In the end, it doesn't matter how you win 'em, only that you win 'em.
West Virginia rode
Tony Gibson's bend-but-not-break defense and got just enough offense to survive a 24-20 heart-stopper against Texas Saturday afternoon at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
"I'm pretty proud of our guys for hanging in there," said West Virginia coach
Dana Holgorsen. "I think everyone would agree with this, but the one thing this team has figured out is playing together wins games, and if you play together and you do it for four quarters, then your team is going to figure out a way to win."
The Mountaineers (8-1, 5-1) jumped out to a 17-3 second quarter lead before a penalty called on Marvin Gross during a muffed punt that West Virginia recovered gave Texas new life at the UT 42.
Instead of West Virginia having the ball deep in Longhorn territory with an opportunity to blow it open, Texas turned that break into seven points when D'Onta Foreman ran 32 yards to the WVU 18 to set up freshman quarterback Shane Buechele's 10-yard touchdown run.
Texas (5-5, 3-4) forced a three-and-out possession and got the ball back at its own 14 with 6:55 left in the second quarter. The Longhorns used all but nine seconds of the clock, ran off 21 plays - many of those Foreman runs between the tackles - and moved the ball to the WVU 2.
Here, facing a fourth and 1, Texas coach Charlie Strong opted for the field goal, which Trent Domingue made from the nine.
That made the score 17-13 at halftime.
Texas immediately got the football back at the start of the third quarter when Skyler Howard's pass to
Ka'Raun White was intercepted by P.J. Locke at Texas 26.
Again, the Longhorns used Foreman runs and quick Buechele passes close to the line of scrimmage to move the football to the West Virginia 20. Facing a third and 6 at the WVU 24, Foreman got only four yards to force another Domingue field goal try from the 27.
This one was deflected by Gross, giving West Virginia the ball at the 21.
The Mountaineers responded with their best drive of the game, getting big third-down conversions from Daikiel Shorts Jr. on a six-yard catch on third and 5Â to the WVU 41, then eight yards from
Kennedy McKoy on third and 5Â to the Texas 27, and finally 23 yards from Shelton Gibson on a quick-slant reception to the Texas 3 on third and 9.
Texas answered West Virginia's touchdown two possessions later, following another three-and-out series from the Mountaineer offense, by marching 80 yards in nine plays.
A shovel pass from Buechele to Foreman netted 19 yards to the Texas 41, and the Longhorns got 15 more yards on a personal foul penalty called on West Virginia's Christian Brown during Buechele's short run, giving the Longhorns a first and 10 at the 31.
A Buechele pass for seven and then a four-yard run got the ball to the 20, where the freshman quarterback completed a pass to the far sideline to Collin Johnson. There he made a move to the inside to get away from West Virginia corner Antonio Crawford and streaked into the end zone.
The conversion pulled the Longhorns to within four, 24-20.
Turnovers continued to plague both teams, Howard throwing his third pick (and second to Haines) at the UT 46.
"We put (the defense) in so many bad situations and they got us some turnovers and we couldn't score," said Holgorsen. "After that first quarter we were just awful. That's 100 percent on me. That's not good enough to win the Big 12, so I've got to reevaluate some things and get better offensively, because if we keep playing like this on offense we won't win the Big 12, and that's what our goal is."
The Longhorns began the fourth quarter with the ball at the Mountaineer 46. Here, Buechele got free for 23 yards to the WVU 20 where the West Virginia defense stiffened. Backup running back Kyle Porter ran into a stone wall on first down, Foreman got only five on second down, and then Buechele got lit up by blitzing safety
Kyzir White on third and five for a violent five-yard loss.
Buechele, who never saw White coming, lost possession of the ball during the hit, and White came up with the football when the two players crashed to the ground. The replay official upstairs ruled it a fumble, giving WVU the ball at the 20.
But again, West Virginia couldn't move the football, but it also didn't give it away either. Texas forced a
Billy Kinney punt which was fair caught by Jacorey Warrick at the UT 15.
UT got one first down but was unable to get a second, punting the ball back to WVU with 2:54 remaining in the game.
Beginning at its own nine following a penalty, West Virginia got six yards on a Howard pass out in the flat to McKoy, then lost on McKoy's run to the outside. On third and five, Howard flipped a pass down the near sideline to White for a 61-yard gain to the Longhorn 25. But offsetting penalties brought the ball back, and West Virginia's second try at third down ended a yard short of the sticks when Howard was brought down by Charles Omenihu.
Texas got the ball back at its own 41 with 5:25 left in the game and managed one first down to the Mountaineer 48, but once more couldn't come up with another. On second and nine, Buechele was sacked for a four-yard loss by blitzing linebacker David Long, and UT failed to reach the sticks on third and 13 when Foreman was dragged down five yards short of the marker at the WVU 43.
On fourth down, Buechele threw a pass to the near sideline where Johnson was dragged down by Rasul Douglas a yard short of the marker. This play was also reviewed and the call on the field was upheld.
West Virginia took over at its 39 with 2:26 left on the clock and needing to make just one first down to run out the clock with Texas possessing just two timeouts. McKoy probed the middle for two, then got six over left tackle to bring up a third and 2 at the 47 with 1:33 to go on a stopped clock. When play resumed, McKoy's second try at reaching the first down went nowhere.
Kinney punted beautifully to the Texas 12 with 1:25 remaining.
On second and 10, following an incomplete Buechele pass, Dorian Leonard caught his second one for 28 yards to the Longhorn 40, and then the Longhorns made another first down at the Mountaineer 47 with 32 seconds showing on the clock.
Here, Gibson called timeout to get his defense organized.
Buechele's first pass to Oliver was incomplete, his second to Johnson covered 20 yards to the WVU 27 where Buechele hustled the team up to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball and stop the clock with 11 seconds left.
His second down pass to Leonard fell incomplete and then his final heave into the back of the end zone to Jake Oliver fell out of bounds.
"It wasn't pretty, but the defense was excellent," said Holgorsen.
This is hardly the ending Mountaineer fans were envisioning early in the second quarter when West Virginia took control of the game with a 17-3 lead. Molina booted a season-long, 44-yard field goal on West Virginia's opening possession of the game, and then the Mountaineers marched 66 yards in nine plays, culminating with a McKoy 8-yard touchdown run.
West Virginia's next possession at the start of the second quarter also ended with six when White made a pretty catch along the near side of the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown. The junior had somehow managed to fall on his back in bounds while he was also being interfered with by Boyd.
The Longhorns, as they did in last year's loss to the Mountaineers in Morgantown, won the stat sheet. Texas ran 100 offensive plays and finished with 536 total yards, 167 of those coming on the ground from Foreman - his 11th straight 100-yard rushing performance.
Buechele completed 31-of-48 passes for 318 yards and a touchdown, while Dorian Leonard caught seven passes for 125 yards.
Howard completed 21-of-35 for 269 yards and one TD, but was also picked off three times.
Justin Crawford, who briefly spelled McKoy, had WVU's other turnover when he fumbled one of his three carries at the Texas 10.
McKoy had a career-high 25 carries to finish with 73 yards and two touchdowns.
An announced crowd of 98,673 watched today's game.
Today's victory, plus Oklahoma's impressive 45-24 win over Baylor earlier today, sets up next Saturday's Big 12 showdown with the Sooners at Milan Puskar Stadium. WVU is currently a game and a half behind 7-0 Oklahoma in the conference standings.
A game time should be announced later this weekend.
There are still a limited number of tickets remaining and those can be purchased by logging onto
WVUGAME.com.
