MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A safe rule of thumb in college football is this: If you rank behind Illinois in a major statistical category, there’s room for improvement.
Despite its prolific offense, West Virginia found itself in that position last season on third down. The Mountaineers converted just 33.3 percent of their third-down chances ranking 111th in the country. And that was worse than Illinois, which has spent the better part of the decade in or near the Big Ten basement. The Illini were 110th with a 33.5 percent conversion rate.
Very little has changed for the Illini, who are down to 32.