He may not be Paul Newman "Cool Hand Luke" calm, but West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen does possess a calmness while walking the sidelines of his No. 5 Mountaineers that has become contagious among his players and assistants.
"Our guys don't care where they are playing," Holgorsen said following WVU's 48-45 come-from-behind victory over No. 11 Texas at Darrell K. Royal-Memorial Stadium. "They just want to play. They aren't going to care about 100,000 people."
It's an attitude that has come about as a direct result of having a coach that, despite an occasional hair-tugging episode, remains as cool and collected as someone playing poker with an unbeatable hand.
And, maybe, that is the key.
So far this season, fans have witnessed the Mountaineers overcome 'trap' games against Marshall, James Madison and Maryland, then prevail in their first Big 12 contest against Baylor, and finally head into one of the toughest venues in the 10-team league to play and hold their composure in front of the largest crowd they ever had come up against.
Time and time again when it appeared as if the Longhorns had all of the momentum on their side, Holgorsen, or defensive coordinator Joe DeForest, would make the right call that resulted in a big play.
Five times, West Virginia's offense faced a fourth down situation and five times Holgorsen made the right call that allowed WVU to continue their offensive onslaught.
Defensively, the unit made just enough stops to allow the former Big East member to leave Austin unbeaten in both Big 12 play (2-0) and overall (5-0).
Lost in all of the glamour surrounding Heisman Trophy frontrunner Geno Smith and the offense is a prevent unit that produced just enough stops to allow WVU to escape with its three-point victory.
"It was just a great team win," said Holgorsen. "You could pinpoint a lot of things. The defense came up with some big stops and the offense made some big plays."
Plays that came about because of execution and preparation.
That preparation begins less than 24 hours following WVU's last game and can be seen in the strategy that the units utilize during the contest.
Part of that strategy against the Longhorns was to place more emphasis on the running game when the Mountaineers had the football. A decision that resulted in sophomore Andrew Buie having a career-rushing day (31-207, 2 TD).
"Surprised?," said the coach. "We expected that we would be able to run the football. Now, we still have to execute and Geno did a great job of getting us into the right play and the line did a good job of creating some running lanes for our backs.
"But, I wouldn't say that we were surprised."
Just as fans shouldn't be surprised to see their beloved old gold and blue move up in the ratings and place themselves in position to not only win the Big 12 title, but also perhaps play for the national championship
Wouldn't that be cool?
