WVU, Texas to Meet on Saturday
November 05, 2014 02:16 PM | General
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The vast majority of the questions West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen fielded during his weekly Tuesday afternoon news conference were about last Saturday’s one-point loss to sixth-ranked TCU.
West Virginia (6-3, 4-2) was unable to hang on to a nine-point fourth quarter lead and in the process lost its grasp on first place in the Big 12 with a 31-30 defeat to the Horned Frogs.
The coach said he would answer anything they threw at him about TCU, and did, but he also indicated that he wanted his players to turn their attention to this Saturday’s opponent, Texas, and for good reason. The Longhorns (4-5, 3-3) have been getting better each and every week under first-year coach Charlie Strong.
Strong arrived in Austin last winter like a tornado, getting rid of those players who weren’t fully on board with what he was doing and the way he runs his program. He cleaned house at Louisville four years ago, too, and during his final two seasons there he won 23 of 26 games, including a Sugar Bowl victory over Florida in 2013.
Longhorn supporters believe its only a matter of time until Strong wins big in Austin the way former Coach Mack Brown won there a decade earlier, and if recent results are any indication, it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.
“We’re pretty familiar with how he runs his program – very disciplined,” said Holgorsen. “He’s a no-nonsense guy and I’ve got a ton of respect for that. I’ve also got a ton of respect for his past and what he’s done defensively. He’s one of the best defensive minds in college football.”
After an embarrassing 41-7 loss to BYU in week two when the Longhorns were breaking in a brand new offensive line and a new starting quarterback, Texas has been steadily improving, especially on offense where Strong is now going with sophomore Tyrone Swoopes under center in place of the veteran David Ash, who had to give up the sport earlier this fall after a series of concussions.
Swoopes is big (6-feet-4 inches, 243 pounds) and he’s much more athletic than recent Longhorn quarterbacks the Mountaineers have faced the prior two seasons. The quarterback is completing almost 60 percent of his passes for 1,723 yards and nine touchdowns, and he is also third on the team in rushing with 237 yards and three scores.
“The Swoopes kid is a big, physical quarterback who is hard to get on the ground,” said Holgorsen. “They will use him in the run game some and the thing that he has really improved on is getting the ball downfield to a couple of their receivers.”
Speaking of running the ball, the Longhorns have two of the better running backs in the country in Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray – both 215-plus pounders. Brown and Gray helped Texas churn out a season-high 241 yards on the ground during last Saturday’s 34-13 win over Texas Tech, with Brown going for a season-high 116 yards.
Brown leads the team with 533 yards and six touchdowns while Gray, who rushed for 56 yards in last year’s win against West Virginia and had 87 yards versus the Mountaineers two years ago in Austin, is second on the team with 445 yards and three scores.
Texas is averaging 172 yards on the ground over its last five games as its new offensive line continues to jell under first-year offensive line coach Joe Wickline, who Mountaineer fans may recall was Oklahoma State’s longtime offensive line coach.
“I would anticipate that they’re going to try to control the ball – try to wear us down and run the ball a good bit,” said Holgorsen. “Then, when we have to commit to the run, they’re going to try and long-ball us.”
Wide receivers Jaxon Shipley and John Harris are having exceptional senior seasons for the Longhorns, with Shipley leading the team with 51 catches while Harris becoming the big downfield threat the Texas offense desperately needs with a team-best 814 yards receiving and six touchdowns.
“This Harris kid has come out of nowhere and almost has 1,000 yards on the year,” said Holgorsen. “He is a big, physical guy who has started to emerge.”
A big issue all season long for Texas has been getting explosive plays from scrimmage and Harris is beginning to produce them with a 68-yard pass hookup last Saturday against Texas Tech and a 45-yard reception in the Iowa State win.
In nine games this season, the Longhorn offense has produced only five plays of 40 yards or longer; however, four of those five have occurred in the last four weeks.
Defensively, Texas’ defensive front is very comparable to what West Virginia faced last weekend against TCU, which is a cause for concern for the Mountaineers because the Horned Frogs had success controlling the line of scrimmage and getting pressure on quarterback Clint Trickett without bringing extra people.
The West Virginia coaches say Texas can get to the quarterback without blitzing and that will be something to pay close attention to. Twelve different players have sacks so far this year and the Longhorns are averaging three sacks per game, led by defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway’s five.
Defensive tackle Malcolm Brown and linebacker Steve Edmond are right behind Ridgeway with 4.5 sacks each. Mountaineer fans are certainly familiar with Edmond, whose plays in overtime helped the Longhorns to a 47-40 victory in Morgantown last year. Edmond is second on the team in tackles this season with 59, one behind senior linebacker Jordan Hicks’ 60 that includes a season-high 18 stops in the Iowa State win.
“They’ve got linebackers there who seem like they’ve been there for a decade,” Holgorsen joked.
Texas has one of the better defenses in the country, ranking ninth against the pass (177.3 ypg.), 14th in yards allowed per play (4.61), 14th in pass efficiency defense (105.09 rating), tied for 18th in sacks (3.0) and 37th in yards allowed (352.4 ypg.).
Holgorsen said it is going to be important for his offensive linemen to correctly identify the various defensive fronts the Longhorns can jump in and out of during the game.
“They go three-down, four-down with the same personnel,” he explained. “They’ll kick one of those 'backers up and stand him as one of the linebackers and make it look like a 3-3 stack. That changes how we identify things and the blocking schemes and all that. We go up against the same things with our defense. It’s just a matter of ID'ing the front.”
Holgorsen and Strong have met once previously when Strong was at Louisville and Holgorsen was beginning his first season at West Virginia in 2011.
In that game, Louisville came up with a blocked field goal return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter that flipped the game and helped the Cardinals to a 38-35 victory. Strong’s other meeting against West Virginia came in 2010 when the Mountaineers held on for a tough, 17-9 victory in Louisville.
West Virginia and Texas have met three times on the gridiron and all three games have been hotly contested encounters. In 1956, a year before coach Darrell Royal’s arrival in Austin, WVU defeated Texas, 7-6, and the Mountaineers also beat the Longhorns, 48-45, in Austin in 2012. Last year, Texas beat West Virginia, 47-40, in overtime in Morgantown.
“The last two games that we’ve been in with Texas have been pretty exciting, so we have no reason to think that this game is going to be any different than those games,” said Holgorsen.
Saturday’s game will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on FOX Sports 1 (Craig Bolerjack and Ryan Nece).
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s pregame coverage begins with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show at noon and can be heard on stations throughout West Virginia and also online through leanStream and TuneIn.
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