WVU remains in picture for bowl

Doege, Brown extend Texas’ skid

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jarret Doege threw three touchdown passes and Leddie Brown rushed for 158 yards and a score to lead West Virginia to a 31-23 victory over Texas on Saturday at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, handing the Longhorns their sixth consecutive loss.

WestVirginia (5-6, 3-5 Big 12 Conference) snapped a twogame losing streak and kept itspostseason hopes alive.

“It gets us to five [wins],” coach Neal Brown said. “It keeps us alive for another week.”

Texas (4-7, 2-6) couldn’t overcome another doubledigit deficit. The Longhorns willfinish with a losing record and miss a bowl for the first time since 2016. The losing streak is Texas’ longest since it dropped eight in a row in 1956.

“We just haven’t broken throughyet, and that’s the biggest frustrating part,” coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Every game, it seems like there is a different story to tell of why it didn’thappen.”

Texas never led but had two chances to tie the score in thefinal three minutes.

The Longhorns drove to the West Virginia 30. But on fourth down, Casey Thompson was intercepted by Sean Mahoneat the 6.

West Virginia then drove to the Texas 36. The Mountaineers went for it on fourth down rather than attempt a long field goal, but Doege threw incomplete into the end zone and Texas got one last chancewith 36 seconds left.

TheLonghorns couldn’t get past midfield and Hudson Card’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

West Virginia’s Casey Legg kicked a 45-yard field goal for thefinal margin.

Texas went three-and-out on its first four possessions. By then, Doege had thrown touchdown passes of 20 yards to Sam James and 14 yards to Winston Wright for a 14-0 lead earlyin the second quarter.

Doege also had a 7-yard touchdown toss to Sean Ryan in the third quarter on a drive that didn’t start so well. Doege was sacked on two straight playsand converted a 3rd-and17 pass from his own 18. Leddie Brown followed with runs of 26 and 18 yards to put the Mountaineers inside the Texas20.

Doege finished 27 of 43 for 290 yards. The Mountaineers are 4-0 this season when Brown surpasses 100 rushing yards.

“We know we’ve got one more game,” said the senior who now has 11 rushing touchdowns on the season. “Sowe can’t take our foot off of thepedal yet.”

West Virginia plays its regular-season finale Saturday at Kansas.