Texas vs. West Virginia Prediction Roundtable – What’s Going To Happen

Longhorn head coach Charlie Strong has been known as a defensive mind for many years-in fact, his use of nickel packages at SC influenced the development of WVU’s 3-3-5 defense-and earlier this season, he retook defensive play-calling duties from defensive coordinator Vance Bedford after a poor start from the Texas defense.

Nope. Game over. West Virginia’s chase for its first Big 12 championship is still alive.

But while West Virginia has gone 7-1 with a game plan of running the ball and stingy defense, the Mountaineers will need elevated quarterback play down the stretch to win the Big 12 title. The Mountaineers are also the only other team rather than the Sooners with any real shot at making the College Football Playoff from the Big 12 this season.

“They wanted to get this win pretty bad”, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. “That defense was excellent”. Skyler Howard threw for 260 yards and three touchdowns in 16 of 27 passes. The trouble here is in their last game at home West Virginia gave up 21 against a very weak offense in Kansas.

On UT’s final drive – Shane Buechele breathed life into DKR with a 28-yard completion to Dorian Leonard to the UT40 with just more than a minute to play.

“We kept taking our punches and kept just coming back …” The chance for 9 wins is still out there, which would be unbelievable and give the Longhorns a lot of momentum for the rest of the season. However, West Virginia was able to force three Longhorns turnovers and block a field goal. Foreman also had an early fumble. “We’ll put him on people’s best (receivers) and see what happens”.

Texas sophomore linebacker Malik Jefferson was injured on Saturday afternoon against West Virginia.

TEXAS KEY TRENDS: The Longhorns have now covered in four of their last five games after beating Baylor and Texas Tech in consecutive weeks.

Hey, look! It is a game that Texas should win, but might not and that will cause Longhorns fans and boosters to get their trousers in a wad because, “We’re Texas!”

“He’s a kid that I really don’t worry about out there in coverage. They’re a really good defense, but we really hurt ourselves”. “They’re doing a good job with their schemes, they’re doing a good job of blocking upfront, their physical outfit that you have to account for their quarterbacks as well”.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the West Virginia front was its ability to slow down Texas’ rushing attack. Keep winning at the Mountaineers can only move up. The Longhorns seized on the momentum change by quickly marching to a touchdown in a 10-point rally that cut the lead to 17-13 by halftime.

Jefferson left early in the first quarter.

Bohls: If Bill Parcells was right when he said you are what your record says you are, Texas’ success in this category is unquestionably real.

6 – Daikiel Shorts needs one catch against Texas to take sixth place on WVU’s career receptions list for himself.

The Mountaineers’ 3-3-5 defensive scheme doesn’t lend itself to completely shutting down the run, although West Virginia has surrendered a Big 12-low seven rushing TDs all season and is fourth in the league with 148 yards allowed on the ground per game.

Shell would return to a backfield featuring junior Justin Crawford and freshman Kennedy McKoy, both of whom topped 100 yards and set personal bests last Saturday against Kansas.