West Virginia Game Notes | Texas Tech Game Notes

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Strength versus strength will be on display Saturday when 3-1 West Virginia takes on 1-3 Texas Tech at Jones A&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

One of the strengths for West Virginia is a defensive line that has helped contribute to a Big 12-best four sacks per game and has led to a No. 1 national ranking in total defense.

A big strength for Texas Tech is a big offensive line that has only permitted a conference-low three sacks in 187 pass attempts through its first four games.

“I really think they’re good,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “They’re really big and they’re long – that’s the first thing that sticks out to you.”

The Mountaineers’ interior pairing of Darius and Dante Stills, defensive end Jeffery Pooler Jr. and bandits Jared Bartlett, Dylan Tonkery and VanDarius Cowan have feasted on inexperienced and reworked offensive lines so far this year.

West Virginia has had 11 sacks and 22 TFLs in its last two games against Baylor and Kansas and has already accumulated 37 total negative yardage plays in just four games so far.

As a result, WVU is surrendering just 240.3 yards per game to sit atop the national rankings. The Mountaineers are the only FBS team to rank in the Top 10 in 10 different defensive categories, while also ranking in the Top 5 in five different areas, including third in red-zone defense, allowing just a 60% success rate and fifth on third down with a 25.9% conversion percentage.

Gifted true freshman defensive tackle Ahkeem Mesidor has benefited from the attention offenses are giving to the Stills brothers by generating a team-best four sacks. Pooler has produced three while Darius Stills and Bartlett have accounted for 2 ½ sacks each.

Senior linebacker Tony Fields II is leading the WVU defense with 35 tackles, seven more than senior safety Alonzo Addae’s 28. Sophomore spear Tykee Smith shows 26 tackles, three tackles for loss and an interception and has been playing at an “elite level,” according to Brown.

Junior linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo also shows 26 tackles and is coming off a nine-tackle performance against Kansas to earn Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Texas Tech senior right tackle Josh Burger (6-foot-4, 295) is the smallest but most experienced player on a Red Raider offensive line that includes 6-foot-8, 315-pound sophomore Ethan Carde at left tackle and a couple of 6-foot-6 interior guys in left guard Weston Wright and center Dawson Deaton.

“They did a really good job getting their hands on us last year,” Brown said. “They get the ball out really quick and a lot of their passes are off of quick, play-action style too. We didn’t do a very good job winning at the line of scrimmage, and we didn’t do a very good job of getting our hands up and getting hands on balls, and they ran the ball really well against us.

“That’s the worst we’ve played defensively in the last two years, and they had a lot to do with it,” Brown added. “They had a great plan and they came out and jumped on us.”

They will be protecting first-time starter Henry Colombi, tabbed Texas Tech’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s game by second-year coach Matt Wells.

Alan Bowman was the guy Texas Tech fans had pinned their hopes on, but injuries and inconsistent play have forced Wells to go with Colombi, a Utah State transfer who is familiar with offensive coordinator David Yost’s system.

The junior made his Red Raider debut in the Kansas State loss, firing a pair of second-half touchdown passes and finishing the game completing 30-of-42 passes for 244 yards. He owns a 75.7% completion percentage in 123 career attempts.

Texas Tech has had two weeks to get Colombi prepared for West Virginia’s defense having last played at Iowa State on Saturday, Oct. 10.

“I think he’s more than capable,” Brown said of Colombi. “They obviously like him. They had a really good quarterback in Bowman, and then they had some issues at Iowa State and Colombi came in. Really, if you look at it they’re scoring drives the last two games have been led by him. He’s a dual-threat guy, gets the ball out of his hands super-fast and he’s athletic. He obviously knows the offense being in it for multiple years and we know he’s going to be a challenge.”

The Red Raiders also had a couple of weeks to prepare for last year’s game in Morgantown when they jumped out to a 21-3 first-quarter lead and cruised to a 38-17 victory.

Texas Tech scored touchdowns the first five times it had the football and was effective handling West Virginia’s defensive front that was coming off an eight-sack performance at Baylor eight days prior.

Once the game got off the rails, Brown turned to quarterback Jarret Doege, who completed 11-of-17 passes for 119 yards and has started every game since. The Lubbock resident led the Mountaineers to a pair of late-season wins at Kansas and TCU and has them off to a 3-1 start this season.

Doege hit on 26-of-44 passes against Kansas for a career-high 318 yards and a career-high matching three touchdowns, one each going to Bryce Ford-Wheaton, Leddie Brown and Sam James.

Doege will be returning home to Lubbock on Saturday where he spent part of his childhood before returning for his junior and senior seasons of high school. His other brother, Seth, had a six-touchdown-pass performance against West Virginia in 2012 running Neal Brown’s offense and Jarret was at the game. 

He said he rushed the field with Texas Tech students afterward when the Red Raiders won the game.

“Yeah, I’ve thrown a few tortillas during my time there,” Doege laughed. He said he will have approximately 15 family members in the stands for this weekend’s game.

Also a member of that Red Raider coaching staff was current WVU running backs coach Chad Scott. Matt Moore and Sean Regan also spent some time coaching in Lubbock.

Leddie Brown has been West Virginia’s offensive catalyst so far this year with a team-best 515 yards rushing and five touchdowns. He is coming off a career high 195-yard performance against Kansas to move up to fifth in the country in rushing, averaging 128.8 yards per game.

The junior has also generated 91 yards in the passing game to rank sixth in all-purpose yardage at 151.5 yards per game.

Sophomore Winston Wright Jr. is the Mountaineers’ top pass catcher with 19 receptions for 234 yards and a touchdown. Four different players have at least 12 catches so far.

Overall, West Virginia ranks 17th nationally in total offense, averaging 466.5 yards per game following its 544-yard performance in last week’s Kansas win.

Texas Tech’s defense is coordinated by a familiar name to West Virginia fans, Keith Patterson, who had that same role on former coach Dana Holgorsen’s staff at WVU in 2013. Another Texas Tech coach with West Virginia ties is defensive line coach Paul Randolph, who spent one season on Rich Rodriguez’s WVU staff in 2002.

They are overseeing a Red Raider defensive unit that ranks third from the bottom this week in total defense, giving up an average of 499 yards per game.

The Red Raiders are one spot lower than that at No. 74 in pass defense, surrendering 335.5 yards per game, and are 69th in scoring, allowing 39.5 points per game. Sixty-three of those came in an overtime shootout against Texas in week two.

Texas Tech has also given up some yardage in the running game by allowing opponents to rush for 163.5 yards per game.

Patterson has been long-known for his aggressive philosophy geared toward creating turnovers and negative yardage plays. Texas Tech has 20 TFLs and has forced four turnovers so far, but the offshoot of that aggressiveness is the opportunity for some big plays.

Texas Tech gave up three long touchdown passes in its 35-33 win over Houston Baptist, and also surrendered a 70-yard touchdown pass in its 31-21 loss to Kansas State. Overall, the Red Raiders have given up 11 pass plays of 25 yards or longer and six 20-plus-yard runs so far this year.

Junior middle linebacker Krishon Merriweather leads Texas Tech with 27 tackles and 3½ tackles for loss. Fourteen different Red Raider players have registered at least one TFL so far this season. 

Wells has had success following open weeks. He owns an 8-2 overall record including last year’s 38-17 victory over West Virginia in Morgantown.

He is currently 5-11 in two seasons at Texas Tech and is 49-45 overall in eighth seasons as a collegiate coach.

After defeating Houston Baptist in its season opener, Texas Tech lost 63-56 to Texas, 31-21 to Kansas State and 31-15 to Iowa State.

“They’ve played a very difficult schedule, and I think their record doesn’t tell the story, necessarily,” Brown said, noting that the Red Raiders had opportunities in the fourth quarter to beat Texas and Kansas State.

West Virginia’s 3-1 record includes a 56-10 win over Eastern Kentucky, a 27-21, double-overtime win over Baylor and a 38-17 win over Kansas, to go with a 27-13 loss at Oklahoma State.

Saturday’s game will have an unusual kickoff time of 5:30 p.m. EDT and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Anish Shroff, Tom Luginbill and Ian Fitzsimmons).

Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage begins at 2 p.m. with the Go-Mart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 4:30 p.m. on affiliate throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.

West Virginia owns a 6-3 overall advantage in the series, including a 3-1 record in games played in Lubbock.