On Saturday, TCU head coach Sonny Dykes will lead the No. 7 Horned Frogs to West Virginia to play the Mountaineers.
Dykes said he has watched multiple West Virginia games this year including their 43-40 victory over Baylor. He said he thinks the Mountaineers will be ready for the matchup and will have a good home field advantage.
“I know it’s a great home crowd, I know this will be a hungry West Virginia team,” Dykes said. “I watched the Baylor game a couple weeks ago. It looked really good, played really good in that game and you could tell it was an electric atmosphere and their guys really responded well to the crowd.”
Dykes will look to lead the Horned Frogs to a victory over the Mountaineers for the first time since 2017. West Virginia has beaten TCU each of the past four seasons, including a 29-17 win in Fort Worth last year.
“We haven’t beaten them in a long time,” Dykes said. “It’s been a number of years since we’ve beat West Virginia. I don’t know if anybody on this team has beaten West Virginia.”
On offense for the Mountaineers, Dykes has been impressed with the play of quarterback JT Daniels. Dykes said Daniels can complete any throw he wants to make and he has fit more into the system as West Virginia’s season has gone along.
“I think he’s a good player. He’s a really talented guy, can certainly make all the throws. He gets better as the season goes along” Dykes said. “You can tell he gets more comfortable with what they’re doing.”
For the rest of the Mountaineer offense, Dykes said the Mountaineers have many guys who can make plays. Dykes said he was impressed with running back CJ Donaldson, the Mountaineer offensive line as well as wide receivers such as Bryce Ford-Wheaton and Kaden Prather.
“They’re a team that has a lot of weapons,” Dykes said. “They have a really good running back who runs physical, a young guy that I’ve really been impressed with (Donaldson). I like the way their offensive line competes; I think those guys play hard. They’ve got speed at the wide receiver position, guys that can make plays. Their offense is a handful.”
Dykes said TCU’s defense is going to have to create traffic in the pocket and on the back end of his defense in order to disrupt Daniels’ timing.
“JT’s a guy that you can’t let him get too comfortable,” Dykes said. “He’ll pick you apart if he can just stand in there without having to face a little bit of adversity when it comes to pass rush or moving him off his platform or disrupting routes.”
As for West Virginia’s defense, Dykes said it starts with the talent on the defensive line.
“Their defensive front stands out,” Dykes said of the Mountaineers. “Their front to me is active and physical and really plays with an edge. I think that kind of sets the tone for the defense.”
West Virginia’s secondary has struggled all season, but Dykes said he feels they are athletic and capable of making plays.
“They’ve got a lot of good defensive backs, athletic guys that can run and make plays on the ball,” Dykes said. “There are guys that when the ball is in the air they’re making plays, they’re covering ground. They’re doing some good things to create turnovers and they’re athletic defensively that’s what stands out probably as much as anything else.”
West Virginia will play host to Dykes’ Horned Frogs on Saturday at noon at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Photo by Gregg Ellman
