West Virginia's comeback against Kansas was more complicated than it seems
Comeback. That word has been relevant in each of West Virginia's last two games, with the Mountaineers being on the wrong side of a comeback against Pitt and the right side of one against Kansas.
The parallels are quite similar for the two games which took place a week apart. In the first, WVU led by 10 before Pitt went on a pair of touchdown drives late. In the second, Kansas led by 11 before the Mountaineers returned the favor and went on two touchdown drives of their own to win the game.
On Saturday though, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown had a clear and methodical plan using time and score as well as situation to determine play calls and his decision-making.
The first decision was to run a version of WVU's two-minute offense. Kansas scored a touchdown with 5:39 to play in the fourth quarter, putting the Jayhawks ahead by 11. Brown knew his offense needed to touch the ball twice, launching the two-minute offense.
"You have to play for two possessions, so you immediately have to go into a two-minute mindset, even though there is five minutes and change. So, we had all our timeouts. Immediately scored, I tell Garrett I tell our guys, hey we’re in two-minute mode and we’re going to go for two. So, when we score we’ll go for two on this drive. It’s important to let those guys know so when you score they know immediately to get in our huddle and be ready for the next play," Brown said.
The first touchdown drive of the fourth quarter for the Mountaineers started with passes that went for 16 and 26 yards respectively, WVU would get to the Kansas eight yard line before they punched it in on a touchdown pass from Garrett Greene to Kole Taylor. The next play would be one of the more pivotal plays which was a reverse across the field and involved wide receiver Traylon Ray throwing a pass to the back corner of the end zone, only in a place where Taylor's 6-foot-7 frame could grab it.
"So we go into two-minute, we had two nice third down conversions on that drive. We hit the two-point play, even though it should have hit a lot earlier, Traylon did throw it," Brown said.
The next step was arguably more important than scoring points — they needed a stop. WVU's defense took the field with 3:23 to play in the game. The WVU offense would get back on the field with 2:22 to play as timeouts and stops guided the Mountaineers into a favorable spot.
"This is where practice is effective for the coaching staff as much as the players. We had three minutes and change left there with three timeouts, but you really have four because of the two-minute timeout. So, what you do is you don’t want to start using your timeouts until 2:30. They ran it on first, we didn’t use, they ran it on second, it’s third and four and you use it. Because even worst case scenario they get it you still should get the ball back if you can hold them," Brown said.
"We ended up using a timeout again and we essentially had two timeouts because of the two minute [timeout]. On the 3rd and 4 play, we sold out we played zero coverage, and we came because in my opinion, you play that like it’s a one-play game. Now if they get it, you still have time to adjust but you play that like it’s the play to win the game. And I thought we did. You go back and look at that third down stop, Anthony Wilson, Sean Martin we had some great singular effort plays on that."
Still, Greene and company needed to at least get into field goal range as they trailed 28-25, and starting at their own 33 meant they would need to go roughly 40 yards at minimum to get into comfortable field goal range.
Brown's messaging to Greene was clear, find the open man or run the ball and Greene executed that plan to perfection.
"My message to the quarterback was, hey we’re playing for a touchdown. We need to get the ball inside the 25 but we’re playing for a touchdown. We’re not going to force anything and we’re not in a super hurry. We got time. So, then we went down and scored. 31 seconds on the last play for us and where it gets a little hairy is we didn’t have any timeouts because we had to use a timeout on a run where Garrett didn’t get any yardage. Where it gets a little hairy is about 16-18 seconds is all the time you can run a field goal team out so that’s where even though you had 31 seconds you probably had one more play if that play was incomplete to Rod," Brown said.
Sure enough, Greene led the Mountaineers on a game-winning drive, finding 'Rod' (Rodney Gallagher) on a 15-yard touchdown, the first of his career. On the next possession, Tyrin Bradley put the stamp on the victory, as his strip sack ended Kansas' threat to score and with that, the game.
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