Forget the losing streak or where WVU was ranked just three games and four weeks ago. Never mind defensive statistics or offensive inefficiencies. Try to forget that no Mountaineers team has ever lost four straight conference games. There’s only one number that matters Saturday when WVU and Oklahoma State mirror one another at Boone Pickens Stadium: The first to 11 wins.

“We’re playing with nine or 10 guys from an effort standpoint,” he said. “If you have eight or nine that are playing with tremendous effort and one or two who aren’t, then you’re playing with eight or nine. We have to play better together. Trust in the system and trust in people being in the right spots is a big thing.

“How do we explain nine dropped balls? We haven’t had nine dropped balls all year. That’s just execution. We have to execute, and it’s harder to execute when you play tougher defenses. You have to elevate your game, and that’s coaching. We have to get it out of them. When things get harder, we have to play better.”

More and more the heating lamp is turned from the sideline and the schemes and aimed instead toward the field and how the players perform. The increasingly offered explanation is that WVU is just getting beat in situations where it should not get beat.

Dana Holgorsen, perhaps sensitive to the increasingly offered suggestion that too much of this is being put at the feet of his players, said it’s not entirely on those guys. The coaches, he said, need to be better at having guys prepared and on the field and in position to strike. Ultimately, though, you can only have 11 on the field.