Mountaineers rally behind Grier’s four 2nd-half TD passes
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia finally beat a ranked opponent and used a big rally to do it.
Will Grier threw four of his five touchdown passes in the second half, and the Mountaineers overcame an 18-point deficit after halftime to beat No. 24 Texas Tech 46-35 on Saturday.
West Virginia (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) beat a team in the AP Top 25 poll for the first time in 10 tries dating to the 2014 season. The Mountaineers dropped close games earlier this season to No. 6 TCU and No. 15 Virginia Tech.
“Things weren’t going great,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. “Our guys were just fighting and kept hanging in there. We finished for the first time this year in a close game.”
Nic Shimonek, who was 24-of-39 passing for 323 yards, threw four firsthalf TD passes for the Red Raiders (4-2, 1-2), who got little going after halftime and made plenty of mistakes to enable the Mountaineers to mount their comeback.
Ka’Raun White had fourth-quarter TD catches of 32 and 17 yards to give West Virginia its first lead, and Grier capped the scoring with an 11-yard pass to Sills with 3:23 left.
Sills also had scoring catches of 13 and 8 yards to boost his national-leading total to 12 this season. Grier completed 32 of 41 passes for 352 yards.
White’s brother, Kyzir White, intercepted Shimonek on Tech’s next drive to dash the Red Raiders’ hopes.
It was Shimonek who looked unstoppable at the start of the game. He threw TDs on four of Texas Tech’s first five possessions, including strikes of 60 and 53 yards to T.J. Vasher. The Red Raiders’ Dominic Panazzolo converted a fake punt for a first down to set up one of Vasher’s long scores, and Texas Tech led 28-17 at halftime. Tre King’s 30-yard TD run put the Red Raiders ahead 35-17 early in the third quarter
“Until late, I felt like everybody was playing at a high level,” Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “We’ve just got to execute better against a good team like that on the road. You knew they’d make a run, and we weren’t ready for it.”