MORGANTOWN — The general assumption just one week earlier, when Pitt rallied from 10 points down to beat West Virginia in the 107th Backyard Brawl in Pittsburgh, was that the Panthers had carved the heart out of the Mountaineers' chest and it would be very difficult to recover from that. Then, on a completely insane Saturday afternoon that included a two-hour rain, thunder and lightning delay, the Mountaineers found themselves dangling precariously at the edge of a cliff, feeling very much like Wily Coyote would feel in Road Runner cartoons when he realized he had put himself in a position that the only way to go was down. The chatter that Neal Brown needed to go that had dominated WVU social media all week was beginning to scream out anew as Kansas came out of that long delay, stopped WVU with a 3-and-out then drove the field to score a touchdown that made it a two-score game.
How much more could West Virginia take? The season was at stake, but once again the Mountaineers showed that no matter what the odds, their heart keeps beating. They may have blown a lead at Pitt and the Panthers fans may have taunted them to the breaking point, but Garrett Greene would have none of it. "Garrett was up and down until it was winning time.
When winning time came, he won. That's what he is — a winner," Brown said. "I may coach for a long time and never have a guy who is the competitor he is.
Ever the fighter, Greene and an offense that just had not defined itself at all this season, emerged from the slime of a potential defeat and did to Kansas what Pitt had done to them a week earlier. Greene had spent the entire day flinging the ball into the depths of the Kansas secondary. Hudson Clement, a star on the verge of becoming a supernova, finally found himself connecting with Greene and when the day had ended, Greene had completed only 15 of 30 passes but they covered 295 yards.
Yes, he had two interceptions but he flicked them away like a pesky mosquito on a hot summer's day. When it got to win time, Greene led his team through a pair of drives in two-minute mode and he well could have been the quarterback they had in mind when they invented the two-minute drive. He used his legs as much as his arm and, yeah, he made plays.
Clement caught seven passes for 150 yards, six of them for 15 or more yards, two of them on consecutive plays covering 38 and 39 yards. Much of what Greene does is improvisation and his real game is running, not throwing. "I'd love for him to check down some," Brown said.
"That's not who he is now, but we're better when he runs. The last thing I say to him as he's reading the defense is, if you don't have it, go make a play with your feet." The thing is, Greene says, it kind of just happens out there.
He doesn't come into a game thinking he's going to scramble more against a certain opponent. "I just kind of play ball and figure it out," Greene said. "I don't go into the week thinking I will scramble more.
I always trust my legs and Coach Brown has done a phenomenal job of letting me run. "There's been growing pains, for sure but he's comfortable with me tucking it and running." But this wasn't just Greene and his physical presence and spiritual presence brings out the better things in everyone, so much so that Rodney Gallagher III was lifted to the point where he wound up making his first Mountaineers touchdown into the game's winning touchdown on a beautiful route and pass from Greene.
"Rodney has matured a lot," Greene said. "He understands the game a lot more now. A year ago he was a tremendous athlete but now he's finding little nuances and holes in the defense.
He's prepared on both sides of the field." And then, when WVU needed a two-point conversion after their first fourth-quarter touchdown, Greene's presence was what made it possible to run a trick play, a reverse to wide receiver Traylon Ray, who threw to tight end Kole Taylor for the score that cut the deficit to three points. And Taylor certainly deserved to be the target, for after being in the shadows for most of the day he wound up making a wonderful catch for the touchdown that transplanted life back into the game.
The defense, so severely criticized after the Pitt meltdown, was heroic. It was revamped, simplified ..
. defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley transferred from the sideline into the press box. There were plays by Jacolby Spells and TJ Crandall, who moved in at cornerback, which was the most pressing need.
There was a scare as Aubrey Burks left the field on a stretcher, but he was back in the locker room by the time the game was over, tests negative and the fear of a neck injury dissipated. And then there was Tyrin Bradley, a defensive end/linebacker whose father had driven up from Georgia to see his son intercept a pass and then strip the ball from the hands of Jalon Daniels, forcing the fumble and recovering it to suck out whatever small bit of life that remained in Kansas. All of this happened in the environment that Brown and his staff had created.
"We've got good character on this team, guys who know right and wrong and have good leadership skills," Brown said. "This shows who we are and how we deal with adversity. Football prepares you for life better than any other sport.
" Follow @bhertzel on X.
