Hook'em Headlines
Fansided

Texas Football: How the Longhorns can stop Will Grier

By Andrew Miller

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 01: Will Grier #7 of the West Virginia Mountaineers warms up before their game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Bank of America Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 01: Will Grier #7 of the West Virginia Mountaineers warms up before their game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Bank of America Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
MORGANTOWN, WV – OCTOBER 06: Will Grier #7 of the West Virginia Mountaineers gets sacked by Joe Dineen Jr. #29 of the Kansas Jayhawks in the fourth quarter of the game at Mountaineer Field on October 6, 2018 in Morgantown, West Virginia. The Mountaineers won 38-22. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
MORGANTOWN, WV – OCTOBER 06: Will Grier #7 of the West Virginia Mountaineers gets sacked by Joe Dineen Jr. #29 of the Kansas Jayhawks in the fourth quarter of the game at Mountaineer Field on October 6, 2018 in Morgantown, West Virginia. The Mountaineers won 38-22. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Get pressure in his face

The scenario where Grier can start to collapse is when pressure gets in his face in the matter of the blink of an eye. Grier is a pretty mobile quarterback with some surprising athleticism. But, Grier is very prone to making mistakes when there’s pressure closing in on him in the pocket. Including sack yardage, Grier actually has -67 rushing yards on the season.

It’s hard to blame the West Virginia offensive line for allowing some pressure to get to Grier at times. Sometimes it does take a while for this spread West Virginia offense to develop. That’s true especially on the look for deep balls. This advantage also plays into the hands of Texas football since it can get pressure on Grier to make up for its weakness in covering the deep pass.

Texas does have some players in the front seven very capable of blowing up the backfield quickly in this game. The two names that come to mind first include senior defensive end Charles Omenihu and senior linebacker Gary Johnson. Omenihu is hot of late and sits among the Big 12 sack leaders this year.

Even in the lackluster defensive performance for the Horns in the Week 9 road loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Omenihu made a positive impact for the line. Omenihu now has six sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss in his last four games. Johnson was also flying all over the field against Oklahoma State. Those two are players to watch in the pursuit of Grier.

Home/Texas Football