West Virginia goes to present a special type of stress to Oklahoma’s protection than Baylor did per week in the past.
Dave Aranda’s Bears wished to preserve the ball on the bottom, attempting to bowl over the OU protection with a run sport centered across the exterior zone play.
By distinction, the Mountaineers are going to take to the skies this Saturday of their bid to upset the Sooners (5-4 general, 2-4 Big 12).
West Virginia (3-6, 1-5) coach Neal Brown made some offensive workers adjustments this offseason, bringing in Graham Harrell to name the performs.
Most just lately the offensive coordinator at USC, Harrell deploys a various passing assault that held realized because the quarterback at Texas Tech.
Harrell’s arrival coincided with the switch of JT Daniels from Georgia to Morgantown, reuniting the duo from Daniels’ days taking part in for the Trojans.
Daniels’ throwing potential has been instantly put to use. Harrell has referred to as on the previous 5-star recruit to throw the ball 35 instances a sport, and Daniels has accomplished 61.3 % of his passes for two,042 yards, 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
The adjustments to the WVU offense aren’t completely international to the Sooners protection, nonetheless. Elements of the taking part in model below Harrell have drawn parallels to Mountaineer offenses which have confronted Oklahoma prior to now.
“Super Air Raid,” OU linebacker DaShaun White mentioned after apply on Monday. “They’ve kind of been the same for some time now. Obviously different personnel. They’ve always loved the Air Raid and take the top off everybody. They have a great receiving group that will present a lot of challenges and we have to be ready for them.”
Oklahoma could have to bottle up broad receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton, who caught eight balls for 93 yards final 12 months in Norman.
Ford-Wheaton is the main receiver for the Mountaineers this 12 months, hauling in 51 passes for 605 yards and 6 touchdowns.
Limiting the West Virginia passing assault will begin with good communication on the again finish of Oklahoma’s protection.
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The Sooners rank No. 73-overall within the nation in passing protection, permitting 235.3 yards per sport, and so they can’t afford any breakdowns to submit an improved exhibiting in Morgantown.
“We just have to be better overall,” OU cornerback C.J. Coldon mentioned on Monday. “… Everybody has to communicate on the defense in order for us to be successful out there on the field. We’ve just got to communicate and that sets us up to be in the right spots.”
When the Sooners have been in place over their previous three video games, they’ve been in a position to provide you with massive performs within the passing sport.
Oklahoma has come down with six mixed interceptions in opposition to Kansas, Iowa State and West Virginia, because the unit has concurrently discovered methods to give the ball again to the OU offense whereas constructing perception in go protection.
“We’ve just got to play confident week in, week out. That’s all it is,” Coldon mentioned. “Just coming into the game very confident by our preparation and listening to our coaches and being prepared every week, every day.”
On the entire, West Virginia have had a curler coaster season.
But the perfect performances for Brown’s Mountaineers have come at house.
WVU is averaging 47.8 factors per sport this season at Milan Puskar Stadium largely due to the superb play of Daniels in Morgantown.
“He throws a great deep ball,” OU defensive coordinator Ted Roof mentioned of Daniels. “He doesn’t panic in the pocket, and he’s done a good job of throwing under direst.
“He hangs in there, trusts his protection and gets rid of the ball. Regardless of the situation, pressure or no pressure, he’s a tough, gutsy competitor.”
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