West Virginia looks to control Texas’ five-tool running back Bijan Robinson

MORGANTOWN — Bijan Robinson’s defining moment a week ago was a fumble in overtime that likely cost Texas in its 37-34 loss against Texas Tech.

How the Longhorns’ junior running back responded to that moment would be of no surprise to WVU head coach Neal Brown, who went out of his way in his weekly press conference to call Robinson one of the best players in the country.

Why?

“I’ll start with what’s really impressive about him,” Brown begins. “Following him kind of as a fan, you see how he handles the media, how he handles himself and how he handled that injury at the end of last year.

“From an unselfish standpoint, he really blocks well in pass protection. They split him out at wide receiver. You can tell he takes coaching and he doesn’t give up on runs.”

Brown did not stop there, saying Robinson, who has rushed for 414 yards and seven TDs this season, had the speed to run outside and the power to run inside.

“So, like, that’s a five-tool player at running back,” Brown said. “I think the kid is special.”

So, we flip back to Robinson and that fumble.

The kid didn’t pout and didn’t blow up on haters on social media. Instead, he spent this week leading up to Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. game against WVU (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) carrying a football around campus begging for teammates and fellow Texas students to try and knock it away from him.

According to reports, no one did.

“I’m familiar with Bijan,” said WVU linebacker Jared Bartlett. “We’ve got to focus on our fundamentals. With guys like Bijan, if you don’t tackle him the right way, he’ll get those yards after contact. You’ve got to put hats on the ball and have good pursuit.”

Robinson missed last year’s game against the Mountaineers with an elbow injury, but rushed for 113 yards as a freshman against WVU, and needed only 12 carries to do it.

“He had a huge run on us as a freshman,” Brown said. “We thought we had him bottled up and he came out the back door and hit a big one on us. He did that twice last week against Texas Tech.”

The flip side to this is Texas (2-2, 0-1) will face a WVU defense that has allowed no individual to rush for 100 yards in a game this season.

The Mountaineers enter this week third in the Big 12 in rushing defense, allowing 98.3 yards per game, and held Virginia Tech to just 35 yards rushing last week.

So, it becomes a battle of strengths, so to speak. Texas has the runner. West Virginia has, to this point, been solid against the run.

Whoever wins that battle could lead to victory, but if you listen to WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, it may go a little further than that.

“In my opinion, he’s one of the best, if not the best, running backs in the country,” Lesley said. “The issue is you can only hold so many people in check. You have to kind of decide going in what’s your best plan to win the game.

“There are times and situations that you can lock down on a tendency based on a look they give you, but that’s the best you can do.”

Robinson could have a big run, but to Lesley’s point, it’s more critical for the WVU defense not to let him have a big game.

Bartlett added one of the first stats he’ll look at once the game is over is to see how well WVU defended Robinson.

If the Mountaineers find a way to hold him under 100 yards?

“Yeah, that would be pretty good,” Bartlett said with a smile.

TWEET @bigjax3211