Baylor Preview
October 15, 2014 02:10 PM | General
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two years ago, in 2012, West Virginia fans got their first taste of Big 12 football when the Mountaineers played host to Baylor.
It’s a game people around here still talk about.
There were 19 combined touchdowns and of those, 16 happened in less than three minutes. The combined 133 points were three shy of the NCAA record of 136 established by Navy and North Texas in 2007, and it was easily the most points ever scored in a football game involving West Virginia University.
The two teams generated 1,507 yards while running a staggering 180 plays; Baylor quarterback Nick Florence passed for 581 yards and Terrence Williams caught 17 passes for 314 yards – in a losing effort.
Yes, West Virginia won the game, 70-63, and considering how frequently Baylor is scoring points this year, the Mountaineers may need to have a similar offensive performance on Saturday just to keep pace with the high-flying Bears.
Baylor (6-0, 3-0, ranked No. 4) came back from 21 points down with 12 minutes to go last Saturday to defeat TCU, 61-58, to remain undefeated. The two teams combined to produce 1,267 yards in a game that lasted almost five hours.
Baylor is ranked No. 1 in the country this week in total offense (622.5), scoring offense (52.7), first downs per game (30.5), touchdowns (43) and PATs (43). The Bears also lead the country in fourth down conversions (18) and fourth down conversion attempts (23), meaning West Virginia’s defense may be required to stop the Baylor offense four times in order to get the ball.
Veteran coach Art Briles is responsible for Baylor’s football renaissance, the Bears winning only 11 Big 12 games during a 12-year period from 1996-2007 before his arrival. Since then, Baylor has won 28 league games, captured four bowl triumphs, produced 18 All-American players and had 19 players drafted by NFL teams.
“I can’t say enough about how much respect I have for where they’re at as a program at this point in time,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “I’ve known Art for a long, long time. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been.”
The school that sent Robert Griffin III to the NFL has another marquee quarterback attracting national attention in senior Bryce Petty, now fourth in Baylor history in passing yardage (5,874) and second in touchdown passes (48).
Petty, a former Tennessee signee, has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 18 straight games now and is coming off a career-high 510 yards and six touchdowns against TCU last Saturday.
Not only can Petty spin it but he can also tote it, too, with 14 rushing touchdowns last year and 18 rushing TDs for his career.
“Petty is a great player,” said Holgorsen. “It seems like he’s been there for six, seven years, which I think he has. He understands their system and he’s got great experience.”
Petty is surrounded by some serious offensive firepower, beginning up front with a big, physical offensive line that really comes off the ball and features three players standing 6-feet-6 inches or taller.
“You can tell the type of athletes that they’re putting out there, the type of O-linemen and D-linemen that they’re putting out there, are clearly different than what I’ve seen from them in year’s past,” noted Holgorsen.
Senior receiver Antwan Goodley is the name everyone is familiar with, but highly touted freshman K.D. Cannon has been Baylor’s top pass catcher with 30 receptions for 651 yards and six touchdowns. The Bears have had four different players – Cannon, Goodley, Corey Coleman and Jay Lee – produce 100-yard receiving games so far this year, including Cannon’s monster six-catch, 223-yard, three-TD performance against Northwestern State in week two.
And when the defense begins pulling players out of the box to help out with the passing game, Baylor then goes to a punishing ground game that is averaging 5.0 yards per carry and has produced 20 rushing touchdowns.
Sophomore Shock Linwood has come up with back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances against Texas and TCU and now shows 627 yards and eight touchdowns on just 119 carries. Freshman Johnny Jefferson has been just as lethal, averaging 5.2 yards per carry and scoring three touchdowns.
“They’re scoring quickly. They’re putting a ton of points on the board. Their offense is No. 1 in the country,” said Holgorsen.
Defensively, Briles says this is the best group of defenders he’s had in seven seasons at Baylor, despite giving up 58 points last Saturday against TCU. The Bears have one of the more interesting players in the country in 6-foot-9-inch, 280-pound junior defensive end Shawn Oakman from Landsdown, Pennsylvania.
Oakman began his college career at Penn State before transferring to Baylor, so WVU associate head coach Tom Bradley knows Oakman well. In six games this season Oakman leads Baylor with five sacks and eight tackles for losses while taking part in 24 total tackles.
The Bear defense is currently ranked 10th in the country in total defense giving up just 303.5 yards per game and 25th in scoring defense permitting 20.0 points per game.
“(Baylor’s) Phil Bennett is a great defensive coordinator,” said Holgorsen. “He’s been in the game for a long time and I’ve gone against him a good bit. What I see right now with what he’s got going at Baylor right now is what I saw in the early 2000s when he was at Kansas State and Kansas State was making national championship runs.
“They’re aggressive; they’re tough; they’re physical and they’re going to play man coverage. They’re going to zero-blitz you a bunch and they’re going to put as much pressure on you as they can possibly put on you.”
The West Virginia offense is going to have to figure out a way to solve Baylor’s blitzing and pressure packages, sustain drives, and score touchdowns when it gets in the red zone to keep pace with the Bears.
Last Saturday, West Virginia (4-2, 2-1) scored 17 unanswered points over the remaining 7:32 to beat Texas Tech, 37-34, on Josh Lambert’s 55-yard, game-ending field goal.
Quarterback Clint Trickett passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns, but it was the running of Wendell Smallwood and Rushel Shell that really got things going. The duo became the first pair of runners to rush for more than 100 yards in the same game since Noel Devine and Pat White did it against Louisville in 2008.
The West Virginia ground game has really come on of late, accounting for 504 yards in its last two games against Kansas and Texas Tech.
That has taken some pressure off of outside receivers Kevin White and Mario Alford, who continue to attract attention from defenses aimed at stopping them. White extended his streak of 100-yard receiving games to six with last Saturday’s 123-yard performance against Texas Tech, but it took him 13 catches to get it. Meanwhile, Alford was limited to a season-low two catches for 24 yards against the Red Raiders, but that opened up the middle of the field for Jordan Thompson to have his best game as a Mountaineer. The junior caught six passes for 109 yards, including a key 56-yard touchdown reception midway through the third quarter to ignite West Virginia’s rally.
Defensively, West Virginia played better as the game wore on. In the third quarter, the Mountaineers were able to hold Texas Tech to a pair of field goals when their backs were against the wall and also forced a late punt that enabled the offense to produce the game-winning drive.
The Mountaineers are going to need to match that effort on Saturday in order to slow down a Baylor offense that scored 73 points and produced 872 yards of offense in last year’s blowout victory. It’s the third top-five-ranked team West Virginia has faced so far this season.
“It will be a big challenge and we’re glad to be at home,” noted Holgorsen. “We need a home-field advantage. Hopefully the student section will be packed. The game is a sellout, (hopefully) everybody comes, and they come early and they’re loud and gives us a little bit of a bump, which we’re desperately going to need.”
Saturday’s game is Heart Health Awareness Day, presented by WVU Healthcare.
The offensive fireworks will begin at noon and the contest will be televised nationally on FOX Sports 1.
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