West Virginia will make its second Big 12 Conference road trip to Lubbock, Texas to battle Texas Tech just one week after its showdown with Texas in Austin.
But first a little recruiting.
Recruiting Update
There is not a whole lot of concrete recruiting news for West Virginia at the moment, but there are a few rumors and possibilites floating around.
Current Florida commit, 4-star offensive tackle Roderick Johnson, along with another UF commit Joshua Outlaw, are only "85-percent" committed to the Gators, leaving the door open for some other programs (via Zach Abolverdi of The Gainesville Sun).
Johnson has drawn some attention from WVU and says he plans to take a visit to Morgantown to make a comparison to UF, as well as UCF before making his final decision.
Another offensive tackle named Johnson also may be interested in WVU.
Dorian Johnson, the nation's No. 2 OT, is currently committed to Penn State, but is expected to be one of the many Nittany Lions commits to look elsewhere after the NCAA's crippling sanctions.
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Alex Gleitman of ElevenWarriors.com recently tweeted that he will reconsider his previous three finalists: Ohio State, Pitt, and West Virginia.
The Mountaineers already have one OT commitment from 4-star Marcell Lazard, but a team can never have too much talent or depth on the offensive line.
Also, keep an eye on current Penn Sate players who considered the Mountaineers in the past. There are quite a few, so its hard to say whether or not any of them will actually make the jump to Morgantown.
Also, at the recent Big 12 media days, head coach Dana Holgorsen noted that he isn't really big on transfers, and that they will only take transfers where they have a need to fill.
Texas Tech Preview
Texas Tech finished at 2-7 in conference play and outside of bowl eligibility at 5-7 overall last year.
Despite that, the Red Raiders are expected to be one of the most improved teams in the Big 12—if not the NCAA this season.
Senior quarterback Seth Doege led the NCAA in completions per-game, connecting on 33.17 throws per-contest on average.
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He also finished sixth, just behind Geno Smith, with 333 passing yards per game, as he threw for a total of 4004 yards.
He will also have some proven targets returning.
Perhaps the best of the bunch will be senior Darrin Moore.
Moore was a Blinn College transfer (where he won the 2009 NJCAA title with Cam Newton as a freshman) and was named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list in 2011.
He was off to a great start last year before suffering a leg injury against Nevada, which kept him out of three games.
Despite missing that much time, he still went for 571 yards and eight touchdowns.
If he remains healthy, he will almost assuredly be Doege's No. 1 target in 2012.
Joining him will be the Red Raiders' other two leading receivers from a year ago, junior Eric Ward and senior Alex Torres.
The duo accounted for 1,416 yards and 15 touchdowns last year, giving Doege two more excellent targets.
TTU's fourth receiver will be its "Y-Tight End" Jace Amaro, who hauled in two touchdown receptions last year.
For the Texas Tech running game, injuries have been and will continue to be the one elephant in the room.
Leading rusher Eric Stephens will bring back his 565 yards and eight touchdowns from last year.
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The good news is that those numbers were accumulated through only five games, which shows that Stephens has what it takes to be a premier back and provide some dangerous balance to the Red Raider offense.
The bad news is the question of how he will bounce back from tearing his ACL and MCL.
Behind him on the post-spring depth chart is DeAndre Washington, who also suffered a torn ACL last season.
If Stephens and Washington are hampered by injuries, Kenny Williams will be there to provide depth, along with SaDale Foster, a transfer from Riverside Community College in Riverside, Calif.
The offensive line will return three starters, including LaAdrian Waddle, Texas Tech's sole preseason all-Big 12 honoree.
With their return and the addition of Brian Thomas, a graduate transfer from Texas A&M, the offensive front figures to be a strength in 2012.
On the defensive front, the situation is much more unsettled.
The defensive line was a huge problem spot for the Red Raiders last season, as they finished dead last in the NCAA in rush defense, allowing 258.8 yards per game on the ground.
The Red Raider pass defense is much stronger fortunately, as they allowed just 226.8 yards per contest, good for second in the conference.
Overall, Texas Tech doesn't figure to present a huge challenge defensively to West Virginia.
The secondary is strong and returns three proven seniors, but the rush defense is the furthest thing from reliable.
If WVU can utilize Dustin Garrison and Shawne Alston to balance out the passing attack against TTU, this game shouldn't be much of a problem offensively.
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Like most games on the schedule, expect this one to be a shootout, as Doege is certain to challenge the Mountaineer secondary.
A big thing to pay attention to is how the WVU rush defense handles the Texas rush offense in the week prior.
If they are banged up from that battle, a healthy Eric Stephens could be very problematic.
The big intangible in this situation will be the crowd at Jones AT&T Stadium, one of the most notoriously rowdy stadiums in the conference.
In the end, I expect Garrison, a Pearland, Texas native, to have a huge game against the paper-thin Texas Tech rush defense and WVU to win in a wild one.
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