The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
West Virginia
Horns travel to take on Mountaineers on ESPNU
11.09.2015 | Football
Texas seeks first road win of season
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AUSTIN, Texas – Texas hits the road this weekend to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday. The game is set to be broadcast on ESPNU. The Longhorns look ride a wave of momentum from a 59-20 win over Kansas. The Longhorn IMG Radio Network broadcast, including flagship 104.9 FM in Austin, begins at 10 a.m. Listen on participating Longhorn Radio Network affiliates, including the Austin Radio Network. The game can also be heard online at TexasSports.com.
Quick Hits
• Saturday's game will be the fifth meeting between the Texas Longhorns and West Virginia Mountaineers.
• Texas is coming off a dominant 59-20 home win over Kansas. West Virginia defeated Texas Tech 31-26.
• RB D'Onta Foreman had a career night against KU with a personal best of 157 yards rushing on 12 carries. He broke one run for 93 yards in the third quarter to put Texas up 31-14. It was the third-longest rush in school history.
• QB Jerrod Heard connected with WR John Burt on UT's first play from scrimmage for an 84-yard TD. It was the ninth-longest pass play in UT history and the second-longest reception by a freshman and third-longest pass by a freshman.
Scouting the Mountaineers
• Texas heads to West Virginia on Saturday to take on the Mountaineers, who are fresh off their first conference win of the season.
• West Virginia RB Wendell Smallwood ranks third in the Big 12 Conference during league play this year with 124.6 yards per game. He also has rushed for two TDs in conference action.
• The Mountaineers rank 29th in the nation in total offense with 461.1 yards per game. West Virginia averages 220.1 yards rushing to rank 20th and 241.0 passing to stand 47th in the FBS.
• West Virginia has one of the top defenses in the nation on third downs. The Mountaineers are allowing opponents to convert on third down at only 31.0%.
• DB Karl Joseph is one of the top defensive players in the nation with five interceptions to rank No. 8 in the FBS.
Series History
• Texas is tied with West Virginia in the all-time series, 2-2, after winning each of the last two years.
• The Longhorns and Mountaineers have had three exciting games as members of the Big 12 Conference. West Virginia won by just three points in 2012 and Texas won in overtime in 2013.
• Texas is 1-0 at West Virginia after winning the 47-40 affair in overtime in 2013.
Last Meeting
• Last year, Texas bested No. 24/25 West Virginia, 33-16.
• RB Johnathan Gray ran for two TDs in the first half as Texas held a 24-3 advantage at the break.
• After West Virginia pulled within 10 points with 6:38 to play, Gray answered with his third TD of the game and sealed the 33-16 victory with 3:06 to go. Gray had 101 yards on 10 carries.
Roll on 18 Wheeler
• Junior QB Tyrone Swoopes may no longer be the starter but he is still contributing to the team in a significant way thanks to the "18 Wheeler" package installed by the coaching staff.
• Swoopes has come in to spell Jerrod Heard in short-yardage situations and the team has seen great success in both the running and passing game.
• Against Kansas State, Swoopes scored three rushing TDs to help carry the team to a 23-9 victory. He represented all 52 yards in the game-clinching drive with carries of 13, 29 and 10 yards on consecutive plays to punch it in.
• Swoopes had an impressive showing against Kansas with four touchdowns on four carries. One of his scores came on a broken play. After a high snap did not allow him to hand the ball off to the running back, Swoopes scampered 44 yards into the end zone.
• With the four TDs against Kansas, Swoopes became just the third UT quarterback to rush for four TDs in a single game and the first since Vince Young against Michigan in the 2005 Rose Bowl following the 2004 season. That same year Young also accomplished the feat at Texas Tech. Prior to that, it had been since 1946 when Bobby Layne first did it against Oklahoma.
• Since installing the package for the Oklahoma State game (Sept. 26) and not counting the TCU game (Oct. 3), Swoopes has amassed 216 yards on 28 carries for an average of 8.3 per rush. He has scored 9 TDs in the package running and thrown one TD pass during the Oklahoma game (Oct. 10) and against Kansas (Nov. 7) to help seal those victories. He also threw a TD pass at TCU but not as part of the "18 Wheeler" package.
Fuel Efficiency
• The efficiency of the "18 Wheeler" can be seen in Swoopes' ability to move the chains or score.
^ Against Oklahoma State, all three of his carries resulted in a first down or a touchdown.
^ Two of his four carries against Oklahoma resulted in a first down or touchdown, plus the TD pass.
^ Against K-State, in addition to his three TDs, three more of Swoopes' seven total carries moved the chains with first downs. Two of those first-down gains were of 13 and 29 yards.
^ At Iowa State, five of Swoopes' 10 carries resulted in first downs. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry in the loss.
^ Against KU, all four of Swoopes' carries were touchdowns. He gained 59 yards on those plays.
^ Against OSU, OU, K-State, Iowa State and KU combined, 20 of his 28 carries (71%) have gone for first downs or touchdowns. (The 18 Wheeler package was not used at TCU on Oct. 3.)
^ In those same games in the 18 Wheeler package, the nine touchdowns represent 32% of his carries.
^ Swoopes has accounted for 11 TDs (8 rush/3 pass) over the last five games.
Big Gain Burt
• Freshman WR John Burt is becoming the Longhorns' top deep threat already with two long touchdown passes.
• Burt went 84 yards on UT's first offensive play from scrimmage against Kansas (Nov. 7) to quickly put the Horns on top.
• Burt's other touchdown was a 69-yard bomb down the sideline against Rice (Sept. 12).
• The average length of Burt's touchdown catches this year is 76.5 yards.
• His season total so far is 19 receptions for 376 yards for an average of 41.8 per game and 19.8 yards per catch.
• Against Kansas (Nov. 7) Burt tallied 113 yards on four catches. His 113 yards rank 11th in school history for a freshman.
Foreman Gaining Ground
• RB D'Onta Foreman has had an impressive sophomore campaign thus far with three 100-yard games.
• Against Kansas (Nov. 7) had improved his career-high to 157 yards. He had 12 carries for an average of 14.8 yards per carry in the 59-20 win.
• In the third quarter against KU, Foreman broke off a 93-yard run to the end zone. It was the third-longest rush in school history. Foreman is the only player currently listed in the top 15 to have two of those long carries.
• Foreman's second 100-yard game of the season came against Oklahoma (Oct. 10) with 117 yards on just nine carries.
• He broke one carry for a career-long 81 yards to close the third quarter of the OU game that set up a touchdown pass from Tyrone Swoopes to Caleb Bluiett.
• His 81-yard rush is the longest rush by a UT player against Oklahoma and the second-longest non-TD run in UT history.
• Foreman also had 112 yards against TCU (Oct. 3) with a career high in carries (18).
• Foreman is the only player from a Power 5 Conference with two runs of 80 or more yards this season.
• He is the first Longhorn with back-to-back 100-yard games since Malcolm Brown closed the 2013 season with three straight 100-yard performances.
• At TCU he also had career highs with two receptions for 32 yards.
Growing Better with Age
• Foreman tallied 73 yards on 15 carries all of 2014 as a freshman.
• Two carries for 37 yards in career debut against North Texas last year
• Five carries for 13 yards against West Virginia (Nov. 8, 2014)
• In 2015, Foreman has averaged 59.3 yards per game on 8.6 carries per contest.
Frontal Force
• Part of the recent success for UT's defense has been its ability to create pressure with its front seven.
• Texas registered six sacks in three of its last four games (OU, ISU, KU) with five sacks in the other contest (K-State).
• The six sacks registered against Oklahoma (Oct. 10) that sparked the defensive resugence was one shy of the team's season total at the time leading into that game.
• The Longhorns have also averaged 7.75 tackles for loss per game over that stretch.
• Texas has registered at least eight tackles for loss in five games this season. The Longhorns rank sixth in the nation this year with an average of 3.33 sacks per game.
• Senior LB Peter Jinkens leads the team with 8.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. He had a pair of sacks in the loss at Iowa State (Oct. 31).
• LB Malik Jefferson and DTs Poona Ford and Hassan Ridgeway each have 6.0 TFLs.
No Gray Area
• Senior RB Johnathan Gray is climbing up the all-time lists at Texas. With a long history of legendary running backs for the Longhorns, Gray could move into the top 10 in yards soon.
• Gray needs just 114 yards to move ahead of Hodges Mitchell for 10th in school history. He is currently 12th and 110 yards separate him from Eric Metcalf for No. 11 on the list.
• With 23 yards against Iowa State, Gray moved ahead of Jim Bertelsen on the list.
• Against K-State on Oct. 24, Gray tallied 103 yards on 18 carries. It marked his first 100-yard game of the season and the sixth of his career.
• Against Cal on Sept. 19, Gray had just 46 yards rushing but made an impact on the passing game as well with a career-high 71 yards receiving.
Freshman Ball Hawk
• Freshman DB DeShon Elliott pulled in two interceptions in UT's 59-20 victory over Kansas (Nov. 7).
• He becomes only the second true freshman in UT history to record two INTs in a game, joining Chris Carter, who accomplished the rare feat at SMU in 1993.
• Those two INTs already tie Elliott for fifth in school history for interceptions by a freshman in a season.
• The last Longhorn to grab two INTs in the same game was senior CB Duke Thomas, last season at Kansas.
