Right you are, Shannon Dawson, as long as you’re talking about West Virginia’s third-down play last season.

You might even be underselling it. The Mountaineers were perhaps beyond bad converting just 31.89 percent of the time, which was bad enough to rank No. 116 out of 124 FBS teams.

The Mountaineers were No. 30 in most punts and No. 18 in third downs per game and, well, you get the idea. The offense didn’t have the players or the plans to stay on the field and do what people had come to expect from Dana Holgorsen’s offense.

It was a constant battle. WVU needed seven or more yards on 108 of 185 third downs. Take a second and run that through your head.

Whew. Not surprisingly, the chains moved 25 times.

The average third down was third-and-7.8, which, according to Jed Drenning’s crib sheet, was No. 115 nationally. That just wasn’t in WVU’s repertoire.

This is something of a new problem for Holgorsen. Maybe new isn’t the right word. “Fleeting” could be a better choice.

Houston was terrific on third down in both seasons Holgorsen ran the offense (Nos. 11 and 3). Oklahoma State was efficient (No. 43), but was also an overall excellent offensive team. His first WVU team was average (No. 60), but that group, which like OSU was in its first season with Holgorsen, came back largely in tact a year later and was significantly better in the second season (No. 37).

Spot a trend yet?

Back in 2006, Texas Tech, with a first-season starting quarterback, was No. 71 nationally in third down conversions (36.9). A year later, Graham Harrell was back for a second straight season and the Red Raiders went to No. 14 and 46.4 percent.

As bad as WVU was on third down, the problem there was because of the problems on first and second down. That speaks to a problem bigger than one down-and-distance metric. Dawson said the offense — that’d be the players and the coaches — didn’t manage the game the right way last season, which is an issue, but it’s an issue that can be fixed.

WVU works on third downs in practice by starting on second down. The coaches put the players into random second-down situations and give them two downs to get the first down.

It’s merely one way to fix the problem, and it might not be the best way or even the one the Mountaineers feel so confident about this season.

“In my opinion, it fixes itself,” Dawson said. “I’m not saying we don’t sit here and coach it or that we don’t stress it, but I think you can overstress it. There are certain problems that fix themselves. With having the same people back, being more efficient, understanding our offense, typically that fixes itself.

“It’s something you still talk about with the quarterback and the position guys, but I think quarterback play is going to help that (problem) having a guy now with experience.”