West Virginia University Mountaineers vs. Texas Tech Raiders: November To

The regular season win by the Red Raiders marks the only loss West Virginia has suffered to a conference team in regular season play since they joined the Big 12 in 2012. The Mountaineers are finally coming off an historically grueling four-game slate that pitted them against top-15 ranked Big 12 conference foes, which have gone 30-1, combined, this season.

The Mountaineers (3-4, 0-4 Big 12) must win three of their remaining five games to become bowl eligible, starting with Saturday at home against Texas Tech (5-4, 2-4). It’s easy to project WVU to an 8-4 season, which would be quite solid in Morgantown. Second, I am of the opinion that Texas Tech is now the new measuring stick game for the Mountaineers. The Red Raiders have forced 10 sacks and have allowed 13 this season. West Virginia will take their chances this weekend.

In fact, Washington is only 63 rushing yards away from becoming the first Red Raider to rush for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons since Byron Hanspard in 1995 and 1996. Pierre-Louis fired a shot from just outside the box that found the back of the net, skimming the top of outstretched goalie Michela Ongaro’s hands to give West Virginia a 1-0 lead in the 81st minute.

As he sat down in a cushioned chair in West Virginia’s team meeting room, Tony Gibson, West Virginia’s defensive coordinator, immediately was asked a question.

Texas Tech entering this matchup has an overall record of 5-4 straight up and 4-4 against the spread. With their win on Wednesday, Texas Tech secured their first win against a team seeded five or above.

Running back DeAndre Washington has 147 carries for 932 yards and 9 touchdowns along with 23 catches for 190 yards and a touchdown.

And Joseph may have been more important than the quarterback, this being a team which was built around its defense.

The two would also go separate ways after their time at Houston landing at rivals of Texas Tech. The higher the score the better off Texas Tech will be as it will mean the ground game for West Virginia is not eating valuable time off the clock. The Mountaineers won 37-34 previous year in Lubbock.

Theoretically, Iowa State, Texas, Texas Tech and even West Virginia could all finish fifth.

Though the Mountaineers are seemingly out of place among the Red and Blue’s Ivy-dominated schedule since the end of September, the Quakers are no strangers to competing against a tough out-of-conference opponent at this stage in the season. Now the West Virginia offense ranks No. 30 in total offense, No. 27 in rushing offense, No. 43 in passing offense.

-Three true freshmen in WR Jovon Durante, WR Gary Jennings and WR David Sills have seen action, while six redshirt freshmen have with OL Yodny Cajuste, OL Amanii Brown, QB William Crest, OL Jonathan Haynes, RB Donte Thomas-Williams and DL Jaleel Fields. This should be a very high scoring game. “When the opportunity strikes you have to take advantage of it”. However, a better way West Virginia could keep the score lower would be using its ground attack on offense.

The game against the Red Raiders will kickoff at noon Saturday. That much is obvious as quarterback Patrick Mahomes is first in the nation with 3,331 passing yards, completing 260 of 402 passes, with 25 touchdowns. When you lose your best guy, that’s the reality of football.

November went poorly for West Virginia each of the past three seasons, as the Mountaineers finished 1-3 in the month each time. “When that happens, you’re not going to be as good”. That was on October 3, immediately after Coleman torched the Mountaineers for 10 catches for 199 yards and three touchdowns. Both see this game as a turning point in the season.

Since facing off for the first time in Kingsbury’s first season as a head coach (2013) the student and the teacher have played to a draw. He’s a great player and he’s on a great team.