WVU Enters TCU Game With Sense Of Urgency - WVU Football, WVU Basketball, News - Mountaineer Sports

College football players will tell you the next game is a big game. The next game for the West Virginia football team is essentially a must-win game. WVU entered the season with its sights set on a Big 12 title and potentially a national championship. The national title is essentially out of reach at this point. The Big 12 title remains a slim possibility. WVU must beat TCU for it to stay that way.

WVU is in a familiar position with where it has been in recent years. The Mountaineers had their backs against the wall last year and finished the season with three straight wins to earn the Big East's automatic BCS bid. Now the Mountaineers are once again backed into a corner. That has created a big sense of urgency around the team.

"We know we have five games left and we're 5-2," Linebacker Doug Rigg said. "The biggest thing the coaches' stress is that we are 5-2 and we shouldn't be walking around here like we have a losing record or something."

"I see a sense of urgency from the freshmen all the way to the seniors," Wide Receiver J.D. Woods said. "Each and every guy has that little bit of faster pace about themselves and upon themselves."

There are still plenty of big accomplishments for this team to achieve. Winning out would give WVU yet another double-digit win season. Winning out will give this team a very good shot at a top 10 finish.

"We're capable of winning the rest of the five games," Rigg said. "During the bye week the seniors and older guys have a sense or urgency that we can finish the season 10-2. We got to worry about the next game and winning that next game. That sense of urgency is there not only with the older guys, but the younger guys as well."

That sense of urgency appears to be driving this team. Players say the team was productive during bye week practices and that it has regained its confidence.

"There is definitely a sense of urgency," Inside Receiver Jordan Thompson said. "Our tempo has picked up, definitely practice has picked up. The speed of the game during practice has picked up. There is definitely a sense of urgency for the older guys who realize they only have five games left. Also for the young guys too who realize they need to keep getting better and keep playing for the older guys."

West Virginia will enter the TCU game looking to avoid a three-game losing streak. The last time WVU lost three games in a row was during the final three games of the 2004 season.