West Virginia fixes offense in 44-27 win
Defense stiffens in second half against N.C. State
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Austin Kendall and Kennedy McKoy made sure that West Virginia didn’t repeat a miserable offensive showing from its previous game.
Kendall threw three touchdown passes to lead West Virginia to a 44-27 victory against N.C. State Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium.
McKoy helped West Virginia’s run game break out of a slump with two scores, and the Mountaineers (2-1) had by far their highest offensive production of the season one week after looking lethargic in a 38-7 loss at Missouri.
“For us to play winning football, we have to identify ourselves as a blue-collar unit,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “We have to outwork people, we have to out-physical people. And we embraced that this week. I think what you saw on that field today was a product of that.”
Kendall threw two interceptions against Missouri and had another pick on Saturday but overcame that with mostly solid decisions. Kendall had first-half touchdown tosses of 20 and 13 yards. His 25-yard run early in the fourth quarter set up his 9-yard scoring toss to freshman Ali Jennings for a 38-27 lead.
West Virginia broke a 2121 halftime tie with the help of its special teams and defense, which had been criticized by the coaching staff for 22 missed tackles a week ago.
N.C. State (2-1) managed just 97 yards of offense in the second half. Sophomore Matthew McKay threw a first-quarter touchdown pass but was harassed all game.
McKoy had a 23-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and scored from 5 yards out in the third after Logan Thimons blocked a N.C. State punt at the 12.
After combining for 27 points in its first two games, West Virginia finished with 445 yards of offense Saturday and avoided its worst threegame start to a season in 11 years.
“I told them, I said, ‘They got embarrassed last week at Missouri. You’re going to get their best,’ ” said N.C. State coach Dave Doeren. “They’re going to come home and not want to show that to their fans. I knew that was coming. I told them that was coming.”
North Carolina
The ACC said the replay official erred on the final play of the North CarolinaWake Forest game Friday by failing to initiate a review that would have put one second back on the clock. League supervisor of officials Dennis Hennigan said in a statement the officials determined that Tar Heels running back Michael Carter’s forward progress had been stopped and time had elapsed in Wake Forest’s 24-18 win. But he said the replay official “should have stopped the game for further review,” which should have resulted in restoring the final second.
The Citadel
Two weeks after Georgia State collected $950,000 for beating Tennessee, The Citadel got $400,000 for its 27-24 overtime win Saturday in Atlanta against Georgia Tech.
James Madison
Former Pitt quarterback Ben DiNucci matched his career high with four touchdown passes in a 63-12 rout of Morgan State.