{"id":5616,"date":"2018-08-27T13:59:23","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T18:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=5616"},"modified":"2018-08-28T00:56:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T05:56:23","slug":"west-virginias-time-is-now-big-twelve-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=5616","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia’s time is now?…..Big Twelve Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
The final game in the Big Twelve conference regular season has West Virginia hosting the Oklahoma Sooners.\u00a0 The\u00a0 following week the Title game in Arlington could match both teams again.\u00a0 A back-to-back between these teams is a strong possibility.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
The\u00a0college football team\u00a0from the hills of West Virginia and the\u00a0Big Red\u00a0from the\u00a0midlands are very similar in that both\u00a0have the personnel that should and would exhibit a winning attitude in 2018.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top line coaching is important and both schools have outstanding head men..\u00a0 Dana Holgorsen,\u00a0head coach at West Virginia\u00a0 is founded in he same offense as Oklahoma’s Lincoln\u00a0Riley and\u00a0these two\u00a0team are close when it comes to concepts in moving\u00a0the ball.\u00a0 Both differ from other coaches that run similar schemes as they want to run the ball\u00a0with fidelity and use the pass to finish off the opponents.\u00a0 When the Mountaineers and\u00a0Sooners\u00a0 are moving the ball on the ground, good things happen and more than not a win is on the end of a match-up.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

OU and\u00a0WV will both run and pass with effectiveness, and when they meet at the end of the year\u00a0expect a Big Twelve shootout this year.\u00a0.\u00a0Add\u00a0 fan bases\u00a0in Morgantown and Norman that\u00a0make their home field tough\u00a0places\u00a0for opponents to play, winning home games become paramount in having a\u00a0title game team in the Big Twelve.\u00a0\u00a0 With OU going east this year to play this game, West\u00a0Virginia has an opportunity to take the fight to the Big Red.\u00a0\u00a0Both\u00a0coaches will tell you a Conference title is the goal in August\u00a0and if\u00a0a team wants to punch a ticket to the\u00a0Final Four as\u00a0Oklahoma has accomplished twice, win\u00a0impressively in that last game in Arlington to give yourself that opportunity.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Looking at West Virginia you cannot avoid the fact that they will have the most lauded pre-season quarterback in the country.\u00a0\u00a0Will Grier is that man and he is a talented player with experience. Grier will be surrounded with talent that includes two wideouts that are first line Big Twelve pass catchers.\u00a0 Gary Jennings and David Sills V will provide steady hands in routine plays and have the ability to break the long one with great speed.\u00a0 Kennedy McKay will be the feature back that will run behind a good line.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
West Virginia University quarterback Will Grier. AP photo\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Doubts that West Virginia can hang with OU or other alike\u00a0 conference teams such as Kansas State, Iowa State, Texas, TCU and Oklahoma State are numerous.\u00a0 As the Mountaineers can expect to score aplenty, defense could be their downfall.\u00a0 Do they have enough new faces to improve upon the worst run defense in the league last year and a team that has lost three starters from the secondary?\u00a0 . Dante Stills (4 star), freshman end, joins nose tackle brother Darius, as leader of the stoppers. Expect Dante to be really good as a freshman and a future all-conference player at least in his career in Morgantown. He is the best defensive player Holgorsen has recruited.\u00a0\u00a0The smart money\u00a0says West Virginia will be\u00a0better than last year on defense and that is really not hard to do\u00a0as they gave up over thirty points per game in 2018<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Look for improvement in the kicking game in every category.\u00a0 That too is a must for a championship team.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
The hunch here is that West Virginia will be at the near top of the conference and have a great chance to play in the\u00a0 conference title game.\u00a0 Sure, on paper this team has deficiencies, but so does all others.\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Head Coach Dana Holgorsen\u00a0 8th year (53-37)<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\n
Games West Virginia will win:\u00a0 Tennessee, Youngstown State, Texas Tech, Kansas, Baylor<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Games West Virginia should win:\u00a0 Kansas State, Iowa State<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Games that are toss-ups:\u00a0 North Carolina State, Texas, TCU, Oklahoma State<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Games that West Virginia will be underdogs but could win:\u00a0 Oklahoma<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
2018 Prediction:\u00a0 9-3\u00a0 and 6-3 in Big Twelve play<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(Photo: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final game in the Big Twelve conference regular season has West Virginia hosting the…<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,10,4,7],"tags":[617,231,1279,1280,1282,1284,1283,14,1278,16,169,130,1277,1281,889],"class_list":["post-5616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-college-sports","category-featured","category-home","category-latest","tag-big-twelve-conference","tag-dana-holgorsen","tag-dante-stills","tag-darius-stills","tag-david-sills-v","tag-gary-jennings","tag-kennedy-mckay","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-north-carolina-state","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys","tag-tennessee-vols","tag-west-tainvirginia-moun","tag-will-grier","tag-youngstown-state"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":274,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5616"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5636,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5616\/revisions\/5636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}