The No. 13 West Virginia Mountaineers have one of the worst pass defenses in the country. This was on full display last week as they were trounced by the Texas Tech Red Raiders. However, going into a massive showdown with the undefeated and fourth-ranked Kansas St. Wildcats , WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen wants to play into his team's own weakness. He wants the Wildcats to throw the ball as much as possible. From the Charleston Daily Mail:
"We'll work hard on stopping the run and you want to make them pass.
"We try to stop everybody with the run and make everybody one dimensional," freshman linebacker Isaiah Bruce said. "It's been working in some cases and not so much in others, but that's our game plan."
In the Mountaineers' 49-14 loss to the Red Raiders last week, they allowed more than 500 passing yards, but Kansas State presents a different kind of animal. With star quarterback Collin Klein, the Wildcats are 11th in the nation in rushing yards and 112th in passing per game. Klein and starting running back John Hubert have each carried the ball 98 times and have scored 18 touchdowns and rushed for more than 1,100 yards between them.
While Holgorsen appears crazy as a fox sometimes, forcing a team to throw the ball, even though its his own team's biggest weakness, doesn't appear to be a suicidal strategy. If the Mountaineers want to still have a shot at a BCS bowl, it will need to pay off against KSU.