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WVU Mountaineer fans tuning in for the Thursday night telecast were treated to a seemingly never ending panorama of the Virginia Tech "Enter Sandman" pregame tradition. Music, fans jumping around, the players entering through their tunnel, and the like. Yes, it's a nice tradition, but ESPN was fawning and gushing over it like this was the first time we ever saw one.
By midway through the fourth quarter there was a stadium more than half empty, except mostly for a few thousand folks with gold jerseys. As the game announcers noted, the night started with Enter Sandman, and finished with Country Roads.
It took a while for the West Virginia offense to get going, but a turning point in the game occurred with WVU taking possession at their own 30 with just a minute remaining in the first half trailing 10-6. JT Daniels completed 5 of 6 passes, finishing with a 24 yard strike to Sam James to take the halftime lead and turning the momentum in favor of WVU. The Mountaineers then controlled the game in the second half, dominating the line of scrimmage in four drives, grinding out 239 yards in 36 plays. West Virginia finished with 32 first downs and 218 yards rushing.
Despite the dominance, however, the Mountaineers still led by only a 16-10 score in the third quarter when Virginia Tech extended some welcome assistance by committing two crucial third down penalties to enable a WVU scoring drive to stay alive. From that point of the game the Hokies never recovered.
The West Virginia defense continued to show improvement from its performance over the first two games, limiting Tech to 10 points and 228 yards, and putting the game away in the fourth quarter with a 27 yard interception return for a touchdown.
Given the location of these schools a continuing on field rivalry seems like a given. But although we are told WVU desires it to continue, Virginia Tech does not. Their nonconference schedules are booked through 2031 and West Virginia does not appear. Playing in state schools makes sense, but otherwise the Hokies appear more interested in playing powerhouses like Rutgers and Vanderbilt, with a few Marylands sprinkled in. The win Thursday was the largest margin of victory ever by WVU in Lane Stadium. I guess we'll have to leave it at that.
From Saturday's games, fans were not too disappointed to see the two teams soon to be departing for the SEC are now 0-1 in Big 12 conference play.
THIS SATURDAY: West Virginia travels to play one of those squads in a 7:30 evening matchup. Texas has plenty of talent and playing at home will be expecting to win, particularly after battling #2 Alabama to a last second loss three weeks ago. But the Longhorns did not always look the part in their upset loss to Texas Tech Saturday. While Texas will be favored, it should be noted that WVU has had some success in Austin, winning 3 of 5 contests since joining the Big 12. If the Longhorns' #1 QB Quinn Ewers is still unable to play, how about one more? WEST VIRGINIA 38 TEXAS 35.