Mountaineers relaxed too much in Lubbock
In the first half Saturday at Texas Tech, West Virginia showed the college football world why the Mountaineers are a contender for the College Football Playoff. Then in the second half, West Virginia showed the opposite.
WVU beat Tech 42-34, but only after a 35-10 halftime lead got very dicey. Keith Washington’s 51-yard interception return for a touchdown finally beat back the Red Raiders, who had whittled their deficit to 35-27 late in the fourth quarter.
“I guess I just chalk it up to human instinct more than anything,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. The Mountaineers relaxed. That’s Holgorsen’s assessment.
“That’s my fault, I’ve got to do a better job making sure they know it’s a fourquarter game,” Holgorsen said. “I give Tech a lot of credit. They could have folded their tent. But they came out, played harder than we did and played better than we did.”
WVU quarterback Will Grier threw two touchdown passes to Gary Jennings Jr.
and one to Marcus Simms.
But the Mountaineers’ five second-half possessions ended with punt, missed field goal, punt, punt and punt.
“I was happy with the guys,” Holgorsen said.
“It was an early morning game. We focused all week on starting fast. That’s been Tech’s MO. I guess I just forget to tell ‘em they gotta play the whole game. We felt good that first half, there’s no doubt. We play like that a whole game, we’ll be tough to beat.”
Brewer ‘courageous’
There is no more quarterback derby at Baylor. Not after Charlie Brewer’s performance against OU. The Sooners constantly blitzed Baylor’s sophomore quarterback and recorded six sacks, plus flushing Brewer from the pocket 19 times.
But in Baylor’s 63-33 loss Saturday in Norman, Brewer completed 38 of 60 passes for 400 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“I thought it was one of the more courageous performances I’ve seen,” said Baylor coach Matt Rhule said.
Even after Brewer took a particularly punishing hit late, Rhule said, “He put his helmet on and said, ‘I’m going back out there.’ He competed to the end.”
Rhule even noted Baylor dropped five passes, or Brewer’s performance could have been “even better than it was.”
Tech finds a gem in Duffey
True freshman quarterback Alan Bowman was a breakout star for Texas Tech in September. Will Jett Duffey be the same in
October?
Bowman suffered a collapsed lung late in the first half against West Virginia on Saturday. Duffey, a redshirt sophomore, entered the game with Tech trailing 35-10 — and nearly led the Red Raiders all the way back.
Duffey took Tech on three straight scoring drives, and the Red Raiders got the ball back with 4:23 left in the game trailing 35-27. Alas, West Virginia’s interception return for a touchdown sealed the game.
But Duffey’s performance — 16 of 27 passing, 172 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions — gave Tech hope that even if Bowman misses extended time, the offense can keep rolling.
“I said going into the season I felt like we had three capable players at that position,” said Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury. “All compete at a high level, play hard, do everything right. I know Jett would like to have a few throws back, but he gave us a chance to win a game that was k ind of getting away from us.”
Bowman had taken over for the injured McLane Carter in the season opener against Ole Miss.
Now Kingsbury is hoping to have all three quarterbacks available a week from Thursday, when Tech plays TCU. But he admits this is new territory with Bowman.
“Alan is still under observation,” Kingsbury said. “Feel like he’s going to be fine ... he should be released from the hospital soon. We’ll go from there.
Jett is very talented, very capable.”
Patterson upset?
TCU quarterback Shawn Robinson suffered an apparent shoulder injury on the Horned Frogs’ final drive of what became a 17-14 victory over Iowa State. TCU coach Gary Patterson declined to give an update on Robinson during the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday.
“Not anything I would tell you,” Patterson said. But he did say Robinson “hasn’t even got an MRI or anything yet.”
But after the game, Patterson seemed frustrated at the lack of a quarterback rotation. He had talked about getting backup Michael Collins more snaps, but that hasn’t happened except in mopup duty.
“I’ll be honest with you — I’m not going to be very happy after he was hurt, because I had talked about rotating and doing things,” Patterson said. “So if (Robinson) is done, then I’m not going to be very happy. I had conversations.”
TCU’s offensive coordinator is Sonny Cumbie.