WVU beats Texas 48-45
The No. 8 West Virginia Mountaineers got it done in Texas tonight, beating the Longhorns 48-45.
This was obviously a very, very big win for the program and what strikes me as most impressive is that despite being far from perfect it took all three sides of the ball to win this one.
I'd post the quickie gamer, but the final game story should be up already
Highlights of the win:
*Andrew Buie slashed the Texas D for 207 rushing yards.
*Defense came up with two key fourth quarter stops and this group needed some confidence.
*Geno Smith and his offense were 5-for-5 on fourth down conversion attempts. Five-for-five. Let that sink in.
*Tavon Austin's two massive kickoff returns of 44 and 67 yards forced Texas to squib to avoid him. The first return led directly to a score.
*Smith was sacked four times for a loss of 38 yards but had remarkable composure still.He completed 25-of-25 for 268 yards.
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Quotes:
Coach Dana Holgorsen:
Holgorsen on Buie: "He averaged 6.7 yards per run and that’s phenomenal. What is surprising for me is to see him carry it 31 times. We did commit to the run. That was something that we talked about earlier in the week, and there weren’t any tricks either. We just lined up and ran it right at them. Texas is tremendous on third down defense. They can rush and they got guys that can cover and if we got in too many of those situations we felt like it was going to be a long night. Proud of Buie and I can’t say enough about the offensive line as well. They did a great job of digging their fingers in the ground and coming off the ball."
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Geno Smith on using the run game
Smith: We knew we were going to have to carry the ball because those guys like to get after the quarterback. They put a nickel package out there for the entire game kept two linebackers in the box. So, we had to put an emphasis on running the ball and we did a great job with it.
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Tavon Austin on beating a team like Texas.
Austin: "At the end of the day, it’s just a game, but it’s Texas, too. Texas always has a good tradition and they’ve won championships. When I was little, I always wanted to play a team like this and when I finally did, I got a win. It’s a good feeling."
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DB Pat Miller on recovering from the Baylor game: "It was a tough week mentally because it’s hard to bounce back from a game like that. There were a lot of people criticizing me personally. But you know, we just feed off that. We knew what we had to do and we knew it was going to be a hard task."
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Texas Head Coach Mack Brown
Brown: "Also, I want to congratulate West Virginia. They’ve got a really good football team. We knew it would come down to who made the most critical plays. And you’ve got to give them credit. They made the critical plays. We got them in trouble on third downs – they were 3-of-12. He made 5-of-5 fourth down plays. And two or three of them were touchdowns. Unbelievable play by [WVU senior QB] Geno Smith in the end. And [senior WR] Tavon Austin is one of the best players I have ever seen. He affects the game every time he touches the ball. He’s a guy that we tried to stop, slow down and keep it out of his hands. And they’ve got a great game plan to get it into his hands."
Brown: "Offensively, [WVU] scored 7-out-of-7 in the red zone. We were 6-of-7. And obviously we had our opportunity to go ahead, with about seven minutes left to go when we forced the fumble at the 17-yard line, and then had three unsuccessful plays. The last one, that moved us back. And then missed the field goal. That really hurt us. We felt like then we had to go back out on defense, and stop them again. [Geno Smith] made an unbelievable third-down throw. We couldn’t stop the run. Then they go down to score. Still thought we had a chance at the end. But I’m not sure what the percentage of onside kicks is, but they’re not very good. Not disappointed in the effort. Just disappointed in the outcome."