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Dana Holgorsen was not named the Big 12’s coach of the year in media voting Tuesday, and perhaps some of the 15 people who voted for Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops among the pool of 20 reporters will make Holgorsen’s list. Today, the Big 12 coaches unveil their votes, and since the nine who can vote for Stoops lost to Stoops this season, there’s a good chance he captures that prize, too.

None of this diminishes what Holgorsen did and is doing in 2016. The media picked four first-team players from his roster, and would you believe two of them were offensive linemen? An offensive lineman and a running back made the second team. That’s probably not what everyone expected when he was hired. Ten win seasons? Runs at the top of the conference? That’s why he was hired, and he did the latter by figuring out the former.

Holgorsen still fights with himself and combats his ego from time to time, and that’s by his own admission if not with his own words, but he knows when and how to get out of the way. Yet he also knows when to apply some pressure, whether to the opponent or the accelerator.

Saturday’s win was by no means the best or prettiest of (insert time frame here), but I’m going to attempt to convince you that it was a strong performance. Look, the Mountaineers could have lost that game. They had a hard time winning it. But here they are, 10-2 overall and 7-2 in the Big 12 with a lucrative bowl game waiting on them in the Sunshine State. How did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look at the Good and the Bad of WVU v. Baylor.

Bad: Circumstances
I want to start here to set the table. Senior day is hard. I can’t imagine what it’s like. I had a former player try to explain it:

Unless you just hate the place or you hate your coach or your situation, you don’t want it to happen and you’re thinking about it all year. ‘My last camp. My last opener. My last trip to Texas. My last road trip. My last bus ride from Bridgeport after a win. My last walk-through at Lakeview.’ You warm up for the first practice in August, and you’re thinking about it, and it’s so far away. Then the season starts, and the season is so long. You don’t think it’s going to get here. Then it’s the last game week, and it’s all you’re thinking of. I saw Dana talking about it. ‘Guys bond a lot.’ That’s the truth. You hang out with the guys you came in with or the guys you’re going out with and you hang out with the guys you don’t know as well or you haven’t known as long, because you don’t want to miss out on anything. Then you do that last walk-through at Lakeview, and it’s there. It’s over. That morning goes by so fast. I forgot to get taped up. First time in four years. I don’t even remember hearing my name or seeing my parents. I don’t remember the first part of the first quarter.

Is it like that for everyone? I doubt it. But that’s a heck of a haze. WVU’s offense and defense, which both rely on a lot of seniors, were out of it early in the game. You won’t convince me Skyler Howard wasn’t overdoing it for the occasion.

Dana’s had four teams with strong senior classes, and correct me if I’m wrong or if you think I’m shaping the conversation for my purpose. (I don’t think the 2012 or 2013 teams had it.)

Here are some senior day numbers from those four seasons:

• 2011: Trailed Pitt 14-0 at the end of the first quarter
• 2014: Trailed Kansas State 7-0 at the end of the first quarter
• 2015: Led Iowa State 7-0 at the end of the first quarter
• 2016: Led Baylor 3-0 at the end of the first quarter

WVU won, lost, won and won those games — and in the loss, Howard relieved Clint Trickett and tried to win it. In the final 12 quarters, WVU outscored the opponents 91-46.

So, as I was saying, it’s hard, and Holgorsen and the Mountaineers got through it Saturday.

The second circumstance? Holgorsen signed his new contract Saturday morning. He wanted to win that game no matter what, but I think it’s fair if not fun to wonder what effect the signature had on the way he coached the game. Can you imagine the reaction to a loss and a contract extension?

Good: Anyhow…
There were a few times I threw this out there during the season: Top-10 team time. There are specific occasions during a season when a team stands up and proves itself. Those moments are particularly stirring when it’s a response. Teams get tired of people asking doubting questions and take it upon themselves to supply resounding answers. We didn’t know a lot about WVU when it held off BYU and came back against Kansas State. I thought the win at Texas Tech was an answer and began to justify rankings and compliments. Beating TCU didn’t do too much for me, and then the Mountaineers were indeed No. 10 at Oklahoma State.

No only did they hurt themselves with the three turnovers, but there were some times they did not help themselves. The first drive of the second half was Top-10 team time. Didn’t work. Later, Howard and Ka’Raun White combined for an interception down 27-17 when WVU had the momentum. I thought WVU grew up and proved a lot at Texas with the way it defended the lead against repeated challenges, there was nothing convincing against Oklahoma and then the Mountaineers proved their superiority against Iowa State and didn’t allow counterpoints after the first-quarter kickoff return touchdown.

Baylor, believe it or not, gave WVU a Top-10 team time test — and, yes, I realize the Mountaineers are no longer in the top 10 but don’t tell them they don’t or didn’t belong. The big one, in my eyes, came at the end of the first half.

WVU cornerback Antonio Crawford (Aside: No Maurice Fleming, and I’ll assume he was hurt.) swatted at and missed a deep ball to K.D. Cannon and committed pass interference on a play that ended up as a 60-yard touchdown pass, and the Bears had a 14-3 lead with 9:03 left in the half. The Mountaineers had 116 yards of offense.

WVU replied with a 15-play drive, its longest of the season, that ended in the end zone.

 

Three passes, and that was interesting because it was pretty clear by then that Howard wasn’t taking the offense down the field. Holgorsen downshifted and gave Howard only a few chances. Howard didn’t quite come through, and he actually missed a touchdown pass so badly that he hit a trailing defender in the back … and have you ever known Daikiel Shorts to react like that? WVU didn’t play fast. Ran its plays and had its players execute them. Went for it twice on fourth down inside the Baylor 20-yard line and converted both times.

What happens if WVU doesn’t score on that drive or gets just a field goal? What happens in this game if Shorts doesn’t make this fantastic play … on fourth down?

WVU’s second touchdown — the catch-and-run by Gary Jennings, which was Howard’s best play of the day — was needed, but the one that followed soon thereafter was absolutely critical.

Marvin Gross gets a sack and forces a fumble, and Darrien Howard recovers at the Baylor 12. A penalty moves the ball to the 6. WVU is in the lead, 17-14, but WVU is at home and in the lead after trailing by 11. You need a touchdown there to put your opponent in position on the road to lose a sixth straight game. WVU made a meal out of it with one of the worst fades you’ll see because it was in such a bad spot and ignored all the open space, but a quarterback sneak, again on fourth down, put the Mountaineers ahead by 10.

And wasn’t that important in the final moments?

Good: Gross!
So, Kyzir White has a broken hand to zero recognition, and the defense loses the player who not only plays the most important position but who was at least playing as well as anybody else for the, I don’t know, second half of this season. Enter Marvin Gross, someone who was swallowed up as a true freshman on the road at Oklahoma in 2013, who redshirted in 2014 and who was just a guy last year. He’s been a really good special teams players this season — maybe the best WVU has — and he hasn’t been a big problem when he’s had to play defense.

But he’s never had the stage to himself like he did Saturday, and I’d say he did fine in White’s place: six tackles, two sacks, two tackles for a loss, one pass breakup, one interception, one forced fumble. Chris Edmonds is the only other player in WVU history to have a sack, an interception, a pass breakup and a forced fumble in one game. Edmonds had one sack. Gross had two.

Gross starts on the near hash on the 38-yard line, and he’s in pass coverage. He’s a deep safety in Cover 2, and on the second play of the game, when he’s never been on the field, he’s tuned in and follows the bouncing ball for an interception. Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson likes Gross a lot but as a blitzer or coming up to play the run — you know, the things that make him good on special teams. He causes problems. Pass coverage is different, so I’ll bet Gibson began to breathe easier after this.

And I’ll bet Zach Smith wasn’t breathing so easy after this:

Watch the route Gross takes. He’s going to go too wide, but he sharply steers his run toward the passer and tries to blow up Smith. If this is an incomplete pass, Baylor’s going to go for it on fourth down, right? We’ll never know, because Gross got his defense off the field. The second sack was a bigger deal, of course, and he took a much better path — it’s a straight line — and did better work getting the ball and the passer. He got better in the game, including the pass breakup on Baylor’s last drive.

He’s not going to unseat White next season or if White can play in the bowl, but Gross has to play. He won’t be big enough to play outside linebacker. Can he be the bandit? Does Gibson have to juggle playing time?

Bad: The Skyler Howard portion of the program
The first half was as bad as I’ve seen him play. It was Torn Pec Bad. In the end, he had the lowest completion percentage and yards per attempt in his 29 games. Now, in his defense, he didn’t get all the help he needed on all the plays that needed help. Jovon Durante dropped a pass. Devonte Mathis dropped two. Tony Matteo tried to sack Howard!

But Howard played as he has been critiqued. He threw it too far. He threw it too wide. He threw into double coverage. He overthrew open receivers. He missed in important spots.

This is a first down for Shorts, and the offense has to settle for a 50-yard field goal attempt instead. (Aside: Mike Molina made it, and he’s 15-for-22 this season and 6-for-6 after a miss. I know the math doesn’t work, but he didn’t have an attempt after a brutal miss from 31 yards away in the third quarter, and that kick was necessitated by a Mathis drop.)

I don’t know the reason, but Howard, who’s always been all right when he’s on the move, has not been as productive or as accurate in the past few games, and that comes in conjunction with not scrambling for yards as often or as well. This would have given WVU a chance to convert on third down after second-and-25. WVU had to punt instead.

This is a great catch by freshman Marcus Simms, but if he hits Simms on the run, it’s a much bigger gain. (Aside: Simms caught this.) It’s not unlike the touchdown pass to Jennings, and that’s probably the problem people have above all others. It’s inconsistency. He can make some plays and he can miss some plays but he can’t be relied upon to regularly do what’s asked. I think it’s a fair critique that WVU has two first-team all-Big 12 offensive linemen, a first-team receiver, a second-team running back atop a stable of productive peers and a second-team offensive lineman and the same offense finished No. 12 in yards per game and No. 45 in points per game. Simple plays eluded the Mountaineers far too often, and it’s merely fair to say much of that is a product of quarterback play.

Bad: Omen
I’ve got a bad feeling Durante is hurt. He went to the locker room early in the first quarter and returned to the sideline in street clothes. Watch the right knee, if you dare. (Aside: This was a fourth-down play.)

There was a sad live shot of the sideline during the fourth quarter, during one of the 714 delays, and it featured Durante, Kyzir and Ka’Raun White, Dravon Askew-Henry, Yodny Cajuste and Jaleel Fields. Let’s assume Bredan Ferns was holding the camera

Good: The 2017 running backs
I think you’re allowed to get excited about what Crawford is capable of next season. I don’t understand how he as second-team all-conference and not the newcomer of the year, but I think you can make an argument that Oklahoma State’s Justice Hill, who didn’t make an all-conference team, was a more consistent player. Crawford did finish with more yards, but he had just about half in two games. But, whatever, this is about next fall.

Crawford has a chance to be as good as anyone in the backfield since … Steve Slaton? I was surprised to look down Saturday and see he had 26 carries on the way to 28, and I was later surprised to find out he had 157 carries on the season. He ended up getting a lot of work, and with Rushel Shell gone and with Will Grier not running it as often as Howard, there’s a chance he gets even more next season. It’s an important offseason for him, and he’s only ever had junior college offseasons before. I think one reason he was able to do as well as he did this season was because he enrolled in May, which is a head start. He won’t leave the campus this offseason, and who knows, maybe he does get faster. That is attainable.

Just to be clear, Grayland Arnold can jet, and Gibson doesn’t do much to help Crawford deal with Arnold here. This led to Molina missing the short field goal.

Kennedy McKoy’s bound to improve, too, and he’s really an ideal part of the two-back sets the Mountaineers were finally able to use again Saturday. I think that’s the shame of the injuries this season. Holgorsen is always intent on getting his five best skill players on the field, and frequently that was Gibson, Shorts, White and two backs. When you don’t have a wealth of backs, that’s harder to do. When you don’t have White, you’re compelled to make use of the backfield more, even though you do have to use two outside receivers, because your backs are in your top five.

Anyhow, injuries remain for McKoy (and Shell), and I’m still intrigued by Martell Pettaway. WVU was 4-for-19 on third down, which is not great. Seven were third-and-1, 2 or 3. We’ve documented the problems the Mountaineers have had here, and they were 4-for-7 Saturday. One conversion was thanks to a penalty. Howard was 0-for-2 passing. The running game was 3-for-4. One was a sneaky quarterback sneak by Howard. The other two were gains of 16 and 9 by Pettaway.

Two backs. Crawford creates a diversion. Pettaway does the rest. I was going to point out that the play was out of shotgun and that it was precisely what we’ve talked about before. WVU runs the ball very well out of the shotgun, and when you give the defense a lot to consider, you have a greater likelihood to succeed.

But then this happened:

Look at Giboson! He’s like an H-back, and, well, he tried! But Trevon Wesco and Elijah Wellman do the heavy lifting, and then Pettaway does the heavy hitting.

But back to my — no! — our point. Shotgun. Fourth-and-3. Howard checks from pass to run.

Pettaway does just enough right to make up for what he did run. He needs to keep No. 62 on his right shoulder. He instead goes too far to the right and runs into a defender, but Pettaway with momentum is just strong enough to get what he needs here. For the game, on third- or fourth-and-1, 2 or 3, WVU was 6-for-11, and the running game was 5-for-6.

Bad: WVU offense
Baylor’s defense had been so bad. So bad. In the five losses before the sixth, the Bears allowed 35, 62, 54, 42 and 54 points. They’ve been reduced to touting stats like this in the game notes. 

“just”

WVU couldn’t get there, and the crazy part is it couldn’t do it through the air. WVU did take apart the Texas Tech pass defense. Oklahoma and Baylor had repeated issues throughout the season defending the ball in the air, and WVU didn’t do a lot against the Sooners and did barely anything against Baylor. The Mountaineers were aware of a vulnerability Saturday, and that’s why they took so many shots. The Bears were sometimes helpless defending down the field.

Jennings had the longest pass play of the day. Short throw. That pass interference was the second longest gain on a pass play. Gibson didn’t have a reception.

By the way, Phil Bennett, who I imagine won’t be back at Baylor with new coach Matt Rhule, was the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the Big 12.

Good: Dichotomy
First off, David Long has two reputations by now. As we know, he will not be blocked. Look at this limbo act.

But Long likes to get involved during and after plays. A few of us have noticed that recently. We can probably count Tony Gibson among them. WVU has gotten a third-down stop near its goal line, and good field position is there for the taking. WVU’s down 7-3 and could use something like that. Long is suddenly in a huddle of white jerseys in the end zone and fur is flying. Players from both teams come over to break it up and get things moving along.

It’s undisciplined for both sides. Baylor committed the most penalties in the country, went wild in the six-game losing streak and repeatedly hurt itself with 12 penalties for 100 yards against WVU. The Mountaineers were embarrassed by their behavior against Oklahoma, and there’s Long not getting off the field, which is all any defender wants, and risking something silly like a baited personal foul.

The reactions from the sidelines couldn’t have been any more different.

That’s one of my favorite moments of the season.

Good: Speaking of …
The defensive line was really good again. Christian Brown was a monster from the first snap. Adam Shuler got his first sack. And Darrien Howard, who had four tackles and three on his own, finally got some of the spotlight that oftentimes eludes his position. He recovered the fumbles Gross and defensive end Noble Nwachukwu covered. On senior day, those were the first two fumble recoveries of his career.

There’s only one way to mark the occasion.

Bad: The conclusion
WVU’s defense, led by the third-highest paid defensive coordinator in the Big 12, was quite good again. Smith looked confused at times against the 3-3-5, and though he was coming off a monster game, that ain’t Texas Tech in blue. Some of Baylor’s success was the result of WVU’s miscues (Aside: That’s a direct snap to Terence Williams, like Oklahoma did two weeks ago.) but I thought the Mountaineers decided this game was over way too soon.

Jeremy Tyler’s pretty happy with the way things are going.

Baylor scored two plays later.

And then things got crazy. The onside kick the Bears did recover, albeit illegally, was a headache for me at the end of a long and unexpectedly eventful day. I wasn’t looking forward to rewriting on the edge of deadline. But the officials did get that right, and at least two of us in the press box were watching the review with the sound off and wondering if they might assess a penalty, an ability put into the rule book in 2015.

The second attempt was interesting …

Notice that in the first kick, the kicker hits it with his right foot to the left side, where six Bears are across five WVU players. It kind of worked, so when they had to replay it, the Bears line up the same way and the Mountaineers follow suit. The kicker then slaps it to the left, and Wesco is alert and makes the recovery. I might have cheered in the press box. Not for Wesco. For beating deadline.

Or so I thought, because we were’t done. If only the conclusion was as fast as Shelton Gibson.

Good: Alfordesque?

Well, the bad part is that Shane Commodore has been called for holding on a kickoff in back-to-back weeks. That said, the call at Iowa State was thought of so highly that Commodore was named the team’s special teams player of the week. This one looks like it’s just as dubious.

But watch Gibson fly. Want some 40-yard split times???

Gibson caught it at the 5 and made it to the WVU 45 in 5.57 seconds. He made it from one 30 to the other in 4.404. He made it from the WVU 45 to the Baylor 15 in 3.852.