up the field. They seem to want to pass to set up the run. Bad things can happen when you pass — though I’m not sure the quarterback, Jarrett Brown, is killing his team. 

People like to make football out to be a complex game when in reality, it’s really not and usually gets difficult when you make it difficult. I own glasses and I assure you they don’t have rose-colored lenses. I happen to think WVU wins the Auburn game if it commits “just” four turnovers. I wasn’t alone thinking that, either. (I’m not counting Geno’s interception, which was the sixth turnover. The game was over by then.)

Maybe you change a playcall somewhere along the line — no middle screen coming off the goal line, no passing in the Auburn red zone when you’re running the ball really well, so on and so forth — but why change the overall philosophy? You could very well be 3-0 and ranked. It’s working.  

“We threw the whole playbook at them – reverses, passes, double passes, double moves – and a lot of it worked,” said Mullen, whose group is averaging 32.6 points per game and 7.0 yards per play. “It not for the penalties and the turnovers, this feels a lot more enjoyable.” 

As for working on this in practice, WVU worked on ball security all spring and summer. I saw it. You know what? WVU hasn’t botched a center-quarterback exchange or a handoff, hasn’t had a ball stripped, hasn’t had a pass slip through a receiver’s hands into a defender’s. WVU isn’t being sloppy. The plays mostly aren’t putting the players in bad spots.

Look at WVU’s turnovers this season:

East Carolina:

– JB tries to shoot the moon and slip a ball deep down the middle to his second or third option, Jock Sanders. ECU’s senior safety, Van Eskridge, make a nice play to pick it off. Again, risk-reward. It’s a touchdown if it’s a second or so sooner. You live and learn.

– Jock calls fair catch on a punt, lets the ball roll, then tries to cover it up and save his team a few yards. If he doesn’t goof it up, it’s a smart, though risky play.

– Hogan gets hit and fumbles on a punt return, but before he ever has the ball when he tries to field a bouncing ball. Hey, it happens. For Hogan and Jock, it’s embarrassing, not an epidemic. There’s a difference.

– JB sweats profusely and a ball slips out of his hands on what would have been a sure touchdown pass to Ryan Clarke. That never happens.

Auburn:

– JB gets sacked. Oops. Auburn’s DT runs right through Josh Jenkins, which is more a credit to the DT than a slight against Jenkins. Remember, this is football. Quarterbacks get sacked, especially when you pass a lot. WVU passes a lot.

– JB sees Starks open and tries to fit a ball between two defenders. The inside defender, a linebacker, drops fast, jumps high and makes a great play. JB’s made that throw already this season and will again. The Mountaineers were in scoring position here.

– Wes Lyons admits he made a bad read and left JB hanging for an interception. WVU was again in position to score.

– Noel jumps a little to try and grab a middle screen because JB’s throw was high. That’s actually the one bad turnover I can think of right now. You can’t throw high on a screen and you don’t want to tip it — though, to be fair, it’s easy to throw high to Noel … and if Noel doesn’t tip it, who’s to say another defender doesn’t catch it without a tip. Also, the defensive lineman made a tremendous play.

– The second intercepted screen pass is just a great read by the defense, though I still think Noel runs a long way if he catches it. The sin here is it was close to the goal line and the third time WVU ran the screen, which was diagnosed quickly by the defense.

– Geno Smith’s eighth career pass is intercepted.

Do you feel better now? Really, based on all that, is this a team riddled by haphazard plays and poor decisions on offense? Or is it a team with overall turnover numbers inflated by two special teams errors, a sweat-aided folly, a bad route and a freshman making a freshman throw?

If it continues, panic. The numbers suggest you won’t.