MORGANTOWN — Like I said last week, anything can happen in a rivalry game. West Virginia came back, led by the benched Nicco Marchiol, and beat rival Pitt in overtime in the Backyard Brawl. You couldn’t ask for a better game.

Before last weekend, the hope for Rich Rodriguez’s first season back was shot. A brutal loss to a Group of Six school in Ohio, and a lot of people were second-guessing Rodriguez’s return and comparing him to Neal Brown.

There was a lot of crazy talk after one week, like it goes most of the time, but at the bottom of everyone’s comment was that it won’t matter as long as WVU beats beat. The Mountaineers can go 2-10 as long as one of the wins is against Pitt. Rodriguez’s squad just had to beat Pitt.

The switch was flipped, and the hype for WVU is all the way back. The Ohio loss went completely out the window and was an afterthought. WVU beat Pitt, and Pitt can’t do anything about it until 2029. A lot of years to parade this win.

However, like I said last week, there’s a lot of season still left, and Big 12 play hasn’t even started.

Big 12 play starts this week on the road against Kansas, which is also 2-1 on the season and has only lost to No. 23 Missouri. The Jayhawks are another good team.

This is the third week in a row where Zac Alley’s defense faces a dual-threat quarterback. Jalon Daniels is off to a hot start, throwing for 679 yards and nine touchdowns, and looks to be on the same page with the second-year offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski. Zebrowski and Daniels weren’t gelling to start the season last year, but figured it out towards the end of the year.

Daniels has some real weapons out on the perimeter to support the high-power offense. There are three receivers with over 100 yards, and almost four. The Jayhawks will test WVU’s secondary, which actually stepped up against Pitt’s passing attack.

The defense is still a work in progress. After the first two weeks, the defense only allowed 14 points, but against Power Four, Missouri, the Jayhawks allowed 41 points, so there are areas to attack for WVU.

Despite the defensive struggles, Kansas, with its offense, is a more complete team. That’s not saying WVU’s offense can be on par or better than the Jayhawks; WVU just doesn’t do it as consistently. Kansas has scored 30-plus points in all three games.

Because of the offense, Vegas thinks Kansas is a double-digit favorite, making Rodriguez’s squad an underdog for the second-straight week. WVU has another steep hill to climb.

This week, WVU has a lot of momentum after last week’s win. The team spirits are at an all-time high, and in the final minutes against Pitt, WVU looked really good on both sides of the ball. Can the Mountaineers keep it up, though?

In my preseason predictions, I predicted WVU to win either the Backyard Brawl or the Kansas game, but not both, because they were coinflip games. I predicted WVU would win the Backyard Brawl, so that means I picked WVU to lose to Kansas.

I think that statement remains true. It’s a tough game on the road against a really good offense. It’ll be a test to see if the late consistency from the offense was a fluke or if Rodriguez finally got something going. I can see the offense, especially on the road, struggling again and not keeping up with Kansas’ offense.

— Prediction: Kansas 28, West Virginia 21