WVU opener with Missouri a guessing game

The season opener is always a guessing game of sorts and that will be no different this weekend when the Mountaineers take on Missouri.

The Tigers have a mixture of coaches from different schools under head coach Barry Odom leading to the Mountaineers watching film from a number of other programs.

Offensively former Oklahoma coordinator Josh Heupel is in his first season with the program and West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen is familiar with what he has done in the past on that side of the ball.

The Mountaineers have watched film both from Heupel’s stops at Oklahoma as well as Utah State as he attempts to turn around a Missouri offense that struggled last season finishing 125th in total yards per game and 127th in scoring out of 128 qualifying teams.

“We have to be ready for anything,” Holgorsen said.

The same can be said for the Tigers on the defensive side of the ball as the unit was one of the most impressive in the nation last year and returns a bulk of talent. Holgorsen credited Odom as a major part of the turnaround at Memphis due to his pedigree on that side of the football.

“They’re really, really, really good,” Holgorsen said.

For the Mountaineers the goal this off-season has been to improve on the offensive side of the ball and become a more consistent passing team in the routine aspect as opposed to just being able to throw the ball down the field. That means working on protection up front, as well as timing with senior quarterback Skyler Howard and his group of wide receivers.

Helping with that is the experience that West Virginia returns up front, allowing the Mountaineers to mix in some new wrinkles that they weren’t able to show at times last year.

“We have to be able to run the football and then big play people when they stack the box,” he said.

The matchup between West Virginia and Missouri is one of several meetings of power five teams in the Big 12 non-conference slate and one that Holgorsen refers to as a “high-profile” game that is part of the scheduling philosophy for the Mountaineers moving forward.

Kickoff is set for noon.