MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia meets No. 7 TCU in a Homecoming game today at Milan Puskar Stadium.
The Horned Frogs are coming off consecutive wins over Kansas State and Oklahoma State after rallying from double-digit deficits in each game. TCU trailed then-No. 8 Oklahoma State 24-7 early in the second quarter before prevailing 43-40 in double overtime in Stillwater.
Last Saturday, TCU trailed then-No. 17 Kansas State by 18 points early in the second quarter before outscoring the Wildcats 28-0 over the remaining 41 minutes of the game.
TCU's other conference victories have come against Oklahoma (55-24) and Kansas (38-31) after sweeping nonconference games against Colorado, Tarleton and SMU.
Coach Sonny Dykes, in his first season at TCU, has his team off to a 7-0 start for the third time in the last four years, two of those coming while he was at SMU. In 2019, his Mustangs lost for the first time after the eighth week of the season, and last year, he had SMU 7-0 out of the game before falling to 19
th-ranked Houston.
Last year, Dykes' team lost four of their final five games and in 2019, SMU dropped three of its last five. During the COVID year in 2020, SMU was 5-0 coming out of the gate before losing three of its last five.
Since 2019, Dykes has been Mr. October, his teams winning 28 of their 30 football games until the calendar flips to November. After that, they are just 7-11.
Hopefully, that comes into play this Saturday when West Virginia tries to extend its four-game winning streak over TCU and knock the Horned Frogs from the ranks of the unbeaten.
TCU sits atop the Big 12 standings with Oklahoma State and Kansas State right behind with one loss each. Texas shows a 3-2 record, followed by 2-2 Baylor and Texas Tech.
Kansas is 2-2, Oklahoma and West Virginia are 1-3, while Iowa State is winless at 0-4.
The other Big 12 games this weekend show Oklahoma at Iowa State at noon, Oklahoma State at Kansas State at 3:30 p.m. and Baylor at Texas Tech at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.
Texas and Kansas are idle.
Here is today's Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – At least one Mountaineer defensive player has finished with TEN or more tackles in 26 of the last 57 games.
9 – A wide receiver had caught multiple touchdowns NINE times during the
Neal Brown era at WVU, including twice this season.
8 – West Virginia ranks 22
nd nationally in interceptions among FBS schools with 93 over the last EIGHT years.
7 – SEVENTH ranked TCU is the highest ranked team to play at Milan Puskar Stadium since the Mountaineers faced No. 6 Oklahoma here in 2018.
6 – West Virginia has scored at least 30 points SIX times in its 11 all-time meetings against TCU.
5 – The Mountaineers are averaging 34.6 points in their FIVE prior games against TCU in Morgantown.
4 – WVU has won FOUR straight against TCU and is 7-4 overall now against the Horned Frogs.
Neal Brown has wins over TCU in 2019 (20-17), 2020 (24-6) and 2021 (29-17).
3 – West Virginia remains the only school in the Big 12 to have THREE receivers ranked among the top 10 in receptions per game –
Bryce Ford-Wheaton (No. 3),
Kaden Prather (No. 5) and
Sam James (No. 10).
2 – Junior wide receiver
Bryce Ford-Wheaton ranks SECOND in the country in contested catches this week with 14, according to Pro Football Focus College.
1 –
Casey Legg is tied for FIRST in the country in field goal percentage, making all 11 of his kicks so far this season.
WVU is hunting for its first victory over a Top 10-ranked team since besting No. 4 Baylor 41-27 in Morgantown on Oct. 18, 2014.
Today's contest will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN (Bob Wischusen, Roddy Jones, and Kris Budden).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage starts at 9 a.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage with
Tony Caridi,
Dwight Wallace and
Jed Drenning at 11 a.m. on stations throughout West Virginia.
You can also catch the broadcast on the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps, as well as Sirius satellite radio on channel 156 or 206, or the XM app on channel 969.
Real-time livestats coverage is also available through
Stat Broadcast.
West Virginia leads the overall series 7-4.
Be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.