Role Reversal

Radio sideline reporter Jed Drenning is providing periodic commentary on the Mountaineer football program for WVUsports.com. For more from Jed, you can follow him on Twitter @TheSignalCaller

Dana Holgorsen against Gary Patterson.

The sword against the shield.

The unstoppable force against the resourceful object.

We’ve seen this movie before. Twice in the last two years, in fact. Each installment provided all the hallmarks of a classic blockbuster: a great story, compelling characters, sudden plot twists and surprise finishes.

Last year in Fort Worth, West Virginia let a 10-point lead evaporate in the final quarter before Josh Lambert lifted the Mountaineers to victory with an overtime game-winner from 34 yards out. And of course there was the meltdown two years ago in Morgantown. TCU’s Trevone Boykin pulled a fourth quarter rabbit from his hat with an improbable gut punch to West Virginia that came in the form of 94-yard, game tying touchdown strike with less than 90 seconds to play.

So here we go again.

On one side is an aggressive and opportunistic defense executing an unconventional scheme. On the other side is a spread ‘em and shred ‘em, hell-on-wheels offense.

It’s all so familiar.

Or is it?

Saturday’s face-off features several captivating plot devices – including a conspicuous reversal of roles. This time around it’s the TCU offense grabbing the headlines and the West Virginia defense that’s creating the buzz.

That’s just fine with Patterson.

It was exasperating for Patterson – an old school defensive swami of the highest

order -- to watch his Frogs’ offense sabotage TCU’s first two seasons in the Big 12 with a league-worst 59 turnovers during that time. Last fall things hit rock bottom. In conference play, TCU finished dead last in the league in rushing while stumbling to 49 three-and-outs (their most in a decade). During one six-game stretch in the middle of the season the Frogs averaged a paltry 18 points per contest.

That’s hardly the way to challenge for a title in the offensively charged Big 12. Weary of watching solid defensive efforts go to waste and tired of losing out on homegrown offensive talent from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Patterson finally relented.

To light up the scoreboard and level the playing field for TCU, he brought in (Houston offensive coordinator and longtime Oklahoma State assistant) Doug Meacham and (Texas Tech co-offensive coordinator) Sonny Cumbie, a pair of fertile coaching minds well versed in the turbocharged art of southwestern offensive football.

The results have been impossible to dispute.

TCU has doubled its point total (from 25 a game last year to 50 a game heading into Saturday) while mitigating its mistakes (turnovers are down from 30 a year ago to just 9 through seven games this year). Meacham and Cumbie have helped the Frogs offense find a rhythm that was sorely absent, as evidenced by the 27 first downs per game TCU is averaging compared to just 17 last season. What’s more – they’ve brought the big play back to Fort Worth. With 52 plays from scrimmage of 20 yards or more (tops in the Big 12), the Frogs have already surpassed their total for all of last year (44).

Dim the lights and grab the clicker and you quickly see that each TCU game you break down is chock-full of offensive splash plays. Trevone Boykin’s 39-yard scoring strike to B.J. Catalon against Oklahoma; Aaron Green’s 59-yard touchdown romp versus Baylor; Josh Doctson’s 77 and 84-yard scoring grabs in the same quarter against Oklahoma State.

Then of course there was the stupefying 82-point barrage last week against Texas Tech, a game in which four different TCU players recorded a catch of 50 yards or more. A game that was offensively over the top enough to spawn a story for the ages as – according to TCU Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing and Licensing Drew Martin -- Amon G. Carter Stadium burned through its entire supply of celebratory fireworks. It’s entire supply, that is, for the season. Further evidence that – despite being a program that has produced the likes of Davey O’Brien, Slingin’ Sammy Baugh and LaDainian Tomlinson – TCU doesn’t quite know how to handle all these points.

A year ago at this time Trevone Boykin – as a converted signal caller – was the best receiver on the Frogs roster, racking up a season high 11 catches against West Virginia. This year Boykin is back at quarterback and playing the position with an efficiency that TCU fans haven’t seen since current Cincinnati Bengal Andy Dalton led the 2010 Frogs to a Rose Bowl win.

Nowhere has the impact of Meacham and Cumbie been more palpable than in the progress of Boykin. Last year, adrift in a rudderless offense, Boykin threw just three touchdowns in Big 12 play against seven interceptions. Those numbers hardly jive with the ones he has posted through seven games this fall – tossing 21 touchdowns and a mere three picks to go along with his 374 rushing yards.

No one on the schedule has had an answer for Boykin and the new-look Frogs offense. TCU has scored 30 or more points in every contest and along the way has built a lead of 14 or more points in each of those games. Even in their only loss, the Frogs racked up nearly 500 yards and a 21-point lead before falling, 61-58, to Baylor.

Tasked with slowing down this high-powered purple scoring machine is a West Virginia defense that has parlayed a new approach into a few headlines of its own. Tony Gibson’s more aggressive version of the odd-stack has gradually become the toast of Morgantown if not the talk of the entire Big 12. Two weeks ago following WVU’s upset win over No. 4 Baylor, Gibson was named National Coordinator of the Week by Fox Sports and Athlon. The accolades continued to roll in after the Mountaineers’ 34-10 win at Oklahoma State last week as freshman safety Dravon Henry was named the College Football Performance Awards Defensive Back of the Week.

Pundits across the college football landscape have indeed taken notice of the defensive transformation undergone by West Virginia – and for good reason. Much like the 12-month about-face that the TCU offense has pulled off, the improvement in the Mountaineer defense has been nothing short of remarkable.

In West Virginia’s first two seasons in the Big 12, league opposition shredded it to the tune of 502 yards and 41 points per game. Through WVU’s first five conference matchups this year those numbers have been clipped significantly to 401 yards and 26 points per outing. In 2012 and 2013, West Virginia allowed Big 12 offenses to convert 45 percent of their third down attempts. This year? That figure has been sliced to 26 percent.

Need more proof of progress? Let’s pop the hood and take a look at a pivotal area for every defense in this conference: big play prevention. No defense is bulletproof. In a league as offensively dynamic as the Big 12 you know you’re going to get torched for your share of big plays – it’s simply a matter of managing the degree to which it happens. In Big 12 action the last two seasons the Mountaineers yielded an average of 6.6 scrimmage plays per game of 30 yards or longer. This year Gibson and his staff have helped put a lid on that problem, nearly cutting that number in half by holding Big 12 competition to just 3.6 plays per contest of that length.

Still not satisfied? Consider the following. On its face, Red Zone Defense appears to be one of the few areas that West Virginia hasn’t shown improvement this season. The Mountaineers currently rank 108th nationally, whereas they finished a modest 65th in this category a year ago. This is where you should feel free to insert your favorite quote about how misleading statistics can be in the wrong hands because a closer look reveals something pretty compelling.

Last year West Virginia allowed the opposition to reach the Red Zone 60 times in 12 games. Sixty is a lot (a whole lot) of trips for a defense to allow into the land of milk and honey. In fact, only half a dozen teams in all of FBS football allowed more last season. Compare that to this year as WVU – through eight games – has allowed opponents to breech its Red Zone just 19 times, tied for the 12th fewest in the country. Extrapolate that and it means West Virginia is on a 12-game pace to limit the number of opponents Red Zone trips to . . . wait for it . . . 29. You don’t have to be Pythagoras to realize that would equal less than half of last year’s total Red Zone trips.

Despite the sudden praise being heaped upon the TCU offense and the West Virginia defense, these teams are hardly one-dimensional. While some key aspects of each squad have changed on a seismic scale, other things haven’t changed at all. Gary Patterson’s defense still plays with a nasty streak (the Frogs lead the Big 12 with 21 takeaways) and the offense rolled out by Dana Holgorsen and Shannon Dawson is still an unbridled force of nature (Clint Trickett is within striking distance of a single season school passing mark and Kevin White is the nation’s third leading receiver).

Here are a few more points to ponder as West Virginia prepares for its Halloween weekend showdown with yet another top-10 team.

1) TAKE OUT THE TRASH

Fifteen or so times in a four-game breakdown, TCU offers up a handful of junk formations that have you adjusting your screen resolution. With unorthodox alignments and splits wide enough to drive a charter bus through, the strange formations are reminiscent of something you might expect to see if the ‘Swinging Gate’ sat down for coffee with Tiger Ellison’s ‘Lonesome Polecat’ offense of the 1950s and 60s.

There are multiple variations but all these gadget formations from TCU involve incredibly broad splits ranging in width from five yards all the way out to 15 by the guards or the tackles or both. If the Frogs aren’t happy with the numbers they see defensively, they’ll simply shift back into more conventional splits and check into a play from their base offense. If TCU is happy with the defensive alignment, however, they aren’t afraid to stay in the junk formation and snap off perimeter screens to both sides while releasing the back down the seam. This gives the quarterback the option to target the most viable receiver. These quirky twists aren’t something TCU makes a living doing. Instead, they toss them out there just enough to force you to invest a period or two of practice time preparing for them. Keep an eye on it.

2) BY LAND OR BY AIR?

Don’t look now but Dana Holgorsen’s high-flying attack has become a lot more grounded in recent weeks. Concerned with the explosiveness of Kevin White and the WVU passing game, some opponents have opted for what they view as the lesser of evils by parking two safeties up high and daring the Mountaineers to run the football. West Virginia has accepted the dare. The results – much like when White and the air attack get cranking -- have been plenty evil.

Three times in the last three games a Mountaineer runner has eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark. Just how committed is WVU to running the football when the situation dictates? The truth is in the numbers. In the past three weeks the Mountaineers have run the ball 144 times. West Virginia's rushing attempts during that span are more than such notable ground-and-pound stalwarts as Michigan State (140), Wisconsin (133) and Alabama (118).

Make no mistake about it. One reason WVU runs the football is to take advantage of opportunities the defense gives them. But another reason is because they want to. Calling on a physical ground game will serve WVU well not just down the stretch but also Saturday against TCU.

The Frogs ability to stop the run is almost legendary (TCU has an active streak of 17 straight years of holding opponents to less than four yards per carry) but that doesn’t mean the Mountaineers will shy away from it Saturday. In West Virginia’s overtime win last year, Charles Sims became the first back to ever rush for more than 150 yards (154) against a Gary Patterson-coached TCU defense. Do Rushel Shell or Wendell Smallwood have a shot at similar success against the Frogs this weekend?

3) OUT OF THE RUNNING?

With TCU leading Texas Tech 68-27 at the 11:54 mark of the 4th quarter last week, back-up quarterback Matt Joeckel had the Frogs on the move at the Red Raiders 15-yard line before he busted his knee on a zone read play and was knocked out of commission. On Tuesday, Gary Patterson revealed that the injury could put Joeckel on the shelf the rest of the season. This is worthy of our attention because Joeckel was a formidable reserve who battled Boykin for the starting job after transferring from Texas A&M. His absence means the Frogs are now one unlucky snap away from untested redshirt freshman Zach Allen being forced into action.

Boykin has played the last two weeks with a brace on his non-throwing wrist due to an injury suffered against Baylor on October 11. This does beg an obvious question. Considering that Boykin (an explosive athlete) has run the football 85 times this year, more than any player on the TCU roster, how cautious – under the circumstances -- might the Frogs be with him? It may or may not impact the volume of times Doug Meacham calls Boykin’s number on the ground, but either way it won’t prevent Boykin from taking off with the football when he gets off script and extends plays in the passing game.

4) DON’T GET COMFY

Recent history suggests that no lead is safe when these two teams cross swords, and the fact that both enter Saturday’s match-up with top 10 offenses only figures to bolster that notion. In 2012 in Morgantown, the Frogs overcame a 10-point deficit to tie the game at the end of regulation and win it in double overtime. Last year in Fort Worth, the Mountaineers trailed by 14 before scoring 24 unanswered points to go up by 10. At that point TCU rallied to knot things before West Virginia won in overtime. For those scoring at home, that’s three different double-digit leads squandered in just two games between these two teams.

Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the Big 12’s formal announcement that West Virginia would be joining the league. And now, as ESPN GameDay descends on Morgantown and the eyes of the college football world turn to the Mountain State for a marquee matchup of national significance featuring the conference’s two newest members . . .

The Big 12 is smiling like a Cheshire cat.

I’ll see you at the 50.

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