West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen calls out to his team during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Austin, Texas. West Virginia won 42-41. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas)

MORGANTOWN­-West Virginia University football coach has had enough and he’s calling those in charge in the Big 12 Conference out.

“I think David (Long Jr.) leads the charge, clearly,” Holgorsen replied when asked about his team’s depth at linebacker.

Then the sometimes-animated leader of WVU went in a different direction.

“I don’t know how we’re not looking at him being national player of the week on a lot of different things, and I don’t think he’s been Big 12 Player of the Week yet this year,” Holgorsen said. How can that guy not be Big 12 Player of the Week? If that sounds like I’m calling out the Big 12, then, yeah, I’m calling out the Big 12. How can he not be player of the week?

“We’re 10 games into this thing, and he does the same thing every week. You look up and he has 10-12 tackles and five tackles for loss and a sack, or two, or three, like it was last week. He makes every play, and he affects every play. I guarantee you the offense knows where he is every single play. He’s a big part of it. I think (defensive coordinator) (Tony) Gibby (Gibson) is doing a great job of scheming things up. If we can stop the run effectively – and we have a huge task this week; they will try to run the ball and have good backs. TCU tried to run the ball, and they have good backs.”

Heading into Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. showdown with host Oklahoma State in Boone Pickens Stadium, Long leads the 10-team conference in sacks (1.14 pg) and tackles for loss (2.14 pg) and his 8.7 stops per game is ranked fourth behind KU’s Joe Dineen (11.3), and OU’s Kenneth Murray (11.0) and Curtis Bolton (9.0).

“He’s a good player, he works hard at it,” Holgorsen said. “He’s smart, he has experience, he’s physical, he’s tough, he’s really hard to block. I made that comment to everybody when he was on scout team four years ago. He’s hard to block; his pad level in unreal, he runs underneath blocks or around blocks or through blocks or gets off blocks.

“He’s, in my opinion, the best linebacker in the country, and people need to take notice of it. Just put the video on. I guarantee you that everybody we’ve played would say the same thing. He’s playing at a very high level, and he’s very motivated. He’s our defensive leader and one of our team leaders and captains. People need to take notice of it because he’s playing pretty well. Against Oklahoma State last year, I guarantee they are going to know who he is. He had like 18 tackles and six tackles or loss against these guys last year. He does it every week. I don’t know what he has to do to get some recognition from our conference.”

And, West Virginia (8-1, 6-1 Big 12) will need every tackle, sack or tackle for loss Long can come up with if it wants to keep it’s hopes alive for a berth in the Big 12 Championship game on Dec. 1st, as OSU contains a potent offensive attack led by junior running back Justice Hill, who is averaging 93.3 yards per game in league play, quarterback Taylor Cornelius (150-of-254, 2,152 yards, 16 TDs), and standout receiver Tylan Wallace (49-963, seven TDs).

“I can’t figure it out,” Holgorsen explained when asked why the Cowboys have struggled in 2018. “They beat Texas, Boise is a good football team, and they beat them by over three touchdowns. They were a completion away from beating Oklahoma. Those are all really good teams.

“Then, they struggle against some other teams. The only thing I can pinpoint is its continuity; they’ve had a couple of staff changes or lost some key seniors. I don’t know, I’m not in the walls. It’s college football. There’s parity in college football. All of these teams are good. We beat Baylor like that, and then they go to Waco and face a pretty motivated Baylor team. Kansas State loses at home to Baylor, and then go back home and they go play a really motivated Kansas State team. We’re talking about programs that have won a lot of games. Texas Tech was playing pretty well when they went to Stillwater and got after them pretty well. It’s parity in college football, and you better have your stuff together every week or you’re going to get beat. Iowa State came in and was coming off a couple of tough losses, made a quarterback change and got hot. It’s college football, you better be ready to go. We won’t look past this group, I can assure you that. I don’t care what their record is.”