I have the dress lists from WVU’s games this season. Home games are different than road games. Those lists are longer, though not by much. Generally, the Mountaineers dress somewhere close to 75 players for a road game and you’ll see more for a home game because there’s no expense in letting an Arthur Johannes dress and stand on the sideline at home.

Dana Holgorsen, who is kind of fed up with players who don’t exhibit the energy and effort and enthusiasm he believes are integral to a consistent winner, who knows those qualities will be in abundance across the field Saturday when WVU plays No. 23 Cincinnati, seems “pretty serious” about taking 50 or 55 guys on the road. Maybe more, maybe less, maybe even a ploy, but certainly something he felt he had to say given what he had been seeing.

“I think there are a lot of guys that just kind of show up and expect to win,” the WVU coach  said. “A lot of that is based on winning 60 games the past six years. There are a bunch of people that think that way and haven’t played a down around here. Part of it is past success and getting guys to understand regardless of the way it’s been in the past, this is what the reality is.

“What we’re facing right now is what the reality is in college football.”

Holgorsen praised the parity in the league and said the talent level isn’t dramatically different from one team to the other. The Big East is the only conference where every team has at least three wins. Every one actually has at least four overall.

He said the Mountaineers won’t be overwhelmed no matter who they play, but he said he won’t be inviting anyone to come along who isn’t fully invested in everything required to win.

“Typically the team that plays with the best effort all the time in a league with the same amount of talent is the team that wins,” he said. “It’s obviously a mentality and it’s hard and I’ve got to find ways to get guys to do it.

“My challenge this week is to get guys to play with effort and energy. Whatever I’ve got to do, I’ve got to find ways to cultivate it.”