… or is not blowing in the wind. A variety of theories floated around following Saturday’s game — and those followed the one within the game.

Stopped at halftime for a mandatory interview, Dana Holgorse said, “I’ve seen a lot of these games. We’re letting the wind get to us too much. It’s a real windy day. … Geno’s got to settle down. He’s forcing some balls. He’s worried about the wind too much. We don’t practice in wind like this. It’s swirling at about 40 miles per hour.”

So it came up afterward as we tried to find ways to explain a very un-WVU performance.

“We got receivers open downfield,” said Mountaineers Coach Dana Holgorsen, who was a Texas Tech assistant from 2000-07. “Geno let the wind affect him. I’ve played around here for eight years and it wasn’t any windier (Saturday). It’s a nuisance, but if you let that be an excuse, it’s going to mess with you and I think it did.”

Smith dismissed the wind as a factor after the game.

“The wind didn’t bother me,” Smith said. “Anyone who says that obviously doesn’t know football.”

Texas Tech (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) wanted to cover WVU’s short and intermediate throws and basically dared WVU to go over top the defense.

“That ball kind of fizzles in the wind on deep balls,” Red Raiders Coach Tommy Tuberville said. “Talking to Dana before (the game), we haven’t practiced in much wind. It hasn’t been very windy the last couple of weeks here before practice.

“He said they’ve had a lot of wind and that made me not feel very good that they had practiced in the wind. I was hoping it would be an advantage.”

Not sure there’s a consensus to be dragged out of that and it would seem Geno just didn’t want to be the guy who pointed at the wind when others pointed at his numbers. He’s not into excuses, though I think it’s fair to label wind as an explanation.

Well, on the Big 12 teleconference this morning Kansas State’s Bill Snyder said it looked like WVU had had some difficulty with the wind. “There were conditions I don’t think WVU had been accustom to,” he said. Holgorsen was again asked about it, since it’s become a talking point, and he only said “it shouldn’t have affected us at all. It didn’t affect Texas Tech.”