MORGANTOWN, W.Va.— Dana Holgorsen cited West Virginia’s depth and its resilient second-half mentality as capital factors in Saturday’s 41-27 upset of No. 4 Baylor.
“We’ve been in this situation against some pretty good teams before and we weren’t able to finish,” he said.
After the Mountaineers (5-2, 3-1) took down the Big 12 frontrunners not in shootout fashion, but with a stunning defensive effort, Holgorsen praised coordinator Tony Gibson for rattling Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty.
“Holding Baylor to 318 yards on 80 plays, I would say is something no one thought thought we’d be able to do,” he said. “We weren’t just going to let him sit back in the pocket and throw to open space like they did last year.”
Baylor (6-1, 3-1), which came in averaging 622 yards and more than 52 points per game, remains in the thick of the race for a conference title but would need a number of dominoes to fall its way to make the college football four-team playoff.
Thanks to Oklahoma suffering its second conference loss earlier Saturday afternoon, West Virginia now controls its own destiny in the conference race.
Watch Holgorsen’s entire postgame news conference above.