West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen is taking the blame for a dismal offensive performance in which the Mountaineers committed as many turnovers, six, as first downs.
"Oh, man, there's plenty of blame to go around," Holgorsen said during the weekly Big 12 teleconference Monday. "The one that can be blamed more than anybody is me, that's for dang sure. That was not an acceptable performance."
Things we learned in Week 4
From Stanford learning a lesson against ASU to Baylor's offensive onslaught, here are 42 things we learned in Week 4 in college football. **More ...**
The Mountaineers had just 175 yards of total offense in their 37-0 loss to Maryland, averaging 3.7 yards per play. The passing attack was the main culprit for WVU's woes, accounting for 62 yards.
However, quarterback Ford Childress (11-of-22 with two interceptions) will remain the starter, Holgorsen said.
"When we named him [the starter] a week ago, we said there were going to be some bumps in the road," Holgorsen said. "Anytime you are playing an inexperienced quarterback that's going to be the case. He's going to get out there and work hard this week to get better at his craft."
Childress completed only one ball to a wide receiver, a 12-yard play to Ronald Carswell that was the longest pass of the afternoon.
"It'd be nice to get receivers the ball," Holgorsen said. "That's why they call them receivers, so they can catch a ball every now and then, and we're pretty inept at that. That's nothing on them. We're not clicking, and that falls 100 percent on me." In Holgorsen's first two seasons at WVU, the team had scored at least 14 points in every game with an offense that featured quarterback Geno Smith and wide receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey. Now it has only one touchdown in two games against BCS competition this year.
"I see bigger issues," Holgorsen said. "The bigger issue is me. I've got to do a better job on all three sides of the ball."
That may require Holgorsen to rein in his more aggressive tendencies and rely on a defense that looks much improved -- the Mountaineers allowed 4.6 yards per play versus the Terrapins, and all four Maryland touchdowns followed WVU turnovers -- and a three-headed rushing attack led by Houston transfer Charles Sims.
Follow Dan Greenspan on Twitter @DanGreenspan.
