West Virginia rallies to hand Baylor its 6th consecutive loss

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Skyler Howard threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and 16th-ranked West Virginia held on for a 24-21 victory over Baylor on Saturday in their Big 12 regular-season finale.

After the game, West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons announced in a statement that coach Dana Holgorsen was given a five-year contract extension to 2021.

Justin Crawford rushed for 209 yards to help the Mountaineers (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) to their first 10-win regular-season since 2007. They came from 11 points down in the first half to hand the Bears (6-6, 3-6) their sixth consecutive loss after a 6-0 start.

“I guess it’s fitting that in a year where we battled and fight to get to 10 wins, we get to it in the hardest way possible,” Holgorsen said.

Baylor held the momentum for nearly three quarters in the final regularseason game for acting coach Jim Grobe, but that changed on two plays.

Howard, having one of his worst games of the season, threw to Gary Jennings over the middle, and Jennings turned it into a 58-yard scoring play.

After the Bears got the ball back, Marvin Gross stripped quarterback Zach Smith, and Darrien Howard recovered for West Virginia. An unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty on Baylor gave the Mountaineers the ball at the Bears’ 6-yard line, and Howard scored on a 1-yard sneak on fourth down for a 24-14 lead.

Smith threw a 43-yard TD toss to Ishmael Zamora with 2:40 left in the game, and Baylor got the ball back after a punt. But Smith was stripped of the ball on a pass attempt, and Howard recovered at the Bears’ 30 with 27 seconds left. KANSAS ST. 30, TCU 6

Jesse Ertz and the Wildcats used a potent ground game to bring a successful end to coach Bill Snyder’s 25th regular season and give Kansas State plenty of momentum heading into its bowl game.

Ertz ran for a careerhigh 170 yards with a touchdown, and Justin Silmon had 133 yards rushing with two touchdowns as the Wildcats overpowered the Horned Frogs at Fort Worth.

Snyder got his 201st victory in 25 seasons with Kansas State (8-4, 6-3 Big 12), which will play in its 20th bowl — the 19th under Snyder — next month.

The Wildcats appear headed to the AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium in Houston to play a team from the SEC.

TCU (6-6, 4-5) will play in its 14th bowl with Gary Patterson even after being held without a touchdown in a game for the first time since 2006.

“Really across the board we got thrown around by everybody,” Patterson said. “We’ve got to grow up on offense.

“Until they do that, we won’t win many games against good people.”

From wire reports