MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s full stadium and fast start weren’t sufficient to take down No. 11 Texas. The Mountaineers tossed too many interceptions, missed too many field goals and ceded too many third-down conversions Saturday to turn the Big 12 race on its head.
Amid the bitter, burnt-orange afterglow of a 42-31 loss, a source told The Athletic that quarterback Austin Kendall was hospitalized for two nights last week. The stitched-up throwing hand he injured Sept. 7 at Missouri was re-injured in practice and became infected.
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He was discharged Monday, five days before the loss to Texas, so there wasn’t necessarily a correlation between the infection and Saturday’s performance, which was intermittently terrific and terrible, with four touchdowns and four turnovers.
Neither Kendall or coach Neal Brown referenced the hospital stay as being a factor. What both did reference were encouraging indicators that the team is improving.
Outgaining Texas 463-427 yards, for one. Exhibiting lightyears more toughness than they showed at Missouri, for another.
“I think we’re making some strides,” Brown said.
Despite being -3 in turnovers, losing two key receivers mid-game and beginning the week with another apparent defection in the secondary, West Virginia came within 12 yards of tying the game in the third quarter. It also had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the fourth.
“We had a lot of negatives, but we were still in the game and had a chance to win,” Brown said. “Our details have gotta be better. There’s some things that are going to make our staff and our players sick when we watch the game.”
Let’s hit the film room for a deep-dive recap before moving on to this week’s matchup against Iowa State:
James a highlight fixture
Sam James opened the game with an incredible 44-yard touchdown catch that survived a slow-mo review. He closed the first half with another high-degree-of-difficulty catch along the sideline, a lunging 14-yard grab that replay also upheld.
The redshirt freshman finished with six catches for 66 yards and continued to whet fans’ appetites about a big-play future. James also had two targets that didn’t result in catches, and both were pivotal.
In the third quarter, with West Virginia poised to tie the game, he dropped an out route inside the Texas 10. And, of course, there was this deep ball that became a highlight interception for Texas cornerback D’Shawn Jamison:
The 5-foot-10 Jamison gives up two inches to James yet made a better play by high-pointing the ball. James typically displays superior body control — see that opening-drive score — but here he failed to elevate and adjust to a slightly underthrown pass.
While James was missing in the fourth quarter with what Brown labeled an upper-body injury, Jamison made his second interception.
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Third-and-1 throw
West Virginia’s offensive coaches weren’t optimistic about their run-game matchups against a Longhorns three-man front that averaged 310 pounds and one of the Big 12’s thickest linebacker groups.
Still, West Virginia averaged 5.4 yards per carry in the first half. So Texas began slanting and creating negative plays, and WVU’s first five rush attempts of the second half netted -1 yard.
Which leads us to this third-and-1 call, in which Kendall tries to hit Sean Ryan (18) on a quick curl. An easy pitch-and-catch is disrupted by linebacker Juwan Mitchell (6) flashing into the throwing window. By the time Kendall throws, former five-star safety B.J. Foster is in position to challenge Ryan and make the self-tipped interception.
“We didn’t think we could get enough push to knock them off the ball,” said offensive line coach Matt Moore.
West Virginia’s overall rushing total Saturday — 23 carries for 96 yards — equated to 4.2 per carry, the most Texas has yielded this season. But the second-half ground game was no factor, at 10 carries for 26 yards
“There’s a reason why they’ve got one of the better run defenses in the country,” Brown said.
Fat-guy TD
You probably knew about Longhorns left tackle Samuel Cosmi, who’s coming off a freshman All-American season. You probably hadn’t heard about his high school coach in Humble, Texas, a fellow by the name of Todd Moses.
After this weekend, however, you know both, thanks to Cosmi catching a lateral and chugging 12 yards for a gadget-play touchdown that Texas called “Moses.”
Cosmi said the offense repped the play five times in practice and he caught each one. He certainly caught West Virginia unaware when it counted.
“Good for them — they executed it well,” said Brown, noting how defensive missed assignments played into the Texas trickery.
“We had two guys misplay it. We had two guys that completely MA’d on the play. Usually we play really disciplined football. We usually have two guys that stay behind the play, but that wasn’t the case on that one.”
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Outside linebacker Josh Chandler (35), one of the guilty parties, received a lengthy lecture from defensive coordinator Vic Koenning on the sideline.
Steps away from that teaching moment, Brown was hot over a missed block in the back by Zach Shackleford (56) that eliminated cornerback Keith Washington (28) around the 12. A flag there would’ve nixed the score and rewound Texas to first-and-20.
Freshman target
With James and Ryan injured late in the game, redshirt freshman Bryce Wheaton caught a 31-yard pass to put West Virginia in the red zone. On fourth down he capped the drive with this 12-yard catch, his first career score:
The 6-foot-3 Wheaton beat true freshman Kenyatta Walker (2) on the release and used a savvy right-handed nudge before making a physical catch.
“He can be advantageous against the corners in this league,” Moore said.
It was too little, too late for West Virginia, which during one sequence produced a total of three points on three trips inside the Texas 30.
“To finish against teams like that you’ve got to score points in the red zone, and you’ve got to score touchdowns,” Moore said.
Wheaton’s size could be useful on the goal line, especially with Ryan expected to miss significant time with a left arm injury.
Missed tackles hurt
The Longhorns, after converting 10-of-18 at West Virginia, are the nation’s second-best third-down offense at 56.6 percent (trailing only LSU by thousandths of a point).
Here’s one that hurt, as West Virginia tried to force a field goal. Free safety Josh Norwood whiffed on Devin Duvarney’s 13-yard touchdown run:
Norwood, a converted cornerback, was moved to safety this summer because presumed starters Kenny Robinson and Derrek Pitts transferred. While Norwood made a team-high 10 tackles versus Texas, this was not one of them. Ehlinger dodged him on his 13-yard scramble for a score:
Tykee Smith fully immersed
With senior Spear safety JoVanni Stewart holding himself out against Texas to consider taking a four-game redshirt, freshman Tykee Smith made his first start. Smith played 60 of the 83 defensive snaps, contributing five tackles and one pass breakup.
The supposition that redshirt freshman Kwantel Raines might be elevated in Stewart’s absence didn’t happen. Instead Koenning transplanted Smith, the Cat safety backup, who immediately impressed with a strong practice Tuesday.
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“Tykee should be given all of praise and accolades for the job he did, especially in the situation he got put in,” Koenning said.
The 5-foot-10, 184-pound Smith gives West Virginia better coverage options than Raines (6-2, 212), who played 23 snaps.
(Top photo of Kendall: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)