West Virginia Baylor EXPERT PICKS

Morgantown, West Virginia – The West Virginia Mountaineers (1-1) will try to bounce back from a loss at Oklahoma State against the 1-0 Baylor Bears.  Baylor defeated Kansas 47-14  last week in their season opener at home.

Here are our predictions from The Voice of Motown staff writers:

Clark Johnson, Football Analyst, Voice of Motown (2-0)

No more excuses.  This week, WVU has to get their act together against Baylor.  In a usual 12-game season, I wouldn’t be as concerned with a 1-2 start.  However, with only 10 games due to COVID-19, WVU has to win Saturday – and I think they will.

The Mountaineers will be pissed off after a week of being coached hard, and Baylor will be a fatality of their rage on the field.  Jarrett Doege gets hot early, and Leddie Brown goes over 100 yards rushing again.  The game is close going into the fourth, as it was in 2019.  This time, however, it isn’t Austin Kendall orchestrating the offense.  WVU gets a big win going into their second bye week.

WVU 30 BAYLOR 20

 

Hank Steinmiller, Writer, Voice of Motown (0-0)

WVU played their first meaningful game in over 9 months last week.  It was a dud.  Neal Brown won’t watch his team shoot itself in the foot two weeks in a row.  The mental mistakes get cleaned up.  The offense takes advantage of a young, inexperienced Baylor defense and uses two forced turnovers by their own defense to get their first Big 12 win of 2020.

WVU 27 BAYLOR 23

 

Aaron Shamblin, Writer, Voice of Motown (2-0)

Doege needs to become more mobile, he hasn’t created anything for himself and looks like a statue back there..  When a QB can’t run and create, all the responsibility falls on the coach to call a perfect game – which is obviously difficult.  On zone reads, the opposing D zeros in on the RB because they know Doege won’t keep it.  On passing situations they pin their ears back because they know Doege won’t run.  He doesn’t have to be Michael Vick, Jr., he just needs to run enough to get 1st downs and move the chains.  Tom Brady is old enough to be in a nursing home and even he will take off on occasion.

If we’re going to be successful this game and furthermore this season, Doege cannot be so one dimensional.  The defense is there, the running game is there, the receiving game is there, we just need a QB that can take off on 3rd and 5 when no one is open instead of taking a sack and punting.  The defense can only do so much and we cannot expect them to keep a team down all game.

WVU has surrendered only 135 passing yards per game, which ranks 5th and only 6.9 yards per game, which ranks 25th nationally.  If we can continue that kind of dominant defense against Brewer and the Bears, WVU will win the game.

WVU 27 BAYLOR 20

 

Brad Smith, Senior Writer/Owner, Voice of Motown (1-1)

West Virginia University’s ridiculous decision to not allow fans in the stands for this game against Baylor is going to hurt.  There won’t be any of the normal Mountaineer Magic that former teams have experienced at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Baylor Head Coach Dave Aranda, the former LSU defensive coordinator, is one of the best and brightest defensive minds in all of college football.  While West Virginia has potential to be explosive on offense, they just aren’t there yet.  Aranda will get pressure on Doege and cause problems for the Mountaineers offense all game.

Charlie Brewer, Baylor’s senior quarterback, has outstanding intangibles and is one of the Bears’ all-time leaders in career passing yards.  He also has the spunk and attitude needed from a quarterback to take his team on the road and get big wins.

I hate to say it and I really, really hope I’m wrong, but I like Baylor big here.

BAYLOR 42 WVU 21