Such mirth! Here’s the season recap: Undefeated in September, winless in October, undefeated in November and here comes December and/or January (more on that in a moment). A quick tip of the hat to Dana Holgorsen & Co., though. He caught a lot of crap the past three and four years for his November record, which was 3-9 since joining the Big 12 and 5-10 overall since 2011.

He just went 4-0 and it started at what was almost certainly his lowest point here with the most uncertain (outside) projections about his future.

True, only three of the nine losses since 2012 were to ranked teams (No. 12 Oklahoma in 2012, No. 10 TCU and No. 12 Kansas State last year), but consider, too, that WVU played three, two and three teams from the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State/Texas/TCU pool in those three seasons.

This November year only had one, and Texas is as down as it’s been in a long, long time. So it wasn’t the most challenging November yet, but I really don’t know what else the 0-for-October Mountaineers were supposed to do other than what they just did. They couldn’t go 5-0, right?

There are no do-overs, but, whew, WVU sure would like one right about now.

But after what the defense did again in the 30-6 win against the Cyclones, WVU can’t quite forget the October losses to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU.

“They were really good,” said defensive coordinator Tony Gibson. “They put a lot of pressure on the defense playing those teams with their speed. And they were all clicking and playing their best football at that time. I’d like to play any of them over right now with where we’re at. I think we’ve got our feet back under us. We’re extremely confident right now.”

Playing their seventh game without safety Karl Joseph and with all the changes that came about with that loss, the Mountaineers won their fourth straight game by forcing three turnovers and allowing the Cyclones a season-low 284 yards of offense. In the past nine quarters, WVU hasn’t allowed a touchdown and has given up nine points while forcing nine turnovers.

The last time the WVU played consecutive games without allowing an offensive touchdown was in 2011 and victories against Marshall and Norfolk State.

“I like it,” Gibson said. “I’d like to go another four quarters with that.”

The win guarantees the bowl-bound Mountaineers (7-4, 4-4 Big 12) a winning season 30 days after they slipped below .500 with a 40-10 loss at TCU. WVU was outscored 179-98 in the losing streak, but can finish the season alone in fifth place in the conference standings with its first five-game winning streak since starting 5-0 in 2012 — and that was part of a nine-game string extending to the end of the prior season.

All that’s left is the final game against Kansas State (5-6, 2-6), which will be playing at home for bowl eligibility and hasn’t lost to the Mountaineers since they joined the Big 12.

“It says we came to work,” said senior safety K.J. Dillon, who had one of the defense’s two interceptions. “We knew a lot of people gave up on us in October. We wanted to let Mountaineer Nation and let the world know we’re still for real and we still wanted to do this.”

The defensive statistics were quite good, and say what you want about the Cyclones and their fake punt playbook, but the offense was not incompetent. Not lately, at least. Holgorsen’s offense hasn’t been incompetent either, and maybe he saw what Iowa State did and knows there’s a purple-clad wizard waiting in the midwest, but he was mostly nonplussed about his offense afterward. “Glad that’s over!”

There were some pretty cool senior day moments, too, that weren’t necessarily obvious to the spectators.

The Mountaineers saluted 20 seniors before the final home game of the season and did so in alphabetical order, with one exception. Safety Karl Joseph, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice in September, was the last player announced and received the loudest ovation.

“He told me in the pregame when we were ending warmups, ‘Coach, this is the hardest one yet,’” defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. “He said, ‘I feel like crying right now.’”

Joseph, whose five interceptions led the country when he was hurt between the fourth and fifth games, later caught a throw out of bounds in the second quarter and was loudly cheered again.

“The crowd went nuts,” said safety K.J. Dillon, who had a real interception in the first quarter. “He got more [applause] than I did.”

• • •

WVU started Ricky Rumph at cornerback in place of junior Daryl Worley, who’d started the past 26 games. Worley personally ended his streak by ceding his starting spot to Rumph, who was among the seniors.

“Daryl did that on his own,” Gibson said. “He sent him out there, I believe, which was good. But I say it all the time: I count Ricky as a starter.”

Worley got into the game in the first quarter and intercepted a pass in the second quarter. He’s tied with Joseph for the team lead. WVU has 21 interceptions this season, the second-best total in the country.

What now? Let’s acknowledge Oklahoma’s the Big 12 champion and almost assuredly in the College Football playoff,and let’s assume Baylor beats Texas Saturday. I think Baylor will go to the Sugar Bowl after the Big 12’s convoluted tiebreaker distinguishes the Bears as the second-place team above Oklahoma State and TCU. I can’t see the rest of the CFP + 4 taking another Big 12 team.

I believe then that the Alamo Bowl will take TCU, the Russell Athletic will take Oklahoma State and the Texas will take Texas Tech. If WVU beats Kansas State next week and the Wildcats finish 5-7, the Mountaineers can’t fall past the Liberty because the Big 12 will only have six bowl eligible teams. If Kansas State wins, I have to think the Liberty takes the Wildcats over WVU and the Mountaineers end up in the Cactus, and UCLA’s loss to USC last night makes the Bruins perhaps unexpectedly available there.

(If Baylor loses, swap the Bears and Cowboys above, though maybe the Alamo takes Baylor and the Russell Athletic takes TCU. I think.)

(Disclaimer: No one knows what the NCAA and the bowls are going to do about 5-7 teams and empty bowls.)

Thanks, as is the case with all home games, to @melmoraes for the video and the photos.