On Saturday afternoon, it will be the first ranked passing offense in the Big 12 against the the fourth-lowest passing defense in the Big 12. It will also put the second-worst rushing defense in the league up against a team who just rushed for 217 yards in their previous game.
When West Virginia and Texas Tech kickoff on Saturday, it will come down to which team will have their weakness exposed first. Texas Tech’s fast paced passing offense against West Virginia’s weak secondary or West Virginia’s three headed rushing attack against a Red Raider defense that struggles to stop the run.
Texas Tech’s offense is averaging 95.8 plays per game on offense, while also passing for 365.0 yards per game this year. The Red Raiders could deploy as many as three quarterbacks Saturday, all of which have the ability to throw the ball.
“They play really fast,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said of Texas Tech. “I think they’ve had over 100 plays three times this year.”
Brown recognizes his defense has struggled facing tempo in the past and says they will change a few things on defense to try and fix it.
“We’ve had some issues with tempo in the past,” Brown said. “We’re going to do some things within the game plan, within the structure of our defense where there’s not as much movement side to side.”
That fast-paced play is what West Virginia is hoping to avoid early on Saturday. West Virginia will be without cornerback Andrew Wilson-Lamp for the first half, and could be without Wesley McCormick and Charles Woods as well. The Mountaineers and Red Raiders are tied at 74th in the country in points scored in the first quarter this season (4.8) and it is likely whichever team finds success on offense in the first quarter will win the game.
On the opposite side, West Virginia will be anticipating the return of running back CJ Donaldson. Donaldson will be re-joining a backfield which rushed for 217 yards and three touchdowns last week against Baylor. Tony Mathis who was named Co-Offensive Big 12 Player of the Week rushed for 163 yards on 22 carries against Baylor.
Quarterback JT Daniels has passed for 250 or more yards in four of West Virginia’s six games this season. Daniels has passed for only four touchdowns over the past four games, but has only thrown one interception.
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said Daniels has good awareness in the pocket and has a live arm.
“What he does is he moves in the pocket well and then he’s got a really good arm,” McGuire said. “He’s got a good idea of what he needs to do with the ball and then he’s got two receivers that can really go get the ball.”
The Mountaineers have lost three straight meetings to Texas Tech. The last time the Mountaineers beat the Red Raiders was in 2018 in Lubbock. West Virginia defensive lineman Dante Stills was on that team and said the key to West Virginia finding success is to start fast.
“It’s really just start fast,” Stills said. “If you let them get going and get a flow and high tempo it’s going to be hard to stop. If we stop them on first and second down I feel like it’s a high chance of us winning the game.”
Photo by Aaron Parker
