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Mountaineers intend to redeem Horned Frogs loss

MORGANTOWN — When you are the head coach of a nationally ranked football team, you have little time to enjoy the fruits of your team’s success.

Just ask West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen.

“It’s a little easier to wake up and come to work this week,” Holgorsen explained during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. “But, as we all know, that can change very quickly. I’m glad to be 5-0, but the only thing we are focused on this week is TCU.”

Especially since the Horned Frogs (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) have been the team celebrating on the artificial surface at Milan Puskar Stadium the last two times the Texas based school has ventured into the Mountain State and laid a 40-10 thumping on the Old Gold an Blue a year ago.

“I see a little more intensity from our players,” continued the coach. “Last year we didn’t play very good. I know our kids will be excited to play those guys. Defensively, they look the same. In fact they are pretty much the same guys we played last year so we’ve got our work cut out for us.

“Offensively, it’s interesting to see how they have replaced some guys. They are pretty much doing what we did. They are utilizing transfer well. (Trevone) Boykin was a pain in our side for four years, but the (Kenny) Hill kid looks like he’s just as good. He may not use his legs the same way Boykin did, but he will use them to keep plays alive. The same thing we saw with the (Patrick) Mahomes kid down at Texas Tech last weekend.”

And, while Mahomes was able to pass for over 300 yards, it was the Mountaineers’ prevent unit which made the biggest plays of the game when they were needed most. Starting with a career-first interception by senior Sean Walters to kill a Red Raiders’ drive at the WVU 11 and then registering five sacks and making things so uncomfortable in the backfield that TTU head coach Kliff Kingsbury elected to pull his star signal-caller when the game’s score got out of hand.

“I know I say this every week, but this is going to be our biggest test to date,” Holgorsen quipped. “Another top five offense that’s more balanced.”

An offense led by Texas A&M transfer Kenny Hill, who has completed 162-of-256 attempts for 2,142 yards and 12 touchdowns and eight interceptions, and junior running back Kyle Hicks, who has rushed the football 85 times for 479 yards and seven scores in 2016.

“He (Hill) doesn’t tuck it and run it as much. He looks to throw. He’ll do more scrambling to look to throw it. They’ve (TCU) had good backs and they are going to get them involved.”

West Virginia will look to counter TCU’s explosive offense with a 3-3-5 alignment which has shown steady improvement following a Youngstown State victory where veteran defensive coordinator Tony Gibson called his unit’s effort so bad that he felt it necessary to apologize to every Mountaineer who had ever worn the uniform.

“We have gotten better, but to say that we are where we need to be, I’m not ready to say that,” Gibson explained. “We still are as consistent as we need to be. Just look at Tech’s first touchdown. We have them in a third and a mile (29 yards) and we let their guy get behind us in the end zone and catch the pass for a touchdown.

“Those are the things that we can’t allow if we are going to challenge the TCU’s in the Big 12.”

And, the Horned Frogs of veteran head coach Gary Patterson can score with the best teams in the country. Coming off of a bye week following a 24-23 come-from-behind win over Kansas, TCU ranks No. 16 in scoring offense (40.2 ppg), No. 6 in passing offense (362.5 ypg) and No. 9 in total offense (530.7 ypg).

WVU will counter with an offensive unit that finally cracked the 40-point mark in the Mountaineers’ 48-17 win at Texas Tech. The Skyler Howard-led unit is ranked No. 7 in total offense, averaging 534.2 yards per outing.

“He (Howard) is healthy now,” said Holgorsen. “He got dinged up in the Missouri game and we had to take it easy on him for the next four weeks. But, now he’s 100 percent.”

So much so that the Fort Worth, Texas native rushed for 89 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Red Raiders.

“I think he was watching Mahomes running around and thought ‘hey, that looks like fun’ and started doing it,” continued the sixth-year coach. “Three times on one drive he ran the ball. That might be a record for one of my quarterbacks. But, when he is playing like he is it gives us another needed weapon that defenses have to account for.”

And, the Mountaineers will need all of their weapons at 3:30 p.m. at Mountaineer Field if they want to keep the Horned Frogs from celebrating three-in-a-row on the Old Gold and Blue’s home.

Contact Jim Butta via email at mountaineersman@outlook.com

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