Holgorsens Take: Post-OK State
On Saturday afternoon, No. 22 West Virginia and Head Coach Dana Holgorsen became bowl eligible by beating Oklahoma State 34-10 at Boone Pickens Stadium.
For West Virginia the game also extends its current streak to four-straight games.
"I'm excited for our coaches and our players to be able to come to Stillwater and get a victory," said Holgorsen. "There wasn't anything easy about it, the game was a lot more challenging than the final score."
West Virginia outscored Oklahoma State 17-0 during the fourth quarter, which included a pick-six by freshman safety Dravon Henry.
The West Virginia defense also limited the Cowboys to 135 total yards of offense during the second half too and for the second straight week, the unit played exceptionally well.
"Our defense played well once again and third down defense was off the charts again," Holgorsen said.
Oklahoma State finished the game two for fifteen on third down attempts.
Offensively for West Virginia, Holgorsen leaned heavily on the run despite starter Rushell Shell not playing a snap.
The Cowboys played cover two against West Virginia particularly to keep standout receiver Kevin White from beating the defense deep, which in turn gave Holgorsen every reason to run the ball.
White caught a touchdown, but Oklahoma State held him to just three catches on 27 yards.
"We saw something there that we could take advantage of," said Holgorsen. "It's something that I thought was the best thing to do. Giving our backs the ball when the defense drops nine guys makes sense to me."
Wendell Smallwood led West Virginia with 132 yards, while Dreamius Smith ran for 72 yards and a touchdown.
In total West Virginia ran for 210 yards as a team.
Quarterback Clint Trickett managed the game well according to Holgorsen.
West Virginia will host TCU (6-1, 3-1) next week.
"It's good, we're 6-2 and we won," said Holgorsen. "We're not going to satisfied with the fact that we've won six though, so I told them in the locker room to enjoy this, but get ready for another top ten team coming to Morgantown."