LUBBOCK, Texas — West Virginia’s offense hasn’t approached Dana Holgorsen’s 42 points-per-game benchmark. Its best defensive player blew out a knee during camp. Its left tackle blew out a knee in Game 1, and its biggest special-teams weapon didn’t stick around for Senior Day.
Yet, the Mountaineers reached mid-October among 11 unbeatens in the FBS.
With two byes already in the rear-view mirror, No. 20 West Virginia (4-0, 1-0) begins a meaty eight-week stretch of Big 12 pugilism when it tangles with Texas Tech (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday, the season’s first road game which we’ll deconstruct in today’s version of Four-Down Territory:
1. Shootout a foregone conclusion?
The most repeated stat of the week was repeated for a good reason: Tech’s streak of scoring 50 points or more in nine straight home games is unprecedented in the FBS.
With Patrick Mahomes flinging passes from every conceivable arm angle and Kliff Kingsbury spitting out plays at lightspeed, conventional wisdom holds that West Virginia must keep pace in a high-scoring affair Saturday. Just don’t tell that to some of the Mountaineers.
“First of all, I don’t expect anybody to put 50 points on us,” said linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton, reminding everyone how the Red Raiders were held to a season-low 26 points in Morgantown in 2015.
Receiver Shelton Gibson made a stronger proclamation:
“I believe our defense can hold them to 10 points. The corners we go against (in practice), I see it everyday and they’re pretty good.”
2. Friendly fire
One drawback to the “Mike Leach tree” spawning so many coaches is that it makes adversaries out of comrades like West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen, Tech’s Kingsbury and Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley.
“It’s a shame that we’re all in the same conference, because now you don’t like ‘em anymore,” Holgorsen said on his call-in show. “You don’t talk to them anymore. You just want to kick their tails on Saturday. You don’t get to continue the relationship.”
3. Run. The. Ball.
Though Tech’s secondary is susceptible to busts and explosive plays, the safest and surest attack plan has been to run straight at David Gibbs’ defense. Last week K-State piled up 231 yards on 39 carries after Arizona State ran it 53 times for 301 yards.
Fifth-year center Tyler Orlosky recalls all too glowingly how West Virginia’s offensive line pounded the Red Raiders for 301 yards on 57 carries last season, controlling the ball for the final 6:47. He understands why Tech’s undermanned defense is frequently forced to gamble and how opponents capitalize.
“They stunt a lot and sometimes unfortunately those stunts get them out of place, and that’s when teams take advantage of those runs,” Orlosky said.
4. R-E-S-P-E-C-T
A return to the top 25 — predicated on narrow escapes against BYU and K-State — hasn’t convinced many people that the Mountaineers are legit factors in the College Football Playoff or even the Big 12 title. WVU trails three two-loss teams in the AP poll and is the lowest-ranked undefeated team aside from Western Michigan.
Holgorsen admitted telling his team “you were lucky to win” the past two games by a combined four points. Because of red-zone mistakes, West Virginia’s scoring is down nine points from last season’s pace despite returning the bulk of its offensive starters.
“If we want to keep winning, there’s specific things we need to do and it’s going to come to light this weekend,” Holgorsen said. “If we don’t improve on a couple things it’s going to be a long game.”
Even a No. 8 national ranking in pass-efficiency defense is partially based on WVU avoiding a reputable passing attacks.
“Nobody really shows us a lot of respect,” Benton said. “You always want to go take your respect. This is an opportunity to prove ourselves and show everybody we can play ball.”
That mission sounds plausible to Orlosky, who’s jonesing to experience a title chase after his teams have posted a 12-16 record in Big 12 games.
“The conference is open for anybody to get it,” he said. “It’s there for us to grab. I think we can make a real run at it.”