DANA HOLGORSEN POSTGAME INTERVIEW
LAWRENCE. Kan. — While Kansas reeled off 17 unanswered points to make a second-half game of it, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen praised his team for eventually stamping out the comeback.
Thanks to three touchdowns in the final 11 minutes, the Mountaineers left with a 56-34 victory and a three-game winning streak entering their bye.
BOXSCORE: West Virginia 56, Kansas 34
“Give Kansas credit: They played good in the third quarter,” Holgorsen said. “But we played good in the fourth quarter. Good enough to win by 22. That’s a good win on the road in the Big 12. We’ll take it.”
West Virginia (3-1, 1-0) amassed a season-high 635 yards in diversified fashion, becoming the first offense in program history to reach 340 passing and 260 rushing in the same game.
Injury updates
West Virginia’s defense was ravaged by injuries, losing Spur linebacker Kyzir White in the first quarter and his backup Marvin Gross soon after. Cornerback Mike Daniels later sustained an apparent knee injury, denting a unit that began the day missing safety Toyous Avery and linebacker David Long.
Yet Holgorsen calmed some fears afterwards: “I anticipate all those guys will be ready to play against TCU.”
Grier becomes dual-threat
Will Grier became the first quarterback to top 300 yards passing in his first four games as a Mountaineer. In piling up 347 yards and two touchdowns, the junior completed 25-of-39 passes.
His also ran for two scores in the fourth quarter, finishing with 51 yards on 10 carries.
“I say this every week and I end up running it more than I want to, but I do what I have to do when it’s necessary,” Grier said. “A lot of these aren’t designed runs. I don’t ever go into a game wanting to run the ball 10 or 15 times.”
While making an effort to avoid hits by going feet-first, Grier isn’t typically graceful.
“I’m working on sliding, but I suck at sliding,” he said.
Sills rebounds
After a subpar game against Delaware State left David Sills upset with himself, the Kansas defense paid the price.
Sills caught eight passes worth 130 yards and could find himself back in the FBS lead after two more touchdowns gave him seven this season. (UCLA’s Darren Andrews began Saturday with a national-best six.)
“I wasn’t happy with my performance last week, but we had a great week of practice,” said Sills, whose touchdowns covered 49 and 7 yards. “Will was giving me some great balls, so I just had to make the catches and try to do something with it.”
Huge day for Herbert
Sophomore Khalil Herbert, a two-star recruit who had only one Power Five offer aside from Kansas, sure ran like a blue-chipper Saturday.
His 291 yards represented the third-most in Jayhawks history and the most ever ceded by a West Virginia defense.
They also nearly doubled the 336 career total Herbert produced in 11 previous games.
“Man, that’s good,” said coach David Beaty.
Kansas (1-3, 0-1) consumed more than 6 minutes on the game-opening drive and enjoyed a 26-12 edge in first-quarter plays. Then West Virginia got rolling with four successive touchdown drives.
“By nature of the run game, you get to utilize a lot of clock,” Beaty said. “That was something we were hoping we could get done — chew up the first quarter with some drives running the football and trying to stick to it. Unfortunately we got behind again.”
Herbert’s performance eclipsed the 272 yards that Pitt’s Kevan Barlow posted against WVU in 2000.