Already at a disadvantage, West Virginia could be facing their toughest opponent of the season without their starting quarterback.
As if West Virginia-Oklahoma was not already one-sided, the Mountaineers might be without their starting quarterback. Austin Kendall was knocked out of their previous game against Iowa State with a chest injury. He is officially listed as questionable for the game against the Sooners.
Kendall will be re-evaluated right up until game time but head coach Neal Brown said if Kendall is anything less than 100% then he will not be on the field. If this is the case, Jack Allison will be under center for the Mountaineers. He played a majority of the game against Iowa State and finished 18-24 for 140 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“We felt Jack gave us the best chance a week ago,” Brown said. “We have a plan with the quarterback position if Austin can’t go. It’s not something I want to sit up here and talk about. If Austin can’t go, we’ll go through with that plan. Trey is getting better. But we thought Jack gave us the best opportunity on Saturday.”
This will be a missed opportunity for Kendall to play against his former team. Kendall transferred from Oklahoma to join the Mountaineers. This game will be homecoming for Oklahoma. The stadium will be filled with 80,000 fans who have a little more juice than usual.
All signs point to an uneven game. West Virginia is already a 33.5-point underdog on the road. This is why last week’s loss to Iowa State was important and unfortunate. It was a 21-14 game heading into the fourth quarter but the Cyclones scored 17 unanswered to finish the game.
The best move here would be to sit Kendall and get him healthy for the remainder of the season. The quarterback position likely will not matter much in this game.