West Virginia head coach Neal Brown gets fired up on the sidelines during a game earlier this season. (Photo by Frank Salucci/BlueGoldNews.com)

MORGANTOWN — Under normal circumstances, a late November college football game between a team sporting 5-5 record, such as West Virginia will have at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday when it hosts UCF, a team with an even less exciting 4-6 record, would not offer much intrigue to the fans of either team.

Even if it is Senior Day, as this game that will be carried on ESPNU is, we are in a new era where seniors often haven’t been around long enough to create much of an emotional attachment to the fans, the only thing that would seem to be at stake is a spot in a minor bowl game, WVU becoming bowl qualified if it wins this encounter and UCF left with no postseason in which to perform.

But this game provides a couple of bonuses, the first being the possibility that the ticket stub may have some historic value as it could be Neal Brown’s final home appearance as head coach of the Mountaineers, many suspecting that he needs to win the final two games to have a chance to be retained.

That, however, is a post-game angle to pursue. The other aspect of the game also involves Brown for it involves intriguing game-planning strategy on both sides as this Big 12 game matches the ying of UCF’s powerful running game against a West Virginia defense that has proven itself to be quite capable of stopping the run but fatally flawed in its defense of the passing game.

Looking at that, the question arises whether UCF’s Gus Malzahn is willing to lean on his run game and the gifted running back R.J. Harvey, a 5-foot-9, 208-pound running machine who enters play as the No. 3 rusher in the nation with 1,328 yards and 19 rushing touchdowns against a run defense that allows just 131.2 yards per game — exactly half of the 262 that UCF averages as a team.

Or does he follow a far saner route and decide to fill the air with flying footballs against the team that ranks 129th out of 133 FBS team pass efficiency defense, to say nothing ranking 127th by giving up 269.7 passing yards per game.

It isn’t that the Knights UCF can’t throw the ball. Freshman Dylan Rizk, who took over the starting job after coming in late in a loss to BYU, has had a huge game with 20 completions in 25 tries for 294 yards and three touchdowns against Arizona and then went 24-34 for 229 yards in a loss to Arizona State. His completion percentage stands at 72.9 and that only figures to soar higher against WVU.

But Malzahn is known for his run game and asking him to turn away from it in favor of flinging the football is hard to imagine when he has a weapon like Harvey.

“Everywhere Gus Malzahn has been they’ve been able to run the ball effectively, and for us, it starts on defense with our ability to contain them in the run,” Brown said.

That is what he’s been preaching to his defense. Defensive tackle T.J. Jackson, who has emerged as a disruptive force wit4h 13.5 TFLs, summed it up best when asked what the key to victory was.

“We’ve got to stop R.J. Harvey,” he answered.

A transfer from Virginia, Harvey rushed for 196 yards in a loss to Iowa State, 184 against Arizona and 180 against TCU and has surpassed 100 rushing yards in 7 o f 10 games.

“I think he’s one of the improved players,” Brown said. “He was really good last year. I think he’s elite this year. He’s a really tough tackle and can make people miss. He has a great feel for their zone schemes.”

That’s bad news in two regards. First he gained 1,416 rushing yards last season and Brown says he’s now better and Brown labeled him as a “really tough tackle” coming off two games after which the Mountaineer coach declared his team had not tackled well.

So, Brown has to concentrate on slowing down Harvey but, at the same time, find a way to improve his pass defense.

And all that may be at stake is his job.

NOTES: WVU will be without receiver Traylon Ray for the rest of the season as he recovers from surgery for a broken leg in last Saturday’s loss to Baylor … Garrett Greene, coming off an explosive game as he reclaimed his starting quarterback job last week, will start as he goes through his Senior Day … Senior offensive tackle Wyatt Milum is a semifinalist for the Outland Trophy.