Five Questions – West Virginia

By Steve Habel, Senior Editor

AUSTIN — Something was different about the Texas football team in the minutes following the 24-20 loss to No.16 West Virginia.

Before a sun-splashed, but ultimately disappointed crowd of 96,367 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Texas stamped itself as a team that’s turned the corner. The Longhorns have moved away from trying to compete with talented opponents and toward a squad that expects to win these kinds of games.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] 

The look of disappointment from the coaches and players after they knew they let this game get away said it all — more than the fact the Longhorns came within a last-second Hail Mary pass, a blocked field goal or a missed blocking assignment on a Mountaineer blitz for a chance to win.

“We had our opportunities, [but we] made mistakes on offense, defense and the kicking game,” Texas head coach Charlie Strong said. “With a game like this, as close as it is, we have to find a way to win it.

“I’m happy the way they battled,” Strong added. “We were down 17-3, battled back; got down to 24-13 and battled back. It could’ve been ugly for us, but our guys continued to fight. We were there. We just need to capitalize when we have those opportunities.”

No one has come after Texas the way West Virginia’s defense did in this game. The max-blitz, come-from-anywhere strategy was the difference. The Mountaineers’ defense — a mirror image of what the Longhorns have done the past five games — rattled Texas down the stretch and produced three huge stands in the final 10 minutes.

The Mountaineers (8-1, 5-1 in Big 12) survived a season-high four turnovers — including three interceptions thrown by quarterback Skyler Howard, who also passed for 269 yards and a touchdown.

West Virginia’s Kyzir White forced a fumble by Texas quarterback Shane Buechele on a sack early in the fourth quarter. West Virginia had another drive-killing sack on the ensuing drive and then a fourth-down stop on the Longhorns’ penultimate possession.

Texas moved to the West Virginia 27-yard line on a last-grasp drive but Buechele’s pass in the end zone was incomplete as time expired.

“One thing this team has figured out is that playing together wins game,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. “That’s what we did. It wasn’t pretty — the Texas defense was excellent. Hats off to our players for hanging in there and believing in each other. They wanted this win pretty badly.”

Kennedy McKoy picked up 73 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries for West Virginia, but the Mountaineers’ offensive attack was tepid at best.

“Offensively we played well in the first quarter, and then we were awful, and that’s 100 percent on me,” Holgorsen said. “Texas had three turnovers and we got zero points [off of them] and that’s not offensive football. If we keep playing offense like this, we won’t win the Big 12 and that’s our goal.”

D’Onta Foreman, who leads the nation in rushing yardage per game, led the Longhorns with 167 yards on 35 carries. Buechele passed for 318 yards, one touchdown and one interception as Texas (5-5, 4-4) outgained West Virginia, 536-383.

“We knew West Virginia was the best defense that we’ve seen this year,” Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert said. “We have to execute better. We’ll continue to grow and come back to work and be ready to fight.”

The teams traded field goals on their respective opening drives, with the Longhorns’ Trent Domingue converting from 27 yards at the 12:01 mark of the first quarter and the Mountaineers’ Mike Molina nailing a 44-yard kick almost five minutes later.

West Virginia took the lead with a 66-yard march that culminated in an 8-yard touchdown run by McKoy and a 10-3 lead with 2:27 to play in the first quarter. The Mountaineer added to their advantage on the next possession when Ka’Raun White turned in a highlight-reel play. White hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Howard as he lay in the corner of the end zone after being shoved to the turf by defensive back Kris Boyd while the ball was in the air.

“We go into games expecting to win, not hoping to win,” Howard said. “We’ve won 13 of the past 15 games so we’re on the correct track. I spent my whole life [rooting for Texas] but not today — this is a big win for us and for me.”

Texas landed a punch of its own on its ensuing possession, using a 32-yard run by Foreman and a 10-yard bootleg touchdown by Buechele to get back within 17-10 halfway through the second quarter.

The Longhorns drove to the West Virginia 2-yard line in a 21-play, 84-yard march that took almost seven minutes of the second quarter. Texas had to eventually settle for a 19-yard Domingue field goal that cut the deficit to 17-13 at halftime.

Texas outgained West Virginia 252-221 in the first half, outrushed the Mountaineers 139-66 and ran 50 plays to West Virginia’s 38. The Mountaineers owned a 155-113 advantage in passing yards and a 17:01 to 12:59 edge in time of possession.

West Virginia blocked a 37-yard field goal by Domingue early in the third quarter and marched 79 yards in 14 plays for a 3-yard touchdown run by McKoy to push its lead back to 24-13 at the 5:03 mark.

Texas’ Dylan Haines picked off Howard on back-to-back third-quarter series. The first interception resulted in a 20-yard Buechele-to-Collin Johnson touchdown pass at the end of an 80-yard, nine-play drive that cut the lead to 24-20 with 1:28 to play.

“It’s all about executing,” Buechele said. “We continue to fight. It was a physical game and we would’ve liked to score more but West Virginia has a strong defense. Our team understands we have to play well these last two games.”

What was the game’s biggest play?

The game had two major plays. First is the blocked field goal, which came after Texas took a timeout while Strong decided whether or not to convert a fourth-down-and-2 situation at the West Virginia 20 with nine minutes to play in the third quarter. The blocked field goal forced the Longhorns’ hand at the end of the game.

The second was Kyzir White’s sack of Buechele. The forced fumble slammed the door shut on another Texas scoring drive in the early minutes of the fourth quarter.

If Texas was able to add three points on either one of those drives, the Longhorns would have only needed a field goal at the end of the game. Instead they were forced to go for the touchdown in the final second.

Given Domingue’s continuing history of blocked kicks, the three-pointer is anything but automatic. However, you have to like the chances of converting a field goal more than a Hail Mary pass.

Did the events before the game affect how the Longhorns played?

The 60-year-old father of Texas linebacker Tim Cole suffered a heart attack Saturday morning outside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium while waiting for the team buses to arrive.

Cole’s father, according to an Austin-Travis County EMS spokesman, required up to 30 minutes of work before responders recorded a return of pulse. He remained in the intensive care unit at nearby St. David’s Medical Center as of Sunday morning.

Strong informed the team of the situation before the game.

“We came together as a team before we walked into the locker room and said a prayer,” Texas cornerback John Bonney said. “You hate for that to happen. We went out there for him. You can’t imagine what that does to a person.”

Cole was an important part of the Texas defensive effort against West Virginia, especially because the Longhorns were forced to play all but the first two series of the game without star playmaking linebacker Malik Jefferson. Jefferson sustained a head injury in the first quarter and Cole is Jefferson’s chief replacement. Cole had two tackles in the game.

“We know Tim had a heavy heart out there,” Texas defensive end Malcolm Roach said. “He’s a strong person. I don’t think he let it affect his play. He played a great game today.”

What else can we ask of Foreman?

It’s inconceivable where Texas would be without Foreman.

The workhorse running back is the unquestioned leader and go-to player for the Longhorns, and Gilbert keeps asking more from him, even throwing three passes his way on Saturday — including a nifty shovel pass that gained 19 yards.

He was also involved in a pregame shoving match between Texas and West Virginia, taking the lead in the exchange.

“I was involved,” Foreman admitted when asked about the pregame showdown. “It was two competitive teams ready for a football game. As a leader of this team, I’ll be in the front. It was just a heated battle — nothing serious.”

Foreman’s 167 rushing yards marks the most for any Longhorn against the Mountaineers (in six matchups). His performance also pushed him to 1,613 rushing yards this season — the sixth-most in Texas single-season history, and just six yards shy of Jamaal Charles’ 1,619 in 2007.

His 2,367 career rushing yards rank Foreman 15^th in the school record books. In seven Big 12 games, Foreman now has 196 carries for 1,325 yards and 10 touchdowns.

And Foreman has rushed for more than 100 yards in 11 straight games, tying Earl Campbell’s school record as set in Campbell’s Heisman Trophy-winning season in 1977.

Campbell and Foreman had a brief visit at halftime; Foreman already had 100 yards on the ground in the first 30 minutes of the game.

“[Campbell] told me congratulations,” Foreman said. “He told me that he hopes I break the record next week. He also said if someone breaks my record to make sure I come back and congratulate him when he does it. I told him I definitely would.

“It’s an honor, honestly,” he added. “I’m continuously grinding and working hard. My offensive line was wonderful. I’m so thankful to be mentioned with them.”

Look for Foreman to establish a new record for 100-yard games this Saturday against Kansas.

Is Texas better than its record?

At 5-5 overall, the Longhorns have lost three games to teams ranked in the top 20 of the Associated Press poll (Oklahoma, West Virginia and Oklahoma State). Four of those losses were by a combined 19 points (less than five points per loss), proving Texas is either right on the cusp of breaking through or just not good enough to get it done.

We’ll go with the former and agree with the Texas coaches and players.

When asked if the Longhorns “feel” like a 5-5 team, Foreman said, “No. We’ve grown so much. I can see it.”

Texas freshman wide receiver Collin Johnson said the Longhorns continue to improve and can compete against anyone.

“We’re a good team,” Johnson said. “Coach says our record doesn’t define us. We need to keep building on every week. We feel like we can compete with anybody.”

Strong agreed, citing the amount of progress made by the team this season.

“We have a good football team,” he said. “We’re a different team than the team we were at the beginning of the season and it showed today.”

What’s next for the Longhorns?

Texas has two regular-season games remaining — one on the road against 1-9 Kansas this coming Saturday, and then at home the day after Thanksgiving versus TCU (5-4, 3-3 in Big 12 play).

If the Longhorns win just one of those games, they’ll earn a trip to a bowl. Win them both and Texas moves up in the pecking order for a better bowl game.

“You don’t ever want to lose a game,” Strong said. “It burns and it’s burning them right now in the locker room. We still have two left. We’ll see how we take this game and use it to our advantage.”

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