West Virginia got off to a good start in Big 12 play as they beat Kansas, 32-28 on Saturday to improve to 2-2 on the season.
Staff writer Wesley Shoemaker picks out five things from the game yesterday that stood out and dives into each.
Greene using his legs is him at his best
When it mattered the most late in the fourth quarter, Garrett Greene was at his best using his legs. The quarterback rushed for a total of 87 yards which led the team but he was also a lot more dynamic late than he was throughout the majority of the second half.
Through the first three games of the season, it seemed as though Greene was held back to an extent whether it was by his choice or by design, in terms of him using his legs. On the final two drives for WVU where they scored two touchdowns, Greene combined his legs and arm to lead the Mountaineers to the win.
Greene is at his best when he's moving the pocket and not stuck to being a pocket passer. Last week against Pitt in the second half when he moved the pocket and the threat of him running was there the offense was at its best. This week when they needed two scores, Greene used his legs and it worked.
The message is simple. Let Greene be Greene. Let him run around with his hair on fire and yeah, he might make some bad decisions, but West Virginia is at its best when Greene is using his legs.
Leadership Stands Out
On the off chance there was belief that this West Virginia team was going to mail it in and give up on this season after the events that transpired against Pitt, those theories were disproven in a big way.
Teams don't bounce back and win games after an emotional loss without good leadership. They especially don't do that when they are down two scores late in the game. The messaging last week was that the WVU leadership would be the ones who help figure things out after what was a tough loss last Saturday. Not only did they turn it around seven days after the loss to Pitt, but they did so with their leaders stepping up when it mattered most.
Welcome to college, Rodney Gallagher
The talent had been talked about for the better part of the last two years regarding Rodney Gallagher, but today, he had his welcome to college football moment.
Gallagher secured the game-winning touchdown pass to put WVU ahead with under 30 seconds left, and it was like a sigh of relief for a guy whose name has been talked about consistently since he arrived on campus last year. The talent was obviously there for Gallagher, but it was just a matter of time until he could showcase his true game. For the first time in his career, he found the end zone, and it couldn't have come at a better time.
Gallagher is one of the guys who will need to continue to emerge if WVU wants to continue to have chances to win games. There are a lot of opportunities at the receiver position, and if you're WVU, you're hoping today was the start of something special for Gallagher.
How about the defense?
The defense was the topic of conversation surrounding West Virginia this week, and they were able to turn Kansas over, including in the closing seconds, to secure the win.
Tyrin Bradley was responsible for both of those turnovers, getting an early interception as well as the strip sack to end the game. Overall though, the Mountaineer defense had some good and some bad.
Jacolby Spells and TJ Crandall got the start, but Crandall left with an injury. Add in Aubrey Burks being out and Rodney Gallagher (see above) not playing any snaps on defense, and bodies were limited in the secondary. The guys who were there battled and played well at times.
The start of the third quarter wasn't great, and Kansas did a lot of things schematically to expose certain parts of the WVU defense. They were a lot better against the pass than they were the first three weeks of the season — however, some of that was due to inaccuracy from Jalon Daniels. The run defense, which was a bright spot, struggled, but that's more due to that being the main strength of Kansas than anything else.
The Jayhawks totaled four plays of 15 yards or more through the air, which I think was the same number of plays they gave up to Pitt on the last two drives alone through the air. Kansas will run the ball against anyone they play this year, but the mini-victories will go a long way for this defense that struggled mightily last week to end the game.
Is this a turning point?
There are two sides to every coin, and this topic is no different.
First, West Virginia got the win they desperately needed and now have an off week before — deep breath — a brutal stretch of games in October.
The question here is how will this game affect the Mountaineers going forward. Does this springboard them to success in October and can they find a way to go 3-1 in that stretch? Or was this win, not a building block and merely just another week? Only time will tell, but in order to potentially build momentum and stack wins you have to get the first one out of the way.
There is no win streak without win number one starting it all.
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