MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — How commanding was West Virginia’s run-game output at Texas Tech? Let the Gold & Blue Lunch Report count the ways:
— In a 48-17 romp, it accumulated 332 yards on the ground, fourth-most of the Dana Holgorsen era.
— From 46 running plays, only one netted negative yardage. (It hardly was a drive-killer: Rushel Shell’s minus-1 run in the final 3 minutes preceded the game’s final touchdown.)
— The Mountaineers averaged 7.2 per carry, fifth-best under Holgorsen.
— Three ballcarriers ran for touchdowns and a fourth, Kennedy McKoy, missed by inches at the end of his 21-yard scamper.
— West Virginia also narrowly missed having two 100-yard rushers for the third consecutive season vs. Texas Tech.
— The performance elevated WVU to 30th nationally in rushing offense (216 yards) and 25th in team yards per carry (5.15).
Running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider raved about his guys despite Justin Crawford and McKoy leaving with ankle and shoulder injuries, and even those misfortunes provided good vibes for Seider on Sunday night. (Watch the video for that tidbit.)
Not to be overlooked in all this run-game production was the re-emergence of Skyler Howard’s zone read option, something Seider described as “what we’ve been missing earlier in the year.”
With Texas Tech’s backside defenders crashing down too aggressively, Howard turned handoff fakes into keepers and ran for 73 yards in the first half alone. Those runs by Howard will surface on film and should force defenses like TCU and others to play more honest. (The Jet-sweep motion also helps with this.)
“It will open up even more running lanes,” Seider said. “Now you can’t just full-flow and chase the running backs down with the end and the linebacker scraping over the top. Now we can hit that A-B gap because that defensive end is flat-footed.”