4 Interesting Pregame Notes: West Virginia

1.) Dave Aranda will be the 4th different Baylor head coach in as many road trips to Morgantown; Briles in 2014, Grobe in 2016, Rhule in 2018, and now Aranda in 2020. Obviously, this will be true with other opponents as well this year, but it’s worth pointing out.

2.) West Virginia is the only Big 12 team that the Bears have not defeated on the road. I think there is an argument to be made that it’s Baylor’s toughest place to play. That infamy used to belong to Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where there have been some ugly road losses to Oklahoma State (2010, 2011, 2013) even when the Bears were relatively good. But that has changed in recent years and now it looks like some of the worse memories stem from Morgantown. In 2012, it was arguably the worst defensive performance in Baylor history. The Mountaineers got the better of the Bears again two years later, preventing a CFP opportunity. In 2016, Baylor played hard, but I think most fans were just glad the regular season was ending. And in the most recent trip Charlie Brewer was benched in a blowout loss.

3.) Both starting QBs have older brothers who were teammates at Texas Tech. Just a fun fact. Michael Brewer and Seth Doege battled for the Red Raider starting spot in 2012, and now their younger brothers will go head to head to keep pace in the Big 12 race.

4.) There will be no fans in attendance at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday afternoon. West Virginia recently announced that they will not allow fans until their home game against Kansas later on in the month. It’ll be a golden opportunity to finally get that road win for the Bears. The last few trips have been cold weather games with a ruckus crowd, but that will not be the case this time around.