STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Jahiem White ran for 158 yards and a touchdown, and West Virginia rolled past Oklahoma State 38-14 on Saturday afternoon.
Garrett Greene passed for 159 yards and rushed for 86 and CJ Donaldson Jr. added 77 yards rushing and two scores for the Mountaineers (3-2, 2-0 Big 12).
West Virginia coach Neal Brown called the win “special.”
“I thought it was dominant,” he said. “I thought our preparation, staff-wise, player-wise, mentally, physically, emotionally — I thought our guys were ready to go.”
West Virginia gained 389 of its 558 yards on the ground. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said defensive players tackled poorly and often were out of position.
“It looked like to me that we had our worst tackling day of the year,” Gundy said. “Like, in my mind, I was counting up to eight tackles where we had a chance to hit and get a guy down for a two-yard gain or less, and we bounced off and they ended up being big runs.
“I think that was a little bit of an issue. We did not tackle well in this game at all.”
Oklahoma State (3-3, 0-3), one of the preseason favorites to contend for the Big 12 title, lost its third straight. The Cowboys finished with just 227 total yards, including just 36 rushing.
Alan Bowman threw two interceptions before he was benched in the third quarter. Garret Rangel replaced him and threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to De’Zhaun Stribling in the fourth quarter. Bowman has struggled throughout the losing streak, and Gundy said the extra time during the upcoming bye week will help him decide who should start going forward.
“We need to look and evaluate,” he said. “I don’t want to make a decision and say something now and then it maybe not be true. But we’ll need to look and see where we’re at.”
Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II, last year’s Doak Walker Award winner for the nation’s best running back, left the game in the third quarter with a leg injury and did not return. He finished with 50 yards on 13 carries. Last year at West Virginia, he ran for 282 yards and four touchdowns and led the Cowboys to a 48-34 victory. Gundy said Gordon was just dinged up, and he doesn’t expect him to be out long term.
West Virginia took control early. Greene temporarily left the game at the end of a 39-yard run in the first quarter, and Nicco Marchiol stepped in a threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Traylon Ray to give the Mountaineers a 10-0 edge.
The Mountaineers went up 24-0 before Oklahoma State got on the board. West Virginia’s final score of the second quarter, an 8-yard touchdown run by Donaldson with 28 seconds left in the first half, put the Mountaineers up 31-7 at the break.
West Virginia outgained Oklahoma State 345 yards to 115 before the break, with 259 yards coming on the ground.
Brown said the Mountaineers should enjoy getting a road win against a program with a good reputation.
“I think sometimes we don’t take enough in this profession to really celebrate,” he said. “Like this is a really big deal. We came into a tough venue versus a program that’s won ten games a lot of times against a head coach that’s going to be in the Hall of Fame at some point. And we played a complete game. And so that’s a big deal. So we want to enjoy that.”
The Takeaway
West Virginia: The Mountaineers looked motivated and ready from the outset. They overpowered Oklahoma State the old-fashioned way — they ran 65 times and threw just 16 passes.
Oklahoma State: The Cowboys didn’t just get beat, they looked flat in a game they needed to keep their already faint hopes of reaching the Big 12 title game alive. Now, the Cowboys could struggle to keep their string of consecutive winning seasons that dates back to 2006 alive.
Stat lines
West Virginia’s offense held the ball for nearly 44 minutes, and the Mountaineers ran 81 plays to Oklahoma State’s 45.
Quotable
Gundy, on keeping the players motivated now that their highest goals are out of reach: “Keeping them motivated — that’s really my job. But, these are grown men. They need to motivate themselves. This has to be important to them. And, do, I think it’s an issue? I don’t. I think they’ll come back and practice really well.”
Up next
West Virginia: Hosts No. 16 Iowa State on Saturday.
Oklahoma State: Visits No. 17 BYU on Friday, Oct. 18.
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