Texas Football: 3 reasons WVU could upset the Longhorns

3) Why WVU can upset Texas football: Improving defense

A notable storyline for the Longhorns offense in the last game against Oklahoma State, and this coming weekend’s showdown against West Virginia, is how star senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger can improve his play against two solid defenses. Oklahoma State and West Virginia are two of the most improved defenses in the Big 12, and Ehlinger and the Longhorns are figuring that out fast.

Texas was able to escape Stillwater with a thrilling close win in overtime. But they’ll have to do a lot more good work on both sides of the ball to come out of this difficult stretch of games with a three-game winning streak.

Look out for the likes of former Arizona transfer linebacker and senior Tony Fields II and senior defensive tackle Darius Stills to lead the West Virginia defense against Texas. It is ironic how Fields II is a player to watch against the Longhorns, since Herman and his staff were in contention to land him out of the transfer portal last offseason along with West Virginia and Minnesota.

Fields II and Stills are two of the leaders for the Mountaineers in combined tackles, tackles for loss, and sacks so far this season. Those two are helping push this West Virginia defense to improve in a number of different phases. West Virginia ranks among the top 20 defenses in the FBS in points allowed per game this season (19.8). They’re also down to allowing just 157.8 passing yards per game, 1.2 passing touchdowns, and less than three yards per carry.

Most impressive is that run defense that is allowing just 2.9 yards per carry, less than 100 rushing yards per game, and just 0.8 rushing scores. They are also doing well to force just less than two turnovers per game. That is more than a 0.5 turnovers per game improvement from last season.