The Mountaineers

This week I’ve told anyone that will listen (and trust me, it’s not many people), that thinking about Saturday’s upcoming game against West Virginia completely unhinges me. For about a minute, I get really excited, have tummy butterflies and am filled with a giddy happiness about winning. Immediately after that, I will become sick to my stomach and start to have a mini-heart attack about losing. These two feelings begin to cycle, and for a solid ten minutes I’m rendered absolutely worthless until my brain can be diverted to something else.

In the last few days, I’ve been able to think about the game more rationally – or at least in a less bipolar manner. I’ve looked at A LOT of statistics and read A LOT of articles and, yes, even trolled A LOT of message boards. I‘ve gathered all of my information.

Texas is going to win.

I know every Texas hater and non-liker out there (well, the ones that read my blog anyway) has rolled their eyes and started muttering that I’m a homer. A delusional homer. And, because I’m a Texas fan, a delusional, greedy, arrogant, conference breaking homer.

Mutter away my friends, but Texas can win the game by using a few simple techniques:

Control The Clock on Possessions.

I’m not talking about controlling the clock in the sense of “Mack Brown’s Guide to Clock Management”which is horrific. I’m talking about slow, time eating plays that result in points. While you may not agree that this is the smartest tactic, it’s hard to disagree that 1) if Texas has the ball, West Virginia is not scoring and 2) the longer the offense is on the field, the more rested the defense is.

Don’t Turn the Ball Over.

Ever.

Stay Calm.

If WVU scores on the very first possession in 18 seconds, please, please, just don’t freak out. Stick to the plan. Be the tortoise, not the hare.

I know right now you’re sarcastically thinking “WOW! This chick is a freaking football coaching genius! How has she not been hired as a head coach by now?!” I jest(ish), but I’m not backing down. For as complicated as football is, some basics are simple and absolute.

I’m just going to assume that every time Geno Smith has the ball, WVU is going to score. That doesn’t mean we can’t win.

Baylor put up 63 points on West Virginia. While the shootout was exciting to watch, there’s something to be said for…you know….defense. All week I’ve heard sports commentators defending the notion that it just doesn’t matter if WVU plays great defense, with the offensive numbers they’ve been putting up. To that I say: Well…sometimes.

In the last week I’ve looked at every statistic imaginable – each team has clear weaknesses and each team has very obvious strengths. What I’ve enjoyed most about this research are the following numbers:

Total Offense

Rank	Team	G	Plays	Tot Yds	Tot Yds/Play	TD	Tot Yds/G
3*	West Virginia	4	304	2394	7.88	30	598.50
23	Texas	4	294	1983	6.74	26	495.75

*I found this stat very interesting. 6 of the Top 25 Teams in the Category are Big 12 – Including the top three with Oklahoma State and Baylor ahead of West Virginia, the Bears edging out the Mountaineers by 12 yards and one TD.

Passing Efficiency – Team

Rank	Team	G	Pass Att	Comp	Comp Pct	Int	Int Pct	Pass Yds	Pass Yds/Att	Pass TD	TD Pct	Rating
1	West Virginia	4	181	147	81.22	1	.55	1766	9.76	21	11.60	200.36
4	Texas	4	120	90	75.00	1	.83	1071	8.93	11	9.17	178.55

Scoring Offense

Rank	Team	G	Pts	Pts/G	TD	XPT	Off R/P Made	Def Kick Made	Def R/P Made	FG	Sfty
3	West Virginia	4	212	53.00	30	29	0	0	0	1	0
9	Texas	4	189	47.25	26	24	0	0	0	3	0

Passing Efficiency – Individual

Rank	Name	Team	Pass Att	Comp	Comp Pct	Int	Int Pct	Pass Yds	Pass Yds/Att	Pass TD	TD Pct	Rating
1	Geno Smith	West Virginia	169	141	83.43	0	.00	1728	10.22	20	11.83	208.37
2	David Ash	Texas	109	85	77.98	1	.92	1007	9.24	10	9.17	184.03

In absolute keeping with my ultimately OCD personality, every available team stat is detailed below. I went ahead and put the impressive Offense and Efficiency stats first on off chance that you don’t finish reading this post. As I did with the 2012 signees, I have categorized them in an offsetting way:

GAME CHANGERS

These are the categories that I, me personally, think are going to be the game changers. And if history (well, recent, history, as in five weeks) is an indication, Texas may have a slight edge.

Turnover Margin

Rank	Team	G	Fum Rec	Int	Turnovers Gained	Fum Lost	Int	Turnovers Lost	Margin/G
9	West Virginia	4	3	4	7	0	1	1	1.50
9	Texas	4	1	7	8	1	1	2	1.50

Least Yards Given Up to Penalties

Rank	Team	G	Penalties	Penalty Yds	Penalties/G	Penalty Yds/G
17	Texas	4	19	140	4.75	35.00
55	West Virginia	4	20	201	5.00	50.25

Fumbles Recovered

	Team	Fum Rec
	West Virginia	3
	Texas	1

Passes Intercepted

Rank	Team	Int
15	Texas		7
53	West Virginia		4

Scoring Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp Off TD	Opp XPT Made	Opp Off R/P Made	Opp Def Kick Made	Opp Def R/P Made	Opp FG	Opp Sfty	Opp Pts	Opp Pts Pe
40	Texas	4	10	7	1	0	0	5	0	84	21.00
94	West Virginia	4	17	17	0	0	0	3	1	130	32.50

(NOT IN) THE TOP 100

I didn’t set out with this category to be a total jerk. I legitimately assumed Texas would have a few categories where they sucked it up worse that 99 other teams. Usually I hate to be wrong, but I’m okay with it in this case.

4th Down Conversion Percentage

Rank	Team	4th Down Att	4th Down Conv	4th Down Pct
8	Texas	8	7	87.50
112*	West Virginia	4	0	.00

*Note this is a 6-way tie for LAST.

Net Punting

Rank	Team	G	Punts	Punt Yds	Yds/Punt	Opp Punt Ret	Opp Punt Ret Yds	Punt Touchbacks	Net Yds/Punt
4	Texas	4	9	410	45.56	3	20	0	43.33
118	West Virginia	4	12	457	38.08	8	96	0	30.08

First Downs Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp Rush FD	Opp Pass FD	Opp Penalty FD	Opp Total FD	Opp FD/G
40	Texas	4	44	26	4	74	18.50
100	West Virginia	4	37	54	4	95	23.75

Passing Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp Pass Att	Opp Comp	Opp Comp Pct	Opp Pass Yds/Comp	Int	Opp Int Pct	Opp Pass Yds	Opp Pass Yds/Att	Opp Pass TD
43	Texas	4	101	57	56.44	14.75	7	6.93	841	8.33	5
118	West Virginia	4	156	97	62.18	14.55	4	2.56	1411	9.04	10

Passing Efficiency Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp Pass Att	Opp Comp	Opp Comp Pct	Int	Opp Int Pct	Opp Pass Yds	Opp Pass Yds/Att	Opp Pass TD	Opp TD Pct	Opp Ra
62	Texas	4	101	57	56.44	7	6.93	841	8.33	5	4.95	128.86
109	West Virginia	4	156	97	62.18	4	2.56	1411	9.04	10	6.41	154.18

3rd Down Conversion Percentage Defense

Rank	Team	Opp 3rd Down Att	Opp 3rd Down Conv	Opp 3rd Down Pct
31	Texas	51	17	33.33
102	West Virginia	68	33	48.53

Punt Return Yardage Defense

Rank	Team	Opp Punt Ret	Opp Punt Ret Yds	Opp Punt Ret TD	Opp Punt Ret Avg
52	Texas	3	20	0	6.67
106	West Virginia	8	96	0	12.00

Total Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp Plays	Opp Tot Yds	Opp Tot Yds/Play	Opp Off TD	Opp Tot Yds/G
63	Texas	4	252	1561	6.19	10	390.25
106	West Virginia	4	330	1896	5.75	17	474.00

I’D PREFER A LITTLE TICKLE OVER A LITTLE TACKLE (AT LEASE IN THE SACKLE)

I pretty much want these rankings to disappear forver. Also I pretty much want the Texas D to start wrapping up some tackles. Also, I thought we were getting way more sacks per game. Mostly though, I think we just sacked Ole Miss a lot.

Tackles For Loss

Rank	Team	G	Solo TFL	Asst TFL	TFL Yds	Tot TFL	Tot TFL/G
8	West Virginia	4	27	14	133	34.0	8.50
25	Texas	4	23	12	102	29.0	7.25

Sacks

Rank	Team	G	Sacks	Sack Yds	Sacks/G
12	West Virginia	4	13.0	81	3.25
45	Texas	4	9.0	56	2.25

IT’S NOT THE LENGTH OF THE DOWN…IT’S THE GIRTH

Uh…”Hi Mom!” A few down-specific notes for statistics that haven’t been scooped up by my other amazing categories yet…

4^th Down Conversion Defense

Rank	Team	Opp 4th Down Att	Opp 4th Down Conv	Opp 4th Down Pct
77	West Virginia	9	5	55.56
78	Texas	7	4	57.14

3^RD Down Conversion Percentage

Rank	Team	3rd Down Att	3rd Down Conv	3rd Down Pct
1	West Virginia	46	28	60.87
4	Texas	60	35	58.33

First Downs Offense

Rank	Team	G	Rush FD	Pass FD	Penalty FD	Total FD	FD/G
10	West Virginia	4	33	74	4	111	27.75
31	Texas	4	46	45	5	96	24.00

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!!

Get it? Because of the red zone? Defending our endzone? Underarmor commercial? Yeah....so! See how the teams measured up in the Red Zone. “Back when I was a kid, we just called it the 20 Yard Line.”

Red Zone Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp RZ Drives	Opp RZ Scores	Opp RZ Pts	Opp RZ Rush TD	Opp RZ Pass TD	Opp RZ FG	Opp RZ Pct
74	West Virginia	4	18	15	93	7	5	3	.83
98	Texas	4	9	8	35	2	1	5	.89

Red Zone Offense

Rank	Team	G	RZ Drives	RZ Scores	RZ Pts	RZ Rush TD	RZ Pass TD	RZ FG	RZ Pct
9	West Virginia	4	17	16	108	4	11	1	.94
19	Texas	4	22	20	130	11	7	2	.91

LACES OUT!!

I know, not really.

Kickoff Return Yardage Defense

Rank	Team	Opp Kick Ret	Opp Kick Ret Yds	Opp Kick Ret TD	Opp Kick Ret Avg	K	K Touchbacks
35	Texas	21	403	1	19.19	33	11
69	West Virginia	27	576	0	21.33	36	7

Kickoff Returns

Rank	Team	G	Kick Ret	Kick Ret Yds	Kick Ret TD	Kick Ret Avg
12	Texas	4	9	253	1	28.11
80	West Virginia	4	12	240	0	20.00

Punt Returns

Rank	Team	G	Punt Ret	Punt Ret Yds	Punt Ret TD	Punt Ret Avg
15	Texas	4	4	65	0	16.25
87	West Virginia	4	7	40	0	5.71

THE GREAT DIVIDE(S)

Just a little peeksie at some rankings where the teams are divided by 40 or more positions. Except for the ones listed above where teams (actually, “team”) had categories where they were worse than 100 of the 120 other teams.

Passing Offense

Rank	Team	G	Pass Att	Comp	Int	Comp Pct	Pass Yds	Pass Yds/Att	Pass TD	Pass Yds/G	Int Pct	Pass Yds/Comp
1	West Virginia	4	181	147	1	81.22	1766	9.76	21	441.50	.55	12.01
40	Texas	4	120	90	1	75.00	1071	8.93	11	267.75	.83	11.90

Rushing Defense

Rank	Team	G	Opp Rush Att	Opp Rush Yds	Opp Rush Yds/Att	Opp Rush TD	Opp Rush Yds/Game
38	West Virginia	4	174	485	2.79	7	121.25
86	Texas	4	151	720	4.77	4	180.00

Rushing Offense

Rank	Team	G	Rush Att	Rush Yds	Rush Yds/Att	Rush TD	Rush Yds/G
19	Texas	4	174	912	5.24	13	228.00
70	West Virginia	4	123	628	5.11	7	157.00

MY BRAIN HURTS NOW

Texas 51, WVU 42