Countdown to Kickoff – Kansas Preview

Story of the Tape
Factors Per Recreation	28.3	31.7
Factors In opposition to	16.3	28.7
Dashing Yards Per Recreation	236.0	192.7
Dashing Yards Allowed Per Recreation	111.7	122.7
Passing Yards Per Recreation	164.3	206.3
Passing Yards Allowed Per Recreation	135.0	280.7
Whole Yards Per Recreation	400.3	399.0
Whole Yards Allowed Per Recreation	246.7	403.3
First Downs For	61	72
First Downs In opposition to	43	66
Fumbles/Misplaced	3/2	7/3
Interceptions/Return Yards	1/33	0/0
Web Punting	42.0	39.9
Discipline Purpose/Makes an attempt	3/3	4/4
Time of Possession	29:46	30:11
third Down Conversions	17/35	8/33
third Down Conversion Protection	15/44	13/34
4th Down Conversions	4/6	9/11
4th Down Conversion Protection	4/5	3/7
Sacks By/Yards Misplaced	6/44	7/40

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two 1-2 soccer groups seeking to keep away from a 1-3 begin to the season shall be dealing with off later at present when West Virginia performs host to Kansas at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
It is the Large 12 opener for each groups.
 
“Each of us are coming into the sport not happy with our first three video games,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown stated. “Each of us are sitting right here 1-2 and had larger hopes for the start of the season. I do not need to communicate for Lance (Leipold), however I do know we did. It is two hungry soccer groups and two soccer groups with their backs in opposition to the wall.”
 
Kansas, coming off a nine-win season a 12 months in the past and ranked 22^nd within the preseason Related Press prime 25 ballot, defeated Lindenwood to start the 12 months earlier than dropping its final two video games to Illinois and UNLV.
 
Two weeks in the past, the Jayhawks led the Illini 17-13 early within the fourth quarter earlier than surrendering two late scores in a 23-17 loss. Final Friday, Kansas as soon as once more could not maintain on to a lead when UNLV rallied from 11 factors right down to win 23-20.
 
Junior quarterback Jalon Daniels, who has put up some terrific passing numbers throughout his injury-plagued profession, has struggled throughout his first three video games of 2024, finishing 54.9% of his 71 cross makes an attempt with six interceptions and simply three landing passes.
 
Examine that to the tip of 2022 when he handed for 544 yards and 5 touchdowns in a triple-overtime loss to Arkansas within the Liberty Bowl, or the large video games he had in opposition to Texas in 2020 and 2021.
 
Two years in the past in Morgantown, Daniels’ passing and working led the Jayhawks to a 55-42 extra time win. That is the final time these two groups have performed.
 
“We have to have the ability to comprise the quarterback,” Brown admitted. “That is actually damage us the primary three weeks. Jalon Daniels is particular. We’re not going to cease him, and we’re not going to cease him from working, however we have to comprise him and remove explosive performs. We have to maintain the ball in entrance of us.”
 
Working again Devin Neal was additionally a giant issue within the KU victory two years in the past in Morgantown with two dashing touchdowns and comes into Saturday’s sport ranked fourth in Kansas historical past in profession dashing with 3,410 yards and second with 35 profession dashing touchdowns.
 
Neal has eclipsed 100 yards or extra in a sport 15 instances, together with a career-high 224 yards in a 37-16 win over 18^th-ranked Oklahoma State in 2022. The Lawrence, Kansas, resident has topped 100 yards in all three video games this 12 months, together with a season-high 120 yards in final week’s loss to UNLV.
 
Luke Grimm (18 catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns) and Lawrence Arnold (10 catches for 131 yards and one landing) lead KU’s aerial assault.
 
Defensively, Jayhawk gamers to keep watch over are linebacker Cornell Wheeler with a team-best 19 tackles, cornerback Mello Dotson with 16 tackles and the workforce’s lone interception, and defensive finish Jereme Robinson with a team-best 2½ sacks and 4½ tackles for loss.
 
“They’re very nicely coached on protection and their line of defense performs extraordinarily onerous,” Brown stated. “We have to have the ability to deal with them up entrance.
 
“We have to proceed to run the ball like now we have the final two weeks, we have to make some performs within the cross sport and we’re getting higher at that,” Brown stated.
 
Regardless of its 1-2 begin, Kansas ranks 17^th this week in whole protection, permitting 246.7 yards per sport and is 22^nd in opposition to the cross surrendering simply 135 yards per contest.
 
Examine that to West Virginia’s cross protection, which ranks 120^th out of 133 groups, giving up an alarming 280.7 yards per sport. That is six spots higher than its cross effectivity score of 170.26 and 4 spots higher than the workforce’s -1.67 turnover margin per sport.
 
Brown talked about earlier this week throughout his weekly press convention that personnel modifications and a few schematic tweaks are coming within the secondary.
 
“We’re not going to proceed to do the identical issues,” he stated.
 
Eight of the 12 touchdowns West Virginia has given up this 12 months have come through the cross, and the final two weeks have seen 300-yard passing efforts from UAlbany’s Myles Burkett and Pitt’s Eli Holstein.

Regardless of these difficulties, the Mountaineers have been in prime place to take down Pitt final Saturday in Pittsburgh within the 107^th Yard Brawl. West Virginia was main 34-24 with lower than 5 minutes remaining following Justin Robinson’s fairly, one-handed landing catch within the nook of the tip zone, however the protection could not comprise Holstein’s scrambling and passing.
 
It took Pitt simply 1:49 to march 75 yards, and regardless of two holding penalties that made it second and 30, the Panthers scored when Holstein accomplished an extended cross to Daejon Reynolds between three Mountaineer defenders for a 40-yard landing.
 
On the next possession, West Virginia was pressured to punt the ball again to Pitt, and the Panthers as soon as once more consumed massive chunks of actual property in speedy succession to achieve the tip zone. The deciding rating got here with 32 seconds left when Derrick Davis Jr. bulled in from the 1.
 
The sport ended when linebacker Kyle Louis intercepted Garrett Greene’s fourth-down cross at midfield. 
 
Greene was 16-of-30 passing for 210 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, whereas working 11 instances for 49 yards.
 
Junior working again CJ Donaldson Jr. paced the bottom sport with 79 yards on 19 makes an attempt with one landing, whereas Jahiem White contributed 46 yards and a landing on 13 carries.
 
Donaldson is the workforce’s prime floor gainer with 246 yards and three touchdowns and has now moved as much as 31^st at WVU in profession dashing with 1,570 yards. He wants simply 204 yards to surpass Walt Easley for 25^th place on the varsity’s all-time dashing record.
 
Greene is finishing 59.3% of his 81 passes for 607 yards and 5 touchdowns with a team-best 10 of these aerials going to sophomore Traylon Ray for 95 yards. Tight finish Kole Taylor is tops with 115 receiving yards on 9 catches with one landing.
 
Defensively, security Anthony Wilson Jr. leads the workforce with 22 tackles. Freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter reveals 17 stops, 1½ tackles for loss, a cross breakup and a quarterback hurry.
 
Troy switch TJ Jackson II, beginning instead of injured Edward Vesterinen, now leads the protection with 2½ sacks and 7 tackles for loss.
 
“Simply because we weren’t happy with how we completed the sport final week, it may possibly’t carry over,” Brown defined. “We begin Large 12 play. It is the one sport we play this week after which now we have a bye week. There may be nothing to carry again from.
 
“We have to exit and put a greater product on the sector. That is our plan, and I consider we’ll,” he added.
 
Right here is at present’s Countdown to Kickoff:
 
10 – The Mountaineers return TEN of the 16 gamers who caught a cross from final 12 months’s workforce and TEN completely different receivers caught passes in WVU’s current 49-14 win over UAlbany.
 
9 – NINE true freshmen have seen motion thus far in 2024 for the Mountaineers: Makai Byerson (DL), Trae’Von Dunbar (RB), Ric’Darious Farmer (WR), Nate Gabriel (DL), Zae Jennings (SPEAR), Curtis Jones Jr. (LB), Elijah Kinsler (DL), Keyshawn Robinson (S) and Jack Sammarco (TE).
 
8 – Right this moment’s sport shall be Kansas’ EIGHTH look in Morgantown courting again to 1941 and the seventh since West Virginia joined the Large 12 in 2012.
 
7 – West Virginia has recorded a number of sacks in SEVEN of its final eight video games courting again to final season.
 
6 – The Mountaineers have defeated the Jayhawks SIX instances in Morgantown and dropping solely as soon as the final time these two groups met in 2022.
 
5 – All FIVE beginning Mountaineer offensive linemen have recorded six or extra nice blocks, as awarded by the teaching, thus far this season. Left sort out Wyatt Milum leads the best way with 13, adopted by left guard Tomas Rimac with eight.
 
4 – The Mountaineer protection has recorded not less than FOUR tackles for loss in 22 out of their final 24 video games courting again to the 2022 season.
 
3 – West Virginia is one in all THREE groups within the Large 12 with two gamers ranked within the prime 12 in common dashing yards per sport (C.J. Donaldson Jr. and Jahiem White).
 
2 – The Mountaineers are one in all TWO groups within the Large 12 this week with a number of gamers ranked among the many league leaders in whole tackles for loss (T.J. Jackson II and Trey Lathan).
 
1 – Senior place kicker Michael Hayes II ranks FIRST within the nation this week in subject purpose share (1.000).
 
Previous to at present’s sport, eight new members shall be inducted into the WVU Sports activities Corridor of Fame at 9 a.m. within the Caperton Indoor Follow facility adjoining to Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
Soccer gamers Anthony Becht, Rasheed Marshall and Adrian Murrell will be part of males’s basketball’s Chris Brooks, girls’s basketball’s Liz Repella, baseball’s Mark Landers, males’s observe and cross nation’s Bob Donker and swimming’s Bette Hushla on this 12 months’s class.
 
These inductees carry the full to 237 within the WVU Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
 
Right this moment’s contest shall be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Brian Custer, Rod Gilmore and Lauren Sisler) whereas Mountaineer Sports activities Community radio protection begins at 9 a.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Present main into common community protection at 11 a.m. with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning.
 
Followers can entry the printed on many stations all through West Virginia, on-line through WVUsports.com or the Varsity Community and WVU Gameday apps.
 
“It is the Large 12, and we have to place the nonconference schedule behind us and go in with a 1-0 mentality,” Brown stated. “That is how now we have to go about it every week and that is how we’re going to assault it.”
 
West Virginia owns a 6-1 document in opposition to Kansas in video games performed in Morgantown and a 10-2 general edge within the collection which started in Morgantown in 1941. The 2 groups have performed annually from 2012 to 2022.
 
Stay stats protection is accessible by way of WVUsports.com.