What Baylor Head Coach Dave Aranda Said About West Virginia

Dave Aranda gives his thoughts on this week's matchup versus the Mountaineers.

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This weekend, the Baylor Bears hope to secure their first-ever win inside Milan Puskar Stadium after coming up empty in their first six trips to Morgantown.

On Monday, Baylor head coach Dave Aranda discussed this week's matchup versus West Virginia.

Initial thoughts on West Virginia

“A lot of respect for Coach (Neal) Brown and their team. I was able to watch them on Saturday and was impressed. A physical, great effort on the team, and you can tell they’re striving and fighting for something, and we’ve got to get in the way of all that at their place, a tough spot to play. Excited for that opportunity.”

Playing in a tough atmosphere like WVU’s

“Last couple times West Virginia has been really close, tight games. They are in a lot of ways, similar to us. They’re a gritty team, a physical team. They’ve got players that love ball. You could tell there’s a passion. Their care factor is really strong. I think their coaches put them in a position to be successful. Whenever I watch them I can see they do a good amount of self-scouting and they pay attention to all the details that are out there, so I have a lot of respect for them. It’s going to be us versus the state of West Virginia, so we’re going to have to be able to be locked into what we got and to what our prescription is and stay with that through the momentum swings that are surely going to come there. There hasn’t been a lot of getting it at their spot, so we’re going to try and do that.”

Differences between Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol

“I think the guy that was here recently just these last couple of games, I think there is more of a sit back in the pocket and throw it with him. You could just sense it off of watching film that they’re comfortable in that space with him. Less quarterback run. The other quarterback, more quarterback run, less dropback pass, more move the pocket. The guy that was in this last one kind of sit back there run, sit back there, throw it, and the guy that started move him around a lot. It’ll be interesting to see kind of how that is moving forward.”

Biggest challenges WVU poses

“I think they believe and they care a lot. I think they’re all bought in, and I think they believe that they’re going to win. And then they’re playing in a tough spot to play.”

WVU’s defense

“We’ll be tested by a good West Virginia front, by the way. I think that’s really going to be the tale of the game. I think they’re pretty stout, they’ve got good interior people. I think that’s their best people. Defensively, they’re a talented team, but I think their front seven is really talented. They are the best front seven we’ve played the last couple of weeks.”

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