Will Johnson (pictured above) gets the opportunity to return to West Virginia where he began his career as Liberty heads on the road for the first time this season. The Flames face the Mountaineers Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 3pm.
Why West Virginia can win this game
The Mountaineers are undefeated all-time against FCS opponents, sporting a 15-0 mark, including a 54-0 rout of Towson in 2014.
WVU’s offense, per usual, was clicking to open their season against Georgia Southern last week. The Mountaineers put up 44 points and 544 total offensive yards led by QB Skyler Howard and RB Wendell Smallwood.
Under Dana Holgorsen, the Mountaineers have always been able to score in bunches, but if their season opener is any indication, they finally have a good defense as well. West Virginia allowed 224 total yards with only 29 coming through the air. No, you did not read that wrong, WVU allowed only 29 passing yards on 13 attempts last week. Of course, Georgia Southern runs the option, but they still attempted 13 passes of which only 2 were complete and 4 were intercepted.
Why Liberty can win this game
Liberty has always played well against FBS opponents including a win last season over Appalachian State. LU has also competed well against Power 5 opponents under head coach Turner Gill. In Gill’s first ever game as head coach at Liberty, they lost by 3 points to Wake Forest and LU led in the 3rd quarter last season against North Carolina.
The Flames have nothing to lose. No one is expecting them to compete, much less win the game. This should allow the team to play loose. If they are able to hang around until halftime, you never know what will happen as the favorite generally starts to tighten up the longer the game stays close.
West Virginia’s defense is not as dominant as they showed against Georgia Southern. GSU’s offense played to WVU’s defense’s strengths, and once the Mountaineers got ahead it just snowballed. The Flames will test the strength of West Virginia’s total defense.
X-Factor for this game
Karl Joseph.
This man was a ball-hawk for WVU in their season opener finishing with a team-leading 8 tackles and 3 interceptions. The senior safety from Orlando, Florida, has started every game in his 4 seasons at West Virginia.
