MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia safety Karl Joseph made three interceptions and a pair of young receivers produced 100-yard games as the Mountaineers romped past Georgia Southern 44-0 on Saturday night.
Skyler Howard threw for 359 yards and two scores, overcoming some first-half misfires to finish 16-of-25. His top targets were sophomore Shelton Gibson (three catches for 130 yards) and true freshman Jovon Durante, who went for 121 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown on his first college series.
“I don’t know why they went man” coverage, said Mountaineers safety KJ Dillon, who has been hyping Durante’s speed throughout preseason camp. “I honestly do not know why you would do that to yourself.”
West Virginia (1-0) won its 12th consecutive home opener by creating five turnovers—four of them on interceptions of Eagles quarterback Favian Upshaw, who completed only 2-of-13 for 29 yards. Joseph victimized Upshaw three times in the third quarter alone.
After leading the nation in rushing in 2014, Georgia Southern (0-1) never got its option attack rolling. The 3.4 yards per carry was the Eagles’ lowest in 13 FBS games, and they had not been shutout since 1995, a streak of 242 games.
“Georgia Southern is a tricky bunch,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that we would beat them 44-0 because of what they do offensively.”
Eagles coach Willie Fritz saw only rare cracks in the Mountaineers defense, and each time a safety was there to thwart it.
“It was probably a little more vanilla than I thought they were going to be, but they did a super job of execution,” Fritz said. “There was three or four plays in the first half that I thought were just a whisker away. from getting 40-, 50- or 60-yard runs … bu they tackled well.”
The Mountaineers led 16-0 at the half, settling for three red-zone field goals and failing on a fourth-and-1 at the Georgia Southern 18.
Those incomplete drives left Holgorsen “furious” with his players for missing chances—and with himself for taking the fourth-down gamble.
“He was snapping,” Gibson said, “And he was right. We should’ve been killing them. But we came back out in the second half and handled our business.”
The Mountaineers had no trouble finishing drives in the second half, scoring on Gibson’s 26-yard grab, Rushel Shell’s 6-yard run and Wendell Smallwood’s 19-yard carry.
Smallwood gained 96 yards on 11 carries, and Shell ran for 42 yards on eight (a shared average of 7.2 yards per rush).
West Virginia’s second-team offense tacked on William Crest’s late 3-yard touchdown.
Shackled by eight negative-yardage plays, Georgia Southern finished with 224 yards and went 0-of-4 on fourth down.
Last year’s 1,400-yard rusher Matt Brieda, finished with 70 yards on 17 carries. Upshaw gained 64 yards on 16 carries before being lifted in the fourth quarter.
“Our defense is pretty motivated and excited,” Holgorsen said. “The leadership that we have on that side of the ball is showing. Hopefully it continues.”