MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The answer to West Virginia’s 24-20 victory over Texas on Saturday cannot be found in the box score.

 

The Longhorns ran 100 plays, had a substantial advantage in total yardage, rushing yardage, passing yardage, first downs, time of possession … you name it.

 

West Virginia, meanwhile, committed four turnovers (two of those coming in the red zone), struggled to control the line of scrimmage, was unable to get critical first downs when it needed them late to run out the clock, and had some penalties at key moments to keep the Longhorns in the game.

 

But the Mountaineers overcame all of this to win another tough football game. They survived - just as they did earlier this year against BYU, and just as they did against Kansas State.

 

Even Youngstown State was a struggle, West Virginia trailing the Penguins 14-7 in the second quarter, if you recall.

 

Yet the team pulled together and found a way to win that one, too.

 

“I think everyone would agree with this, but the one thing that 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,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, whose Mountaineers have now won 13 of their last 15 games dating back to last season.

 

Holgorsen could be seen on the sidelines fighting for his team all afternoon long, and his guys responded, just as they have done all season long for him.

 

Against BYU, it was an offense that hogged the ball, made long, sustained drives and created enough space to give the defense the room it needed to hang on at the end.

 

Against Kansas State, it was a defense that managed to keep the game close enough for the offense to get the points that were needed in the fourth quarter to come away with a rare victory over the Wildcats.

 

Then on Saturday, WVU jumped out to a fast 17-3 lead and seemed to be hitting smooth air when turbulence set in.

 

A muffed Longhorn punt that wasn’t, a 21-play drive that consumed about half of the second quarter and kept West Virginia’s offense on the sidelines, some dropped passes in the third quarter, untimely penalties, numerous replay reviews, and an inability to capitalize on a couple of Texas turnovers kept the Longhorns hanging around.

 

Yet each time West Virginia was pushed against the wall, it fought back - something all West Virginians can appreciate.

 

Marvin Gross, the same guy called for the kick-catch interference penalty that led to Texas’ first touchdown, came back to block a chip-shot Longhorn field goal attempt in the third quarter - this coming after Skyler Howard had tossed one of his three interceptions.

 

Howard simply dusted himself off like nothing had happened and responded to march the offense right back down the field. He converted three critical third-down plays - one to Daikiel Shorts Jr. for six yards when Howard hung in there in the face of an all-out blitz to complete a difficult pass to a well-covered Shorts, a second when Skyler made the right call against the defense he was facing and handed the ball off to Kennedy McKoy for an eight-yard run, and a third when he fired an accurate pass to Shelton Gibson for 23 yards to the Texas 3 on third and nine.

 

One play later, McKoy was able to walk into the end zone to give the Mountaineers a 24-13 lead, putting the game back into the hands of the defense.

 

Senior corner Rasul Douglas was the first to respond by making an impressive interception along the near sideline when he took the ball right out of the arms of Texas receiver John Burt.

 

Junior safety Kyzir White did his part when he came on a blitz and lit up Texas freshman quarterback Shane Buechele for a five-yard loss on a third-and-five play at the WVU 20.

 

The force of White’s tackle caused Buechele to lose possession of the football and the replay official judged that White had recovered it, eliminating a field goal try that could have pulled the Longhorns to within a point with most of the fourth quarter still left to play.

 

“A huge play,” admitted Holgorsen. “We’ve seen him make plays like that a lot, and he’s now just kind of coming into his own.”

 

Then, Douglas stepped up once again to make a big fourth-down stop when he tackled 6-foot-6-inch, 212-pound Collin Johnson a yard short of the first down marker.

 

All Johnson had to do was either reach out his long arm holding the football or simply fall forward to get the extra yard needed to continue the drive at West Virginia’s 39.

 

Douglas wouldn’t let him.

 

Then, when the offense couldn’t get a first down to run out the clock, Billy Kinney stepped up and made an outstanding 41-yard punt to pin the Longhorns deep in their own territory with just 1:25 left on the clock.

 

In Holgorsen’s eyes, that may have been the play of the game.

 

“Billy Kinney was maybe the player of the game for the entire team, definitely the player of the game on offense,” noted Holgorsen. “Field position wise was good, and he was a big part of that.”

 

Kinney’s punt required Texas to drive 88 yards to reach the end zone against a defense that is pretty average statistically in almost every category with the exception of one - points allowed.

 

The defense held, of course, even at the end when everyone was counting the number of players Tony Gibson had out on the field to make sure he didn’t have too many - he didn’t - and West Virginia left Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium with its eighth victory of the season.

 

“Hats off to our players just for hanging in there and believing in each other,” said Holgorsen. “They wanted to get this win pretty bad, and I’m proud of them.”

 

“Our kids are fighters, they’re tough, they keep rolling and I’m very excited about where we’re at as a football team,” added Gibson. “Again, we talk about it all the time. Last week we didn’t play our best against Kansas and our offense kind of got everything rolling. Today we struggled at times and I thought we came up with some big plays. That’s what team football is, and I think we’re playing at a high level right now.”

 

Indeed, most of what happened in the second half described above cannot be found in the box score, but it was quite evident afterward in West Virginia’s locker room where the guys in there appreciate each other, and more importantly, have each other’s backs.