West Virginia expects winless Baylor to put up a fight

West Virginia offensive coordinator Jake Spavital isn’t concerned with Baylor’s dreadful 0-6 record.

He fully expects the Bears will put up a fight on Saturday.

“It’s still going to be a very tough challenge,” Spavital said during Tuesday’s Mountaineers media session. “The game that we keep referring back to is the Oklahoma game that they played, a night game, and they played very well and had many opportunities to win that game versus Oklahoma.

“Our kids are pretty excited to go on the road and try to get us a win … They know that this is going to be a tough test.”

It’s been a rough start for Baylor, who aren’t so far removed from winning back-to-back Big 12 championships in 2013 and ’14.

Spavital praised Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, however, for his job of keeping morale up for the winless Bears.

“With being 0-6, those kids are playing extremely hard right now. I think our kids have already mentioned it too as they’ve watched tape. It’s going to be a tough test. These kids at Baylor aren’t just going to back down and just fold over. They’re going to keep fighting.”

The Mountaineer players seem to think the same as their offensive coordinator.

Senior halfback Elijah Wellman was asked during the players’ media session on Tuesday if it was tough to be excited with an 0-6 team next on the schedule.

For Wellman, it’s not tough at all.

“Baylor definitely has some players,” Wellman said. “They could have easily won some of the games that they lost. Just like any other game we are going to prepare for it.”

West Virginia (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) and Baylor are set for a 8 p.m. ET start on Fox Sports 1 in Waco, Texas.