WVU moving on, getting ready for Kansas ground game
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Tony Gibson isn’t focused on the past, instead the now.
But certain items can be pulled from last season’s experience against Kansas that can help the current unit prepare for what the Jayhawks could have in store.
It’s a different defense, with a lot different makeup but a season ago Kansas found success rushing the football to the tune of 367 yards on 50 rushing attempts. Some of that mistakes, admittedly self-inflicted as the Mountaineers at one point played with nine freshmen on the field due to injuries across the board.
“Going into that game they had not shown power one snap all year, and they ran it 31 times against us …” Gibson recalled. “I try to forget about what happened last year and move on.”
Some of that is in jest, but it’s two different teams at two different times.
Of course Gibson and his assistants have dissected some of the scheme as well as back-tracking even further to see how offensive coordinator Doug Meacham attacked the defense during his tenure at TCU.
But the focus is on the now and the now for Kansas, at least when it comes to the backfield, is quite impressive. A year ago it was Khalil Herbert that accounted for 291 yards on the ground against West Virginia and while he is still on the roster, it’s another option that has risen up the ranks.
True freshman Pooka Williams has accounted for 474 rushing yards in four games the most for a Jayhawks rusher ever. The next closest? A name you might recognize in Gale Sayers in 1961.
Williams leads the Big 12 in rushing at 118.5 yards per game and is averaging just shy of 8 yards per carry showcasing his ability to not only get tough yards but make explosive plays as well.
He’s rushed for at least 89 yards in each of the games he’s appeared in this season and has at least one 40-yard rush in every game this season, an FBS record through four games.
“Williams is the fastest back that we’ll play all year … He’ll get two, three, four and then 80. He can move and he’s tough,” Gibson said. “He’s not real big, but he runs angry.”
That puts the emphasis for the defense in getting ball carriers to the ground after missing 14 tackles against Texas Tech, a total that was largely responsible for the Red Raiders rallying.
So what does the defense need to do?
“The same way we’ve been preparing. We need to work on missed tackles and stuff like that from the past week. We just need to play the same way we’ve been playing,” linebacker David Long said.
The rushing attack is the key cog in the Jayhawks arsenal and while also use some of the quarterback run game to put more pressure on the defense. But again they have yet to show any power.
Yet. But this time it isn’t going to catch the Mountaineers off-guard.
“We will be working the power a bunch,” Gibson said.
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