History links
- West Virginia Game Notes
- Kansas State Game Notes
| The Tale of the Ribbon |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Points per game | 30.6 | 31.2 |
| Points Against | 17.5 | 32.8 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 214.7 | 165.5 |
| Rushing Yards Allowed per game | 143.8 | 147.2 |
| Passing yards per game | 203.1 | 243.7 |
| Passing yards allowed per game | 217.3 | 268.0 |
| Total yards per game | 417.8 | 409.2 |
| Total yards allowed per game | 361.1 | 415.2 |
| First Downs For | 202 | 243 |
| First down vs | 189 | 219 |
| Fumbles / Lost | 11/4 | 12/6 |
| Interceptions/Return Yards | 13/64 | 3/33 |
| Net punting | 41.3 | 40.9 |
| Goal/Field Attempts | 14/19 | 13/13 |
| Time of Possession | 31:40 | 31:52 |
| 3rd down conversions | 48/134 | 67/152 |
| Third down conversion defense | 52/147 | 49/127 |
| Sacks By/Yards Lost | 23/138 | 21/157 |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Twitter can sometimes be a dangerous place for information, especially when it comes from handles with the word “Faux” in front of them.
I’m one of those old-school types who prefers to get some kind of confirmation before sharing information, so when I ran across an interesting tweet earlier this week from Cyclone Larry, I decided to do a little more digging instead. I would take it at face value.
This is in stark contrast to some of my friends, however, who like to bombard my inbox with TikTok videos and tweets and then swear to me that they are authentic news sources.
Either way, what Cyclone Larry went through was pretty impressive. He tweeted that with two weeks left in the regular season, there’s a chance all 10 Big 12 teams could end up qualified.
After some investigation, it turns out that he is right! Here’s how it happens.
Iowa State and West Virginia, with 4-6 overall records, must win their two remaining games – the Cyclones against Texas Tech and TCU and the Mountaineers against Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
That means 5-5 Oklahoma has to beat Oklahoma State and 5-5 Texas Tech has to beat Oklahoma. If these six things happen, voila, the Big 12 will have 10 bowl-eligible teams!
Amazing!
“This league, man, a friend of mine told me, ‘You’re in a tough neighborhood. You have a tough group of guys and that’s very true,” the West Virginia coach said. Neal Brown said. “The league is really good and it’s extremely well coached. I’ve sat in the same chair and I’ve probably said it differently many times before, but anyone can win every Saturday.
“The flip side of that is you can also lose.”
Of course, 10-0 TCU is still in the hunt for a spot in the College Football Playoff with regular-season games remaining against Baylor and Iowa State and then a Big 12 Championship game against Big 12 opponent X.
No. 19 Kansas State, which West Virginia meets Saturday afternoon in Morgantown, is one of four teams still in the running to be the X opponent in Dallas. The Wildcats are in the driver’s seat for that spot with a 5-2 record with conference games remaining against the Mountaineers and Kansas.
But the sleepers are Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas with 4-3 Big 12 records. If Oklahoma State, Baylor or Texas win and K-State gets another loss, then it’s tiebreakers and math, which means I’ll take someone else’s word for it.
In fact, the next six teams behind TCU in the Big 12 standings are mathematically still alive to reach the championship game, meaning only West Virginia, Oklahoma and Iowa State are eliminated.
That speaks to the depth and amazing competitiveness of the Big 12 this year. When you talk about infinity, the Big 12 has become a bottomless pit.
With the exception of TCU, everyone else has shown their vulnerability at some point this season. Kansas State comes off a home loss to Texas two weeks ago and Oklahoma State recently dropped back-to-back games to Kansas State and Kansas by a combined score of 85-16.
Baylor has league losses to Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Kansas State, while Texas has also been defeated by Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and TCU.
The five teams currently below .500 in the conference standings – 3-4 Texas Tech and Kansas, 2-5 West Virginia and Oklahoma and 1-6 Iowa State – would be in much better shape if they were horseshoes and grenades.
Texas Tech is coming off a 15-point win against Kansas to go with an overtime win at home against Texas and a home triumph against West Virginia.
Kansas has won three Big 12 games for the first time in more than a decade with a conference winning record still within reach.
West Virginia is coming off its first-ever win against Oklahoma in Big 12 play and had a fourth-quarter lead in its recent losses to TCU and Iowa State.
A matter of 13 points separates Oklahoma from a 5-2 record in conference play, while Iowa State, which owns a 31-14 victory over West Virginia, has dropped the Big 12 games this year by three, one and three points.
Where else can you find such a top to bottom competitive football league?
For West Virginia to remain in bowl contention, it must face a Kansas State team that is coming off an impressive 31-3 win at Baylor last Saturday. In that game, backup quarterback Will Howard stepped in for injured starter Adrian Martinez to throw three touchdown passes, two to tight end Ben Sinnott.
Dynamic running back Deuce Vaughan rushed for 106 yards to increase his season total to 1,081. The junior has accounted for more than 4,200 yards from scrimmage in 33 career games for the Wildcats.
Before catching himself, Brown almost compared Vaughan to Oklahoma State and NFL legend Barry Sanders.
“You start talking about a strike zone; he’s got a tight strike zone to fight him and if you go too low, he’s strong enough to run through tackles,” Brown said. “He’s got to be really smart because they line him up everywhere, and he’s an advanced runner.
“I was watching last year’s game and he did a couple of things where he jumped out and almost sat down and then came out. I’m not saying he’s Barry Sanders — I’m not putting it on anybody — but that’s the only one other person that I have seen him do such things.”
Defensively, Brown believes freshman defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah is a potential first-rounder.
Last year, Kansas State beat West Virginia 34-17 in Manhattan to snap a five-game losing streak to the Mountaineers. Vaughan had a big game with 121 yards and a touchdown as the Wildcat defense limited West Virginia to just 77 yards rushing and 5 of 14 on third down.
Saturday’s game will begin at 2:00 PM and will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Mark Neely, Barrett Brooks and Tori Petry).
Network coverage of mountain sports with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning begins at 11:00am with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into the network’s regular coverage at 1:00pm on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network apps.
Satellite radio coverage can be accessed on SiriusXM channel 85 as well as XM App channel 196.
Tickets still remain for the Senior Day game and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com. Brown said Tuesday that he’s not sure how many seniors plan to attend the pregame ceremony before the game starts.
