Sometimes you have to dig deep to come up with a compelling storyline for a football game and other times the stories just write themselves.

 

Well, this one wrote itself last Sunday morning when Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger cut bait with Charlie Weis four games into the season and named defensive coordinator Clint Bowen interim coach for the remainder of the year.

 

Bowen becomes the second interim coach in KU history; the first, Tom Hayes, coached three games in 2001 when Terry Allen got whacked. Today, Hayes is back in the Sunflower State working as Bill Snyder’s defensive coordinator at Kansas State.

 

As much as Bowen and his assistant coaches would like to deflect the attention and say it’s all about the kids, in reality it’s going to be all about them this week and for the remaining weeks of the season as well.

 

Jobs and livelihoods are on the line for the nine coaches on the Kansas football staff, including Bowen, a Lawrence native and a KU lifer, who has been associated with Jayhawk football in some capacity for the past 20 years as a coach and player.

 

After twice serving stints as co-defensive coordinator under prior coaches, Bowen was elevated to defensive coordinator last December. Now, he is overseeing the entire operation.

 

“I’ve known Clint for a long time,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. “He does a great job for them. When I was at Texas Tech for my nine years there he was at Kansas all those years as well. I have respected the body of work that he has put out there defensively. He’s a Kansas kid who went to Kansas, who married a Kansas lady and knows about everything you can possibly know about that university.”

 

Because of that, Holgorsen expects the Jayhawks to play with great effort and determination on Saturday.

 

“We are anticipating a Kansas team to come in here and be energetic, enthusiastic and excited to play this football game,” said Holgorsen. “In addition to that, I doubt that they are going to be very scared of us based on what happened last year (31-19 Kansas victory in Lawrence). We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

 

Perhaps pulling their oars a little harder this week will be West Virginia’s defensive coaches, who will have to be prepared for just about anything an interim coaching staff might possibly throw at them.

 

Kansas can’t completely change what it does offensively in a week’s time, and Gale Sayers and John Riggins won’t be parachuting into Milan Puskar Stadium from helicopters, but the Jayhawks can certainly shake things up a little bit on Saturday, with a trick play, a reverse, a double pass, flea-flickers, onside kicks, you name it.

 

“I’m expecting everything,” admitted West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson. “I’m sure they will throw their entire playbook at us. Those guys are fighting to get the job and I’m sure the kids are going to be fired up and juiced up with the new blood, so we’ll see how it goes.”

 

In the meantime, Gibson and his coaches have gone back over the last couple of year’s worth of tape to cross their Ts and dot their Is.

 

“We’re going back over the last couple years of all their trick plays, reverses, quarterback throw-backs and different stuff,” said Gibson. “We have to be ready for all of that and we have to play with discipline. Our deep defenders need to stay deep and guys who are our run defenders need to play the run. We’ve got to make sure we hone that up and make sure our guys are dialed in on that kind of stuff.”

 

Especially important for West Virginia’s defenders will be identifying personnel groupings on the field during Saturday’s game. They need to be aware of where wide receiver Tony Pierson lines up at all times, they need to be alert for possible reverses from slot receiver Nick Harwell, and they need to keep their eyes out for two quarterbacks on the field at the same time.

 

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see both quarterbacks on the field at the same time,” said Gibson. “They’re both athletic enough to do some things and they run them both. I’m sure they can run reverses and double passes off of it.”

 

West Virginia actually has a coach on its staff with interim experience it can lean on: Tom Bradley.

 

West Virginia’s associate head coach finished out Joe Paterno’s tenure at Penn State in 2012, and he admits the thought of Kansas throwing the kitchen sink at them has crossed his mind.

 

“You try to figure out what might they do,” Bradley said. “That is a fine line. You want your guys to go out and play football, not be worried about what they might do because you want them to play against what they do.”

 

He continued.

 

“I always say you don’t want to throw a changeup to a bad hitter,” Bradley explained. “Usually, when you see the trick plays it’s against people who are aggressive and playing hard and doing those things. And yet you have to alert your players to what might happen and we do put in a couple (of trick plays) every week even if we haven’t seen them, whether it’s the reverse or the reverse pass. The flea flicker, throw-it-back and throw it deep or the halfback pass. Every once in a while we put it in the script just to make sure our guys are aware of it.”

 

As for making sure their players are aware of who is on the field at all times for Saturday’s game, Bradley says that is a practice they try to drill home to their players every week.

 

“You’re always paying attention to those personnel groups and are heads up with the numbers to make sure your guys are alerted to that every week,” he said. “What number is the backup quarterback? What happens when he’s in the game? You see it go on all the time so we’re obviously cognizant of that each and every week and not just this particular week.”

 

In a tight, close game, a trick play of some sort could provide the winning margin.

 

Or, West Virginia’s offense can take matters into it’s own hands on Saturday by scoring frequently and making a Kansas offense that has managed just three points in its two games against Power 5 conference teams so far this year chase them.

 

If that happens, then it won’t matter what Bowen and his interim offensive coaches throw at the Mountaineers on Saturday.

 

Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on FOX Sports Net. Tickets are still available and can be purchased online through WVUGAME.com or by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800 WVU GAME.