The wear and tear of this eight-game stretch without an open date is starting to get to West Virginia just a little bit as the injury report lengthens a tad for this week's home game against Cincinnati.
Six players are already ruled out for the Mountaineers, one defensive starter is listed as doubtful, and five are probable but are obviously dealing with something, and we will need to keep a close eye on them throughout the next two days to make sure they don't trend in the opposite direction.
Here is the availability report submitted on Wednesday night to the Big 12 Conference by both West Virginia and Cincinnati.
West Virginia
OUT
RB Andre Devine
RB Chris Talley
WR Armoni Weaver-Bomar
DL Darius Wiley
N/S Emory Snyder
S Da'Mare Williams
DOUBTFUL
CB Nick Taylor
PROBABLE
RB Lawrence Autry
WR John Neider
EDGE Harper Holloman
LB Ashton Woods
S Matt Sieg
Cincinnati
OUT
TE DaMari Witherspoon
OL Aiden Pastoriza
QUESTIONABLE
S D'Angelo Hutchinson
What this means for West Virginia
The Mountaineers were already planning to shuffle the board a little bit in the back end of the defense, but with Nick Taylor likely to miss a second straight game, it will be interesting to see who gets the start in his place at corner. Jason Chambers has had a rough couple of weeks since returning, and Chams Diagne has not played well in pass coverage, giving up over 14 yards per catch. There is a chance that someone who hasn't played corner this year, but has at his previous stop, is moved out there this week.
Earlier in the week, head coach Rich Rodriguez mentioned freshman running back Chris Talley was dealing with a hamstring, which is what had him sidelined at the beginning of the year as well. Obviously, Cam Cook is going to eat up a large portion of the workload, and Amari Latimer's role is only going to continue to increase, and NaQuari Rogers will get thrown into the mix here soon, but Talley did get a few snaps last week, so it's unfortunate for him that he will be out. Here's to hoping that, for his sake, it's not a long-term deal.
Backup safety Da'Mare Williams will be out, which is also something Rodriguez had hinted at. He's played in 76 defensive snaps this season, mostly at free safety. Matt Sieg and JaCorey Thomas will handle the snaps there, and we could see Thomas some at the box safety position behind Kamari Wilson.
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