West Virginia has their last home game of the year when they face UCF at home this Saturday.
UCF head coach Gus Malzahn previewed the Mountaineers as well as what is standing out ahead of their matchup this weekend.
General Thoughts on WVU
West Virginia went down to Orlando last season and beat UCF 41-28. That is a game Malzahn certainly remembers and knows they are going to have to put out a better performance than last year if they want to come out victorious.
"Looking forward to playing a very solid West Virginia team. They’ve got a lot of guys back that we played last year. Really, it starts with their quarterback, he’s a good runner, he can create things when things break down, and their defense is an odd-front defense for the most part that does a lot of blitzing, a lot of different things on the back end," Malzahn said.
WVU's Defense
Malzahn said the two biggest things that stand out formationally from WVU are how they stack up at the line of scrimmage and how they defend on the back end.
He said they tend to sometimes switch up their numbers up front but also try to keep everything in front of them in the secondary.
"They are primarily odd front with some different types of pressures, they’ll mix in some even front. They got us a couple times on some even front pressures that I'm sure we’ll see again. Back end, they try to keep a lot of things in front of them to try to eliminate the big play," Malzahn said.
WVU's Offense
In last year's meeting, WVU rushed for almost 300 yards against UCF. That's still the same story for Malzahn, who said the goal is to stop the run against the Mountaineers.
"Got a lot of the same guys back whether it’s offensive line, the running backs, both the running backs are really good, and of course, their quarterback is definitely a run threat. I’m sure they’ll try to do some similar things running the football. We got to stop the run against these guys. That’s what they do, and they’re pretty good at it," Malzahn said.
WVU QB Garrett Greene passed for 156 yards last season, completing 14 of his 23 pass attempts. CJ Donaldson rushed for 121 yards, and Jahiem White rushed for 85 yards in WVU's win over UCF last season.
Dealing with the elements
Morgantown's high temperature on Saturday is 40 degrees. Compared to Orlando, which has a projected temperature of 67 degrees on Saturday, Malzahn said there's no true way to prepare his players for the cold.
"We got to be able to adjust to the different things. I think from my standpoint, it’s the ball probably not carrying as far and all that and making sure we protect the football. Our guys will be ready but you’re exactly right, it’s not like we can turn on the air conditioner or anything to simulate 30-degree temperatures," Malzahn said.
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