Texas will welcome West Virginia to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
It’s a crucial game for the Longhorns as they dropped their Big 12 opener to Texas Tech last week. Following the West Virginia matchup, Texas has a tough slate of games against Oklahoma, Iowa State and Oklahoma State.
It’s unclear whether starting quarterback Quinn Ewers will be available against the Mountaineers this week. Second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian has noted that all quarterbacks have been participating in practice throughout the week and he’s nearing a return, but Texas could choose to wait to bring him back for the Oklahoma game on Oct. 8.
Texas struggled to get off of the field on fourth downs last week, allowing Texas Tech to convert 6-of-8 fourth down attempts. Unfortunately for the Longhorns, West Virginia is No. 5 nationally in fourth-down conversions. The Mountaineers are 9-of-10 on fourth down attempts this season.
Here’s a look at a few other interesting facts ahead of the Texas-West Virginia game this week.
WVU is the only current Big 12 team that Texas does not have a winning record against
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- Texas is 5-6 against West Virginia all-time and 2-4 at home.
- Steve Sarkisian is 0-1 against WVU as Texas lost 31-23 last season.
The Mountaineers are No. 5 nationally in fourth-down conversions
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- West Virginia is .900 in fourth down conversions this season and No. 21 nationally in third down conversions (.492). They have been successful on 9-of-10 fourth down attempts.
- This is interesting to note considering Texas Tech had success converting 6-of-8 fourth downs against Texas last week.
West Virginia has three of the top seven WR's in the Big 12 in receiving yards
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- Bryce Ford-Wheaton (#3 in Big 12) with 319 receiving yards.
- Kaden Prather (#6 in Big 12) with 220 receiving yards.
- Sam James (#7 in Big 12) with 219 receiving yards.
Comparing Texas/West Virginia by national statistics
Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
- Scoring offense: WVU (#20), Texas (#69)
- Rushing offense: WVU (#20), Texas (#63)
- Total offense: WVU (#18), Texas (#72)
- Turnover margin: WVU (#89), Texas (#77)
- Total defense: WVU (#23), Texas (#75)
Texas has been drawing a crowd at home
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- Texas set an attendance record at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Week 2 for the Alabama game with 105,213 fans in attendance.
- In Week 3 vs. UTSA, Texas drew another large crowd of 102,520 fans.
- It is the first time since 2018 that Texas had back-to-back crowds of over 100,000 fans. The combined attendance over those two games is the largest two-game total in stadium history.
- The Longhorns should have a nice sized crowd for the West Virginia game this week.
