Following a 33-10 win over Virginia Tech last Thursday, West Virginia now turns their focus to the Texas Longhorns.
Mountaineer head coach Neal Brown talked about the Longhorns, as well as his team and how they plan to prepare for the trip to Austin, Texas, this week.
Virginia Tech Recap
“Big win on the road, that’s a tough place to play,” Brown said. “I thought our fans that came they stayed, it was a lot of fun there at the end getting the Black Diamond Trophy. It will be here for the foreseeable future.”
The Mountaineers kept control of the Black Diamond Trophy, as they had a 23-point beatdown over the Hokies. The Mountaineers were able to run the ball and stop the run. West Virginia’s backfield led by CJ Donaldson and Justin Johnson, rushed for 218 yards, while the Mountaineer defense held Virginia Tech to only 35 yards rushing on 18 rushing attempts.
Brown said he will continue to use Donaldson, Johnson, as well as Tony Mathis, who had a fumble which found him watching more of the second half than playing.
“We’re going to play all three. We’ve been intentional about playing all three. We may look at some multiple running back packages down the road,” Brown said.
Brown said he was proud of how his team played a complete game against a good team, adding it was a good environment and he was proud of how his team responded.
“It was a complete win,” Brown said of the win over the Hokies.
Texas, Texas, Texas
West Virginia will play their fourth night game in fives games this week, as they head to Austin, Texas, to face the Longhorns. Last season the Mountaineers defeated Texas 31-23, while Texas comes into this matchup having lost to Texas Tech 37-34 in overtime this past week.
Brown says he has a lot of respect for Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian who he says is one of the smartest offensive minds in college football.
“Lot of respect for that brand. Start with offense, I think it starts with Sark. I think he’s as good of a play caller as there is in college football.”
Texas’ offense is headlined by running back Bijan Robinson. Through four games, Robinson has rushed for 414 yards and seven touchdowns. Robinson is being tested more and more as Texas has had to use backup quarterback Hudson Card in the past two games, since Quinn Ewers exited in Texas’ 20-19 loss against Alabama.
Brown says his focus is not on who will start under center for Texas, but rather on preparing for both quarterbacks as he feels they are somewhat similar.
“Both those guys are similar,” Brown said of Ewers and Card. “There’s probably more similarities between those two than differences. How we prepare will be not much different depending on who plays.”
Against Texas Tech, Card threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns, while also throwing one interception.
Despite the quarterback situation, Brown knows the focus will have to be on Robinson, who can change the game on any given play.
“He really blocks well in pass protection. They use him as a lead blocker and he does really well. They split him out at wide receiver and you can tell that he takes coaching and he runs the routes the way a true wide receiver has and he doesn’t give up on runs,” Brown said of Robinson.
Punt Returns
West Virginia was fortunate a muffed punt from Reese Smith went out of bounds and did not cause any harm. However, that is now two muffed punts in the last three games for Smith. Brown said the conditions at Lane Stadium were not ideal for returning kicks but knows they need to get better.
“The other night in that stadium, really just an odd wind. It was really blowing hard toward our locker room, but it was almost blowing down at you,” Brown said. “I think catching punts is one of the hardest if not the hardest jobs in the game of football. With that being said, we’ve got to be better.”
What’s Next
West Virginia and Texas are set to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on FS1, as both teams will look to rebound from an 0-1 start in conference play.
Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography
