WVU preparing for road trip to Texas Tech
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Head coach Dana Holgorsen has coached long enough that he fully understands that his No. 12 West Virginia (3-0) team is only as good as its next outing.
And for the Mountaineers that means its first true road trip of the season to a Texas Tech team that is perched at No. 25 in the AP Poll and is coming off a 41-17 win over then No. 15 Oklahoma State snapping a 17-year drought with the win in Stillwater.
The victory also ended an 0-16 stretch for the Red Raiders football program against ranked teams that spanned back to the 2014 season.
Texas Tech is quarterbacked by true freshman Alan Bowman who tossed for 397 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Pokes and is just the next in a line of successful frosh at the position under Red Raiders head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who also played quarterback in Lubbock.
“(Kliff) came in and played as a trie freshman and had that expetrience so he knows what he’s talking about and how to talk to those young kids. It’s not the first young kid he’s head to deal with,” Holgorsen said. “(Bowman) was a good player in high school and if you get coached up by Kliff you’ll be ready.”
Kingsburry played under Holgorsen when the two were at Texas Tech and have a rich history together.
“Wish them well in every game but one and this just happens to be the one,” he said.
The Red Raiders have proven to be effective on the ground as well rushing for 224 yards in the win while also continuing to be effective throwing the football even with the departures from last year including leading wide receiver KeKe Coutee.
But in reality that has opened up more for other wide receivers with half a dozen already catching at least ten passes through the first four games.
“It allows everybody else to step up and play. You’re not just focused on one guy, you’re focused on everybody else. It’s nothing new in this league,” Holgorsen said. “We’ll do our best to identify what their set is and what their plays are and we’ll do our best at defending them.”
But perhaps the most-eye popping stat from that game against Oklahoma State was the fact that the much-maligned Texas Tech defense held the Cowboys to only 386 yards and 17 points.
In the first two meetings against FBS opponents this season, the Red Raiders allowed 546 yards and 47 points to Mississippi and then 635 yards and 49 points to Houston. The return of senior safety Jah’Shawn Johnson from injury helped the unit significantly on more than one front.
“We feel like he makes a huge difference for us not only his athletic ability but his calmness. He is a four-year starter and one of the best players on our team,” Kingsbury said.
It is the fourth year in coordinator David Gibbs scheme and Holgorsen sees a commitment on the defensive side as well as an increase on the talent level over the previous couple seasons.
“You don’t fix a defense overnight,” Holgorsen said of the improvements over the years.
Holgorsen has been a strong advocate of the new redshirt rules and it’s something that West Virginia has put into effect early in the season playing some players and then deciding to put them on the shelf for later in the year. He also has been keeping his eye on developmental players in the system and if they deserve the right to be called up at some point either by injury or to create competition.
“I just worry about the guys I have on my roster,” he said.
West Virginia will play Texas Tech at high noon.
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