Mountaineers Roll in Stillwater on Saturday

Saturday, October 5

Stillwater, OK

4:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

3-2 , 2-0

Oklahoma State

3-3 , 0-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

West Virginia

Oklahoma St.

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

October 05, 2024 07:37 PM | Football

Box Score Neal Brown Postgame Garrett Greene Postgame Josiah Trotter Postgame Jahiem White Postgame WVU-OSU Postgame Notes Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

West Virginia took advantage of an ailing Oklahoma State defense to register a 38-14 victory over the Cowboys today at sold-out Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

The Mountaineers (3-2 and 2-0 in the Big 12) looked like a team with two weeks of rest going up against an opponent playing its sixth straight game, including back-to-back losses to nationally ranked Utah and Kansas State.

Today's loss drops Oklahoma State, ranked 17^th in the preseason, to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in Big 12 play. It's the first time the Cowboys, under veteran coach Mike Gundy, have lost three straight games since the 2014 season. That year, WVU defeated OSU 34-10 in Stillwater, one of four times the Mountaineers have won here.

This afternoon, WVU used a punishing ground attack that churned out 389 yards against an OSU defense without its top two players, Nick Martin and Collin Oliver.

Jahiem White ran for a season-high 158 yards on 19 carries, quarterback Garrett Greene added 86 on 10 tries and CJ Donaldson Jr. contributed 77 yards on his 20 rushing attempts.

Greene connected on 9 of his15 pass attempts for 159 yards, while backup Nicco Marchiol completed his only pass for a 10-yard touchdown to Traylon Ray.

The Mountaineers generated a season-high 589 yards of offense, the most by a Neal Brown-coached WVU team since producing 634 yards in last year's win against Cincinnati.

Not to be outdone, the Mountaineer defense held the Cowboys to just 227 yards of total offense with a mere 36 coming on the ground. Leading rusher Ollie Gordon II, who torched the Mountaineers for 282 yards in last year's 48-34 OSU win, managed just 50 on 13 carries before leaving in the third quarter with an injury. The Mountaineer pass defense picked off Alan Bowman twice and limited him to just 116 yards through the air before he gave way to Garret Rangel in the third quarter.

"It was definitely our most complete game this year," Brown said afterward. "And what made it special is coming on the road to win, because this is a tough venue, and now we've won the last two times we've been in here.

"We had a ton of injuries today, and it was really hot, but our guys answered the bell, and it was just a huge win for us," Brown added.

WVU scored on all five of its first-half offensive possessions to take a commanding 31-7 halftime lead.

Oklahoma's State's lone tally of the first half came with 1:54 left in the second quarter when Bowman flipped an 8-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Owens, but it took the Mountaineers only 1:26 to answer.

Greene completed a 12-yard pass to the far side of the field to Hudson Clement, and then two Donaldson runs got the football to midfield.

WVU kept it on the ground with Greene scrambling for 10 to the OSU 40, two plays before finding tight end Kole Taylor for 21 yards to the Cowboy 19. Two plays later, Donaldson broke free up the middle for a 15-yard touchdown run.

Michael Hayes II got WVU on the scoreboard with a 39-yard field goal on the Mountaineers' opening drive of the game, but on their second possession, Greene injured his shoulder at the conclusion of his 39-yard scramble to the OSU 12. Marchiol came in and two plays later, on third and 8 from the 10, fired a quick-slant touchdown pass to Ray.

Marchiol remained ion the field for West Virginia's next offensive possession, which also ended in OSU's end zone when White capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown run.

Greene returned when the Mountaineers regained possession on Jaheem Joseph's interception return to the WVU 13. After an incomplete pass, the Mountaineers marched the entire length of the field on the ground on runs of 7, 7, 20, 6, 6, 26 ahead of Greene's 15-yard touchdown run.

WVU finished the first half with 259 rushing yards against an Oklahoma State defense that came into today's game ranked 117^th against the run, surrendering 204.2 yards per game, and 129^th in total defense, allowing 480.6 yards per contest.

After intermission, the two teams played a scoreless third quarter. Oklahoma State's opening drive ended with a Hudson Kaak punt and the second concluded with linebacker Josiah Trotter's pretty, toe-tapping interception along the Mountaineer sideline.

West Virginia, despite advancing the football into Oklahoma State territory on both of its possessions, couldn't move the chains on fourth down. WVU's first try on the OSU 28 came up a yard short when Donaldson was stopped at the 27.

WVU's next fourth-down attempt was actually successful when Greene scrambled for what appeared to be enough yardage for a first down, but the replay official overruled the call on the field after determining that Greene began his slide a yard short of the marker.

The ball was spotted at the 28 where the Cowboys took over on downs with backup quarterback Rangel now in the game. He completed an 11-yard pass to De'Zhaun Stribling, but the drive stalled at the 41 where Haak punted the ball back to West Virginia and Preston Fox fair-caught it at the Mountaineer 12.

Brown opted to keep it on the ground, and White responded with a spinning, 14-yard burst on third and 2 to the WVU 34. Another White carry of 18 yards took the football to the OSU 44, setting up Greene's pretty 40-yard pass down the far sideline to Clement, who made a sliding one-handed catch at the 4 before going out bounds.

Two plays later, Donaldson bulled in from the 1.

It took OSU just 31 seconds to answer when Rangel completed a 43-yard touchdown pass to Stribling, one play after the Cowboys took over at their own 35 following Hayes' kickoff out of bounds.

The game ended with West Virginia kneeling at the OSU 11 to run out the clock.

Now, the Mountaineers will look to next week's game against 16^th-ranked Iowa State, which faces Baylor later tonight.

Next Saturday's game has been designated a "Coal Rush" and will kick off at 8 p.m. FOX will televise the contest nationally.

"We would have liked to have played better in the nonconference, but we didn't, so now it's about the league and treating it 1-0 each week," Brown said. "We're going to enjoy this one. We are going to have a great time in the locker room and there is nothing like a flight home after a big win. We'll land in Clarksburg, get a good night's sleep and then it's all about Iowa State tomorrow."

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