BYU (5-3, 2-3) @ West Virginia (5-3, 3-2)
Saturday, Nov. 4 at 7:00 PM
FOX National Television
MORGANTOWN, WV- Just when you thought the West Virginia Mountaineers were dead in the water, they travel to Orlando and knock off a UCF team that was better than their record showed, and who had just taken Oklahoma down to the final seconds the week before.
And all of a sudden, there is a glimmer of hope amongst WVU fans again.
After suffering a last second hail mary loss to Houston and then blowing a lead against Oklahoma state the following week when a WVU player (Andrew Wilson-Lamp) tackled his own punt returner (Preston Fox), resulting in a turnover, and many, me included, said here we go again. However, that UCF win injected a little bit of life back into the ailing and now West Virginia has a rather important game on the menu for this Saturday night: The BYU Cougars.
New to the Big 12 Conference this season, the Cougars have had their ups and downs. They were able to go into SEC territory a few weeks ago and beat Arkansas, but just last week against Texas, they could only muster up 292 yards of offense and scored just six points in defeat. Their run defense has been highly inconsistent, and their rushing offense has not been much better.
Still, this is the typical, epitome of a trap game. If anyone has followed WVU religiously like I have over the years then you know just when you think something is a sure thing, it isn’t. And when something definitely won’t be, it will. A saying I’ve always said to describe WVU is “should have, could have and almost.”
BYU comes into this game at 5-3 (2-3 Big 12) and with a quarterback issue. Starter Kedon Slovis, who guided the Pittsburgh Panthers last season, has been ruled out due to some lingering injuries from some big hits he took against Texas a week ago. Enter backup, Jake Retzlaff. Retzlaff has not played a snap this year, and while that could be a good thing, the Mountaineers have no idea what Retzlaff can do nor how to prepare a game plan to stop him. Backup quarterbacks usually play lights out against WVU and over the last few weeks, the Mountaineer defense has been pretty average—except for the four turnovers forced last week. But they still give up chunks of yards at times.
Retzlaff will rely on safety blankets for help in the form of running back LJ Martin. Martin has 438 yards and four TDs this season. Chase Roberts is BYU’s top pass-catcher with 33 receptions, 459 yards and four touchdowns.
Garrett Greene has settled in with the Mountaineers at the quarterback position and over the last three games has over 1,000 yards of total offense. Greene is such a huge threat to run (3 rushing scores against UCF) that defenses are finding hard to keep him contained. However, Greene has improved mightily throwing the ball as well. Yes, he still misses some easy throws to open receivers, but his toughness, speed, and grit more than make up for a bad throw here and there. He has thrown for 1,340 yards with 8 TDs and just 2 interceptions. Greene has also run for 404 yards and 8 scores.
CJ Donaldson got back to his old self against the Knights and ran for over 100 yards. The sophomore has 573 yards on 133 carries and 7 TDs. The real threat in the backfield though may very well be true freshman, Jaheim White. The speedster is averaging 7.9 yards per carry with 270 yards on just 34 carries. He has scored twice this year and brings an extra gear that the other backs on the roster do not have.
Devin Carter has really stepped up to be the go-to receiver evidenced by his 20 catches and 358 yards. Hudson Clement, who sat out last week with an injury, is back against the Cougars and he has 4 touchdown catches to lead the team. Big tight end Kole Taylor, Preston Fox, Rodney Gallagher, and Traylon Ray will also factor here.
Big 12 defensive player of the week Beanie Bishop will need another big game for the WVU defense. Bishop leads the nation with 16 pass breakups and his 4 interceptions rank him 6th in the country.
All levels of the defense must make life tough on Retzlaff from Sean Martin and Edward Vesterinen to Lee Kpogba and Aubrey Burks.
Final Thought:
BYU head coach Kilani Sitake said earlier this week that he was excited to hear the fans in Morgantown sing Country Roads. Country Roads is sung after each home game only if the Mountaineers win. I have always liked Sitake as he is a humble coach that preaches hard work and discipline. And I, and many Mountaineer fans agree with him here. We cannot wait to hear John Denver either.
PREDICTION- Predicting the winning lottery numbers is easier than attempting to predict anything WVU will do in a sporting event. No predictions here.
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