If West Virginia is to win a third straight game for the first time under head coach Neal Brown, the Mountaineers will have to do so by beating Texas when two teams seeking their first Big 12 Conference victory clash at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The 7:30 p.m. contest will be shown on Fox Sports 1, and the Mountaineers (2-2, 0-1) are hoping to continue their turnaround after consecutive losses to start the season.
“Our league is tough. It’s getting some respect nationally, but if you look at it one through ten, there’s no layups on that card,” Brown said. “Anybody has an opportunity to beat anybody. For us, it’s going to be about winning turnover margin, being able to run the football and being able to stop the run. If we can do those things, then we feel good about it.”
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers will miss his third straight game with a sprained clavicle suffered in a Week 2 loss. That leaves Hudson Card as the Longhorns’ quarterback, and the sophomore signal caller is familiar to the Mountaineers after he threw for 123 yards and a touchdown in Texas’ 31-23 loss to WVU last season.
Card has played in all four Texas (2-2, 0-1) games this season, completing 53-of-80 passes for 620 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
Aem Texas Vs Texas Tech 17
“We played against Card last year some, but he wasn’t full speed, so I don’t know if it was an accurate depiction or not,” Brown said. “I know his high school coaches and how he was taught in that system coming up. I have a lot of respect for them. There’s probably more similarities in those two than differences. It’s not like if you have a real runner and a real thrower and there’s a stark difference. How we prepare is not going to be much different depending on who plays.”
The Longhorns will likely rely heavily on one of college football’s top tailbacks in Bijan Robinson, who missed the matchup in Morgantown last year after suffering a season-ending elbow injury. Robinson has shown no ill effects from that injury and enters with 414 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 67 carries.
Robinson is also a big factor in the passing game, and his 154 receiving yards are third on the team. Wideout Xavier Worthy, last season’s Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, is the most feared option when the Longhorns go to the air. Worthy has 14 receptions for 212 yards and hauled in his first touchdown this season in last week’s overtime loss at Texas Tech.
Making the task even tougher for West Virginia’s defense is that Texas second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian is regarded as one of the sport’s top offensive minds.
“We have a lot of respect for that brand and team,” Brown said. “It starts with Sark.”
Defensively, seven Texas players have recorded at least one sack, and the unit put together a stellar showing in a narrow 20-19 Week 2 loss to Alabama. Linebackers Jaylan Ford and DeMarvion Overshown are first and third, respectively with 38 and 29 tackles, while both are tied with edge rusher Ovie Oghoufo for the team lead with 3.5 tackles for loss.
The depth on Texas’ defensive line could be what concerns Brown most.
“They have a lot of veterans and are playing at a much higher level than when we saw them last year,” he said. “They go Six deep at defensive tackle and that’s not heard of. They have six guys that are plus Big 12 players. Most teams have three or four, but they have six and several NFL players within those six. The biggest challenge is those guys in the middle. They’re playing the run at a much-improved rate.”
A week ago, however, the Longhorns gave up 479 total yards to the Red Raiders, who converted on 6-of-8 fourth downs and rallied from a two-touchdown deficit in the second half.
Texas will be out to slow the Mountaineers, who have proven to be one of the more balanced offenses in the nation through the opening month of the season.
Quarterback JT Daniels has gotten off to a strong start in his first season at West Virginia, completing 86-of-133 passes for 956 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. Daniels threw one interception in losses to Pitt and Kansas, but was not picked off in victories over Towson and Virginia Tech.
Bryce Ford-Wheaton, with 27 receptions for 319 yards and four TDs, remains WVU’s leading receiver, while fellow wideouts Kaden Prather and Sam James have also increased their production of late. Prather has 20 receptions for 220 yards and one TD, while James has 219 receiving yards and a pair of scores on 13 grabs.
West Virginia’s run game has been perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the team to this point, with tailbacks CJ Donaldson, Tony Mathis and Justin Johnson thriving behind a much-improved offensive line.
Donaldson, a true freshman, has a team-high 380 rushing yards and six TDs on 7.3 yards per carry. Mathis has scored twice while gaining 272 yards on 58 runs and Johnson is coming off the best performance of his young career at Virginia Tech with 83 yards and his first touchdown.
West Virginia’s ability to run the ball is a primary factor in the Mountaineers averaging nearly 78 plays per game to less than 59 for their opponents.
“We’d like to be more explosive so there’s a little bit of tradeoff there. We haven’t probably had as many big plays as we’d like to have and when you have those big plays, you score a little faster,” Brown said. “But we have been productive in the run game so we’ve been able to make first downs. It really helps. It’s a payoff for your defense.”
After suffering through one of the poorest defensive showings of Brown’s tenure in a 55-42 Week 2 overtime loss to Kansas, West Virginia has allowed only 17 points over its last two games, with its defense surrendering one touchdown over that time.
“When you play a game like that, you go back to the drawing board and it makes you consider why the game went that way,” WVU bandit Jared Bartlett said.
Linebacker Lee Kpogba is the Mountaineers’ top tackler with 24, while defensive linemen Dante Stills and Jordan Jefferson have both excelled. Stills has three sacks and 2.5 TFLs, while Jefferson has 3.5 TFLs and was a key factor in WVU limiting the Hokies to 35 rushing yards last Thursday.
The return of safety Aubrey Burks bolstered the secondary against Virginia Tech, and the back end of the Mountaineers’ defense displayed drastic improvement over the second half of September. Personnel and position tweaks have been to WVU’s benefit, including the emergence of true freshman cornerback Jacolby Spells, who returned the team’s lone interception this season for a touchdown against the Hokies.
Kicker Casey Legg remains a weapon for West Virginia. Legg is 8-for-8 on field goals, though he’s yet to attempt one from 40-plus yards.
Longhorns’ kicker Bert Auburn is 9-of-11 on field goals, including 5-for-5 on attempts between 40-49 yards.
Saturday night’s matchup could be West Virginia’s last trip to Austin with the Longhorns impending departure from the Big 12 to join the SEC. At 6-5 all-time against Texas, West Virginia is the only Big 12 team with a winning record in its series against the Longhorns.
“I’m kind of indifferent toward it,” Brown said referencing the potential for this to be West Virginia’s last trip to UT. “Not a knock on them. It is what it is. They lay out the schedule and we go play them.”