College Football 2021: Top 3 under-the-radar games to watch in Week 12

3. Texas at West Virginia

You may be looking at this game and asking why? Texas became the punchline last week, losing to lowly Kansas for the second time in five seasons. I’ll admit, this is mainly a morbid curiosity to see if Texas can pick themselves off the ground and win their last two games to just become bowl eligible. The Longhorns could also go the other way and throw in the towel.

The series between the Longhorns and Mountaineers is tied at five games a piece. Texas has won the last two games and West Virginia has not beaten them at home since the 2015 season.

Like the Longhorns, West Virginia also needs two straight victories to become 6-6 and get to a bowl game. It has been an up and down season in Morgantown, with both the wins and losses coming in streaks. The Mountaineers have lost their last two.

In their wins over TCU and Iowa State, the Mountaineers offense showed flashes of what it could be. Then against Oklahoma State and Kansas State the last two weeks, the offense took a giant step back.

After a 4-1 start, the Longhorns have lost five games in a row. Do they even care to finish this season? They are certainly a long way from being “back”. It is too early to call coach Steve Sarkisian a bad hire but Texas should not lose to Kansas in football, ever. There are a lot of questions in Austin and not many answers right now.

Neither of these teams are great. It will just be interesting to see which team really wants to keep their bowl hopes alive and which one is ready to look onward towards the 2022 season.