Wells really praised WVU's offensive line yesterday. Neal apparently had to do some Wells-esque cobbling in his last two classes to create snaps. The left side of their line is a true FR and a RS FR. They start a JUCO transfer SR that Brown inherited at center. The right side is a juco transfer that Neal Brown brought in and a RS SO that I presume he inherited.
WVU's defense looks really good on paper. They also have essentially played one less game than Tech (330 snaps faced by our D v. 250 faced by theirs), and their Big 12 opponents have been much weaker thus far (especially when you consider it was BU's first game). That said, it sucks to say, once again, that we're playing some pass rushers that are really, really good... good enough to have a reasonable claim at being the best in the conference. Tech has got to remedy this moving forward. Things would be much different if teams were every saying this about our pass rushers every week.
Offensively, there seems to be a lot of similarities between us and them from a scheme standpoint. Both teams don't throw it vertically very much, both teams use the quick game more than any other Big 12 school, and both teams' offensive philosophy centers around running the football. WVU has not completed a pass 20+ yards down the field & outside the numbers. Tech has not completed a pass 20+ yards downfield and inside the numbers.
Something that's sort of odd.. for as effective as WVU has been running the ball this year, they have essentially zero production on play action passes. Doege is 18/36 for 180 yards, 1 TD / 1 INT, and he has a 62 NFL passer rating. Bowman/Columbi are 16/38 on play actions, for 250 yards & 3 TDs / O Ints.
WVU has had some protection problems in the drop back passing game. Probably why Neal is trying to get out the ball out so quick, much like we are. For every 5 times Doege throws the ball after holding it longer than >2.5 seconds, he has been sacked 1 time (and fumbled a lot of those times).
In Big 12 games, Tech & WVU have combined for the following on passes longer than 20 yards down field: 4/28 for 88 yards. Here's the kicker... every one of those completions have been for a TD. 90% of passes thrown on Saturday should be within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Two of the most prolific slot receivers in the conference will (hopefully) be playing Saturday: Kesean Carter & Winston Wright. Wright leads the conference in targets out of the slot. Carter is 3rd, although Carter has also played 40% less snaps than the guys in front of him. Among players with at least 40 snaps, these are the only two Big 12 WRs with over 100 yards receiving out of the slot (Wright has over 200). Carter has 3 TDs; the rest of the conference combined only has 4 (including 1 by Myles Price).
WVU has handed the ball to a RB 101 times. Tech has only done so 61 times.
Another odd stat: In Big 12 games, WVU has been called for 21 blocking-related penalties (holding, chop block, block in the back). Tech has only been called for 6.
The betting markets at Pinnacle / CRIS gives Tech about a 40% chance of winning.
WVU's defense looks really good on paper. They also have essentially played one less game than Tech (330 snaps faced by our D v. 250 faced by theirs), and their Big 12 opponents have been much weaker thus far (especially when you consider it was BU's first game). That said, it sucks to say, once again, that we're playing some pass rushers that are really, really good... good enough to have a reasonable claim at being the best in the conference. Tech has got to remedy this moving forward. Things would be much different if teams were every saying this about our pass rushers every week.
Offensively, there seems to be a lot of similarities between us and them from a scheme standpoint. Both teams don't throw it vertically very much, both teams use the quick game more than any other Big 12 school, and both teams' offensive philosophy centers around running the football. WVU has not completed a pass 20+ yards down the field & outside the numbers. Tech has not completed a pass 20+ yards downfield and inside the numbers.
Something that's sort of odd.. for as effective as WVU has been running the ball this year, they have essentially zero production on play action passes. Doege is 18/36 for 180 yards, 1 TD / 1 INT, and he has a 62 NFL passer rating. Bowman/Columbi are 16/38 on play actions, for 250 yards & 3 TDs / O Ints.
WVU has had some protection problems in the drop back passing game. Probably why Neal is trying to get out the ball out so quick, much like we are. For every 5 times Doege throws the ball after holding it longer than >2.5 seconds, he has been sacked 1 time (and fumbled a lot of those times).
In Big 12 games, Tech & WVU have combined for the following on passes longer than 20 yards down field: 4/28 for 88 yards. Here's the kicker... every one of those completions have been for a TD. 90% of passes thrown on Saturday should be within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Two of the most prolific slot receivers in the conference will (hopefully) be playing Saturday: Kesean Carter & Winston Wright. Wright leads the conference in targets out of the slot. Carter is 3rd, although Carter has also played 40% less snaps than the guys in front of him. Among players with at least 40 snaps, these are the only two Big 12 WRs with over 100 yards receiving out of the slot (Wright has over 200). Carter has 3 TDs; the rest of the conference combined only has 4 (including 1 by Myles Price).
WVU has handed the ball to a RB 101 times. Tech has only done so 61 times.
Another odd stat: In Big 12 games, WVU has been called for 21 blocking-related penalties (holding, chop block, block in the back). Tech has only been called for 6.
The betting markets at Pinnacle / CRIS gives Tech about a 40% chance of winning.
