Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Will Grier's five touchdown passes, four in the second half, powered West Virginia to a 46-35 come-from-behind victory over 24^th-ranked Texas Tech on a sunny, warm mid-October Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
A Homecoming crowd of 60,928 was treated to the second largest second-half comeback victory in Milan Puskar Stadium history, erasing an 18-point Texas Tech advantage with 9:11 remaining in the third quarter with a furious 22-point fourth quarter rally.
 
Up to that point, West Virginia (4-2, 2-1) was sitting at -13 yards rushing and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital's game plan had long since been tossed into the garbage can.
 
"Well that was a lot of fun," a relieved West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said after the game. "It just seemed like we couldn't do anything to catch breaks and all that and I give Texas Tech a ton of credit."
 
Four minutes after Tre King broke free and ran 30 yards for a touchdown to put the Red Raiders ahead, 35-17, David Sills V gave West Virginia new life when he grabbed Will Grier's soft 8-yard pass in the back corner of the end zone.
 
Texas Tech committed three pass interference penalties on that drive, one called on Willie Sykes against Sills on fourth and one at the Tech 41 that gave the Mountaineers a first down at the 38.
 
Two possessions after Michael Barden missed his third field goal of the game, a 37-yarder, the momentum turned when Ka'Raun White made a beautiful 32-yard touchdown catch along the near side of the end zone, leaping high into the air and getting his left foot down before falling out of bounds.
 
White's catch made the score 35-30 with the conversion pending. Holgorsen chose to go for two, Grier rolling out to his right and hitting Sills in the back of the end zone for two points to reduce West Virginia's deficit to a field goal. It was WVU's first successful two-point conversion try since Iowa State in 2012.
 
"We gained some momentum and then it kind of just steamrolled from there," Holgorsen said. "Once that thing kind of flipped to us, we were ready to take it and run with it."
 
Here, the West Virginia defense, which had surrendered 497 yards to the Red Raiders through three quarters, finally stiffened. Justin Stockton was stopped for a 2-yard gain on first down, and then two Nic Shimonek passes fell incomplete, forcing Tech to punt from its own 27.
 
Marcus Simms caught Dominic Panazzolo's short line-drive punt on the bounce at the WVU 30 and returned it 12 yards to the 42.
 
Grier immediately went back to the air, hitting White for 16 yards to the Tech 42, and going up top again to Sills, who was interfered with by safety Vaughte Dorsey to give West Virginia a first down at the Red Raider 27. Three plays later, facing a fourth and one at the Tech 18, Holgorsen initially sent his field goal team out to tie the game.
 
He reconsidered, called a timeout, and then brought the offense back out. Grier sneaked behind his left guard, getting the first down by inches following a measurement.
 
"I didn't want to challenge (the spot on Gary Jennings Jr.'s third-down catch) because I didn't want to lose a challenge, so I called timeout just to give (the replay officials) time to look at it. Then all five of our offensive linemen yelled at me and talked me into going for it.
 
"I was more interested in taking the lead than tying the game; I didn't think the scoring was over, so they talked me into it. We got it by about one inch more than we needed, so I give them credit for having that kind of confidence," Holgorsen added.
 
On the next play, Grier fired a 17-yard touchdown pass to White, giving West Virginia its first lead of the game, 39-35, with 9:06 still showing on the clock.
 
Once more, the defense stepped up and delivered a big stop when Adam Shuler II beat his man and sacked Shimonek for a 15-yard loss on third and seven, sending the football back to the Red Raider six.
 
Simms returned Panazzolo's punt seven yards to the Texas Tech 45 with 6:54 left in the game.
 
Backup running back Kennedy McKoy, in the game for starter Justin Crawford, picked up 12 quick yards on two runs, moving the ball to the 33. A short pass to Jennings, and two more McKoy runs netted 13 yards to give the Mountaineers another first down at the Red Raider 16.
 
Two plays later, Grier fired his fifth touchdown pass of the game - and third to Sills - from the 11 to put West Virginia ahead by 11. Two minutes later, Kyzir White intercepted Shimonek at the WVU 36 with 1:49 left and the Mountaineers were able to run out the clock.
 
The 18-point, second-half victory was one point shy of West Virginia's 19-point, fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Maryland, 34-33, in 1992.
 
Holgorsen said afterward he was once part of a 35-point, second-half comeback victory.
 
"I don't even know what we were down today, 14? Eighteen, really? That's pretty good. I guess I should probably make a big deal about it then," Holgorsen said. "You just get caught up in the flow of the game and you encourage your guys to keep playing."
 
Today's victory also snapped West Virginia's nine-game losing streak to nationally ranked teams dating back to 2014, and extended the Mountaineers' winning streak to four over Texas Tech. Ironically, Texas Tech's last win over West Virginia came here on Homecoming during coach Kliff Kingsbury's first season in Lubbock in 2013.
 
For a good portion of today's game, it appeared Kingsbury was going to get his second win in Morgantown.
 
On the Red Raiders' second offensive play, Shimonek flipped a screen pass to the far sideline to T.J. Vasher and he got past the West Virginia defense to race 60 yards for a touchdown.
 
Later in the second quarter, the two hooked up for a 53-yard scoring pass play when Vasher leaped high into the air and came down with the football at the one before falling into the end zone.
 
Between those, Shimonek threw short touchdown passes to Dylan Cantrell and to Keke Coutee as Tech built its lead to 28-17 at halftime.
 
Kingsbury emptied his bag of tricks in the first half, faking a punt from his own 34 on fourth and one and making it, calling a reverse pass that was defended by West Virginia's secondary and calling a timeout after considering a fake field goal before Barden missed his 43-yarder.
 
Kingsbury used his final timeout with nine seconds left in the half and Texas Tech sitting at the WVU one and facing a fourth down. He considered going for it but changed his mind, and after letting the play clock run down to take a five-yard penalty, Barden missed a chip shot from the 13 when his kick plunked off the left upright.
 
Grier produced his sixth 300-yard passing game in a row this afternoon without the benefit of having a productive running game.
 
Three different Mountaineer ball carriers managed just 44 yards on 29 attempts, led by Crawford's 47 yards on 14 tries. It was the first time Crawford failed to rush for at least 100 yards in a game this season, but he did score a 5-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter.
 
Grier completed 32-of-41 for 352 yards, nine of those going to Gary Jennings for 68 yards. White caught eight for 114 yards and two touchdowns while Sills grabbed six for 89 and three scores to give him an NCAA-leading 12^th touchdown grab this season.
 
Shimonek completed 24-of-39 for 323 yards and four touchdowns, Vasher catching two of those for 113 yards.
 
Stockton was the game's leading ground gainer with 96 yards on 15 attempts.
 
Texas Tech finished the game with 513 total yards, but managed just 16 in the fourth quarter.
 
"This was an important game for them and they came to play," Holgorsen said. "I give their coaches a lot of credit for getting their guys ready to play. I had a feeling that was coming."

It was Holgorsen's 50th career victory at West Virginia. He is now just eight wins shy of Art Lewis (1950-59) for third place in career coaching wins at WVU.
 
West Virginia returns to the road to face Baylor next Saturday in Waco,Texas. That game will kick off at 8 p.m. EDT. and will be televised on FS2.