09-24-2017, 09:07 AM
LAWRENCE, Kansas - West Virginia quarterback Will Grier was responsible for four touchdowns to overcome a career-best rushing performance by Kansas' Khalil Herbert and lead the Mountaineers to a 56-34 victory here at Memorial Stadium this afternoon.
Herbert ran for a Kansas-record 291 yards and scored two touchdowns in a losing cause.
It was the most yards a Mountaineer defense has ever allowed an opposing rusher, eclipsing the 272 yards Pitt's Kevan Barlow gained in the Panthers' 38-28 victory over West Virginia at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on Nov. 24, 2000.
It was the first time in school history West Virginia (3-1) has won a football game despite the opposing team having a 200-yard rusher, going 0-9 previously.
Grier also became the first quarterback in school history to pass for more than 300 yards in his first four games as a Mountaineer, finishing this afternoon with 347 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-39 passing.
The junior also ran 10 times for 51 yards to account for 398 of West Virginia's 635 total yards.
"I'm comfortable running the ball but I don't plan on doing it as much," Grier admitted afterward. "I say this every week I'm running the ball more than I want to but I'm doing what I have to do. A lot of it is third-down stuff. I'm working on getting better at sliding because I suck at sliding. I'm going to practice it but I think it's a weapon.
"A lot of these weren't designed runs," he added.
"Glad to get out of here with a win. We looked good at times and bad at times, which anybody who watched today's game can probably figure out," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "The second quarter was good and the fourth quarter was good. I'd rather it be in the second and fourth instead of the first and third."
Justin Crawford carried the ball 18 times for 125 yards and scored two touchdowns - his fourth consecutive 100-yard rushing effort to begin the season - and Kennedy McKoy added 105 yards on just 12 totes. David Sills V caught eight passes for 130 yards to lead all receivers.
Incidentally, Philadelphia Eagles running back Wendell Smallwood was the last WVU ball carrier to rush for at least 100 yards in four straight games in 2015.
Although not quite to the level of what Baylor and West Virginia accomplished in the Mountaineers' 70-63 win in Morgantown in 2012, the two offenses today combined to produce 1,199 total yards and score 90 points on an extremely hot afternoon with temperatures approaching 100 degrees on the field.
And it's probably fitting that Kansas' special teams coordinator Joe DeForest, West Virginia's defensive coordinator in the 2012 Baylor game, was here today to see the offensive fireworks.
"We're doing some good things but we've got to play better for the entire game," Grier noted. "We're leaving a lot of stuff out there and a lot of stuff we can do to be better. You've got to take this win, build off of it and move forward."
After allowing West Virginia's offense to control the first half, Kansas came back to completely dominate the third quarter. The Jayhawks, following a WVU punt on their opening possession of the quarter, used a nine-play, 89-yard drive that ended with Herbert scoring from the five.
Three possessions later, Bender threw a deep pass down the near sideline to Steven Sims and he ran to the West Virginia three where he was knocked out of bounds by Mike Daniels Jr. A roughing-the-passer penalty called on West Virginia moved the football to the one where three plays later, Taylor Martin ran around left end across the goal line.
Gabriel Rui's conversion kick made it 35-27, West Virginia.
WVU's fifth 80-yard scoring drive was perhaps its most important of the game. The march began at the WVU 14 and the Mountaineers made a big third-down conversion when Grier hit Marcus Simms for 25 yards to the Kansas 45.
"They were pressing them up, I liked the matchup, he was playing well and wanted the ball and we called something I thought could get him the ball and get us a first down, Grier said.
On the next play, Grier was flushed out of the pocket and ran 24 yards to the Kansas 21. Two incomplete passes and a 9-yard Grier hookup to Simms gave West Virginia a fourth and one at the Kansas 12.
Here, Holgorsen opted to go for the field goal and Mike Molina punched in a 29-yarder, but Kansas defensive end Dorance Armstrong Jr. was called for being offside, giving West Virginia a first down at the seven.
Two plays later, Grier fired a 7-yard touchdown pass to Sills V to make it 45-27, West Virginia, with 11:02 remaining in the game.
Kansas answered four minutes later with a 75-yard drive culminated by Peyton Bender's 7-yard touchdown strike to Sims. The Jayhawks (1-3) converted a fourth and four from the WVU 23 during the drive when Bender flipped a 5-yard pass to Jeremiah Booker to the 18 on the drive.
And the scoring wasn't over.
Grier passed 24 yards to Marcus Simms, and then hit Gary Jennings Jr. on a pretty 30-yard strike down the middle of the field to the Kansas three. Jennings took a big hit on the play by Kansas safety Mike Lee but somehow managed to hold onto the ball.
"It was an unbelievable time to call that play," Grier said. "Big gain; Gary took a big hit and it was an unbelievable catch. It was a great play."
After the play was reviewed for targeting, Grier called his own number and scored from the three, untouched, for his first career rushing touchdown at WVU.
The Mountaineers got the ball right back when Lamonte McDougle came from behind to knock down Bender's pass and Dylan Tonkery fell on it at the KU 31. The play was ruled an incomplete pass on the field, but the replay official changed the call to a fumble and McDougle was also credited with a sack.
A McKoy 28-yard run moved the ball to the three where Grier got in for the second time today.
The Jayhawk defense turned away another late Mountaineer scoring opportunity when they stopped West Virginia on fourth and goal at the one with 1:13 left in the game. West Virginia got there when linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton picked off a Bender pass at the KU 46 and returned it 38 yards to the six.
In the first half, West Virginia used four long scoring drives and a Mike Daniels Jr. 25-yard interception return for a touchdown to take a commanding 35-13 halftime lead.
Kansas got on the scoreboard on the game's opening possession, marching the football from its 25 to the Mountaineer six before a false start penalty on right guard Chris Hughes forced Rui to kick a 28-yard field goal.
Fifteen of Kansas' first 16 plays were runs and had the Jayhawks not fallen behind by such a big margin early, it could have really racked up some yardage against WVU's defense.
Herbert later scored a 67-yard touchdown run on a third-and-two off tackle play and finished the first half with 191 yards rushing.
Meanwhile, West Virginia's offense produced scoring marches of 80, 80, 86 and 85 yards mixing Crawford and McKoy runs with Grier passes to Sills.
Crawford carried five times for 50 yards on WVU's first scoring drive before giving way to McKoy, who bounced in from the seven.
Crawford gave West Virginia a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter when ran seven yards to pay dirt. McKoy made it 21-3 on the Mountaineers' next possession when he broke free from the 23 and raced into the end zone.
A Grier 49-yard touchdown pass to Sills extended West Virginia's lead to 28-3 before Herbert scored the first of his two touchdowns.
After West Virginia was forced to punt, Bender's pass out in the flat sailed high of his intended target and Daniels caught the deflected pass and returned it 25 yards to the end zone. It was the Mountaineers' first pick-six since Rasul Douglas did it against BYU last year at FedExField in Landover, Maryland.
West Virginia now has two weeks to work on its young defense before traveling to TCU to take on the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on Saturday, October 7.
"We had a lot of guys out standing on the sidelines and it's good to have an extra week to get them back and get ready for TCU," Holgorsen said.
:dontthink
http://wvusports.com/news/2017/9/23/foot...ansas.aspx
Herbert ran for a Kansas-record 291 yards and scored two touchdowns in a losing cause.
It was the most yards a Mountaineer defense has ever allowed an opposing rusher, eclipsing the 272 yards Pitt's Kevan Barlow gained in the Panthers' 38-28 victory over West Virginia at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on Nov. 24, 2000.
It was the first time in school history West Virginia (3-1) has won a football game despite the opposing team having a 200-yard rusher, going 0-9 previously.
Grier also became the first quarterback in school history to pass for more than 300 yards in his first four games as a Mountaineer, finishing this afternoon with 347 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-39 passing.
The junior also ran 10 times for 51 yards to account for 398 of West Virginia's 635 total yards.
"I'm comfortable running the ball but I don't plan on doing it as much," Grier admitted afterward. "I say this every week I'm running the ball more than I want to but I'm doing what I have to do. A lot of it is third-down stuff. I'm working on getting better at sliding because I suck at sliding. I'm going to practice it but I think it's a weapon.
"A lot of these weren't designed runs," he added.
"Glad to get out of here with a win. We looked good at times and bad at times, which anybody who watched today's game can probably figure out," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "The second quarter was good and the fourth quarter was good. I'd rather it be in the second and fourth instead of the first and third."
Justin Crawford carried the ball 18 times for 125 yards and scored two touchdowns - his fourth consecutive 100-yard rushing effort to begin the season - and Kennedy McKoy added 105 yards on just 12 totes. David Sills V caught eight passes for 130 yards to lead all receivers.
Incidentally, Philadelphia Eagles running back Wendell Smallwood was the last WVU ball carrier to rush for at least 100 yards in four straight games in 2015.
Although not quite to the level of what Baylor and West Virginia accomplished in the Mountaineers' 70-63 win in Morgantown in 2012, the two offenses today combined to produce 1,199 total yards and score 90 points on an extremely hot afternoon with temperatures approaching 100 degrees on the field.
And it's probably fitting that Kansas' special teams coordinator Joe DeForest, West Virginia's defensive coordinator in the 2012 Baylor game, was here today to see the offensive fireworks.
"We're doing some good things but we've got to play better for the entire game," Grier noted. "We're leaving a lot of stuff out there and a lot of stuff we can do to be better. You've got to take this win, build off of it and move forward."
After allowing West Virginia's offense to control the first half, Kansas came back to completely dominate the third quarter. The Jayhawks, following a WVU punt on their opening possession of the quarter, used a nine-play, 89-yard drive that ended with Herbert scoring from the five.
Three possessions later, Bender threw a deep pass down the near sideline to Steven Sims and he ran to the West Virginia three where he was knocked out of bounds by Mike Daniels Jr. A roughing-the-passer penalty called on West Virginia moved the football to the one where three plays later, Taylor Martin ran around left end across the goal line.
Gabriel Rui's conversion kick made it 35-27, West Virginia.
WVU's fifth 80-yard scoring drive was perhaps its most important of the game. The march began at the WVU 14 and the Mountaineers made a big third-down conversion when Grier hit Marcus Simms for 25 yards to the Kansas 45.
"They were pressing them up, I liked the matchup, he was playing well and wanted the ball and we called something I thought could get him the ball and get us a first down, Grier said.
On the next play, Grier was flushed out of the pocket and ran 24 yards to the Kansas 21. Two incomplete passes and a 9-yard Grier hookup to Simms gave West Virginia a fourth and one at the Kansas 12.
Here, Holgorsen opted to go for the field goal and Mike Molina punched in a 29-yarder, but Kansas defensive end Dorance Armstrong Jr. was called for being offside, giving West Virginia a first down at the seven.
Two plays later, Grier fired a 7-yard touchdown pass to Sills V to make it 45-27, West Virginia, with 11:02 remaining in the game.
Kansas answered four minutes later with a 75-yard drive culminated by Peyton Bender's 7-yard touchdown strike to Sims. The Jayhawks (1-3) converted a fourth and four from the WVU 23 during the drive when Bender flipped a 5-yard pass to Jeremiah Booker to the 18 on the drive.
And the scoring wasn't over.
Grier passed 24 yards to Marcus Simms, and then hit Gary Jennings Jr. on a pretty 30-yard strike down the middle of the field to the Kansas three. Jennings took a big hit on the play by Kansas safety Mike Lee but somehow managed to hold onto the ball.
"It was an unbelievable time to call that play," Grier said. "Big gain; Gary took a big hit and it was an unbelievable catch. It was a great play."
After the play was reviewed for targeting, Grier called his own number and scored from the three, untouched, for his first career rushing touchdown at WVU.
The Mountaineers got the ball right back when Lamonte McDougle came from behind to knock down Bender's pass and Dylan Tonkery fell on it at the KU 31. The play was ruled an incomplete pass on the field, but the replay official changed the call to a fumble and McDougle was also credited with a sack.
A McKoy 28-yard run moved the ball to the three where Grier got in for the second time today.
The Jayhawk defense turned away another late Mountaineer scoring opportunity when they stopped West Virginia on fourth and goal at the one with 1:13 left in the game. West Virginia got there when linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton picked off a Bender pass at the KU 46 and returned it 38 yards to the six.
In the first half, West Virginia used four long scoring drives and a Mike Daniels Jr. 25-yard interception return for a touchdown to take a commanding 35-13 halftime lead.
Kansas got on the scoreboard on the game's opening possession, marching the football from its 25 to the Mountaineer six before a false start penalty on right guard Chris Hughes forced Rui to kick a 28-yard field goal.
Fifteen of Kansas' first 16 plays were runs and had the Jayhawks not fallen behind by such a big margin early, it could have really racked up some yardage against WVU's defense.
Herbert later scored a 67-yard touchdown run on a third-and-two off tackle play and finished the first half with 191 yards rushing.
Meanwhile, West Virginia's offense produced scoring marches of 80, 80, 86 and 85 yards mixing Crawford and McKoy runs with Grier passes to Sills.
Crawford carried five times for 50 yards on WVU's first scoring drive before giving way to McKoy, who bounced in from the seven.
Crawford gave West Virginia a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter when ran seven yards to pay dirt. McKoy made it 21-3 on the Mountaineers' next possession when he broke free from the 23 and raced into the end zone.
A Grier 49-yard touchdown pass to Sills extended West Virginia's lead to 28-3 before Herbert scored the first of his two touchdowns.
After West Virginia was forced to punt, Bender's pass out in the flat sailed high of his intended target and Daniels caught the deflected pass and returned it 25 yards to the end zone. It was the Mountaineers' first pick-six since Rasul Douglas did it against BYU last year at FedExField in Landover, Maryland.
West Virginia now has two weeks to work on its young defense before traveling to TCU to take on the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on Saturday, October 7.
"We had a lot of guys out standing on the sidelines and it's good to have an extra week to get them back and get ready for TCU," Holgorsen said.
:dontthink
http://wvusports.com/news/2017/9/23/foot...ansas.aspx