Mountaineers Knock off Texas to Remain Bowl Eligible

"It was clean football today, and that's the thing that really was disappointing to me a week ago is we just didn't play clean football, and Kansas State did," said West Virginia head coach Neal Brown. "Well, today, this was a clean football game. if you look at it and start with offense, we go 87 plays with zero turnovers."

West Virginia took the opening drive of the game 75 yards on nine plays behind the arm of Jarrett Doege. He went 6-7 on the drive for 72 yards, twice finding Sam James for 31 yards, including a toss and catch over the middle as James weaved through the defense to score the touchdown from 20 yards out.

Doege got rolling again late in the first into the second quarter. Facing their third consecutive three and out on third and seven, Doege delivered a dime down the left sideline to Bryce Ford-Wheaton for 31 yards.

Leddie Brown got the Mountaineers to a third one after back-to-back tough runs, and Tony Mathis Jr. carried the ball over the line to gain, keeping the drive alive.

West Virginia converted another third and long, with Doege hitting Isaiah Esdale on a slant for 18 yards. Two plays later, Doege tossed a 14-yard touchdown pass in the back corner of the end zone to Winston Wright Jr., putting the Mountaineers up 14-0.

"We ran the ball effectively. I thought we had some huge plays on third and fourth down, continued Brown. "Jarret Doege and our receivers made some huge plays on third fourth down, especially in the second half. Redzone touchdowns - we scored in the red zone."

Texas picked up its first, first down with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game after establishing a running game with Roschon Johnson before Keilan Johnson busted through the defense for a 49-yard touchdown run.

"I thought defensively, I mean we've got we're running on fumes a little bit, we're down, you know. We got Saint McLeod played every snap today – he's a true freshman. (Safety) Scotty Young played a dime package the whole game, and it hurt us against the run, but we did a great job not allowing explosive plays, and we finished the game, and that's something we haven't done but a couple times on defense that we finished the game."

West Virginia responded on the following possession 12-play 82-yard drive. Doege remained hot, going 4-5 for 62 yards and setting Leddie Brown up for the five-yard touchdown run.

Texas was able to get into field goal position right before the half to cut the deficit to 11, 21-10.

West Virginia and Texas traded stops to open the second half, but Hudson Card hit Xavier Worthy deep over the middle for the 52-yard touchdown on the Longhorns' second offensive series.

"(Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian) 'Stark' does a really good job of scheming explosive plays, and they got guys who can run. (Marcus) Washington and Worthy special and then (Keilan Robinson) number seven has got electric speed," said Brown.

On the next drive, Doege was sacked on back-to-back plays, but on third and 18, he hit Winston Wright Jr. in front of the sticks, and he fought his way for the 19-yard gain and the first down. Then, Leddie Brown ripped off runs of 26 and 18 to get the Mountaineers deep into Texas territory.

West Virginia, again, would have to convert another third down on a third and goal from the seven, and Doege once again delivered, hitting Sean Ryan in the back of the endzone for his third touchdown pass of the afternoon as the Mountaineers held a 28-17 advantage with 29 seconds in the third quarter.

"(Doege) He's a Texas kid. So, this one was a factor. The fact that his brother didn't beat Texas was probably a factor too. You know, he's trying to outdo his older brother," said Brown. "We had some negative plays, and we were able to overcome those. We had some third and long's that we converted that we really, you know, we've been kind of hot and cold on third and long's this year, but I thought he did a nice job. He was really accurate. He didn't put the ball in jeopardy today, but he kept some plays alive with the feet, and then our receivers made some contested catches as well."

The Longhorns quickly moved the ball down the field to keep the game within a possession with an eight-play 72-yard drive. Texas looked to cut the West Virginia lead, opting to go for two, but the ball fell incomplete in the end zone.

West Virginia, again, was behind the change and staring down a third and 15, but Doege threw a strike deep over the middle to Reese Smith for 20 yards. Leddie Brown and Tony Mathis Jr. continued to pick up yards in chunks, putting the Mountaineers inside the Texas 40. Then, West Virginia moved the chains on a fourth and five after Sean Ryan went just beyond the first down marker, hauled in the pass for the first down. However, West Virginia had to settle for a 45-yard field goal from Casey Legg to extend the lead to eight, 31-23. Brown finished the game with 158 yards and a touchdown on the day.

"Struggled with it (the run game) early, then we got into a rhythm, probably somewhat sometime in the second quarter, and they played us this a little different," said Neal Brown. "A lot more four-down looks than what we’ve seen on video. “I thought we ran hard and ran and we did a good job covering them up, but it was a hard-earned 158 yards and Leddie did a nice job. He got off to a little bit of a slow start, but he picked up and I thought it was good for his last home game to have the success that he did."

The Longhorns appeared poised to tie the game, methodically moving the ball down the field. However, on fourth and eight, Casey Thompson was intercepted by senior safety Sean Mahone at the six, and he returned it to the WVU 34. Then, a block below the waist prior to the interception moved the Mountaineers to midfield with 2:51 remaining in the game.

"Our whole plan, we dropped eight probably more than we have at any point this season, and we were intentional about keeping the ball in front of us, and we knew that we're going to be able to run the ball some," said Neal Brown. "We felt like if we could keep it in front of us, we'd have a chance and make them take their time and methodically go down the field rather than hit a big one. They hit one where Worthy got behind us on one, but other than that, we were able to do that in the pass game."

West Virginia gave the ball back to the Longhorns with 36 seconds remaining at their 36 but could not convert a first down as the Mountaineers remained bowl eligible with the 31-23 win.