TCU football will find out how much run defense has improved at West Virginia
Last year, TCU football was one of four Big 12 teams to allow more than 2,000 rushing yards, but the Horned Frogs have turned things around this season, allowing the fifth-lowest total in the league.
TCU defensive coordinator Andy Avalos explained how the team toughened its rush defense.
“To see how the guys have taken in the fold of just the commitment to the things you got to do, the extra things,” Avalos said. “See them every day, come off the field and go back over to the sleds on the way out before they go to recovery stuff, and they get their own extra work, and we don’t even say anything to them.
“They just know that the payoff they get from doing those things. The payoff they get from studying [the] run game.”
That defense will be tested Saturday, when the Horned Frogs (5-2, 2-2 Big 12) play West Virginia (2-5, 0-4) at 5 p.m. in Morgantown. The Mountaineers have the fifth-most rushing yards in the league, and Avalos explained what makes their attack potent.
“They’re going to run the quarterbacks, and, you know, they will run the quarterbacks out of empty backfield,” he said. “So run the quarterbacks with the tailback in the backfield. They’ll use the tailback as a lead blocker, so just managing and leveraging all the formations and handling the numbers.
“One of the biggest things we’ve challenged the guys, [is] making sure they see their key, their fit, and attack their fit. Because when you’re playing a team like this, they’re not a triple-option team, but it is like that sense of everybody’s got to do their job, and then you got to tackle, right? That’s what makes it difficult. There’s gonna be a lot of one-on-one tackles.”
West Virginia’s quarterback run game is the strength of the team with its leading rushers being two quarterbacks, Khalil Wilkins and Jaylen Henderson.
Wilkins leads the team with 243 yards, with two touchdowns, though he is listed as questionable for the game. Henderson follows with 146 yards with a touchdown, with 107 of his yards coming over the past two weeks.
They have helped fill in for starting quarterback Nicco Marchiol, who was lost for the season to a mid-foot injury. Scotty Fox Jr. has been splitting time at quarterback with Wilkins, though Fox is not as much of a runner.
TCU’s Kaleb Elarms-Orr on a tear
One of the Horned Frogs who will be tasked with slowing down the rushing game is senior linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr, who tied his career high with 16 tackles against Baylor and has averaged 11.5 tackles over the past four games.
“He preps like an NFL guy, and his ability to do that consistently has been able to help us, too, not only with his play and his impact, but also what we’re able to do as a defense,” Avalos said. “Because he is a guy that handles the front checks, gets us in and out of certain defenses at times as well, and he has no issues doing that. It doesn’t slow him down. You see his production on the field, and he’s fun. He’s fun as heck to work with.”
