Photo by: USA Today
Mountaineers ‘Legg’ Out Big Victory Over Oklahoma Saturday
November 12, 2022 04:03 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last year, Oklahoma used a last-second field goal to defeat West Virginia in Norman, Oklahoma. Today, WVU returned the favor as Casey Legg's 25-yard field goal with no time left gave the Mountaineers a 23-20, come-from-behind victory before a crowd of 50,281 at soggy Milan Puskar Field.
Did "Take Me Home, Country Roads" ever sound better?
"Huge win," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, there have been several really good football teams and great players here, but this team is the first to get it done. Proud of the staff and proud of the players for getting that done."
Just a fraction of the crowd remained to see Legg's kick, which was made possible by backup quarterback Garrett Greene's gritty performance.
The Tallahassee, Florida, resident was inserted into the game late in the second quarter when starter JT Daniels failed to move the offense.
Greene was responsible for all three West Virginia touchdowns, two with his legs and the other from his right arm. The sophomore finished the game running for a career-best 119 yards on 14 attempts and completed 12 of his 22 throws for 138 yards.
Greene's heroics overshadowed a 25-carry, 211-yard rushing performance from Oklahoma's Eric Gray. The 5-5 Sooners got 236 yards rushing and had a 2-to-0 advantage in turnovers, not to mention two points on WVU's botched two-point conversion attempt, but Neal Brown's Mountaineers persevered under difficult circumstances.
"We gave (Greene) some more snaps during the week because I thought he played pretty well last week," Brown said of his choice of going to Greene. "We knew if we were going to win the game, the only (way) we were going to win the game was by controlling the clock and running the football."
All of the first half scoring took place in the second quarter as both teams dealt with a light drizzle that became more moderate later in the quarter.
The soggy conditions cost Oklahoma at least two touchdowns, one a deep pass headed toward the hospital end of the stadium that Dillon Gabriel missed to wide open Marvin Mims Jr. running down the middle of the field. Later, Gabriel flipped a long, on-target throw to Mims running at the WVU 5, but the junior was unable to hold onto the ball.
OU's first touchdown, a Gabriel 6-yard pass to tight end Brayden Willis, was taken off the scoreboard when replay confirmed that wide receiver Theo Wease was illegally blocking downfield. Instead, the Sooners had to settle for a Zach Schmit 32-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.
It looked like West Virginia was in position for Legg to try a field goal with less than three minutes left in the second quarter, but Daniels took a sack for a 12-yard loss that forced Oliver Straw's 35-yard punt to the OU 4. Here, it took the Sooners only four plays to travel the entire length of the field, the big gainer being a Gabriel 67-yard pass to an open Mims down the far sideline to the Mountaineer 12.
On the next play, Gray got through a crease off the left side and ran into the end zone to give the Sooners a 10-0 lead.
Greene, back in the game after Sam James' 42-yard kickoff return gave the Mountaineers great field position at the 47, completed a 15-yard pass to Kaden Prather to the Sooner 38. West Virginia's next play was Greene's 33-yard run to the OU 5 where he took it in on the next play.
But on Legg's conversion kick, the Sooners got two points out of it when backup holder Kolten McGhee could not handle the exchange. Legg picked up the ball, tried to make a play, but was hit from behind by Robert Spears-Jennings and Billy Bowman picked up the ball and returned it 88 yards for a 2-point conversion. So, instead of the score being 10-7 it was 12-6 at the half.
With Greene remaining in the game, West Virginia took its first lead with 3:36 left in third quarter when he engineered a 12-play, 63-yard drive that consumed 6:18 of the clock. A facemask penalty called on freshman R Mason Thomas gave West Virginia a first down at the Sooner 34, and four plays later, Greene overcame a missed handoff to run 17 yards to the Sooner 2. A delay of game penalty and two unsuccessful plays preceded Greene's pretty, back-shoulder touchdown throw to Bryce Ford-Wheaton from the 7.
Legg's conversion kick gave WVU a 13-12 lead.
Oklahoma's answer was immediate. Jalil Farooq's 36-yard kickoff return gave the Sooners great field position at the 41, and Gray nearly took care of other 59 yards on the ground. His big gainer was a 21-yard run up the middle to the WVU 8. Gray completed the scoring drive with a 5-yard run, and Gabriel's conversion run made it 20-13 Sooners.
WVU's response was more Greene passing and running. His 35-yard throw under heavy pressure was hauled in by James down the far sideline to the OU 34, and a fourth-and-10 pass for 15 yards to Prather gave WVU a fresh set of downs at the OU 16. Two plays later, Greene skirted free to the nearside of the field to score from the 11. A successful fake punt when Sam James took a direct snap and ran five yards to the WVU 39 also played a big role in that touchdown drive.
After Schmit's 47-yard field goal attempt to go ahead hit the right goal post, it was Greene's legs and timely passing that moved West Virginia into position to steal a victory.
On West Virginia's 15-play, 65-yard game-winning drive, the Mountaineers converted two third downs and a fourth down to move the ball to the OU 6, forcing the Sooners to burn all three timeouts.
The first, from the WVU 49, was gifted to West Virginia by Oklahoma's defense when Josh Ellison jumped offsides. On fourth and 3 at the OU 39, WVU used a Greene screen pass to Bryce Ford-Wheaton to get 5 yards and a new set of downs. Later, on third and 6 from the Sooner 17, Greene bulled his way for 7 yards to 10 allowing West Virginia run down the clock before getting into position for Legg to kick his second game-winning field goal of the season. His first came against Baylor to defeat the Bears 43-40.
The only concern was the center-holder exchange, which McGhee handled cleanly.
Gabriel finished today's game completing 17 of his 28 passes for 190 yards. The Sooners outgained the Mountaineers 426 to 406, but Oklahoma struggled mightily on third down by converting just 1-of-11. WVU's 7-of-19 success rate on third down was probably the deciding factor in the game.
James caught three passes for 90 yards, while Ford-Wheaton (seven catches for 36 yards) and Prather (six catches for 59 yards) also contributed some big plays for the receiver corps.
Sean Martin led a rejuvenated WVU defense with a couple of sacks and linebacker Jasir Cox contributed a team-high 12 tackles, nine of those being solos. Senior defensive tackle Dante Stills recorded the 23½ sack of his career and extended his school-record tackle for loss total to 52½.
"It was a three-phase win," Brown said.
The Mountaineers' victory today was their first against Oklahoma since joining the Big 12 in 2012, finally completing the nine-team circuit after 10 seasons in the league.
West Virginia boosts its record to 4-6, 2-5, and keeps alive its bowl hopes with regular season games left against Kansas State next Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium and the regular season finale at Oklahoma State on Nov. 26.
Tickets remain for the Kansas State game and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Did "Take Me Home, Country Roads" ever sound better?
"Huge win," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, there have been several really good football teams and great players here, but this team is the first to get it done. Proud of the staff and proud of the players for getting that done."
Just a fraction of the crowd remained to see Legg's kick, which was made possible by backup quarterback Garrett Greene's gritty performance.
The Tallahassee, Florida, resident was inserted into the game late in the second quarter when starter JT Daniels failed to move the offense.
Greene was responsible for all three West Virginia touchdowns, two with his legs and the other from his right arm. The sophomore finished the game running for a career-best 119 yards on 14 attempts and completed 12 of his 22 throws for 138 yards.
Greene's heroics overshadowed a 25-carry, 211-yard rushing performance from Oklahoma's Eric Gray. The 5-5 Sooners got 236 yards rushing and had a 2-to-0 advantage in turnovers, not to mention two points on WVU's botched two-point conversion attempt, but Neal Brown's Mountaineers persevered under difficult circumstances.
"We gave (Greene) some more snaps during the week because I thought he played pretty well last week," Brown said of his choice of going to Greene. "We knew if we were going to win the game, the only (way) we were going to win the game was by controlling the clock and running the football."
All of the first half scoring took place in the second quarter as both teams dealt with a light drizzle that became more moderate later in the quarter.
The soggy conditions cost Oklahoma at least two touchdowns, one a deep pass headed toward the hospital end of the stadium that Dillon Gabriel missed to wide open Marvin Mims Jr. running down the middle of the field. Later, Gabriel flipped a long, on-target throw to Mims running at the WVU 5, but the junior was unable to hold onto the ball.
OU's first touchdown, a Gabriel 6-yard pass to tight end Brayden Willis, was taken off the scoreboard when replay confirmed that wide receiver Theo Wease was illegally blocking downfield. Instead, the Sooners had to settle for a Zach Schmit 32-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.
It looked like West Virginia was in position for Legg to try a field goal with less than three minutes left in the second quarter, but Daniels took a sack for a 12-yard loss that forced Oliver Straw's 35-yard punt to the OU 4. Here, it took the Sooners only four plays to travel the entire length of the field, the big gainer being a Gabriel 67-yard pass to an open Mims down the far sideline to the Mountaineer 12.
On the next play, Gray got through a crease off the left side and ran into the end zone to give the Sooners a 10-0 lead.
Greene, back in the game after Sam James' 42-yard kickoff return gave the Mountaineers great field position at the 47, completed a 15-yard pass to Kaden Prather to the Sooner 38. West Virginia's next play was Greene's 33-yard run to the OU 5 where he took it in on the next play.
But on Legg's conversion kick, the Sooners got two points out of it when backup holder Kolten McGhee could not handle the exchange. Legg picked up the ball, tried to make a play, but was hit from behind by Robert Spears-Jennings and Billy Bowman picked up the ball and returned it 88 yards for a 2-point conversion. So, instead of the score being 10-7 it was 12-6 at the half.
With Greene remaining in the game, West Virginia took its first lead with 3:36 left in third quarter when he engineered a 12-play, 63-yard drive that consumed 6:18 of the clock. A facemask penalty called on freshman R Mason Thomas gave West Virginia a first down at the Sooner 34, and four plays later, Greene overcame a missed handoff to run 17 yards to the Sooner 2. A delay of game penalty and two unsuccessful plays preceded Greene's pretty, back-shoulder touchdown throw to Bryce Ford-Wheaton from the 7.
Legg's conversion kick gave WVU a 13-12 lead.
Oklahoma's answer was immediate. Jalil Farooq's 36-yard kickoff return gave the Sooners great field position at the 41, and Gray nearly took care of other 59 yards on the ground. His big gainer was a 21-yard run up the middle to the WVU 8. Gray completed the scoring drive with a 5-yard run, and Gabriel's conversion run made it 20-13 Sooners.
WVU's response was more Greene passing and running. His 35-yard throw under heavy pressure was hauled in by James down the far sideline to the OU 34, and a fourth-and-10 pass for 15 yards to Prather gave WVU a fresh set of downs at the OU 16. Two plays later, Greene skirted free to the nearside of the field to score from the 11. A successful fake punt when Sam James took a direct snap and ran five yards to the WVU 39 also played a big role in that touchdown drive.
After Schmit's 47-yard field goal attempt to go ahead hit the right goal post, it was Greene's legs and timely passing that moved West Virginia into position to steal a victory.
On West Virginia's 15-play, 65-yard game-winning drive, the Mountaineers converted two third downs and a fourth down to move the ball to the OU 6, forcing the Sooners to burn all three timeouts.
The first, from the WVU 49, was gifted to West Virginia by Oklahoma's defense when Josh Ellison jumped offsides. On fourth and 3 at the OU 39, WVU used a Greene screen pass to Bryce Ford-Wheaton to get 5 yards and a new set of downs. Later, on third and 6 from the Sooner 17, Greene bulled his way for 7 yards to 10 allowing West Virginia run down the clock before getting into position for Legg to kick his second game-winning field goal of the season. His first came against Baylor to defeat the Bears 43-40.
The only concern was the center-holder exchange, which McGhee handled cleanly.
Gabriel finished today's game completing 17 of his 28 passes for 190 yards. The Sooners outgained the Mountaineers 426 to 406, but Oklahoma struggled mightily on third down by converting just 1-of-11. WVU's 7-of-19 success rate on third down was probably the deciding factor in the game.
James caught three passes for 90 yards, while Ford-Wheaton (seven catches for 36 yards) and Prather (six catches for 59 yards) also contributed some big plays for the receiver corps.
Sean Martin led a rejuvenated WVU defense with a couple of sacks and linebacker Jasir Cox contributed a team-high 12 tackles, nine of those being solos. Senior defensive tackle Dante Stills recorded the 23½ sack of his career and extended his school-record tackle for loss total to 52½.
"It was a three-phase win," Brown said.
The Mountaineers' victory today was their first against Oklahoma since joining the Big 12 in 2012, finally completing the nine-team circuit after 10 seasons in the league.
West Virginia boosts its record to 4-6, 2-5, and keeps alive its bowl hopes with regular season games left against Kansas State next Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium and the regular season finale at Oklahoma State on Nov. 26.
Tickets remain for the Kansas State game and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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