Mountaineers can’t afford loss to Jayhawks
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MORGANTOWN -- Quarterback Garrett Greene had a message for West Virginia's fans this week as the team was beginning to ready itself for its Big 12 opener against a Kansas team that has had as sour an opening to the 2024 season as WVU has had.
To the quarterback who will take the field in Mountaineer Field at noon today in a game televised on ESPN2, the self immolation that cost WVU a victory in last Saturday's Backyard Brawl that left the Mountaineers at 1-2 in a season born of high hopes was one of life's "hard lessons."
"Coach Brown always talks about how some lessons are hard," Greene said as the Mountaineers cast their eyes to a Kansas team that also entered the season with high hopes but brings the same 1-2 record into the game as WVU. "Stick with us. We've got nine conference games ahead. The path to Dallas is still with us."
Dallas is the site of the Big 12 championship game, which WVU has eyed since winning nine games a year ago and returning the heart of the roster, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
But facing one of the most difficult non-conference schedules among Power 4 schools, a one-sided loss to then No. 8 Penn State in the opener and then a late meltdown in which a 10-point lead with 5 minutes to play became a 38-34 loss to Pitt put WVU in the situation where the season may be over before it begins.
"It's two hungry football teams and two football teams with their backs against the wall," Brown said.
A leaky pass defense has been the main culprit to WVU, having given up more than 300 yards passing in each of the last two games against UAlbany and Pitt which has led Brown to promise both personnel and schematic changes in the approach in the secondary.
But the inability to put the quarterback on his back has plagued the Mountaineers in all three games of the season.
"We have to get better. We have to tackle. If we can get the same kind of pressure we got against Pitt, we'll feel good about it. We have to execute some of our spy calls better and we have to get the guy down. We had five sacks but missed five other sacks where we had the guy in our hands."
Penn State quarterbacks Drew Allar and Beau Pribula combined for 69 yards on nine carries, most of it escaping a pass rush. Then Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein shook off those five sacks to finish with a net 59 rushing yards, most of his damage coming in the two fourth-quarter drives that beat WVU.
Now they face another elusive quarterback in Jalon Daniels, returning from a back injury that ended his 2023 season prematurely.
He has yet to find the form that led him to being named the 2023 Preseason Big 12 Offensive Player of the year, but Brown knows his capabilities. The last time he played in Morgantown, which was in 2022, he threw for 219 yards and three scores while rushing for 85 yards in a 55-42 overtime victory.
"He's a really good player and I hate that he's missed all that time," Brown said. "He was electric last year (before going down) and when we played him in 2022. He put on a show the last time he was here."
This year he has struggled searching for the best he has to offer, completing just 55% of his passes and already being intercepted 6 times after having never given up more than 4 interceptions in a single season previously.
"Very simply to me it just looks like a little bit of rust," WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said. "I know first-hand how good a player he is. He is dynamic, a game changer with his legs and his arm."
Considering that the Mountaineers have made all three quarterbacks they've faced to date into game-changers, it is quite obvious that something has to change on defense.
"He's probably pretty excited (facing the WVU defense)," Brown said of Daniels.
"It's going to be even more of a scrambling quarterback than what Holstein was," WVU defensive lineman TJ Jackson, who earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week in his first start at WVU last week with four tackles for a loss and 1.5 sacks, said. "That's a huge emphasis this week. We've got to stay disciplined reading what he's going to do. It's going to be a tough battle. It's going to be a chess game."
Maybe to be more precise, a chess game with bruises.
It would be a handful if it was just Daniels to worry about, but WVU also has to balance its defense to stop the top Power 4 career rusher in hometown Lawrence, Kansas, hero Devin Neal. Neal tops all Power 4 runners in career rushing yards with 3,290 and rushing touchdowns with 35.
He averages 5.8 yards per carry for his career and this season averages 7.4 yards a try while surpassing 100 yards in all three games.
Interestingly, in his only meeting with WVU -- the two teams did not play last year -- Neal gained only 42 yards on 10 carries with a long gain of just 7 yards, less than his per carry average this season. He did, however, score two touchdowns in the game.
In its own way, Kansas is the anti-West Virginia. While the Mountaineers' pass defense is 120th in the nation, giving up 280.7 yards passing per game, KU gives up just 246.7 total yards per game to rank 17th in the nation and are 22nd in pass defense, allowing only 135 yards per game.
WVU will try to protect its pass defense with a ball control offense of running with Greene, CJ Donaldson and Jahiem White looking to find room behind its efficient offensive line.
It is also Hall of Fame weekend with an induction ceremony at the Caperton Indoor facility beginning at 9 a.m. with football players Anthony Becht (unable to attend), Rasheed Marshall and Adrian Murrell joining men's basketball's Chris Brooks, women's basketball player Liz Repella, baseball's Mark Landers, men's track and cross country star Bob Donker and swimmer Bette Hushla being honored.