Bye week questions, Part I: Does WVU still have a shot at Big 12 title?

West Virginia receiver Kevin White delivered another impressive outing against Oklahoma and now ranks second in the country in catches and receiving yards per game.

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With one-third of the football season behind them, the West Virginia Mountaineers enter a bye week wearing the look of a dangerous team, yet sporting a 2-2 record that shows plenty of gaps remaining.

During the new two days we pose and answer questions about where the team is headed during the next eight games:

Can West Virginia remain a factor in the Big 12 race?
The loss to Oklahoma looks crippling to whatever championship hopes the Mountaineers harbored. West Virginia hasn’t won eight straight games in the same season since 1993, and even should it win out this year, the Sooners would need to lose twice to re-open the door.

Those are long-shot scenarios, especially with Oklahoma hosting its toughest games against Baylor, K-State and Oklahoma State. But recent history tells us Oklahoma isn’t a cinch to stay unbeaten, as no team has run the table in conference play undefeated since Texas in 2009.

A month ago, no one dared to mention West Virginia as a Big 12 contender. That was before a solid showing against Alabama raised the expectations considerably.

“Nobody was happy about coming up a little bit short in a couple games against what I consider the best two teams in the country,” coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We don’t want any pats on the back for keeping it relatively close.

“We’ve got to continue to do the right things. We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us. We’ve got eight games left—eight conference games at that. We expect each and every one of them to be challenging.”

Though vastly improved, West Virginia would emerge as college football’s biggest surprise if it remained in contention for a Big 12 crown through mid-November. Still, the Mountaineers host Baylor and Kansas State and have shown the potential to wreck both of those team’s league title hopes.

Is Kevin White an All-American?
He sure looks the part.

His 10.3 receptions per game rank second nationally, as do his 158.3 yards per game—narrowly trailing Alabama’s Amari Cooper in both categories. After facing off in the season opener, they’re on pace to meet again in December at the Biletnikoff Award ceremony.

White has feasted on man coverage and grabbed several high-difficulty catches despite safety help. He got Brandon Sylve benched at Alabama, took a screen pass 44 yards to the house at Maryland, and burned Oklahoma’s Zack Sanchez for a 68-yard score.

In fact, White’s domination (10 catches for 173 yards) led to a crisis of confidence for the Sooners’ preseason All-Big 12 cornerback.

“I just felt like I couldn’t make a play,” Sanchez said. “Knowing when things were going to come, just still not being able to make a play on it was frustrating. I’ve got a lot of things I’ve got to work on.”

Despite White being targeted 13 times vs. the Sooners, Holgorsen said “I wish we could have gotten him the ball a little bit more.”

Even after four exceptional games, the coach said White’s bye week work will be crucial.

“The rapport that him and Clint (Trickett) have right now is pretty good, (but) we need to keep working on that, because if you ignore that, the timing disappears. That can go away pretty quick.”

How much can the defense improve?
If cornerback Daryl Worley returns, the unit should make gains—perhaps even cracking the Big 12’s upper half. Without him, matchups against the likes of Baylor, OSU and Texas Tech look downright frightening. Worley’s presence simply affords the safeties more latitude, whether it’s helping out in other deep zones or charging down against the run.

With or without its suspended cornerback, the front seven clearly needs to stiffen against the run. In three games against FBS schools, West Virginia has allowed four opposing rushers to crack the 100-yard mark and Samaje Perine obliterated it, with 242.

Despite seeing his defense decimated by Perine, WVU’s first-year coordinator Tony Gibson didn’t view the bye week as a time to flip personnel or overhaul the 3-3-5 scheme.

“We are what we are,” he said. “We’re going to do what we do and we’re going to get better at it. We’re not going to wholesale change anything.

“We’re four games into the season with a new defense and a new scheme of what we’re doing. And when you look at our two breakdowns, our two losses are against two pretty good offenses.”

Nobody argues Alabama and Oklahoma are elite offenses. Still, their per-carry average against West Virginia —5.9 and 6.3, respectively—exceeded their season averages.







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