MORGANTOWN — West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen and his staff will have a number of issues they will have to concern themselves with as they prepare the No. 23 Mountaineers (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) to take on No. 8 TCU (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) on the first Saturday of October.

One of those issues, however, won’t be the team’s locker room when they arrive at Amon G. Carter Stadium (45,000).

“It was funny,” Holgorsen responded during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. “The one in Kansas didn’t smell very well. I think it’s been pretty good. When we go to TCU it is probably the nicest one I have ever seen. They just redid their stuff and it is unbelievable.

“What is surprising is the Redskins one was bad. The visiting locker room for the Redskins was bad. That was not good. Baylor’s is good. Texas’ is adequate. Texas is probably the most chopped up. This is as big of an area as I have to address the whole team, which they don’t care about that. The sanitary aspect of it is a problem. Kansas announced that $350 million football renovation to their stuff; I’m sure their visitor locker room is going to get addressed. It was hot in there, too. It stunk, it was bad.”

Holgorsen, as well as many coaches around the country, found himself asked about the problem following Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s complaints following his team’s visit to Ross-Ade Stadium – the home of the Purdue Boilermakers.

“Yeah, you would think so,” Holgorsen said when asked if there should be a set standard for all visiting locker rooms. “I think (Harbaugh) nailed it. Me complaining about it, which I am not, that is just part of the deal. I would never complain about that, it’s not my place. It is an administrative deal. Administration, Big 12 offices, Big 10 offices, I am sure they are going to do something about it. I have other things to worry about. That is what a visitor’s locker room should be, shouldn’t it? Treat the visitor like crap, make it hard on them. No air conditioning, no stalls on the toilets; that makes me chuckle.”

Of primary concern to the leader of the Mountaineers is the team’s sudden lack of depth at linebacker with the loss of redshirt freshman Brendan Ferns to a season-ending shoulder injury.

“We have some bodies in there (at linebacker), that’s why we practice. Looking forward, we’re going to shuffle some things on defense getting (redshirt sophomore linebacker) David (Long Jr.) back, getting (redshirt junior safety) Toyous (Avery) back, getting (senior safety) Kyzir (White) back. We’ll be able to shuffle some things around and see what the best lineup is. We have to practice in order to figure that out.”

And, fortunately for the Mountaineers, the team’s bye week came at a crucial time.

“That’s why we practice,” Holgorsen said on Long’s preparedness. “Our medical staff has done a really good job rehabbing these guys and getting them ready to go. Here moving forward, I don’t want to talk about it. Here moving forward, we’re going to line up these guys, I told you who’s out, and all the rest of them have been cleared. So, we’re going to go practice. In my mind, if they look good, they’ll play. That’s where we’re at. We’re as healthy right now as we’ve been all year. End of discussion.”

What is open for discussion is standout quarterback Will Grier’s running with the football.

“He gets it. I guess I have to bring (WVU baseball coach Randy) Mazey over here to teach him how to slide. I haven’t played baseball in a long time. I haven’t attempted to slide in probably 20-some years. I don’t view it as something that is really hard. Evidently it is hard because he is bad at it.

“Step 1 is, you nailed it, he is competitive so he is always trying to get an extra yard and I’m like, ‘If you already have the first down who cares about a yard?’ If you have to strain for the extra yard to get the first down, sometimes that’s important, sometimes it’s not. If it is at the end of the game, if it is fourth down, yeah, by all means do what you have to do to keep it alive like he did against Virginia Tech. He was throwing his body all over the place. He kind of had to in that situation. In some of the situations that I have looked at over the last three weeks, he does such a good job in the pocket. He feels it, he is smart about it, he has great ball security and he gets out of there and looks good in certain situations as well. First-and-10, I’m OK with a second-and-1 as opposed to getting hit or trying to juke somebody.

“It’s like, ‘Dude you don’t have moves, you are not going to juke people.’ The other part of that is, one, preserving health, but two, preserving the ball, too. That ball is not in a good place once he is on the move. He fumbled one that went out of bounds, luckily. We have some fun drills we are going to get him to do today. I will be able to answer that question better after we do those drills because I haven’t taught it. To me, it is pretty easy — get down.”