Saturday, October 30
Morgantown, W.Va.
2:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
vs
Iowa State
Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
United Bank Playbook – Iowa State Preview
October 27, 2021 04:55 PM | Football
| Tale of the Tape |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 32.3 | 28.4 |
| Points Against | 17.0 | 21.7 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 170.0 | 125.6 |
| Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game | 99.0 | 108.4 |
| Passing Yards Per Game | 258.9 | 264.7 |
| Passing Yards Allowed Per Game | 163.9 | 247.9 |
| Total Yards Per Game | 428.9 | 390.3 |
| Total Yards Allowed Per Game | 262.9 | 356.3 |
| First Downs For | 154 | 153 |
| First Downs Against | 101 | 128 |
| Fumbles/Lost | 7/2 | 15/5 |
| Interceptions/Return Yards | 5/38 | 4/76 |
| Net Punting | 33.2 | 39.5 |
| Field Goal/Attempts | 15/17 | 13/14 |
| Time of Possession | 31:44 | 31:49 |
| 3rd Down Conversions | 35/87 | 38/96 |
| 3rd Down Conversion Defense | 31/91 | 36/99 |
| 4th Down Conversions | 7/10 | 9/13 |
| 4th Down Conversion Defense | 4/10 | 6/13 |
| Sacks By/Yards Lost | 17/115 | 18/108 |
After defeating Iowa State 49-19 in 2016 and 20-16 in 2017, West Virginia has lost three straight to ISU by progressively worse scores.
In 2018, when West Virginia was ranked No. 6 in the country with quarterback Will Grier behind center, the Mountaineers fell 30-14 under the lights at Jack Trice Stadium.
A year later, Neal Brown's first at WVU, the Mountaineers were outscored 24-0 in the second half in a 38-14 defeat in Morgantown.
Last season, the losing deficit swelled to 36 in perhaps West Virginia's poorest showing of 2020. WVU's difficulties against the Cyclones in that game demonstrated the need for the Mountaineers to become a stronger, more physical football squad in 2021.
This Saturday, we will get another look at how it's going for Brown's young football program in that department when 22nd-ranked Iowa State makes its bi-annual return to Milan Puskar Stadium.
Iowa State's head coach is the same, as are most of the actors responsible for its current three-game winning streak over West Virginia.
"I was laughing the other day telling my staff, 'There are some guys on their defense playing longer than some of our coaches have been coaching,'" Brown joked Tuesday afternoon.
He's right.
Iowa State's game notes list in stars the number of letters awarded to each player. Defensive tackles Enyi Uwazurike and Tucker Robertson, defensive end Zack Petersen, weakside linebacker Jake Hummel, middle linebacker O'Rien Vance, strongside linebacker Mike Rose, boundary safety Greg Eisworth, left cornerback Anthony Johnson and right corner Datrone Young each have three stars each listed next to their names.
Defensive end Will McDonald, middle linebacker Gerry Vaughn, free safety Kym-Mani King and right corner Tayvonn Kyle have two.
Iowa State has 13 players on both sides of the ball with at least 20 career starts and four – Rose, Uwazurike, Eisworth and quarterback Brock Purdy – having more than 40.
We'll get to Purdy in a moment, but first Rose, whom many people believe could be playing in the NFL well into the next decade. Last year's Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year is 6-foot-4, weighs 250 pounds and can comfortably go from playing in the box to dropping into pass coverage against guys much smaller than he.
"Rose is special," Brown admitted. "He gives them the unique ability to play coverage and also get into the box. He was the defensive player of the year last year for a reason."
Therefore, it will behoove West Virginia to know where No. 23 is on the field at all times.
The other guy the Mountaineers have to pay close attention to is middle safety Isheem Young, who wears jersey No. 1. When defensive coordinator Jon Heacock began running this three-safety defense at Iowa State, the middle safety used to typically line up right behind the linebackers about 8-to-10 yards off the ball.
Now, that middle safety is back with the other two safeties, and where he ends up going determines what the Cyclones are doing defensively.
"The whole premise of it is to get eight eyes seeing the ball at all times," Brown explained. "Nothing is easy. The scheme gets talked about a lot because they play three safeties, but what makes them great on defense is their defensive line. They've got a minimum of two NFL players up there. McDonald is as good a pass rusher as anybody in our league and (Uwazurike) is a load and his presence was definitely felt against us last year."
Brown continued.
"They give you the impression, because they play a light box, that there is going to be running room, but that's not the case," he said. "That's an illusion because they slam those big defensive ends inside, their nose (J.R. Singleton and Isaiah Lee) are really good players, and then they can get four more in the box really, really fast."
Then, just as quickly as they can bring down those extra defenders to stop the run, they can drop back to defend the pass and your quarterback is trying to throw the football into eight-man coverages, which is obviously not ideal.
WVU quarterback Jarret Doege admitted earlier this week that he's got to trust his eyes.
"With these guys, I try and divide the field in half," Doege explained. "Because they do so much stuff in the backend and drop eight, you kind of want to look to the boundary, 'Alright, what coverage are they playing here and to the field, what coverage are they playing here?' That's really what my eyes are looking for and then you have to be really decisive to try and find small holes within their defense."
"Small holes" are certainly the operative words for an Iowa State defense that is giving up just 17 points, 99 yards rushing and 262.9 yards per game.
Offensively, the 5-2 Cyclones have the Big 12's top returning rusher, Breece Hall, who has done more than his fair share of damage in Iowa State's last two victories against the Mountaineers. The Wichita, Kansas, resident has rushed 50 times for 229 yards and four touchdowns in those games, including running for 132 with three scores in 2019.
"He's patient," WVU defensive tackle Dante Stills said. "He's downhill, he's strong and tough; he's athletic, and he knows how to make plays, and we have to limit those."Tight ends Charlie Kolar and Chase Allen stand 6-feet-6 or taller, and both weigh 250 pounds-plus. Kolar has caught seven passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns in Iowa State's three wins against WVU, while Allen has had receptions in three of Iowa State's games versus West Virginia when he's out there as the second tight end in the game.
There were instances last year when Iowa State brought in a third tight end, which causes all kinds of unique issues for the defense.
"I think it's more unique what their tight ends are," WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley noted. "When you are 6-6, 6-7 and whatever they weigh, you don't really have to be very unique with what you do. You just have to be unique with where you put the ball, so they create a huge challenge with just their body presence.
"The (pre-snap) motions, shifts and the changing picture is something that's really unique, it's almost triple-option-like with the numbers and angles of how they do it," Lesley said.
"There are a lot of teams that run 12-personnel, but these tight ends are a lot bigger than usual tight ends we play, and they're one of the main keys to their offense," Stills added. "We know what type of plays they like to run with them."
When Iowa State lines up in a two- and three-tight end formations, that also adds additional gaps that must be defended.
"We always call it surface," Lesley said. "They create three-man surface, four-man surface, five-man surface and any guy is going to create a gap, but how they create theirs with their length and just their body presence is hard."
To compound matters, Iowa State's No. 1 receiver is 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior Xavier Hutchinson, who leads the team with 46 catches for 539 yards and five touchdowns. Hutchinson had a team-best 12 receptions in last Saturday's 24-21 win over eighth-ranked Oklahoma State in Ames.
He's caught 110 passes for 1,310 yards and nine touchdowns in just 19 career games for the Cyclones.
"He makes a lot of contested catches, and probably makes more of those than anybody in our league," Brown said. "If you look at their targets it's him down to Kolar and then you've got Allen and Hall. Those are the guys getting the most receptions by far."
And, of course, the guy getting them the football is the scrambling maestro Brock Purdy, now a fourth-year senior with 42 career games under his belt. Close to 10% of Purdy's 10,630 career passing yards have come against West Virginia.
As a true freshman, Purdy pump-faked and juked his way to a 30-14 victory over the Mountaineers by completing 18-of-25 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns.
A year later, Purdy was 19-of-30 for 229 yards and one TD in a 24-point win at Milan Puskar Stadium. Last year, the Gilbert, Arizona, resident misfired on only three of his 23 pass attempts for 247 yards with three touchdowns.
Added up, he has completed 47 of his 78 pass attempts for 730 yards and seven touchdowns against the Mountaineers - which is approaching the numbers successful quarterbacks Donovan McNabb and Ken Dorsey put up against West Virginia defenses years ago.
"He hurts you on third down, and that's where he was really effective against us last year scrambling around," Brown said of Purdy.
During his weekly Tuesday news conference, Brown was asked about Iowa State's recent success against West Virginia and how many of his players remembered the score from last year's game in Ames.
"This age group that we're dealing with, I doubt they remember that," he said. "I don't mean that in a bad way, but that was a long time ago. Last year's performance was what it was. I can sit up here and give you a lot of reasons why it happened."
Earlier this week, junior left guard James Gmiter did tweet the score of last year's defeat. Doege was also asked if he remembered the score of last year's game during his visit with the media.
"Yeah, 42-6," he said.
Saturday's contest will kick off at the special time of 2 p.m. The matchup will be live-streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Courtney Lyle, Brandon Weedon and Shane Sparks) while Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage will begin at 10:30 a.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
"It's a huge challenge for us and our guys are excited to get back home," Brown said. "It's been over a month, and hopefully, our fans will show up in big numbers and then have a good Halloween. That's the plan, and we need them and there are plenty of good reasons for them to be here."
Tickets still remain and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Players Mentioned
OL
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DL
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