Texas vs. West Virginia Prediction, Game Preview

West Virginia (4-4) came up with a nice win over Texas Tech to turn the season back around – potentially – and now it’s up to Texas (4-5) to change that back. The Longhorns have almost no margin for error the rest of the way needing to come up with a big win on the road to keep bowl hopes alive. Check out the Texas vs. West Virginia game preview and prediction.

Texas vs. West Virginia Game Preview

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, Nov. 14
Game Time: 12:00 pm
Venue: Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, WV

Network: ESPNU

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Why You Need To Care

West Virginia lost to the Big 12’s four power teams – Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU – all in a row, but it might have established itself as the No. 5 team in the conference with a strong win over Texas Tech last week. With Kansas and Iowa State up next, getting to six wins and a bowl game shouldn’t be a problem before going to Kansas State to close things out, but beating Texas would be a big deal. The Mountaineers have to take advantage of the home game with just one more to go.

Texas has won three of the last four with an awful loss to Iowa State thrown into the equation. With Texas Tech and Baylor left to go, the Longhorns could really, really use a win in Morgantown to take the pressure off of the last few weeks. This isn’t the most explosive of teams, and it can’t risk having to get into any sort of a shootout. Powering over the Mountaineers is a must.

Why Texas Will Win

This isn’t that hard for Texas. When it’s not turning the ball over, and when it’s capitalizing on mistakes, and when it’s able to control the ball and game, it’s fine. When it gives up early points and has to press, and when the defense isn’t forcing errors, it struggles. The Longhorns lost the turnover margin just twice this year – losses to TCU and Iowa State – and it’s 4-1 when it wins the turnover battle. West Virginia has lost the margin in each of the last five games.

Why West Virginia Will Win

Get the running game going right away. The Mountaineer passing attack has struggled to consistently come up with plays over the last five games against the good Big 12 teams – hitting fewer than 50% of their passes – but the running game has been terrific highlighted by a 300-yard, four score day against Texas Tech last week. The Texas run defense has been okay at times, and it dominated against Oklahoma and Kansas State, but it can be shoved a bit. This isn’t a powerful West Virginia ground game, but it’s effective when it gets all the parts working.

Player Who Matters

6-0, 241-pound power back D’Onta Foreman has started to take over the Texas running game. He didn’t get much work in the loss to Iowa State, and he only ran for 43 yards against Kansas State, but he tore through Kansas for 157 yards and two scores on just 12 carries and ran for over 100 yards against TCU and Oklahoma. He has the breakaway speed to come up with the big play, and the size to become more of a workhorse. Can he carry the team to a bowl game? He might get a chance to try.

What’s Going To Happen?

This should be a good one between the two running games. West Virginia will come up with a bit more with the passing game, and will come up with a few more third down stops, to get a strong win that’ll cement its place among the Big 12’s upper half.