Allegedly, KU played a football game today. With their next two games against Iowa State and Kansas State, West Virginia could easily lose both of those and miss out on a bowl. “We’ve got an astonishing alternative next week”. This however does not gaurentee that they will make a bowl.
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A collegiate coach for 22 years, Dana Holgorsen has a four-year track record as a head coach going 33-27 in that span. An accomplished offensive coordinator, Holgorsen is regarded as one of the nation’s brightest offensive minds, often orchestrating offenses that rack up yards through the air each week. “This is the same Kansas team that beat us two years ago in Kansas”.
“Playing a lot of young guys, a lot of inexperienced guys”.
Senior safety Michael Glatczak, who picked off the first pass of his career in the defeat, said Kansas failed to show the same competitiveness it displayed in its previous game.
Freshman quarterback Ryan Willis was 13 of 38 for 127 yards with three interceptions. Smallwood added a 1-yard score in the third quarter. The two-headed monster of Wendell Smallwood and Rushel Shell was joined this week by QB Skyler Howard and FB Elijah Wellman to form what was basically a Mountaineer Megazord of Rushing Destruction. Last week, Willis broke the KU freshman record for passing yards.
The Kansas defense also is full of new faces with the group allowing an average of nearly 46 points and 573 yards of total offense to opponents this season. It was one of three victories by Kansas that year.
-There are 41 juniors and seniors on the West Virginia depth chart. Among the first-time starters, 10 have been true freshmen or redshirt freshmen. West Virginia looks like a team coming together after a four-game losing streak.
2 The Mountaineers rank 18th in the country in rushing yards per game, averaging 224.2 yards per contest.
The Jayhawks (0-11, 0-8), however, couldn’t follow the coach’s lead.
-The Mountaineers are No. 14 all-time in college football winning percentage. Redshirt junior S Jarrod Harper made his first start against Oklahoma State.
“It was awful”, senior cornerback Terrell Chestnut said. He did it with a 19-yard carry late in the third quarter, making West Virginia the first to accomplish the feat against Kansas since Eric Crouch, Correll Buckhalter and Dan Alexander led Nebraska to a 56-17 romp on November 4, 2000.
“And for a few reason, things went south really quick”, the KU coach said, “and it took us a while to stick our foot in the ground – if we ever did”.
Taking care of business: The scene is set and it’s a familiar one as a West Virginia team that is looking to end the season strong hits the road against a Kansas program that is struggling. The Jayhawks have yet to win a game this year, although they have been close several times but the Mountaineers must avoid becoming the first program to fall to Beatty’s bunch.
Redshirt senior linebacker Jared Barber was sidelined for the Kansas game two years ago, but he still remembers how that day played out. Skyler Howard completed 10 of 12 passes a week ago, and that could be a similar result this weekend. “We’ve been able to run the ball efficient, and we threw the ball well enough”.
“We don’t want to be the team that they hang their season on”, Rose said.
In a 23-17 loss at TCU, the Jayhawks proved they can play with a top-25 team … if the conditions are right.
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Even though Kansas has a goose egg in the win column, the Mountaineers are aware that they can put teams’ backs against the wall.
