I thought of something as I was watching WVU v. Texas Saturday, and I dipped my toes in it during the G&B. The Mountaineers hit a rough patch in the second quarter, and you could sense they were bothered. The score was 17-3, but they’d turned a turnover into a turnover already and then had six- and three-play drives. Texas was moving the ball and scoring. So the WVU offense was tethered to the sideline, unable to get back to what it had been doing, and the defense, which has been the backbone for a while now, couldn’t straighten itself out.

Then Texas embarks on this pedestrian field goal drive, and I didn’t think the folks in burnt orange liked that very much.

To me, it seemed like the Longhorns predicted they could not succeed at a sustained high pace and knew points weoudl be at a premium. Sometime around or even after halftime, you could see WVU prepare for and then later settle into that kind of game, and I thought that was to the Mountaineers’ liking. Texas? I’m not sure. That’s a somewhat resilient team, but that’s not a wildly successful team, either.

Some teams can only play or win or even look good with a certain style. They’re not especially comfortable or successful when they have to take a detour, whether forced or on their own. The Mountaineers? They’re all right when things get tough. Their offense can play at a high level, but it can also compensate for the times it does not. The defense is designed to make things tough, and Tony Gibson and his players haven’t flinched in the face of terror.

“When we took the field for the last drive, I said, ‘Guys, this is what it’s all about. I wouldn’t want to be in any other situation right now,’ ” Gibson said. “I never one time ever thought they were going to score a touchdown. Not one time during that drive. Not when we went out there. The situation didn’t affect us.”

Rewind from the most-recent Big 12 game to the first one. The offense was terrible in the first half and them maybe only above average in the second half, but whatever changes the Mountaineers made — coupled with the defense’s sustained performance — outscored Kansas State 17-3.

Consider all the other games this season and the potholes here and there. Remember the times in the prior three years when one bad thing led to another or when one bad thing was just enough to derail many good things. Those teams did not have what this team has.

So pardon me for saying this, but what you have here is the right team at the right time. Everyone wants it to be easy. WVU sometimes has it easy and sometimes makes it hard, but WVU is just fine when things are tricky.

They’ve won when they’ve had it easy and they’ve won when they’ve had the roof falling in above them and the ground caving in beneath their feet. They’re comfortable when it’s fun, but they have fun when they or the opponent make things difficult.

“I think great teams don’t always win by large margin of victories,” running backs coach JaJuan Seider said. “Great teams win when they’ve been dealt adverse hands.”

Think that culture exists out at Oregon? Think the Ducks might look for a little more balance, a little more fortitude when they get around to hiring their next coach? Ask the same questions about Texas Tech. Might the Red Raiders like to see Kliff Kingsbury emulate his mentor, Holgorsen, in a few more ways than just the plays they call?

“It’s human nature to want it to be easy, but that’s not reality in college football,” Holgorsen said. “Everything’s hard. Everything about my job is hard, everything about our assistant coaches’ jobs is hard, because it’s so competitive. Every week you’re looking at a group that’s doing the same stuff with a lot of the same players, so it’s hard.

“If you want to be successful, you have to be mentally tough, and you have to put the last one behind you and go out and attack and practice on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and get prepared to go play your best on Saturday. There’s nothing easy about that. If it was easy, everyone would do it.”