Game Details
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-2, 1-1)
Bad Guys: West Virginia Mountaineers (4-0, 1-0)
When: Saturday, October 15th at 11:00 am
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium; Lubbock, Texas
TV/Stream: FS1 (FOX Sports Go)
Radio/Stream: 97.3 FM | Affiliates | TuneIn App
Weather:
What Happened Last Week
West Virginia had a bye week this past week, which is just great. The Mountaineers have some decent non-conference wins, although the Missouri win doesn’t seem as impressive considering Missouri’s plight, a non-Power 5 win over Youngstown State and two close wins, a 38-35 win over BYU and a 1 point win over Kansas State at home in Morgantown.
Players to Watch
1. QB Skyler Howard (6-0/207): Howard has been really good, not spectacular, but who cares, he’s been really good. Howard has completed 66% of his passes for 8.5 yards per attempt, 7 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. On the ground, he’s rushing 32 times for 106 yards and a touchdown, so he’s not as involved running the ball as he has in the past. Oh, and he’s led his team to a perfect record.
2. WR Shelton Gibson (6-0/198): Gibson has been terrific, especially deep, catching 19 passes for 458 yards and 2 touchdowns. Aside from a negligible game against Missouri, Gibson had 171 yards receiving against Youngstown State, 144 yards receiving against BYU and 104 yards against Kansas State.
3. CB Rasul Douglas (6-2/203): A nice sized cornerback and he’s been really good this year. Douglas is second on the team with 25 tackles, has 2 interceptions on the year and four passes broken up. You don’t see a ton of teams have cornerbacks who are six-foot or taller and Douglas appears to break the mold. I’ll be really interested to see who Douglas covers this week.
4. S Jarrod Harper (6-0/210): Harper is the leading tackler on the team, 26 tackles from his safety spot and has just 1 pass broken up. You’ll probably hear quite a bit about West Virginia’s 3-3-5 defense, which is largely based on having terrific safeties that play well and Harper appears to be another one of those guys that fits into what the Mountaineers do.
The Early Line
Via OddsShark, West Virginia is favored by 1.5, although the line opened at 1, which probably means that the Mountaineers were getting some action at 1, but not enough to bump it up more than half a point.