Big 12 Football Preseason Power Rankings: Boomer Sooner
By VF Castro
No. 8: West Virginia Mountaineers
West Virginia is by no means a bad team, and coming off eight wins in 2015, I see no reason the Mountaineers can’t accomplish the same feat. But for purposes of Big 12 power rankings and the dissection of what happens in-conference, hear me out.
West Virginia will have a solid offense in 2016, with a stacked depth chart full of veterans.
Junior receiver Shelton Gibson was an absolute playmaker last season averaging 24 yards-per-catch and nine touchdown catches, so expect to see him as quarterback Skyler Howard’s go-to guy on deep balls. But Daikiel Shorts averaged 11.7 yards-per-catch last season with five touchdowns, so coupled with impressive rushing numbers, the Mountaineers will be able to hang offensively.
On the defensive side of the ball is where West Virginia could run into some major issues. The Mountaineers are thin on returning starters, and without veteran leadership, it’s hard to correctly assess the situation, despite votes of confidence by the coaching staff.
Word on the streets is that the Mountaineers’ pass rush is improved in Christian Brown and Noble Nwachukwu–who led the Big 12 in sacks last season at 8.5. If the pass rush can disrupt the Big 12’s notorious offenses, West Virginia has the capabilities of making waves, especially if free safety Dravon Askew-Henry can be as effective disrupting the backfield as he was last season.
If these rankings weren’t based off “power” and visible metrics, and purely speculative, West Virginia would have been ranked much higher. But let’s try to get through Texas Tech on October 15 in Lubbock before reading too far into this.
Silver Lining: The Mountaineers play TCU (Oct. 22), Oklahoma (Nov. 19), and Baylor (Dec. 3) at home in Morgantown this season.