Streak is over, WVU downs KSU

There was talk about it all week.

Ever since West Virginia entered the Big 12 Conference in 2012, the Mountaineers have dropped each of their last four regular season matchups against Kansas State.

On Saturday evening in Morgantown, that streak came to an end.

“It’s a heck of a feeling,” said WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen. “This team knows how to play together.”

The Mountaineers overcame a 16-3 deficit in the 4th quarter and rallied for 14 unanswered to defeat the Wildcats 17-16 with the help of a one-yard touchdown run by Justin Crawford and a seven-yard touchdown pass from Skyler Howard to Jovon Durante with 6:11 left in the game.

A missed 43-yard field goal by Kansas State’s Matthew McCrane with 2:03 left sealed the victory for the Mountaineers.

It was the culmination of a number of frustrating losses that left the Mountaineers searching for answers on how to crack the code of Bill Snyder's team.

Despite ending the four game skid to the Wildcats, the losing streak to Kansas State had little to no impact on Holgorsen and his team coming into Saturday’s contest.

“I haven’t obsessed over that,” Holgorsen said. “The only thing we talked about was that this was the last team that beat us.”

The Mountaineers have won nine out of their last 10 games. Their last defeat came in the hands of Kansas State in last season’s regular season finale in which the Wildcats overcame a 13-3 halftime deficit to defeat the Mountaineers 24-23, despite being outgained by WVU 447-304 in total yards.

“We let that one last year get away,” Holgorsen said. “That was enough motivation.”

A similar result occurred in 2014 when WVU outgained Kansas State 433-401 in total yards but the Wildcats were still able to prevail 26-20.

Kansas State won convincingly in both 2012 and 2013 routing the Mountaineers by an average of 32 points.

“Kansas State’s a good football team. They’re going to win a bunch of games,” Holgorsen said. “They’re well coached. They’re hard to beat.”

The comeback win on Saturday sends WVU into another bye week with a 4-0 record and a monkey off their back.

The Mountaineers will then travel to Lubbock for a showdown against Texas Tech following the bye and will look to go to 5-0 for the first time since 2012.

“It definitely feels good to beat a team like that,” Howard said. “It’s time to put it behind us after tonight and get on to Texas Tech.”