MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia approaches Saturday’s home finale with a No. 16 CFP ranking and 14 senior starters anticipating a big finish.
We frame up the Baylor game in our weekly edition of Four-Down Territory:
1. No charity case
While Baylor (6-5, 3-5) is a wounded team physically, coping with obvious morale issues and on the cusp of a coaching staff housecleaning, West Virginia (9-2, 6-2) won’t feel the least bit sorry for Saturday’s guests. The Bears’ oversized swagger of past seasons — plus the 62-38 and 73-42 whippings WVU suffered in Waco — have teed this up as a revenge game.
The Mountaineers are too hungry for a rare 10-win campaign to worry about Baylor’s fallout from its sexual-assault scandal.
“I don’t care what they have going on, it’s not for me to worry about,” Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen said. “My job is to worry about our guys and our 21 seniors and prepare them.”
2. Baylor back to its ground game?
True freshman quarterback Zach Smith represents a stark drop-off from senior Seth Russell, whose college career ended with a gruesome ankle injury last month.
Yet Baylor hasn’t turned conservative, with Smith attempting 91 passes the past two games. He has thrown six touchdowns in that span but also four interceptions.
Perhaps the Bears will lean more on their conference-leading running game Saturday.
“They do more from a run standpoint than anybody else,” said WVU defensive line coach Bruce Tall. “As far as sitting down and drawing up their plays, it takes you a lot longer than it does on a normal week. It’s because they have more schemes set up and they do a nice job with it.”
3. Grobe back to his roots
Before heading back into retirement, Jim Grobe heads back to his home state. The Huntington High graduate
started his coaching career as a Marshall assistant before spending 13 season leading Wake Forest’s program.
Grobe’s ties to WVU run deep. He befriended Bill Stewart during one overlapping season with the Herd in 1980 and remained close until Stewart’s death in 2012.
“One of my best buddies,” Grobe said. “That guy was a piece of work.”
For years Stew teased Grobe for playing golf, which Grobe did so primarily because his son Matt was a club pro who would become Marshall’s golf coach. The teasing stopped, however, when Stewart landed the VMI head coaching gig in 1994.
“Suddenly Stew had all these golf outings to go to, so he started taking lessons and buying clubs and calling me for advice,” Grobe said. “He suddenly changed from being a hardhead.”
Following the 2007 season, Grobe also smoothed the path for Deacons quarterback coach Jeff Mullen to become Stewart’s offensive coordinator at WVU.
Now, Grobe stands at the close of a substitute teacher-style tenure at Baylor, which he said “has been a little more challenging than I expected.”
The combination of five straight losses and building external criticism will do that.
“Actually, I expected the toll to be taken earlier, but we got through half of the season without any speed bumps,” he said. “Right before the Texas game, the wheels started to get a little bit wobbly. Against TCU, the wheels came off.”
4. Skyler Howard’s cheers & jeers
Graduate assistant Michael Burchett, who drills West Virginia quarterbacks, sought to contextualize Howard’s comments regarding Senior Day as “another opportunity to get booed” by the home fans.
“That’s the kind of kid he is — he wears his emotions on his sleeve,” Burchett said. “He said something out of emotion and I really don’t think he means that. He’s very grateful, very appreciative for the opportunity he’s been given.”
Yet Burchett suggested Howard’s comments were more misinterpretation than mistake.
“He has used people doubting him as motivation, and I think he continually looks for opportunities to do that, to kind of fuel him. It’s a long season and each week you’ve got to find something else that pushes you.”
Though he couldn’t lead West Virginia in the Big 12 championship race, Howard owns top-25 rankings in six NCAA categories. He’s 15th in yards per completion, 17th in scoring, 19th in passing efficiency, 18th in passing yardage per game, 24th in overall passing yards, and 25th in passing touchdowns. Howard also ranks 32nd in completing percentage (62.5) and completions per game.
“It’s a run-oriented team and he’s still up there with the best of the best,” Burchett said. “He really hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves.”