WVU vs. Texas: Austin rewind
SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
West Virginia will head to Texas for arguably its most important matchup in the brief series as Big 12 Conference rivals with the two teams stuck in a logjam at the top along with Oklahoma for the chance to represent the league in the conference title game.
Both teams sit inside the top 25 polls with one loss in the league each and ahead of the 3:30 p.m. kickoff we take a trip down memory lane to look at the previous games in Austin.
Oct. 6, 2012 - West Virginia 48-45 – The only other time in the series where the two teams were ranked and it appeared as if that meeting would set the tone for future matchups. No. 8 West Virginia entered 4-0 after a thrilling 70-63 win over Baylor the week before and traveled to No. 11 Texas during the first weekend of October for a game that was expected to be filled with points and excitement. It didn’t disappoint as the two teams exchanged blows throughout the game in the back and forth affair. West Virginia raced out to a 21-7 lead early in the game but Texas rallied to take a 28-27 edge into the break. From there, it was a case of who had the ball determined which team was out front with only a handful of defensive stops living up to the billing. Geno Smith tossed four more scores after throwing for eight the week before, while Andrew Buie rushed for 207 yards and two more touchdowns to give the Mountaineers a narrow 48-45 win that wasn’t sealed up until recovering an on-side kick in the final few seconds. But this win wouldn’t mean much for either team in the end as West Virginia would lose six of its final eight games and Texas would finish the season 9-4, with each loss in conference play.
Nov. 8, 2014 Texas 33-16 – West Virginia held up its end of the bargain coming into the match up ranked No. 23 nationally at 6-3, while the Longhorns had limped to a 4-5 mark heading into the early November meeting between the two teams. But once things were kicked off you couldn’t tell which team was supposed to be in their respective situations. The Longhorns dominated the first half racing out to a 24-3 lead and while West Virginia would tack on some points they were never able to get closer than 10. Johnathan Gray was a difference maker scoring a trio of touchdowns on his 10 carries while rushing for over 101 yards in the process. But it was the Longhorns defense that was the biggest difference maker not allowing the Mountaineers to score a touchdown until the fourth quarter and keeping an otherwise explosive offense in check going only 3-17 on third down and turning the ball over twice with a safety. West Virginia would win only one game for the rest of the season on the road at Iowa State finishing 7-6 overall, while the Longhorns would use the momentum to propel them to a bowl where they’d fall to Arkansas and end the season 6-7.
Nov. 12, 2016 West Virginia 24-20 – West Virginia was ranked and in the midst of their best season as a member of the Big 12 Conference placed at No. 16 in the polls and at 7-1 overall heading to take on 5-4 Texas. It played out as a back-and-forth contest where West Virginia quarterback Skyler Howard struggled with consistency with three turnovers while Texas signal caller Shane Buechele had the final opportunity to win the game when he launched a ball too far out of the back of the end zone as time expired to preserve the 24-20 win for the Mountaineers. Kennedy McKoy would score two touchdowns filling in as the workhorse back but it was the defense that preserved the win allowing only 7 points off four Mountaineers’ turnovers. The narrow win would set up West Virginia to host Oklahoma the next week but the Sooners would win that game leaving the Mountaineers to play Miami in their bowl and finishing the season 10-3. The Longhorns would lose their final two games to finish 5-7.
Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide
