The Sports Xchange
NCAAF Team Report – West Virginia – INSIDE SLANT
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen says he will continue to use wide receiver Tavon Austin as a running back as his team, once 5-0 and ranked in the top 5 in the polls, attempts to break a five-game losing streak and become bowl eligible.
To reach the required six victories for bowl eligibility, this team that once looked to be a shoo-in for a BCS bowl bid and perhaps a spot in the national championship game must beat either Iowa State on the road this week or put it all on the line at home in the season finale against Kansas.
“Sure, why not?” Holgorsen said when asked if Austin would remain at running back after he broke the school record with 344 rushing yards and set a Big 12 and WVU record with 557 all-purpose yards. “He played a lot of receiver today, too. Moving him around and giving him some different matchups was probably a pretty good idea.”
Austin was the greatest running back in Maryland high school history when he rushed for 7,983 yards at Dunbar High in Baltimore.
“I had said a couple of things to Coach Holgorsen and the coaching staff about putting me back there a couple of times,” Austin said. “I didn’t think I was going to get it 21 times. I always told them that’s what I did in high school and I still have it a little bit.”
A little bit?
The performance put on by Austin, quarterback Geno Smith and wide receiver Stedman Bailey served notice that the offense is back where it was early in the season, but so is the defense, which already has broken the school record for points allowed and has at least three more games to play.
That’s what has made the losing streak so difficult, because many were winnable games.
“How many losses like this do we have to go through? I don’t know,” Holgorsen said. “We’ve got two more games left. Hopefully, we can get back out there and get to work and try to come up with a couple of wins. It’s a tough loss, but we have to regroup.”
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NCAAF Team Report – West Virginia – NOTES, QUOTES
–WVU has given up 365 yards a game through the air to rank 120th and last in that department while ranking 119th and next to last in scoring defense, giving up 42.30 points a game. Only Colorado has given up more. The 423 points it has allowed has already broken the school record of 364 allowed by the 1978 team and there remain at least two more games.
–The five-game losing streak is the longest since a Don Nehlen-coached team lost five straight during a 4-7 1986 season.
–When Dana Holgorsen took over as coach, WVU had lost only two games since 2000 in which it has scored 30 or more points. It has now lost three consecutive games in which it scored 30 or more and also the Louisville game last year.
–The Mountaineers have given up 50 or more points four times this year, 48 in another and 45 in yet another. They have given up 21 points in seven quarters this season.
–WVU’s opposition has scored first in the last five games.
WHAT’S AHEAD: It’s a short week for WVU as they must fly to Iowa and play Iowa State on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. The Cyclones, coached by former Pitt assistant Paul Rhodes, whose defense stopped WVU when they needed a victory to play for the national championship game, overwhelmed Kansas 51-23 on the Jayhawks’ home field. Rhodes unleashed a new weapon in QB Sam Richardson, who had not thrown a pass all season but hit 23 of 27 for 250 yards and four touchdowns. That win gave Iowa State bowl eligibility, something WVU is still seeking as it enters its 11th game of the year. WVU and Iowa State have played only twice.
LOOKING GOOD: Obviously, the move of Tavon Austin from wide receiver to running back paid huge dividends as he rushed for 344 yards, a school record. Most of the runs were spectacular examples of his ability to juke and cut and find open space. Austin averaged 16.3 yards on 21 carries. WR Stedman Bailey continued to build on a spectacular season since getting over an ankle injury that slowed him for a couple of games. He caught three passes for 201 yards and four touchdowns, two perfectly thrown bombs from QB Geno Smith. Smith passed for 320 yards and four touchdowns.
STILL NEEDS WORK: The pass defense ranks 120th and last in the nation and figures to finish the season giving up 500 points or more for the first time in school history. Oklahoma’s Landry Jones threw for 554 yards and six TDs against the Mountaineers. PK Tyler Bitancurt’s missed extra point came back to haunt the Mountaineers in a one-point loss to Oklahoma.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “They made one more play than we did.” — WVU coach Dana Holgorsen on his team’s fifth straight loss, 50-49, against Oklahoma.
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NCAAF Team Report – West Virginia – STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
PLAYER NOTES:
–WR Tavon Austin was switched to running back against Oklahoma and broke the school and Big 12 record for most all-purpose yards in a game with 572.
–Austin’s 344 rushing yards were more than WVU had compiled in the four previous games combined.
–WR Tavon Austin leads the nation in receptions per game at an even 10.00 while having surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau for the second straight season.
–With two rushing touchdowns, Tavon Austin became the first Mountaineer in school history to score a touchdown four different ways (catch, rush, kick and punt return) in one season.
–WR Stedman Bailey caught 13 passes for 205 yards and four touchdowns. He now has scored 20 touchdowns on the year, six more than any other player in the nation. He is in third place in receptions per game at 8.80.
–QB Geno Smith’s first touchdown pass of the Oklahoma game, a 33-yard connection with Stedman Bailey in the second quarter, was his 32nd of the season, a WVU record. Smith (2011) and Marc Bulger (1998) shared the previous record of 31. The record now stands at 35.
ROSTER REPORT
–In one of the most productive moves in history, coach Dana Holgorsen moved Tavon Austion to RB and he responded by rushing for a school-record 344 yards and two touchdowns, breaking the record set by Kay-Jay Harris against East Carolina in 2004.
–CB Terrell Chestnut made his first start as a Mountaineer as WVU continues to tinker with the secondary, trying to find someone who can defend the pass.
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