Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
United Bank Playbook - Kansas Preview
October 03, 2018 12:35 PM | Football
| Tale of the Tape |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 28.8 | 42.2 |
| Points Against | 24.2 | 17.8 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 184.0 | 158.5 |
| Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game | 177.2 | 131.0 |
| Passing Yards Per Game | 175.8 | 372.8 |
| Passing Yards Allowed Per Game | 202.4 | 212.8 |
| Total Yards Per Game | 359.8 | 531.2 |
| Total Yards Allowed Per Game | 379.6 | 343.8 |
| First Downs For | 88 | 101 |
| First Downs Against | 90 | 83 |
| Fumbles/Lost | 6/2 | 6/1 |
| Interceptions/Return Ave. | 8/18.5 | 4/26.5 |
| Net Punting | 40.3 | 38.1 |
| Field Goal/Attempts | 5/10 | 3/5 |
| Time of Possession | 30:32 | 28:29 |
| 3rd Down Conversions | 24/74 | 27/46 |
| 3rd Down Conversion Defense | 28/71 | 19/57 |
| Sacks By/Yards Lost | 5/33 | 8/46 |
| Red Zone Scoring | 9/11 | 15/15 |
We already know about David Sills V, whose 18 touchdown catches last year earned him All-America recognition. He continues to perform at a high level this season with five touchdown receptions in the Mountaineers' first four games.
We also know about Gary Jennings Jr., his 97 grabs for 1,096 yards last season the most of any returning Mountaineer player. This year, Jennings Jr. is also catching them in the end zone, too, his six TD grabs leading the team so far.
And now defenses must contend with Simms, filling in nicely for last year's No. 3 receiver Ka'Raun White, whose 61 catches for 1,004 yards and 12 touchdowns were actually second to Jennings Jr. and Sills V on the team in 2017.
The production from White's spot in the wide receiver rotation has remained consistent with Simms assuming the team lead with 24 catches for 433 yards after his career-best nine-catch, 138-yard performance in last Saturday's 42-34 victory at Texas Tech.
It's the third straight 100-yard receiving effort for the Bowie, Maryland, resident. With defenses concentrating on stopping Sills V and Jennings Jr., that is leaving Simms in single coverage situations where he's been able to use his speed and quickness to get behind defenses.
He did it against Youngstown State when he caught eight passes for 119 yards, and he did it two weeks ago when he burned Kansas State with an 82-yard touchdown reception and finished the game with 136 yards on just five catches.
That's 22 catches for 393 yards and two touchdowns for Simms in his last three games, which is going to force defenses to focus more on stopping him.
The problem is you can only play 11 at a time.
"That's going to make us harder to defend when you have David Sills on one side and Marcus Simms on the other side," Dana Holgorsen pointed out.
So, take away Simms and that leaves Sills V running loose on the other side of the field. It gives Gary Jennings Jr. more space to work the middle of the field, and it also opens up more opportunities for sophomore T.J. Simmons, another wide receiver who has demonstrated explosiveness in the passing game.
Simmons caught a 59-yard touchdown pass in the season opener against Tennessee, and he's had a couple of grabs in the Mountaineers' last three games against Youngstown State, Kansas State and Texas Tech.
There is also diminutive slot receiver Tevin Bush, who caught a 62-yard touchdown pass against Kansas State two weeks ago, and the tight-end duo of Trevon Wesco and Jovani Haskins, who have combined to catch seven passes for 96 yards.
That's a lot of options for quarterback Will Grier, the nation's second-leading passer heading into this weekend's action.
What do you take away?
Texas Tech linebackers coach Zac Spavital, WVU offensive coordinator Jake Spavital's brother, told Jake after the game that Simms is making the Mountaineers even harder to defend.
"The way my brother put it to me after the game was that Will has so much confidence in Marcus that the hit charts show the ball is being sprayed all over the field," Jake remarked. It's very tough to defend that when you have three guys playing at a high level, and the ball is getting spread around evenly."
Actually, right now Grier seems to be looking in Simms' direction a little more frequently. Last year, Simms caught 35 passes for 663 yards and five touchdowns, but there were times when his name was lost on the stat sheet.
"You can tell that Will is gaining confidence in (Simms) as well, and he's starting to go in that direction as much as he does the other direction," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen noted.
The veteran coach attributes Simms' consistent production this year to maturity.
"He was young and pretty immature," Holgorsen said. "Now he's older. He's always been a talented guy, but his practice habits have changed and he's practicing well."
Spavital agrees.
"He's turning into an every-down guy for us," he said. "We put a lot on his shoulders, not just from an offensive perspective, but on special teams as well."
Simms is also West Virginia's top kickoff and punt returner and he leads the team with 585 all-purpose yards, which averages out to 146.2 yards per game and 16.3 yards every time he touches the football.
He's got five of West Virginia's 21 pass plays from scrimmage of 20 yards or longer, including a pair of 45 yards or longer. Simms also has a 35-yard kickoff return against Tennessee and a 25-yard punt return against Kansas State to his credit so far this year.
It's just a matter of time before he breaks one in the kicking game, too.
West Virginia enters this Saturday's homecoming game against Kansas ranked third in passing offense averaging 372.8 yards per game and ninth in total offense averaging 531.3 yards per game.
WVU has the best red-zone offense in the country with a 100-percent efficiency rate inside the 20, and is also fourth in the country on third down, converting 58.7 percent of its chances.
But some of those numbers took a little bit of hit in the second half of last Saturday's game at Texas Tech when the offense managed just six first downs and 107 total yards after building a commanding 35-10 halftime lead.
Holgorsen said his players have been warned a repeat this Saturday is not acceptable.
"Our guys know it," Holgorsen said. "All you have to do is watch the video. The first half it looks really good and the second half looks like crap. So we have to go out and do better. I expect us to have a good week of practice just like we did last week and then go into the game and have the mentality that we better play well, we better play hard and we better be excited about it if we want to beat Kansas, period."The Jayhawks bring a 2-3 record into Morgantown. After dropping its season opener to Nicholls, Kansas beat Central Michigan and Rutgers before dropping Big 12 games to Baylor and Oklahoma State.
Kansas is going to play a pair of quarterbacks (Carter Stanley and Peyton Bender) on Saturday, and it also boasts the top rusher in the conference in true freshman Pooka Williams.
Williams ran for a season-best 163 yards in the Central Michigan victory and is averaging 118.5 yards per game. He beat out junior Khalil Herbert for the starting job this year. Herbert is a familiar name to Mountaineer fans after running for a career-high 291 yards against WVU's defense in last year's game in Lawrence.
"That whole game got our attention," Holgorsen admitted.
And this Saturday's game will certainly have our attention.
West Virginia (4-0, 2-0) will be celebrating its 90thhomecoming this weekend, beginning with the annual parade down High Street on Friday evening.
Saturday's game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Anish Schroff, Ahmad Brooks and Roddy Jones) and will kick off at noon.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's pregame coverage begins at 8:30 a.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show (Dan Zangrilli, Jed Drenning and Dale Wolfley) leading into regular game coverage at 11 a.m. with Tony Caridi and Dwight Wallace on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by contacting the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU-GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Saturday's game will be Kansas' fifth trip to Morgantown dating back to a 1941 homecoming played at Old Mountaineer Field.
WVU holds a 6-1 advantage in all-time series play, and is 4-0 in home games against the Jayhawks.
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