MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A pair of 3-3 football teams will meet Saturday afternoon at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas, when West Virginia faces Texas Tech.
 
The two teams have gotten to their 3-3 marks in different ways, West Virginia winning three of its last four, including an impressive 43-40 come-from-behind win over defending Big 12 champion Baylor last Thursday night in Morgantown.
 
Texas Tech has dropped three of its last four, including back-to-back losses to nationally ranked Kansas State and Oklahoma State. The Red Raiders also show an early season defeat at nationally ranked NC State and also clipped nationally ranked Texas 37-34 in overtime.
 
A strong argument can be made that Texas Tech has faced the most difficult schedule in the Big 12 up to this point.
 
The Red Raiders have had an extra week to get ready for West Virginia, an advantage they also had in their 2019 and 2020 victories over the Mountaineers. Texas Tech has won the last three against West Virginia, including last year's 23-20 triumph in Morgantown. Six of the last 10 games between these two have been determined by one possession and only one by more than 11 points.
 
Besides Big 12 play, the only other meeting between these two came in the 1938 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, when West Virginia was victorious 7-6.
 
On Saturday, West Virginia is going to have to contend with coach Joey McGuire's high-tempo offense, an attack similar to what the Mountaineers used to face when Kliff Kingsbury was coaching the Red Raiders.
 
McGuire was a well-known Texas high school football coach whose extensive Lone Star State prep contacts were appealing to the Red Raider brass during the hiring process.
 
It has already paid off with a 39^th-ranked recruiting class last year and does not include redshirt freshman quarterback Behren Morton (6-foot-2, 210 pounds), considered the highest-rated quarterback recruit to sign with Texas Tech.
 
Injuries to starter Tyler Shough (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) and backup Donovan Smith (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) forced McGuire to go with Morton against Oklahoma State. The Lubbock resident completed 39 of his 62 pass attempts for 379 yards in Tech's 10-point loss to the Cowboys.
 
Smith had gotten most of the QB reps up to that point after Shough, an Oregon transfer, injured his non-throwing shoulder in the season opener against Murray State.
 
Smith led Tech to overtime wins over Houston and Texas, the sophomore passing for 350 yards against the Cougars and 331 yards against the Longhorns. In six games, he's completing 66.4% of his pass attempts for 1,475 yards and 11 touchdowns with seven interceptions.
 
The Red Raiders are the only FBS team in the country with two quarterbacks who have thrown for more than 300 yards in a game this season, and McGuire indicted earlier this week that all three should be healthy enough to play against West Virginia.
 
Morton is dealing with a sprained ankle while Smith and Shough have experienced shoulder issues. Offensive coordinator Zach Kittley even teased the idea of playing all three against West Virginia.
 
"They've run upwards of 100-plus plays three times now in their six games, so we've got to be able to practice that this week," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "Our defensive players have got to get aligned, first and foremost, and have their eyes where they need to be. Then, we've got to be able to rally to the football."
 
Tech's leading receiver, Myles Price (5-foot-10, 180 pounds), is also dealing with an ankle injury suffered in the first quarter of the Oklahoma State loss but will have had 14 days to recover. He shows 31 catches for 309 yards and two touchdowns. Nine different Red Raiders have at least 11 receptions so far this year.
 
Running back SaRodorick Thompson (6-foot, 220 pounds) has faced West Virginia four times and has experienced success against the Mountaineers. He's the team's leading rusher this year with 310 yards and two touchdowns on 64 carries, but Tech is only averaging 119.2 yards per game on the ground.
 
"It's a different style offense week to week – different plays and different pass concepts, although the run game is similar week to week," Brown noted. "It's a unique challenge, unlike any opponent that we've played thus far."
 
The Red Raiders rank 127^th this week in turnover margin at minus-7, and also have surrendered an unusually high number of sacks (23) for an up-tempo offense. That's something a West Virginia defense, ranked 104^th in the country giving up 31.3 points and 116^th in passing efficiency, will try to exploit.
 
The Red Raider defense is among the oldest in the Big 12 and ranks among the middle of the pack in most statistical categories.
 
Brown believes Tech's strength is up front, where six seniors man the two-deep spots at nose, defensive tackle and defensive end. Edge rusher Tyree Wilson is a potential first rounder who leads the Red Raiders with six sacks so far this season and has accumulated 13 over the last two years. The 6-foot-6, 275-pounder has 22½ tackles for losses over his last 19 games.
 
Mike linebacker Krishon Merriweather (6-foot, 235 pounds) is the team's leading tackler with 50 total stops, while safety Reggie Pearson Jr. (5-foot-11, 200) has both interceptions for the Red Raiders so far this year.
 
Corners Rayshad Williams (6-foot-3, 195 pounds) and Malik Dunlap (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) are long and will be asked to play a lot of man coverage on West Virginia's outside receivers.
 
"They have nine super seniors that are playing, which are the most we've seen thus far. If you went back a year ago, a lot of the defenses in the league were older, but Tech has the oldest group in our league this year, Brown pointed out. "Their defensive coordinator (Tim DeRuyter) is known for sending pressure, and we will see a lot more man coverage than we've seen since the Pitt game. It's a very challenging unit on that side as well."
 
Punter Austin McNamara (6-foot-4, 195 pounds) is the school's career average leader (46.3 ypp.), but he's been a little off that this season.
 
Team connections reside on the West Virginia side, with Brown and assistant coaches Matt Moore, Chad Scott and Sean Reagan having once worked on the Red Raider staff.
 
And, of course, West Virginia offensive coordinator Graham Harrell is the most prolific passer in Texas Tech history. Graduate assistant coach Stanton Keane was also a former Texas Tech player.
 
From an historical perspective, coach Jim Carlen left West Virginia following his team's 1969 Peach Bowl victory over South Carolina to take the Texas Tech job and remained there until 1974 before moving on to South Carolina.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 3 p.m. (ET) and will be televised nationally on FS1 (Noah Eagle and Mark Helfrich). 
 
"We played well in all three phases (against Baylor)," Brown said. "We've won three of four, and we just did not play very well in the first half against Texas.
 
"We had great practices during the bye week, and we came back and our preparation was the best we've had going into the Baylor game, and now we've got to repeat that. We've got to go into one of the more challenging atmospheres in college football and be able to perform at a high level," he concluded.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at noon leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 2 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile apps WVU Gameday and the Varsity Network.
 
WVU holds a 6-5 advantage in all-time series play.