Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Leddie Brown's 87-yard touchdown right through the middle of the Kansas defense in the third quarter broke open a tight football game and powered West Virginia to a 38-17 victory over the winless Jayhawks here at sunny Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
 
A socially distanced crowd of 10,759 also watched Brown score a 6-yard touchdown on a pass out of the backfield from quarterback Jarret Doege and finish the afternoon with a career-high 195 yards on just 18 carries
 
The Philadelphia junior was 5 yards shy of becoming West Virginia's first player to eclipse 200 yards rushing in a game since 2017.
 
Brown also contributed 36 yards receiving to finish the afternoon with 231 all-purpose yards.
 
Coach Neal Brown said Leddie's game-changing run was a result of West Virginia using 12-personnel (a two-tight-end formation) for the only time in the game and the Jayhawks trying to squeeze down on Brown in a Bear front.
 
"They sold out to stop Leddie and once he got past the first level he was able to get into the end zone," the coach said.
 
"I saw a crease between Chase (Behrndt) and Mike Brown, I was able to get through it, and then it was off to the races," Brown said.
 
As he approached the 30-yard-line he admitted he took a peek at the video board to see who was pursuing him.
 
"When I saw No. 9 coming I was like, 'I've only got 10 more yards, I can slow down,'" he laughed.

It was the sixth-longest touchdown run in school history and longest at Milan Puskar Stadium since Noel Devine ran 88 yards for a score against Pitt in 2009.
 
Brown's running and receiving really got West Virginia's offense going in late in the second quarter when the Mountaineers took their first lead of the game. He accounted for 61 of the 91 yards West Virginia generated on that scoring drive, with the other 30 coming on two Kansas penalties.
 
After a slow start, Doege completed 26-of-44 passes for a career-high 318 yards and a career-high-matching three touchdowns. Doege's scoring strikes covered 33 yards to Bryce Ford-Wheaton, 6 yards to Brown and 8 yards to Sam James on a nifty fake-motion, throwback pass.
 
Backup running back Alec Sinkfield contributed a late 3-yard touchdown and Evan Staley punched through a 33-yard field late in the second quarter.
 
Kansas (0-4) played today's game without its coach, Les Miles, who is recovering from the COVID-19 virus. 
 
Coordinators Brent Dearman and D.J. Elliot handled the offensive and defensive game plans, while assistant coach Joshua Eargle was appointed acting head coach for this afternoon's game.
 
A heavy underdog, Kansas jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, thanks to Duece Mayberry's recovery of a T.J. Simmons fumble that resulted in Jacob Borcila's 41-yard field goal.
 
Two possessions later, the Jayhawks struck for a 43-yard touchdown when Miles Kendrick's pass down the far sideline went right through the hands of West Virginia cornerback Nicktroy Fortune and right into the arms of Andrew Parchment.
 
West Virginia's defense bottled up Kansas' Preseason All-Big 12 choice Pooka Williams for most of the afternoon, the junior gaining just 21 rushing yards on 11 attempts, but he managed to get into the end zone with 1:45 left in the game when he took a Staley kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown.
 
"It kind of sucks he got that late touchdown, but Pooka is an all-conference player for a reason and he was our No. 1 focus coming into today's game," junior linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo said.
 
Penalties and turnovers were the story for a good portion of the game.
 
The two teams were flagged a combined 15 times for 146 yards in the first half alone, and finished the game with 17 total infractions for 166 yards.
 
Kendrick, who was under duress for most of the afternoon, threw a pair of interceptions and finished the afternoon completing just 14-of-23 passes for 95 yards against West Virginia's Top 10 pass defense.
 
WVU's defense bolstered is top 10 defensive ranking, limiting the Jayhawks to just seven first downs and 157 yards of total offense.
 
In four games so far this year, West Virginia is allowing an average of just 240.3 yards per game.
 
The Mountaineers were credited with five sacks today – two each from Ahkeem Mesidor and Jeffery Pooler Jr. and one by Jared Bartlett to boost its season total to 16.
 
Chandler-Semedo was credited with a team-best nine tackles and Alonzo Addae and Darius Stills came up with interceptions.
 
Brown, the nation's 17^th-leading rusher heading into this weekend's action, has now rushed for more than 100 yards in a game three times in four games.
 
He now shows 515 yards, or 148 yards more than his 2019 total of 367 yards during his sophomore season.
 
"Offensively, it was a big day for Leddie," Neal Brown said. "He had over 10.8 per carry; it was special."
 
West Virginia's ground game accounted for 226 yards on 38 attempts despite finishing the first quarter with minus-16 yards.
 
West Virginia's 544 yards of total offense were the third-most under Brown, who now evens his overall record to 8-8 at WVU.
 
"Offensively, we're getting closer," Neal Brown said. "If you look at our overall numbers they were pretty impressive. We're still getting in our way a little bit, whether it's a few penalties or dropped passes, whatever it is, but we averaged over 8 yards per play. I thought our guys competed."
 
Kansas has lost all six times it has played in Morgantown and now trails the overall series 9-1.
 
"A good win for us to get to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12. I was excited to see our fans back at Mountaineer Field. For however many we had, I thought they were loud and they were into it," the coach concluded.
 
The Mountaineers (3-1) are in the midst of a five-game Big 12 stretch that will continue next Saturday in Lubbock, Texas, when they play 1-3 Texas Tech, who was idle this week.
 
The Red Raiders dropped a 31-15 decision at Iowa State last weekend and have also lost conference games against Texas and Kansas State.
 
Last year, Texas Tech stunned West Virginia 38-17 in Morgantown.