MORGANTOWN - Dana Holgorsen would have preferred to have this conversation with his team five weeks ago.
"It was tough in October, there's no doubt about it," the West Virginia coach said. "We played four really good teams in a row and caught all four when it seemed like they were playing at their best."
The Mountaineers fell from 3-0 and ranked No. 23 to 3-4 and sorting out a variety of uninvited issues that altered all the talking points. The calendar changed and they entered a month that saw them go 1-3 three times since joining the Big 12 in 2012, but the they've won back-to-back games to revisit the discussion they wanted to have long ago.
WVU (5-4, 2-4 Big 12) is bowl eligible if it wins Saturday's noon Root Sports game against Kansas.
"I think everyone gets to a point where at this time of year that's typically what the goal is," Holgorsen said Monday on the Big 12 coaches' teleconference. "Everyone wants to finish strong and finish the right way to gain momentum going into the offseason by making a bowl.
"Obviously, it's good we can talk about that now. We got No. 5 last week. When you need to win one more is when you feel it's appropriate to talk about it. This week's the first time we've talked about bowl eligibility. We're trying to meet that goal this week."
The Jayhawks have a much different motivation. They've lost all 10 games and are 0-7 in Big 12 play in their first season under David Beaty, a former assistant at the school who was the receivers coach at Texas A&M the previous three seasons.
Yet they lost on the road Saturday against TCU 23-17 after dropping the previous three games 58-10, 62-7 and 59-20.
"Kansas is an improving football team," Holgorsen said. "They had a very realistic opportunity to win at TCU. They're going to gain momentum from that."
The Horned Frogs played much of he game without quarterback Trevone Boykin and were ahead 23-10 in the final quarter, but the Jayhawks scored a touchdown with 6:19 to go and would force three straight three-and-outs. The offense couldn't capitalize and had a three-and-out, an interception and a turnover on downs.
Kansas is home for the first time in three games, though, and WVU will be playing away from home for the first time in three games.
"From our standpoint, it's a great opportunity for us to come back home for the first time in a couple weeks," Beaty said. "Our guys are excited to get back on the field and compete, particularly as close as we were last week against a Big 12 opponent. If we can fix some of those things, hopefully we can close the gap a little bit more this week."
The Mountaineers lost in their last trip to Kansas in 2013, which was only the second time since 2001 they weren't bowl eligible. Missing out this season would be difficult if only for the remaining opposition. Following the Jayhawks, who lost to a Football Championship Subdivision team in the opener, WVU plays host to Iowa State at noon Nov. 28 and concludes at Kansas State at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 5.
The Cyclones (3-7, 2-5) are not eligible for a bowl and Kansas State (3-6, 0-6) won't be eligible if it loses one of the next two games - but if they beat the Cyclones and Jayhawks, the Wildcats would have to beat the Mountaineers to reach a bowl.
The Mountaineers can finish no better than fifth place in the final conference standings, though bowls aren't obligated to follow the standings when they make their picks.
The Sugar Bowl gets the Big 12's best available team after the College Football Playoff selects its four teams. After that, the Alamo (Jan. 2 in San Antonio, Texas), Russell Athletic (Dec. 29 in Orlando, Fla.), Texas (Dec. 29 in Houston), Liberty (Jan. 2 in Memphis, Tenn.), Cactus (Jan. 2 in Phoenix) and Heart of Dallas (Dec. 26 in Dallas) pick.
Holgorsen said the focus of his conversations with the Mountaineers are "100 percent" on simply winning the sixth game and making themselves available to the selection process.
"If you get to the magic number six, you're going to have the opportunity to practice all December and have the reward of playing an extra game," he said. "That's what the ultimate goal for every team is.
"There are too many scenarios that could be played out with that, so we won't get caught up with that. There's nothing we can do about any of that anyway. We'll worry about getting to six, and then we've got a couple pretty tough games after that."
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Holgorsen said offensive lineman Adam Pankey, who was injured and left last week's win against Texas, is day-to-day but was "a little tender" at Sunday's workout.
"He's a tough kid," Holgorsen said. "He wants to play. He's played the best football of his career here the last two weeks. He's our starting left guard, and he's really dominated in the run game. You certainly hope he's going to be 100 percent, but it's that time of year when guys start to get nicked up a little bit, and you've got to have other guys ready to step in and play."