MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will be facing a UCF team celebrating homecoming and seeking its first Big 12 victory in its inaugural season in the conference.
 
The Knights, picked eighth in the preseason media poll ahead of newcomers BYU, Houston and Cincinnati, began the year with consecutive victories over Kent State, Boise State and Villanova before running into a stone wall in conference play.
 
UCF (3-4, 0-4) has lost consecutive games to Kansas State, Baylor, Kansas and Oklahoma in unequal fashion. The Knights dropped a 13-point decision on the road at Kansas State to open conference play and then came unglued in a 36-35 loss to Baylor after leading 35-7 early in the third quarter.
 
UCF fell behind 31-0 early at Kansas and was never in the game in Lawrence, but following a week off, the Knights battled sixth-ranked Oklahoma to the end before falling 31-29. UCF had leads of 17-14, 20-17 and 23-17 before the Sooners rallied to score 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
 
Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee's return gave UCF a big boost against Oklahoma. Injured in the waning moments of UCF's 18-16 victory over Boise State, Plumlee missed games against Kansas State, Baylor and Kansas, requiring backup Timmy McClain to fill in. McClain threw for 264 yards and three touchdowns in the Kansas State loss and passed for 234 yards and two scores against Baylor.
 
Plumlee's return against OU saw him complete 16-of-30 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns. He didn't get much in the run game against the Sooners, but he has been extremely effective in the past running the football. He gained 90 yards and scored a touchdown in the blowout win against Kent State and had 73 yards on 11 carries against Boise State.
 
In five seasons playing at Ole Miss and UCF, Plumlee has accounted for 2,210 yards and 25 touchdowns on the ground, including a career-high 1,023 yards and 12 touchdowns during his freshman season with the Rebels. He ran for 862 yards and scored 11 touchdowns in a full season last year at UCF.
 
Senior running back RJ Harvey gives the Knights another effective option in the run game. He is averaging 5.5 yards per carry and is coming off consecutive 100-yard rushing games against Kansas and Oklahoma.
 
"Offensively, it's a spread, tempo running attack," West Virginia coach Neal Brown explained. "A lot of the similar principles in the run game that TCU does. Plumlee is a little bit faster than (Chandler) Morris, but he was a good runner at TCU, too. That offense is probably the closest."
 
That's a concern considering West Virginia allowed Oklahoma State's Ollie Gordon to run for a Milan Puskar Stadium opponent-record 282 yards, including 149 yards in the fourth quarter in last week's 48-34 loss. After some early season success stopping the run, the Mountaineer defense is now surrendering 142.1 yards per game and 4.3 yards per carry.
"They're going to try to line up and run it, and we've got to get back to basics and play better fundamental football," Brown said. "We've got to leverage the ball. We've got to use our hands and we've got to run our feet through contact and get people on the ground."
 
UCF's top receiver is Kobe Hudson, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound senior from Pine Mountain, Georgia. The Auburn transfer shows 22 catches for 473 yards and two touchdowns. Javon Baker, a 6-foot-1, 208-pound Alabama transfer, is one catch behind Hudson for the team lead with 417 yards and two scores. Seven different receivers have caught touchdowns so far this season.
 
The Knights' remodeled offensive line is coached by former Mountaineer assistant coach Herb Hand.
 
Defensively, UCF coordinator Addison Williams wants to bring pressure and relies on a pair of outstanding corners in senior Corey Thornton and junior Brandon Adams, whom Brown believes are NFL-caliber.
 
Will linebacker Jason Johnson leads UCF with 52 tackles, while buck linebacker Tre-'mon Morris-Brash shows five sacks and 12 tackles for losses. Backup defensive end Malachi Lawrence has also been effective getting to the quarterback with four sacks.
 
Overall, UCF is allowing 387.2 yards and 27.8 points per game, but only 190 of that is coming through the air.
 
"They are going to make us throw the football," Brown admitted. "That's going to be their plan coming in. They're going to load the box up, and we've got to continue to show the growth that we've made the last two weeks in the pass game. We're going to have to win one-on-ones. They're really talented at corner with two NFL corners and our young receivers are going to have to win some one-on-ones."
 
Placekicker Colton Boomer has made 7-of-10 field goals including a long of 55 yards. Meanwhile, punter Mitch McCarthy has just a 31.8 net average on 14 punts.
 
Johnny Richardson has a 51-yard kickoff return and Xavier Townsend has a 29-yard punt return.
 
West Virginia, now 4-3, 2-2, will be making its first trip to UCF since 2004 when it defeated the Knights 45-20. The only other meeting was a 36-18 West Virginia victory in Morgantown in 2003.
 
Neal Brown said he became familiar with UCF coach Gus Malzahn when Malzahn was coaching at Auburn and Brown was at nearby Troy.
 
"First time we will play against each other, but I have a lot of respect for him," Brown said. "He was the head coach at Auburn for a long time, and he was there when I was an assistant at Troy and also when I was the head coach there. There's a lot of crossover there."
 
Saturday's game at FBC Mortgage Stadium in Orlando will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on FS1 (Eric Collins and Devin Gardner).
 
"We've got to start games better, but I think Garrett Greene has made a lot of positive improvements over the last couple of weeks," Brown noted. "Our offensive line continues to play at a high level, our running backs were better last week, and our receivers are growing. We need more out of Kole (Taylor) and Devin (Carter), and I think we'll get that this Saturday."
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins at 9 a.m. on stations with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate show leading into regular network coverage at 11 a.m. with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.