WVU Offense Faces Big Challenges
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MORGANTOWN -- Their names may be unknown to West Virginia football fans, but you can bet the house that they will be on the mind of every Mountaineers player when they take to the field at the Cotton Bowl for their 1:30 p.m. showdown with the University of Utah in the Zaxby Heart of Dallas Bowl.
"They (the defensive line) are big, stout kids who like to play physical," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said during Wednesday's press conference. "They have quick, physical linebackers and their corners like to play press coverage to make you work for everything you get."
That basically sums up the challenge facing first-year OC Spavital and his offensive attack as it goes up against a Utes defense which has given up some yards and some points, but has also come up big in close losses to Stanford (23-20), USC (28-27) and Washington (33-30).
"It will be a challenge," Spavital said. "We are going to have to execute the things we do well and do some things that we might not do well, but need to execute in order to keep them off balance."
The front four for Utah (6-6, 3-6 Pac-12) includes seniors Lowell Lotulelei and Filipo Mokofisi at the tackles with senior Kylie Fitts at left end and sophomore Bradlee Anae at right end.
Lotulelei is a four-time All-Pac-12 selection (first team in 2015) while Mokofisi earned honorable mention as a junior and as a senior.
The linebackers include seniors Kavika Luafatasaga and Sunia Tauteoli as well as junior Cody Barton while the corners are sophomore Julian Blackmon -- a second team All-Pac 12 selection this season -- junior Casey Hughes and true freshman Jaylon Johnson.
If receivers are able to get into the secondary they will encounter junior strong safety Chase Hansen and junior free safety Corrion Ballard.
"There really isn't a weakness," said Spavital, who coached against the Utes while an assistant at the University of California. "They like to play physical and they want to make you one dimensional."
Making matters worse for Spavital and the Mountaineers' offense will be the loss of two of its top weapons -- senior running back Justin Crawford and junior quarterback Will Grier.
Crawford, a second team All-Big 12 performer, led the team with 1,061 yards and seven touchdowns rushing while Grier was the team's top quarterback with 3,490 yards and 34 touchdown passes.
"Yes, it hurts," Spavital said. "But, we feel like we have two really good backs with Kennedy (McKoy) and Martell (Pettaway) available and (Chris) Chugs (Chugunov) has been here three years and knows the offense.
"He played pretty well against Oklahoma and he has had five weeks to work with the receivers on timing so we feel comfortable that he will be fine running the offense."
Grier incurred a broken finger on his throwing hand while attempting to score a touchdown in a 28-14 loss to Texas in the Mountaineers' final home contest, while Crawford has elected to forego the bowl game in order to prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft.
West Virginia (7-5, 5-4 Big 12) will look to Chugunov, who has completed 34 of 62 attempts for 407 yards and two touchdowns, to keep the Mountaineers' Air Raid attack going while McKoy (111-565, 7 TDs) is coming off a huge effort in WVU's 59-31 loss at No. 2 Oklahoma to end the regular season.
"Hey, they are both solid players and they have had over a month since the Oklahoma game to prepare for this moment," head coach Dana Holgorsen said. "As coaches we understand that we are going to lose players. So, for us, it's a 'next man up' approach."
But will that be enough to overcome a Utah prevent unit which limited Stanford to 384 total yards on offense?
"That's the challenge," Holgorsen said. "Obviously, we have our work cut out for us. But, the kids are excited. We polled them to see how many had spent any long amount of time in Texas and I think we had one.
"So, we're excited to be spending the holiday in Texas and playing in the Cotton Bowl against a very solid Utah team. We've spent the last week prepping for them. We'll head down on Friday and spend the next couple of days going over that prep and then we'll see what happens."