WVU has to keep it simple

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – K-I-S-S.
We’re not talking about the show of affection or the rock band of an earlier era.
We’re talking about football and the game that will be played between visiting Baylor and a 2-3 West Virginia team in Milan Puskar Stadium at 7 p.m. Thursday.
In this case, KISS is the acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid, which well could be the theme for this game.
It is the principle Baylor used under coach Dave Aranda to win the Big 12’s regular-season championship last year and to be in the hunt for it again this year, and it is also the principle West Virginia is turning to in an effort to figure out a way to get things together.
Aranda’s approach is one that makes almost too much sense on the college level. Offensively, he doesn’t do a lot, but he does a lot with what he does.
As WVU got ready to defend the Bears, something it failed miserably at doing last year when Baylor won, 45-20, gaining 525 yards, it tried to simplify its defense in order to match Baylor’s simplified offense.
“They are simple, yet at the same time unique,” WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said. “They are going to do what they do. You know what the play sets are going to be and the blocking schemes.”
What they do with that, though, is accomplished through smoke and mirrors.
“The issues they present you are how they present it,” Lesley said.
They use formations and motion to disguise the plays rather than overwhelming their players with confusing plays and blocking rules.
“It’s all smoke and mirrors to run one play,” WVU linebacker Jasir Cox said. “Having the tight end motion out, then back in, just to run stretch. It’s to get our eyes moving. We need to be dialed in to understand their tendencies.”
And after Texas took WVU’s secondary to task last week, and after then-Baylor quarterback Gerry Bohanon passed for 336 yards and four touchdowns last year, WVU is making an effort to simplify.
Cox said they went back to the basics in preparing for this game.
“I feel like we got away from that the first few weeks,” he said. “We have a lot of young guys in the back four, and I feel like that could be a confidence booster for them and let them play faster. We need to lock in on our keys and play fast.”
WVU doesn’t have Bohanon to deal with this year, he having transferred to South Florida after being beaten out in the spring by Blake Shapen, a different kind of QB.
“Bohanon gave the ability to have the quarterback run the ball,” Lesley said. “Shapen has a big arm, a live arm, and can make all the throws. He’s good at managing the offense and getting them into plays that are favorable to them.”
Defensively, Baylor is big up front, led by the 358-pound Siaki Aki. They play six up front to stop the run rather than seven, which allows them an extra safety to provide challenges in both the secondary and the blitzing game.
“Their defense, as a whole, does some really good things, and I think they put a lot on those front guys, probably because they’re big dudes and are hard to move and can take up multiple people,” offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said.
“When you think you have numbers in the box, you don’t really have numbers because some of their bigger guys count for two people, I guess.”
That could, along with running back CJ Donaldson’s absence with a concussion, force WVU to throw the ball more than it wants, which means the wide receiving corps has to get a grasp on what it’s doing this week.
WVU’s offense has morphed into a ball-control offense, and that may not be a bad thing this week knowing that Baylor does have offensive weapons to take advantage of WVU’s inability to man up on defense in coverage.