Coming off a road win against Cincinnati last week, West Virginia will host Baylor in Week 12.
The Bears are coming off a bye week after winning three consecutive games. On Monday, Baylor head coach Dave Aranda previewed their upcoming matchup with WVU.
“A lot of respect for Coach Brown and their team. Was able to watch them play on Saturday and just impressed, physical, great effort on the team. And you could tell they’re striving and fighting for something and we got to get in the way of all of that,” Aranda said.
With the win over Cincinnati, WVU kept their hopes of playing in the Big 12 championship alive. While many outcomes and criteria still need to fall into place, they remain hopeful.
In their last few meetings, West Virginia and Baylor have played fairly close games. Aranda recognizes that and sees many similarities between the two squads.
“The last couple of times with West Virginia have been really close, tight games,” Aranda said.”They’re in a lot of ways similar to us. And in that, they’re a gritty team, they’re a physical team, they’ve got players that love ball, you could tell there’s a passion. The care factor is really strong.”
Aranda believes that the Mountaineers’ coaches put the team in a good position to play. He also touched upon the difficulty of playing in Morgantown, stating how the state rallies behind WVU.
“I think their coaches put them in a position to be successful. I think whenever I watch them, I can really see that they do a good amount of self-scouting and they pay attention to all the details that are out there. And so, I have a lot of respect for them in that manner,” Aranda said. “It’s going to be us versus the state of West Virginia. So I mean we’re going to have to be able to be locked into what we got and to what our prescription is. And stay with that through the momentum swings that are going to come there.”
Lastly, Aranda spoke on West Virginia’s mentality.
“I think they care a lot. And I think they’re all bought in. And I think they believe that they’re going to win,” Aranda said.
Saturday’s matchup will be played at 4 p.m. EST at Milan Puskar Stadium and will be televised on ESPN2.
