Rather than give the Horns247 community our thoughts on West Virginia entering Saturday's game between Texas (4-5, 3-3 in the Big 12) and the Mountaineers 4-4, 1-4), we decided to venture into enemy territory for answers. Nobody covers the West Virginia like Chris Anderson at EerSports.com and he answered some key questions we had ahead of the game in Morgantown.

Holgorsen's seat cooled down after beating Texas Tech, but he's not completely out of the woods yet as far as having an uncertain future goes.

Q: West Virginia just scored a good home win over Texas Tech, but where is this team at right now? More specifically, what’s the vibe on [b]Dana Holgorsen and how important are these final few games for his future, if at all?[/b]

Saturday's game was likely the most important game of Dana Holgorsen's tenure at West Virginia. Another loss – especially a bad one – might have brought an abrupt end to his time in Morgantown. Beating a pretty good Texas Tech team (their four losses were also against Top 15 teams, just like WVU's) bought him a little bit of time. A loss to the Longhorns, though, might put him back on the hot seat.

VIP: West Virginia coaches share their thoughts on Texas

Realistically, most realized just how tough that stretch was – four games in a row against Top 15 opponents with three of them on the road. The real reason there was some chatter about a change, though, was how they lost those games – no offense, bad penalties, and some questionable decisions, particularly against Oklahoma State.

All signs are pointing to this team rallying around him and the staff for a strong finish. No one is going to take the rest of the schedule lightly (at least not Texas and Kansas State), but they'd be lying if they didn't recognize the schedule is much easier and finishing out at 8-4 and heading to the Russell Athletic Bowl is a real possibility.

Q: Holgorsen’s offensive track record speaks for itself, but the offense has had some issues this season. Where have those problems resided and where are the Mountaineers in terms of getting things figured out?

This is the biggest issue for many fans and a lot of the 'decision makers' higher up the food chain at West Virginia. Holgorsen was brought in with the belief that he would have this offense clicking and the Mountaineers would have a top ten offense every year. There were even bonuses built into his contract for having Top 10 scoring offenses. There was no reason to believe he'd struggle to do that, either. Everywhere he had been, he had a top ten offense. It didn't matter if there were new quarterbacks or new receivers or who they were playing – Holgorsen's offenses were moving the ball and scoring at will.

Except... not at West Virginia, at least not anymore. Through five years, none of the quarterbacks that Holgorsen has actively recruited and developed have turned into "the man" for WVU. He got two good years out of Geno Smith, who was here when he arrived, and half a good year from Clint Trickett, who transferred in from Florida State.

Smallwood enters the game with almost 1,000 yards rushing and is one of West Virginia's top offensive weapons.

Tale of the Tape: How Texas stacks up with West Virginia offensively

As for Holgorsen's quarterbacks... One had more arrests than wins (Ford Childress) before transferring out, another didn't even make it through spring practice before being asked to play receiver and deciding to transfer (Chavas Rawlins), a third was a career backup (Paul Millard), and two of the three he has brought in the last two years are currently playing receiver (William Crest and David Sills). The third, Chris Chugunov, is redshirting this year. Meanwhile, the starter, Skyler Howard, has a career 52-percent completion rate and a QBR around 50, thus the struggles with the WVU offense.

Q: The defense was billed as maybe the best in the Big 12 entering the season. Overall, how have they done living up to that billing and how have they handled injuries like the one suffered by Karl Joseph?

Well, they started off strong, but took a beating during that four-game losing streak as they faced four of the top ten offenses in the nation. It looked bad, even though the Mountaineers held all but Baylor below their scoring average (and the Bears only topped their average by one point).

Tale of the Tape: Comparing Texas' defense, special team against West Virginia's units

The issues have been in the secondary, where a couple players have not lived up to expectations, while the unit as a whole has been ravaged by injuries. Obviously losing Karl Joseph was a big blow, as he was well on pace for an All-Big 12, and maybe All-American type year (20 tackles, five interceptions and a forced fumble in four games). Unfortunately for WVU, The Mountaineers also lost starting cornerback Terrell Chestnut for the last game and a half, as well as backups Ricky Rumph and Jeremy Tyler for a game a piece. Starting safeties K.J. Dillon, Dravon Askew-Henry, and Jarrod Harper (Joseph's replacement) have all missed parts of games to injury, too. At one point, West Virginia had a third-string corner, a backup corner, a third-string safety, a backup safety and a walk-on safety on the field against TCU (Surprise! The Horned Frogs scored).

With the ship settling a little bit against Texas Tech (who was No. 4 in scoring average before the game), it looks like the defense is getting back on track.

Q: Who are a few Mountaineers Longhorn fans need to know ahead of Saturday’s game?

Quarterbacks have run wild on the West Virginia defense this season, which could be a great sign for Swoopes and Jerrod Heard.

On offense, it's the one-two punch of Wendell Smallwood and Rushel Shell. Smallwood is averaging 119.3 yards per game and 6.7 yards per rush. His "worst" game was against FCS Liberty, where he had 15 rushes for 88 yards and two touchdowns before sitting out most of the second half. Shell, on the other hand, is a former five-star recruit that struggled through most of this season. Texas Tech's horrendous rush defense, though, might have been just what he needed (111 yards, two touchdowns) to get back on track, and he says his confidence is back.

Holgorsen: Texas' defense provides a great challenge for Mountaineers

On the other side of the ball, Nick Kwiatkoski will head up the defense. He's a fifth-year senior and the leading returning tackler in the Big 12. He's one of those guys that you don't notice much until you look in the stat book and say "wait, he had ten tackles today?!"

Q: What do you think West Virginia has to do to win this game? Also, what can Texas potentially exploit to increase its chances of winning?

West Virginia needs to get some type of passing game going on Saturday. Yes, the run game has been on fire this season, but being so one-dimensional, particularly against a Texas defense that should have an advantage in the trenches, is not a good thing. Skyler Howard does not need to throw for 300 yards, but he does need to complete more than 50-percent of his passes and keep the Texas defense honest.

From my view, the biggest concern for West Virginia should be that both of Texas' quarterbacks can run the ball. The Mountaineers have been fairly stout in stopping the run, but rank 83rd in rushing defense. Why? Because the Mountaineers can stop the running backs, but have been eaten alive by quarterbacks on read option and bootlegs. 448 of the Mountaineers' 1,411 rushing yards allowed have come from quarterbacks – a good sign for Jerrod Heard and Tyrone Swoopes.

Q: How does an 11 a.m. (CT) kickoff at Milan Puskar Stadium compare to a night game, like the last time Texas visited in 2013, in terms of the atmosphere?

I do think it will be a sellout, or close to it, because fans will be excited for Texas coming to town. Even after four-straight losses, WVU was close to a sellout for a noon game against Texas Tech last week. It will be a late-arriving crowd. Noon games always are, especially when it comes to the student section. It might take a little bit for everyone to get into it, but by the second quarter there will be a good atmosphere.