West Virginia looks to get back on track at Kansas State

West Virginia’s quest for a fifth victory of the season and sixth straight against Kansas State leads the Mountaineers to Bill Snyder Family Field, where they clash with the Wildcats at noon Saturday.

The Mountaineers (4-5, 2-4) can get back to the .500 mark with a win and take a big step toward ensuring they’ll be bowl eligible, which would come with six victories.

A loss to the Wildcats for the first time since 2015 leaves WVU in need of wins over Texas and at Kansas in hopes of prolonging their season beyond this month.

K-State (6-3, 3-3) enters on its second three-game win streak of the season.

“Going into Manhattan is a tough place to play,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “They’ve done a great job at that venue. A really passionate fan base, very similar to ours I believe. It’s really a tough place to play and an early kick.”

The Wildcats started 3-0 in non-conference play before suffering losses to Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Iowa State, but they’ve responded with consecutive wins over Texas Tech, TCU and Kansas.

Quarterback Skylar Thompson, who missed much of last season, including a 37-10 loss in Morgantown with a shoulder injury, is playing at a level he’s rarely matched. The veteran signal caller has completed better than 71 percent of his passes for 1,558 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions.

A major factor in Thompson’s success is the play of tailback Deuce Vaughn, who is the focal point of the opposition’s defensive game plan.

Vaughn has rushed for 866 yards and 12 touchdowns on 154 carries and leads the team with 38 receptions for 421 yards and an additional three TDs.

“Their offensive coordinator does a really good job,” Brown said of Courtney Messingham. “He really does as good as anybody that we play in matchups. They have a couple guys that are really good in 1-on-1s. It starts with Deuce Vaughn, and they do a good job of getting him isolated in the run game and the pass game. He’s special. He can make people miss. A really good player. We’re going to have to ID him wherever he’s at.”

Wideouts Phillip Brooks (27 receptions, 360 yards, 2 TDs) and Malik Knowles (24/341/2) are also primary targets of Thompson’s.

“They’ve hit a bunch of plays,” Brown said. “They’ve done a decent job running the ball, so when you run the ball, you bring people down. Knowles can really run. They get Deuce Vaughn in some empty packages and then they get him out of the backfield on some wheel routes and those have been some explosive plays as well. Phillip Brooks is really fast.”

On the other side, West Virginia’s offense will be out to rebound after its worst showing of the season in last week’s 24-3 loss to Oklahoma State.

The Mountaineers finished with a paltry 133 yards in that setback, and nearly half of that total (64) came on their opening sequence, which produced their only points.

WVU quarterbacks were sacked eight times against the Cowboys as the Mountaineers consitently found themselves behind the chains and failed to establish a run game.

“We didn’t play very well at that position,” Brown said of his quarterbacks. “We really didn’t and that’s the case for every position on offense. There’s not one position that we could talk about that played very well. When you have that kind of output, you did not play very well.”

The performance against OSU came on the heels of perhaps the two best offensive showings of the season in a 29-17 win at TCU and a 38-31 triumph over Iowa State.

Mountaineer quarterback Jarret Doege, who is 2-0 against K-State, has hit on better than 66 percent of his throws for 2,180 yards with 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

WVU’s offense has been at its best when able to establish tailback Leddie Brown, who shows 666 rushing yards and 11 scores in what has been an up-and-down season in terms of productivity.

The Mountaineers will operate against a new-look K-State defense, one that often a three-man front as opposed to the four down linemen from the past.

KSU has college football’s leader in sacks — defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who enters with 11.

“They’ve changed their structure and a totally different look than what we played against our first two years,” Brown said. “[Anudike-Uzomah] has a great motor and he’s a great pass rusher.”

The Mountaineer defense continues to be anchored by defensive linemen Dante Stills and Akheem Mesidor, while linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo is the team’s top tackler.

“It starts up front with our d-line,” Brown said. “They’ve done a nice job. Akheem is playing at a high level. Dante has played at a high level. We’re rotating more guys in there now, which has helped us.”

In its last road game, West Virginia won at TCU, snapping a seven-game road losing streak that dated back to the 2019 season finale.





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