MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The annual Phil Steele College Football Preview is devoured by college football fans from Washington to Miami each year looking for useful tidbits and nuggets to help them get a feel for how the college football season is going to play out.
 
The 352-page magazine is so jam-packed full of information that we sometimes skip over some helpful things. I was certainly guilty of this when I blew past page 29, which revealed the most experienced and least experienced teams in college football this year.
 
At the bottom left column of the two-column graphic is the 10 Big 12 teams ranked by experience, and near the bottom of that was West Virginia, listed 103^rd in overall experience (out of 130). 
 
And below the Mountaineers on Steele's chart is Saturday's opponent Texas at 109. Here is what 4-6 West Virginia and 4-6 Texas have had to face during the last two months of conference play:
 
* A nine-win Oklahoma State team with 10 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors on its defensive two-deep
 
* A nine-win Oklahoma team with 20 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors on its two-deep
 
* An eight-win Baylor team with 24 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors on its two-deep
 
* A seven-win Kansas State team with 20 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors on its two-deep
 
* A six-win Iowa State team with 21 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors on its two-deep
 
Six-win Texas Tech, which fired its coach Matt Wells last month, has one of the most experienced football teams in the conference with 24 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors.
 
Are you beginning to see a correlation here?
 
To paraphrase Neal Brown after last Saturday's 34-17 loss at Kansas State, the Wildcats won because they didn't beat themselves. That's because older, more experienced football teams that are well-coached generally don't do that.
 
Yes, experienced players matter, and it's playing out on the field this year in the Big 12. It's not a coincidence that the two teams in the driver's seat to be in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday, Dec. 4, (Oklahoma State and Baylor) also happen to be two of the most experienced football teams in the conference this year.
 
It's also not a coincidence that the teams near the bottom of the standings - specifically Texas, West Virginia, TCU and Kansas - are four of the Big 12's least experienced teams. Yes, even Texas, with all those four- and five-star players, is dealing with the inconsistencies and issues that come with having a young and inexperienced football team.
 
The last time the Longhorns lost five games in a row? That would be 1956, the year before Darrell Royal took over the Longhorn program.
 
Incidentally, Texas' eight-game losing streak that year began with a 7-6 loss to West Virginia at Memorial Stadium in early October.
 
This Saturday against WVU, the Longhorns will be without their best player, running back Bijan Robinson, who has accounted for roughly 30% of their touchdowns this year. Trying to match up this week's depth chart with the one Texas put out at the beginning of the season is like working a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
 
The same goes for West Virginia.
 
When you get to November, depth becomes a big issue for everybody and when you are replacing 21- and 22-year-old Jimmies and Joes with 18- and 19-year-old Jimmies and Joes, that's difficult to conceal, no matter how talented those young Jimmies and Joes are.
 
"Nobody feels sorry for us," Neal Brown said Tuesday afternoon. "We've got a thin roster at some spots, and it's really not a West Virginia problem. You look across the board and it's probably an issue for a lot of teams. The old days of building a roster and having depth at every single position and being three-deep is just not the reality anymore."
 
Of course, Name, Image and Likeness and immediate transfer eligibility have taken care of that. If a player doesn't like where he sits on the depth chart, he can either roll up his sleeves and do something about it, or he can go someplace else.
 
Since Nov. 1, 39 players have entered the transfer portal. That's guys from Syracuse, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Alabama, Louisville, Ole Miss, Iowa, TCU, Clemson, Miami, Vanderbilt, Arizona State, Washington, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Washington State, Maryland, Illinois, LSU, Iowa State, Florida State, Pitt, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Rutgers, Texas and, yes, West Virginia.    
 
"We can gripe and complain about it, but it does no good," Brown said Tuesday afternoon. "You get guys who don't get immediate results and they are going to look elsewhere. That's an issue across college football, so what you are going to have is veterans and really young guys, and so you better get your really young guys ready to play."
 
Which is what Brown and his coaching staff are fixing to do this week. 
 
Junior will linebacker Exree Loe was lost for the rest of the season with an injury during last Saturday's loss at Kansas State. WVU's other will linebacker, Lance Dixon, was injured during the Oklahoma State loss and missed last Saturday's game at Kansas State. Brown won't completely rule out Dixon's return this Saturday, but he labeled him "highly questionable."
 
Safety is another area where West Virginia is having to juggle players.
 
"We have some depth concerns at safety and linebacker, but we're going to line up and play," Brown said. "(Middle linebacker) Josh Chandler (Semedo) will play. (Backup middle linebacker) DeShawn Stevens will play more. Scottie Young finished the (Kansas State) game playing linebacker, and I thought he played really well. He can move down and (we can) play some dime packages with him in the game.
 
"(True freshman) Saint McLeod is going to play more to relieve Jackie Matthews at spear. He played in the game on Saturday, and he's shown that he's ready to play," Brown said. "We're going to see this week if either Davis Mallinger or Caleb Coleman can get some reps at safety."
 
With Mallinger and Coleman, Brown said it's a matter of preserving their redshirt years because both players have bright futures.
 
"Saint McLeod has already played in enough games, but the goal is to redshirt Davis and Caleb. I think one has two and the other has one, or maybe each has one," Brown said.
 
These guys are joining a handful of true freshman players already seeing significant action, specifically, right tackle Wyatt Milum, wide receiver Kaden Prather and running back Justin Johnson Jr. on offense, and free safety Aubrey Brooks on defense.
 
Prather, one of the most touted prospects in last December's recruiting class, came on with a four-catch, 60-yard performance in last Saturday's loss at Kansas State.
 
Across the field on Saturday will be a Texas team with lots of FRs popping up in its two-deep now, too, including fantastic freshman wide receiver Xavier Worthy, who was targeted an astonishing 23 times in last Saturday's loss to Kansas. He caught 14 of them for 152 yards and three touchdowns.
 
In week six against Oklahoma, Worthy grabbed nine passes for 261 yards and two touchdowns.
 
Therefore, we are going to see lots of young guys running around out there on both sides of the football this Saturday.
 
"When I turn on the film, I don't see a Texas team that's not playing hard," Brown pointed out. "I see a team that's flying around. I see a team that you can tell their staff is still working extremely hard."
 
As for his team, Brown simply wants them to play better football. If that happens, the outcome will take care of itself.
 
"We've got to play quality football that gives you an opportunity to win," he said. "That's the goal for me."
 
A victory Saturday against Texas and another win next Saturday at Kansas gets West Virginia bowl eligible. Wins over West Virginia and Kansas State next Saturday in Austin gets the Longhorns another game.
 
That would certainly take some of the sting off of what has happened of late, and it would also give one team or the other an opportunity to get their young players more practice time and some more seasoning heading into the offseason.
 
And as you can see, seasoning is one of the key ingredients to success.
 
It's a True Blue contest and fans are encouraged to wear their blue to the stadium for Saturday's game, which will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Anish Shroff, Mike Golic Jr. and Taylor McGregor).
 
Prior to kickoff, West Virginia will recognize its 2021 senior class.
 
"It's confusing who is a senior and who is not, based on the guys who have no eligibility left and the guys who have potential eligibility left," Brown admitted. "We're giving them the option to walk. I'm not pressing them to make final decisions whether they're coming back or not, just because I don't see any reason to put stress on them with two weeks left.
 
"With senior days, I guess there isn't any rule that you can't do it twice so I wouldn't put a lot of credence in who walks and who doesn't walk," Brown concluded.
 
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.