Baylor vs. WVU: Mountaineers' Big 12 debut also a reunion for Dana Holgorsen

The West Virginia Mountaineers are ready to take on the Baylor Bears in their inaugural Big 12 clash on Saturday afternoon at Mountaineer Field.

While this is new territory for most of the program, it's not for head coach Dana Holgorsen, who was an assistant at Texas Tech along with current Baylor head coach Art Briles, according to triblive.com.

"Dana is a great coach," Briles said. "He has done a great job everywhere he has been. He is very passionate, very attentive to detail and very intelligent. I am certainly not surprised at all where he is at right now. I could see it back in 2000."

Holgorsen has done a terrific job with West Virginia in his brief tenure, vaulting the team to No. 9 in the country. With possible Heisman contender and quarterback Geno Smith at the helm, the Mountaineers have become a trendy pick of some to make a run at the Big 12 championship. That would be a coup for the Mountaineers in their first season in the conference.

The schedule is very challenging however for West Virginia, who starting this week will see five ranked opponents in the next seven games.