MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With West Virginia after its first win in Big 12 play and Baylor seeking its first triumph in Morgantown, the Mountaineers and Bears meet inside Milan Puskar Stadium at 7 p.m. Thursday.
West Virginia’s third Thursday game among its first six contests will air on Fox Sports 1.
Both teams are playing following their longest break between games this season and after suffering losses October 1.
The Mountaineers (2-3, 0-2) are at home for the first time since September 17. After falling 38-20 at Texas in their first non-competitive loss this season, they’ll look to bounce back against defending Big 12 champion Baylor, which fell to Oklahoma State 36-25 in its most recent outing.
“They’re sound in all three phases and they’re the Big 12 champion until proven otherwise,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said. “They returned a ton and they won in Dallas last year. We’re excited about being back home. There’s been some classic games here in the history of West Virginia football playing in primetime TV on Thursday nights. We hope to add to that.”
The Bears (3-2, 1-1) beat Iowa State in their other conference game to this point, and also have victories over Albany and Texas State, along with a double overtime loss at BYU in Week 2.
After finishing 2-7 in Dave Aranda’s first season as head coach in 2020, Baylor is coming off a 12-2 campaign in which it won the Sugar Bowl and handled West Virginia in Waco, 45-20.
“They’re playing a little different in the back end,” Brown said. “Offensively, they’re the same schematics and have some different pieces, but the takeaway from that game more than anything is they physically got after us were the aggressor on both lines of scrimmage last year.”
Sophomore quarterback Blake Shapen is the new starter behind center, though he did pass for nearly 600 yards last season and led the Bears past the Cowboys in the Big 12 title game.
Shapen has hit on 97-of-140 passes for 1,118 yards and nine touchdowns with three interceptions. He also has a pair of rushing scores while guiding what West Virginia defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley described as a “simple, but unique” offense coordinated by Jeff Grimes.
“They’re going to do what they do and you know what the play sets are going to be and the blocking schemes,” Lesley said. “That’s the way they’ve been since coach Grimes got there. A credit to them is they’re very confident and good at what they do.
“The issues they present is it’s going to change how they present it. You have to be ready to adjust to that whether it’s motion, shift, formation or whatever it may be. The play set is going to be the same and the look is going to be different.”
Freshman Richard Reese has established himself as the Bears’ lead back and enters with a team-high 400 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 72 carries.
“He’s decisive,” Brown said, “and I see why they’re leaning on him.”
Fellow tailbacks Craig Williams and Qualan Jones have carries in all five games and both are north of 160 rushing yards this season.
Of the four BU players with more than 100 receiving yards, wideout Monaray Baldwin has been the most productive. Baldwin, who was injured in the loss at BYU, has 261 yards on 12 receptions, and most of his damage came in a 174-yard effort with two of his three touchdowns against the Cowboys.
“The game changer for them that’s growing week-to-week is Baldwin,” Brown said. “He is as fast as anybody we’ve played thus far and similar to [Xavier] Worthy from Texas in his ability to run.”
Tight end Ben Sims leads BU with 20 receptions.
The Bears will be out to move the ball against a defense that’s struggled in both of its Big 12 games thus far, with the Mountaineers having allowed 93 points to Kansas and Texas.
While West Virginia has been solid in slowing opponents on the ground, a new-look and somewhat inexperienced secondary remains a work in progress.
The defense has also struggled forcing turnovers and has only three to its credit, while still seeking its first one against a league foe.
Winning at the point of attack will be imperative for the Mountaineers, which they rarely did last season against Baylor, who Lesley sees as a mix of power and finesse offensively.
“They’re in between with the outside zone and stretch. They pride themselves on being physical, particularly at the line of scrimmage,” Lesley said. “A lot of times, when you see that set of plays, it’s not necessarily with a physical team, but Baylor is.”
Save for the first half of the loss to the Longhorns, West Virginia’s offense has been relatively consistent and productive.
Quarterback JT Daniels has 1,209 passing yards and eight touchdowns with a pair of interceptions.
A strong rushing attack has been a benefit to Daniels, though leading rusher CJ Donaldson was ruled out last week for Thursday’s game after suffering a head injury against Texas that landed him in concussion protocol, which he has since passed.
That leaves Tony Mathis and Justin Johnson as WVU’s primary ball-carriers and both have shown they’re capable of producing. Mathis has 70 carries for 296 yards and three TDs, while Johnson has 187 rushing yards on 40 attempts to go with a touchdown in each of the last two games.
The Mountaineers, however, rushed for a season-low 61 yards at Texas.
“The side effects of having a positive run game is you can hit more explosive plays,” Brown said. “That’s something we didn’t do as good a job of at Texas. We need to get the run game going. We have a chance to be really good on offense. The expectation is we need to be good each and every week. We were just OK versus Texas, because we didn’t run the ball as well as we can.”
Bryce Ford-Wheaton remains West Virginia’s leading wideout with 35 catches for 412 yards and four touchdowns, while Sam James and Kaden Prather follow with a pair of TDs apiece and 305 and 260 receiving yards, respectively.
The Mountaineers face a tough task against a Bears’ defense allowing 320 yards on average.
While West Virginia’s offense has been strong on third down and converted nearly half (38 of 77) of its attempts to rank 15th nationally, the Bears are holding opponents to a 35 percent conversion rate.
“Defensively, it starts with who the head coach is,” Brown said. “Dave Aranda is one of the top defensive minds in the country.”
Safety Al Walcott has a team-best 32 tackles and five tackles for loss.
Much of the defensive success under Aranda, previously the defensive coordinator at LSU, stems from the play up front of 358-pound nose guard Siaki Ika.
Ika had a memorable showing in the Bears’ convincing win over WVU last season, finishing with two sacks and three tackles while Baylor allowed 2.4 yards per rush.
“It’s not like he’s just a big body. He’s a big body that can move,” Brown said. “He uses his hands and they have him playing with really good pad level. Just like when you play a great receiver, you have to do some things different coverage wise. It’s the same thing when you play against a great interior d-lineman.”
West Virginia is 6-4 all-time against Baylor and 5-0 in Morgantown.