Texas-West Virginia Preview Notebook

Complied by Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Here are some game and roster notes and some quotes in advance of No. 11 Texas’s game against West Virginia Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia:

• Texas will be without [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]defensive backs Jalen Green, Caden Sterns and Josh Thompson, and likely without DeMarvion Overshown, because of injuries, but will get B.J. Foster back from a balky hamstring that has kept him out the past two games.

• Wide receiver Collin Johnson will travel with the team and be a game-time decision against the Mountaineers. If he does play, he will not be limited, according to Texas coach Tom Herman.

• Texas won’t blink when it plays its first true road game of the season this week in Morgantown, according to Longhorns’ defensive end Malcolm Roach. “They can do all the talking they want to,” Roach said of West Virginia’s raucous fans. “They’re not going to be on that field playing, going through what we’re going through.”

• Saturday’s contest will mark UT’s fourth all-time appearance in Morgantown. The Horns are 2-1 in their three visits to the Mountain State, all of which have come since West Virginia joined the league in 2012.

• Saturday’s game will be the first played outside of the state of Texas for the Longhorns this season. Overall, 10 of UT’s 12 regular-season games will be contested in Texas. The Horns will only leave the Lone Star State again to face Iowa State (Nov. 16).

• Senior center Zach Shackelford said he likes playing in Morgantown. “It’s always an electric atmosphere,” he explained. “Just kind of take whatever you see on film and amplify it a little bit because they’re going to be juiced up.”

• This is the second straight year the Horns will start October games ranked in the top 25. The last time Texas did that was 2012. UT has begun October play ranked in the top 25 three times in the past seven years.

• Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger matched his career high with four touchdown passes Sept. 21 against Oklahoma State. It was his third four-touchdown performance this season, making him only the second Texas quarterback (along with Colt McCoy in 2008) to throw for at least four touchdowns on three occasions in a single season; Ehlinger also is the first Texas quarterback since McCoy (in 2008) to throw at least three touchdowns in four straight games. “We’ve been able to get Sam to have a good understanding of our offense,” Texas offensive coordinator Tim Beck said. “So he knows the strengths of plays, the weaknesses of plays. The beautiful thing about him is the smarts he has – he’s able to at least keep us out of bad plays, and to try to get us in minimal risk plays.”

• Beck on the Longhorns’ attack: “We’re all very pleased about our confidence level. Our guys, regardless of what takes place throughout the course of the game, a series or a drive … they don’t lose faith, they don’t doubt.”

• Ehlinger has completed 73 percent of his throws, and has 15 touchdowns passed and only one interception. He is one of five FBS quarterbacks with at least three games in which he has thrown four or more touchdown passes so far in 2019. LSU’s Joe Burrow, Washington State’s Josh Gordon, Hawaii’s Cole McDonald and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa are the other four.

• Senior wide receiver Devin Duvernay was a midseason addition to the Biletnikoff Award’s watch list. Through four games, he has racked up 39 catches for 377 yards and scored four touchdowns. Through five weeks, Duvernay leads the country in receptions per game (9.8) and is third in receptions (39).

• Duvernay also has caught 12 passes on third down, 10 of which have resulted in first downs. Duvernay has a pair of 12-catch games so far in 2019, doing so against both then-No. 6 LSU and Oklahoma State.

• Senior safety Brandon Jones has been a force for the Texas defense so far in 2019. He has racked up 23 total tackles (good enough for second on the team), including three for a loss, and broken up three passes in the secondary.

• Seven of Texas’s top nine tacklers this season are defensive backs, led by Sterns (29 tackles).

• One of the keys to success in the Tom Herman era has been Texas’s ability to score points off turnovers, while limiting opponent points after turnovers of their own. Since 2017, the Longhorns have forced 52 turnovers while scoring 187 points off of them (3.6 points points per turnover). On the flip side, Texas has allowed just 1.4 points per turnover.
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