MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When was the last time you tried to move a 360-pound appliance around your house?
 
Well, that's sort of what West Virginia University center Zach Frazier is going to be asked to do Thursday night when he goes up against impressive Baylor nose tackle Siaki Ika. The 6-foot-4, 358-pound junior transfer from LSU is one of the most physically imposing defensive linemen in the Big 12, and he's a big reason (no pun intended) why Baylor has college football's 18^th-ranked run defense.
 
West Virginia coach Neal Brown and offensive coordinator Graham Harrell spent a good portion of their Monday afternoon media sessions heaping praise on the Salt Lake City, Utah, resident.
 
"He's special," Brown noted. "He's not just a big guy. He's a monster of a man, but he's also agile. He's playing more plays in a row this year than he did last year, and he's a tough matchup one-on-one. I'm not sure anybody has had success yet blocking him in a one-on-one situation."
 
Last year, Brown got a severe case of heartburn watching No. 62 work over his offensive line in Baylor's 45-20 victory in Waco. Ika was credited with only three tackles, but he occupied multiple blockers, which enabled Baylor's second-level defenders to limit West Virginia to only 90 yards rushing and an average of 2.4 yards per carry.
 
Ika also got to quarterback Jarret Doege two times – two of the six sacks the Bears had on the afternoon.
 
"Their defense, as a whole, does some really good things, and I think they put a lot on those front guys, probably because they're big dudes and they're hard to move and can take up multiple people," Harrell said. "When you think you have numbers in the box, you don't really have numbers because some of their bigger guys count for two people, I guess.
 
"To me, the hardest way for a team to move the football is if the defense can get pressure with four or can control the run game with having less hats," Harrell added. "If that's the case, then that can make things challenging. That's the challenge they present, and we've got to figure out ways to move it regardless."
 
This year, Baylor is permitting just 96.8 yards per game on the ground and only Oklahoma State has rushed for more than 100 yards against the Bears' defense and that came with a team that has a running quarterback.
 
The No. 7-ranked Cowboys scored 36 points, snapping Baylor's 18-game streak of not allowing more than 30 points in a game, but nine of those came on a safety and a kickoff return, so technically the streak is still intact.
 
No. 21 BYU managed just 83 yards on the ground against a Baylor defense that is surrendering only 4.7 yards per play. That's Dave Aranda football going back to his defensive coordinator days at LSU.
 

What makes Baylor (No. 23 in this week's coaches' poll) so successful defensively is its ability to control the run game with a light box, forcing teams to throw into coverage. Baylor doesn't have a bunch of interceptions this season, just three, but it does have 22 pass breakups and has gotten off the field 65% of the time on third down. That compares much more favorably to West Virginia's 57% defensive success rate on third down this season.
 
According to Brown, fifth-year senior middle linebacker Dillon Doyle (6-3, 240) "makes the Bears go" while senior star safety Al Walcott (6-2, 219) leads Baylor in total tackles (32) and tackles for losses (five). There are four six-year seniors on the Bear defense, including starting defensive end Cole Maxwell (6-4, 285) and jack linebacker Bryson Jackson (6-4, 204).
 
There are 12 seniors listed on Baylor's defensive two-deep heading into Thursday night's clash.
 
"Their front six has done a really good job of controlling the run game, and that's allowed them to play a lot of two-safety defenses," Brown said. "They haven't given up many explosive pass plays because of that. They can keep their safeties out of the run fits."
 
On the other side of the ball, Aranda opted to go with sophomore Blake Shapen as his starting quarterback in the spring over last year's starter Gerry Bohanon, who passed for 336 yards and four touchdowns in last year's win against West Virginia and led the Bears to the Big 12 championship.
 
Bohanon has since transferred to South Florida, leaving the Baylor offense completely in Shapen's hands. The 6-foot, 200-pounder from Shreveport, Louisiana, is coming off a career-high 345-yard passing performance in the Oklahoma State loss and is completing 69.3% of his throws for 1,118 yards and nine touchdowns. It was said that Shapen's ability to throw the ball down the field is why Aranda chose Shapen, although WVU coaches warn that Shapen also has some mobility.
 
The quarterback's two big playmakers are speed burners.
 
Sophomore Monaray Baldwin (5-9, 164) is a 10.6 runner in the 100-meter dash who caught 70- and 49-yard touchdown passes against Oklahoma State, and now shows 12 catches for 261 yards and three scores on the season.
 
Freshman Richard Reese (5-9, 175) has emerged as Baylor's top ball carrier after season-opening starter Taye McWilliams (6-1, 211) suffered a concussion in the BYU game and has yet to return to the field. Reese stepped in nicely with 156 yards and three touchdowns in the Texas State win, and he currently leads all freshman running backs with seven rushing touchdowns, while totaling 400 yards on the ground.
 
Fifth-year senior tight end Ben Sims (6-5, 258) is Baylor's top pass catcher with 20 receptions for 139 yards and two scores, while preseason All-America candidates Connor Galvin (6-7, 302) and Jacob Gall (6-2, 299) anchor a veteran offensive line.
 
Gall and Galvin were instrumental in Baylor's 525-yard performance in last year's victory over West Virginia.
 
"I think the strength is in their O-line and the genius in what they do is they don't run very many plays," Brown noted. "They've got some quick-game concepts, some play action pass concepts and their run game are all based off of outside zone. 
 
"What they do is they master these few plays, and they do them with shifts, motions, formations to the boundary, unbalanced … they do it a bunch of different ways. It's easy for them, and it's hard on the team defending them," Brown said.
 
Baylor has already gone for it 16 times on fourth down this season, including once at their own 11 yard-line with less than 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter at Oklahoma State. Last year, the Bears went for it 35 times on fourth down on the way to possessing the football three minutes longer than their opponents, on average. That's the same possession rate Baylor has this season on just nine more plays than its opponents.
 
Baylor also shows a punt return for a touchdown on its special teams.
 
The Bears are hunting for their first-ever victory in Morgantown. West Virginia has defeated Baylor by scores of 70-63 in 2012, 41-27 in 2014, 24-21 in 2016, 58-14 in 2018 and 27-21 in overtime in 2020 during Brown's second season at the helm.
 
Thursday night's contest has been deemed a Stripe the Stadium game with fans encouraged to wear either gold or blue based on your seat locations. People sitting in even numbered sections are encouraged to wear gold while those in odd sections should wear blue.
 
The game will be televised nationally on FS1 (Noah Eagle and Mark Helfrich) and will kick off at 7 p.m. ET.
 
Specific Baylor game information was released last Thursday afternoon.
 
"They are the Big 12 champions until proven otherwise," Brown said. "We're excited to be back home, the first time in a long time, almost a month. It's a Thursday night game and there have been some classic games here in the history of West Virginia football playing on primetime TV on Thursday nights. We hope to add to that."
 
Mountaineer Sports Network coverage begins at 4 p.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular apps WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network.
 
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.