MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - In the seven years we've gotten to know Dana Holgorsen as West Virginia University's football coach, rarely have we seen him call out his team's toughness in the media.
 
His unhappiness is usually confined to the locker room, but following last Saturday's loss to Oklahoma State, he publically questioned his team's toughness across the board.
 
He challenged his young defensive line to get off blocks and make more plays; he challenged his second-level guys to fight and strain to make more tackles in the open field.
 
He called out the wide receivers for not being tough enough to get off press coverage and go up in the air and get those contested passes. He also issued a challenge to his offensive line and his running backs to do more in the running game or else they were in big trouble with teams they had remaining on the schedule.
 
On Saturday, everyone heeded his advice.
 
For really the first time this year, West Virginia won a football game the way it won those 10 games last season - with a little attitude.
 
Based on the way Iowa State plays defense, Holgorsen knew his football team was going to have to run the football and be patient with 4, 5 or 6-yard gains. After all, if a team can't run the football against a four-man box, it might as well put away the helmets and the shoulders pads until next year.
 
"I've been pretty critical of our guys for about three weeks now," Holgorsen said. "Y'all have been a part of that as well.
 
"When I talk about toughness, it was across the board. We needed to be able to run the ball. Running the ball against what they did defensively was going to be important. They played dang near prevent defense a lot and we started getting them out of it because we were creasing them."
 
The Mountaineers ran the ball 47 times for 208 yards against an Iowa State defense heading into Saturday ranked near the top of the Big 12 by allowing just 126.9 yards per game.
 
Saturday's 208-yard performance came on the heels of struggling to run the ball recently against two of the worst run defenses statistically in the conference in Texas Tech and Baylor.
 
Senior Justin Crawford had his first 100-yard game in a month and looked more like the Big 12's top returning rusher.
 
And when he got gassed in the second half, WVU continued to run the football with sophomores Martell Pettaway and Kennedy McKoy.
 
Even quarterback Will Grier helped in the running game with his ability to get out of the pocket and make positive yardage when the Cyclones were dropping eight, and he was unwilling to force the football into tight areas.
 
Grier didn't take a single sack on Saturday and finished with 28 yards rushing.
 
"(Iowa State is) coached well and they were adjusting to our mindset, which was to run the ball and get those running backs as many touches as possible and they started mixing up their fronts and moving from their three to a four-down front and being more aggressive with the back end," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said. "I thought we all communicated clearly and I thought Will and I were on the same page as to when to take some shots down the field and just continuing to run the ball and getting it on the perimeter."
 


Perhaps the smartest choice the Mountaineers made was to keep McKoy in their hip pocket until the fourth quarter when they needed some fresh legs to move the football.
 
Crawford and Pettaway had carried the ball 29 times through the first three quarters before WVU went primarily to McKoy in the fourth.
 
"It was something that we kept an eye on closely and we wanted to have fresh backs in the game and I told them to be patient the entire time," Spavital said. "Even with me. I had to be patient with the play calling and I wanted them to be patient with their gains because they keep everything in front so you've got to be happy with those 4, 5, 6-yard gains and just get lined back up and compete on the next play."
 
McKoy, a Lexington, North Carolina, resident responded with an eight-carry, 45-yard fourth quarter that also included 14 yards on two screen passes. That's 59 of the 99 yards West Virginia managed to get against the Cyclones in the fourth quarter.
 
His biggest carry came with two minutes remaining in the game and West Virginia facing a third and 17 at the Iowa State 44.
 
Here, West Virginia went with a draw play to McKoy and he was fresh enough to get out on the perimeter and reach the first down marker at the Iowa State 27.
 
Three more McKoy carries burned off the remaining two minutes of the clock and to give West Virginia its first victory over a top 15-ranked team since Oct. 18, 2014 against Baylor.
 
"Kennedy ran the ball really hard," Grier said. "He had great ball security and got us a first down on a huge third and 17 and sealed the deal."
 
"That backfield was really unbelievable and found some gaps I couldn't even see when we were re-watching them on the video board," senior guard Kyle Bosch added. "I'm really proud how we came together as a team and as a unit and really just rode the ship and came out on top."
 
Bosch admitted Holgorsen's public challenge played a role in their performance on Saturday against the Cyclones.
 
"Up front, we should have been playing more aggressively in both pass protection and run blocking. This week when Coach Holgorsen challenged the offensive line and the defensive line I think it was a real wakeup call," Bosch said. "We've really got to put it in gear because if we couldn't run the ball against these guys we would have lost the game by God knows how many because they drop eight every dang time and we really had to pull it out and run the ball."
 
Bosch said it will be a similar deal next Saturday at Kansas State.
 
"We're a young team and momentum is our ally at this point because we're going to need that momentum going into K-State," he said. "It's a hostile environment and Bill Snyder really knows what he's doing. He's a sly fox and we've got to go into this game with the momentum and the toughness we had in this game."
 
Bosch's coach knows what he's doing, too, and he will let them know what must be done to get prepared to defeat another challenging opponent next Saturday - even publically if necessary.