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Mountaineers, Horned Frogs Meet Thursday
October 27, 2015 11:47 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia continues its tour of college football’s top 5 with a Thursday night meeting against third-ranked TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Horned Frogs have spent the last two seasons ranked among the nation’s elite after going 12-1 and beating Ole Miss 42-3 in the Peach Bowl last season. TCU was a late stop in Waco, Texas away from earning a bid to play in last year’s college football playoff, and the Horned Frogs are in prime position to qualify for the playoffs this season with a 7-0 record heading into Thursday night’s game against the Mountaineers.
“It’s always a fun game with TCU,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “These guys are pretty good.”
TCU shows blowout victories over Stephen F. Austin, SMU, Texas and Iowa State; however, it’s been the Horned Frog’s ability to win close games and make key plays at the end of games under veteran coach Gary Patterson that has been the biggest difference.
They have already won three games this season by a touchdown or less after winning three such games last year, including a 31-30 verdict in Morgantown.
West Virginia fans have become quite familiar with TCU’s ability to pull out games late, watching Jaden Oberkrom kick a field goal on the final play of last year’s game in Morgantown to give the 10th-ranked Horned Frogs a come-from-behind victory.
It was a similar deal three years ago when West Virginia was unable to preserve a 31-24 lead with less than three minutes to go in the game. Facing a second and 19 from his own six yard with less than a minute and a half remaining, Trevone Boykin threw a pass to a wide-open Josh Boyce along the far sideline and the receiver raced 94 yards for a game-tying touchdown.
After an exchange of touchdowns in overtime, Patterson rolled the dice and went for two in the first overtime with Boykin delivering the winning pass to Boyce.
Two years ago in Fort Worth, West Virginia overcame a 14-point first half deficit and then blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead before pulling out a 30-27 triumph in overtime.
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Boykin played well in that game, too, except all of his production came from the wide receiver position instead of quarterback where he caught 11 passes for 100 yards.
In last year’s victory, Boykin passed for 166 yards and a touchdown and also ran nine times for 49 yards and a score. In three career games against West Virginia, the Heisman Trophy candidate has accounted for 600 yards by all methods, including 420 and three touchdowns through the air.
“I thought he was the best player in college football last year,” said Holgorsen. “I’m tired of seeing him, I can tell you that.”
Boykin is having another outstanding season in 2015, completing 66.4 percent of his pass attempts for 2,539 yards and 25 touchdowns. He’s added 440 yards and five scores on the ground and it’s his feet as much as his arm that are cause for concern for West Virginia’s defense, which has struggled at times this year accounting for quarterbacks in the run game.
Baylor quarterback Seth Russell burned West Virginia’s defense for 160 yards on just 14 carries in the Bears’ 62-38 victory in Waco, and a week prior to that, Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph was able to break free for a 40-yard run down the far sideline the put the Cowboys into position to score a critical third-quarter touchdown.
Coming up with a way to slow down Boykin without exposing the rest of the defense will be a tricky proposition, for sure. Concentrating too much on stopping Boykin opens up senior Aaron Green (632 yards and eight touchdowns) in the run game, or senior Josh Doctson (60 catches, 1,067 yards and 12 touchdowns) in the throw game.
“Doctson is a good as anybody and he’s going to be a chore to hold down and contain,” noted Holgorsen.
Speaking of seniors, TCU has 13 seniors on its offensive two-deep, including six along the offensive line, making the Horned Frogs one of the most experienced offenses in the country.
“(Boykin) has got great people around him, much like Baylor with all of their O-line guys back from a year ago; they’ve got four seniors up front led by their center – the (Joey) Hunt kid, 55, is the best center potentially in the country. He’s a really good player. They’ve got a lot of seniors up front, they’re big, they’re experienced, they’ve played a lot so when you’ve got a quarterback and an offensive line like that, that’s a heck of a place to start.”
It is on defense where the Horned Frogs have been somewhat susceptible this season with some younger players, particularly through the air in games against SMU (334 yards), Texas Tech (392 yards) and, most recently, at Iowa State (346 yards).
“Their entire linebacker corps, one of their safeties and both of their corners last year are all in the NFL,” noted Holgorsen. “Those were really good players that they’ve replaced with young kids that don’t have as much experience, but they’re good athletes and they’re ready to play.”
That means West Virginia is going to have to find some more consistency in a passing game that has been sporadic at times in Big 12 action.
Overall, junior quarterback Skyler Howard has completed 59 percent of his pass attempts for 1,566 yards and 15 touchdowns, but in three conference games his completion rate is right around 50 percent with six touchdowns and five interceptions.
Howard completed 48.6 percent of his pass attempts in West Virginia’s 24-point loss at No. 2 Baylor, with many of his throws going downfield against single coverage. Hitting more of those downfield passes will take the pressure off a running game that has been consistently reliable all year with juniors Wendell Smallwood and Rushel Shell.
The duo has already accumulated 990 yards and eight touchdowns in helping the Mountaineers to an average of 215.7 yards per game on the ground. Howard has also had a big hand in West Virginia’s run-game success with 189 yards and two touchdowns, including a 50-yard TD jaunt at Oklahoma.
Shelton Gibson leads a young WVU receiver corps with 23 catches for 540 yards and six touchdowns, including a 70-yarder on West Virginia’s opening possession of the Baylor game. Junior Daikiel Shorts Jr. shows 20 catches for 251 yards and two touchdowns, while true freshman Jovon Durante has 17 catches for 247 yards and three touchdowns.
The Mountaineers got some additional receiving production from a couple of newcomers against Baylor in backup quarterback David Sills and junior college transfer Ka’Raun White.
Sills caught two passes for 64 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter, while White had two first-down receptions covering 40 yards. Both possess more size, which could help Howard’s accuracy on his down-field throws.
“Offensively, we need to get to the point where we can affect some games at the end and it’s my job to get them there, as soon as possible,” said Holgorsen.
Defensively, it’s been a mixed bag for West Virginia, especially since senior safety Karl Joseph was lost for the season during practice leading up to the Oklahoma State game. The Mountaineers limited the 12th-ranked Cowboys to just 362 total yards, but were unable to stop them on the ground in overtime in a 33-26 defeat.
In Waco, Baylor did as it pleased on the ground and through the air in rolling up 62 points, 34 first downs and 693 total yards. That performance dropped West Virginia to 71st in the country in total defense, 69th in scoring and 69th against the run.
Statistical Comparison
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At one point early this season, West Virginia ranked near the top of the NCAA leaders in all of those categories and it will be a real chore keeping TCU out of the end zone on Thursday night.
“You’re not going to stop these guys,” said Holgorsen. “They’re averaging 50 points and 600 yards a game. We knew we weren’t going to stop Baylor either. Last year, here, we did a good job of doing that against those two schools. When you go to their place and they’ve got a little bit more motivation due to the fact that we played pretty well against them a year ago, that means offensively we’ve got to do a lot better job of matching the scores.
“We’ve not been quite there offensively, but hopefully with the bye week and a little bit more practice we get a little bit closer because TCU is going to score some points.”
West Virginia’s three prior meetings against TCU have all come down to the wire with the Horned Frogs winning twice in Morgantown by one-point margins, and West Virginia winning at Amon G. Carter Stadium by three points in overtime in 2013.
Thursday’s game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. (EST) and will be televised nationally on Fox Sports 1 (Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Molly McGrath).
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage begins with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 4 p.m. and continues with pregame coverage at 6:30 p.m. on stations throughout the Mountain State and online through leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
The team is scheduled to depart early Wednesday evening for Fort Worth.
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