MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Beating Towson and Virginia Tech is one thing.

Beating Texas is something else.

The Towson game for West Virginia looked like Secretariat running against a pony out of a state fair.

The Virginia Tech game was a step up in class, it was in as hostile an environment as you can walk into, it was a trophy game ... but walking into Austin on a Saturday night to face a Big 12 title contender that played Alabama to the wire?

Call this exploratory surgery on the Mountaineers to find out what they are made of.

The fact that in mid-week no one know if opening day quarterback Quinn Ewers or his backup Hudson Card would play didn't seem to matter to anyone ought to offer up a clue to the kind of talent the Longhorns have, but above it all looms the shadow cast by running back Bijan Robinson, who may just be the ...

Well, let's just put college football analyst and former Ohio State quarterback's Kirk Herbstreit's assessment forward to finish that sentence:

“This kid may be the best player in the sport. This kid is big-time.�

"The best player in the sport"?

Maybe. Texas is certainly pushing him for the Heisman Trophy. They devote endless words to Robinson in their game notes, maybe even more words than the 2,244 career rushing yards he has compiled or the 2,903 career all-purpose yards he has to rank third in NCAA football among active players.

What do they say about Robinson and to whom do they compare him? This is how the PR factory at Texas approaches it:

"Texas has a strong Heisman tradition when it come to the running back position with two of the greats — Earl Campbell (1977) and Ricky Williams (1998) hailing from the Forty Acres. Additionally, the Longhorns have had 10 running backs or fullbacks place in the Top-10 in Heisman Trophy voting, most recently D’Onta Foreman in 2016..."

To the flaks in Austin, they hint to compare him to the all-time greats in the Big 12.

"Current Big 12 Conference programs have produced five Heisman Trophy Winners from the running back/ tailback position: Campbell, Williams, Billy Vessels (1952), Billy Sims (1978) and Barry Sanders (1988)," they write.

And, they note so no one thinks you can't win the award as a running back before your senior year, they add "the last three running backs named as the Heisman Trophy winner have been sophomores or juniors: Reggie Bush (2005), Mark Ingram (2009) and Derrick Henry (2015)."

You better be something to be mentioned in the same breath as Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, Billy Vessels, Billy Sims, Barry Sanders, Reggie Bush, Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry.

He may just merit it, too. Certainly, Neal Brown knows if he wants to control Texas, he has to deal first with Robinson.

"Bijan Robinson, you can make a strong argument that he's the best player in the country," Brown said this week, calling Robinson a "five-tool running back, borrowing a baseball term to stress in can run inside, outside, catch the ball block and make play calling a lot easier for the coaching staff.

Numbers back up the words.

The junior is leading the Big 12 Conference in all-purpose yards (141.50 ypg), rushing touchdowns (7), total touchdowns (8), scoring (12 ppg) and total points scored (36), while ranking second in rushing yards (412) and rushing yards per game (103.3), third in yards per reception (19.25) and fourth in yards per carry (6.15).

Last year, when WVU defeated Texas in Morgantown, they didn't have to face Robinson, who was out with injury.

As a freshman, Robinson gained 113 yards during the Longhorns' victory in Austin.

Now, to the quarterback situation. Ewers, an Ohio State transfer. he won the starting job and was having a big game against Alabama when injured, opening the door for Card.

"There's probably more similarities between those two than differences," Brown proclaimed. "So, it's not like you have a real runner and a real thrower and there's a stark difference. How we prepare is not going to be much different depending on who plays.

"Whoever plays, they're going to play at a high level at quarterback."

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) -- About a month ago, they listed the preseason Heisman Trophy Top Ten odds this way at Caesar's Sportsbook:

Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma 11-2

D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson 7-1

Bryce Young, Alabama 9-1

C.J. Stroud, Ohio State 10-1

JT Daniels, Georgia 12-1

Sam Howell, North Carolina 15-1

D'Eriq King, Miami 18-1

Kedon Slovis, USC 20-1

Matt Corral, Ole Miss 20-1

Bijan Robinson, Texas 25-1

Only Robinson, a running back, is not a quarterback.

No wide receivers in the group.

What's more, no defenders, perish the thought.

The Heisman is supposed to go to the best player in college football. Usually it does, as long as he is on the offensive side of the ball.

In the history of the award, however, only one primarily defensive player has taken home a Heisman and that was ... who? Let's wait awhile before offering that up, even though true football fans do know the answer.

See, here's the thing. The odds have taken a beating in the past month. Many of the top candidates have had problems, including Rattler and Uiagalelei, the top picks, opening maybe a route to a defensive player to sneak in.

It becomes important at West Virginia because the Mountaineers have never had a Heisman winner and have put a strong emphasis on building on defense under Neal Brown. While none of today's players seem ready for a Heisman campaign, it could happen in the future if someone would beat down the door for defenders to be serious contenders in the Heisman voting.

The Heisman Trophy isn't really for the best player, even if it set out to be that way.

"It's unfortunate, to be honest with you, because it's really become the running back/quarterback best player award," Brown said. "You have an occasional receiver like last year with DeVonta Smith, but it's become an offensive skill award.

"It's not fair," Brown continued. "but that is what it has become."

WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley understands and accepts that.

"It's the guy that gets credit more than he should and the guy who gets the blame more than he should -- the quarterback ," Lesley said.

He then offered up the answer to the question we posed earlier.

"The quarterback is the standard in the game. Who was the last defender to win the Heisman, Charles Woodson?" Lesley said.

He was the last ... and the only defensive player. In 1997 while a cornerback at Michigan, Woodson beat out quarterback Peyton Manning of Tennessee for the Heisman as he led the Wolverines to a share of the national championship.

But even Woodson was something more than a defensive player, starring on return teams and taking some offensive snaps.

"A lot of his were return game," Lesley said. "He scored touchdowns."

During the '97 season at Michigan, Woodson caught 11 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns while rushing three times for 15 yards and another score.

"I don't know you'll ever see that again. Just watch the SportsCenter highlights. You see more touchdowns and offensive plays and touchdowns. It's just the nature of the game."

The question one would ask is if the nature of the game might not be changing now.

WVU and Oklahoma playing a 16-13 game after the winning team in their last four games had scored more than 50 points could possibly indicate that ... and it certainly didn't detract from the excitement of higher scoring games.

Defensive games tend to be close, they tend to be hard hitting, they tend to be more strategic and to produce just as many highlights as do offensive games, where the highlights often are not so much offensive highlights as defensive blunders.

Certainly, over the years there have been defenders who could have and maybe should have won Heisman Trophies, beginning with Chuck Bednarik at Penn back when players went both ways, Dick Butkus at Illinois, Hugh Green at Pitt, Deion Sanders at Florida State and Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh.

Could the day of the defensive Heisman Trophy winner be coming?

It could, if SportsCenter would offer up a Top Ten defensive plays to go with a Top Ten offensive plays.