Late scores boost WVU
Long TD run seals win vs. Kansas
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Leddie Brown broke open a close game with a long touchdown run in the third quarter and caught one of Jarret Doege’s three touchdown passes to lead West Virginia to a 38-17 Big 12 Conference victory Saturday over a winless Kansas team that was without coach Les Miles.
Before a crowd of 10,759 at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium in the first game that West Virginia allowed the general public to attend amid the pandemic, the Mountaineers (3-1, 2-1) overcame a bevy of mistakes to beat the Jayhawks for the seventh consecutive time.
With West Virginia clinging to a 17-10 lead late in the third quarter, Brown came into the game needing to get a first down.
He got a whole lot more. Brown rumbled 87 yards up the middle untouched, the start of three consecutive touchdowns for the Mountaineers.
“I’d seen a little crease. I jumped through it and I seen green — a whole bunch of green field,” Brown said. “I just hit it.”
The 210-pound junior compiled 195 yards on 18 carries, sitting out the fourth quarter. With 515 yards through four games, Brown has eclipsed his season rushing totals in eachof the past two seasons.
Brown also had a 6-yard scoring reception in the second quarter from Doege, who also had touchdown passes of 33 yards to Bryce FordWheaton and 8 yards to Sam James.
Doege completed 26 of 44 passes for 318 yards.
West Virginia coach Neal Brown called it the “best combined running and passing that we’ve played as far as in our league games. I thought it was a step forward. There’s things that we’ve got tocontinue to clean up.”
Miles tested positive for the coronavirus a week ago and was cleared Thursday to return to the Jayhawks. But he chose not to travel with the team out of caution. Tight ends coach Joshua Eargle found out Thursday night he would fill in for Miles.
“This was one of the most humbling experiences of my entire life,” Eargle said. “[Miles] is gut-wrenched. He’s heartbroken. He can’t make the trip with his team. His team’s ready to go fly for victory for him. This staff is unbelievable, man. That’s an elite football staff in there, and they just didn’t have the right leader today. Proud of them, but it’s extremely humbling that Coach Miles would choose me to take those Hawks on the field today in his absence.”
Despite some bright moments early, the result was the same: The Jayhawks (0-4, 0-3) now have lost 51 consecutive true road games in the conference.
“I really liked the way we came out,” Eargle said. “I thought we came out with fire. We hit some adversity, got behind the chains a little bit and stumbled some.”
Pooka Williams scored on a92-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter for the Jayhawks.