West Virginia quarterback JT Daniels had every reason to be dejected.
The Mountaineers held a seven-point lead in the final 4 minutes of Thursday’s season opener at Pitt, only to see the Panthers score two touchdowns in 43 seconds to prevail, 38-31.
The fashion in which West Virginia lost was anything but easy to move past. The Mountaineers allowed a 92-yard game-tying drive in the fourth quarter, before a pass that went through the hands of Bryce Ford-Wheaton was intercepted by M.J. Devonshire, who raced 56 yards to the end zone for the winning score.
Daniels then led a drive that put West Virginia on the brink of the red zone after overcoming a pair of false start penalties. Two sacks within three plays then left the Mountaineers with a fourth-and-16 needing to reach the Panthers’ 12 to keep hope alive.
Daniels fired a well-placed pass to a well-covered Reese Smith, who was originally ruled to have made a terrific 27-yard catch to the Pitt 1. Upon further review, however, the reception was overturned to an incompletion, sealing the fate of the 105th Backyard Brawl.
“I’m going to give it everything I have no matter what the situation is,” Daniels said. “If you watched the game, you see this whole team has that in them. You can clean up execution and we’ll clean up execution. There were a lot of points we left on the table, but it’s going to happen sometimes. The things that you can’t fix, we don’t have to fix. The team will fight and go to war. That’s a team I’m proud of and proud to be on.”
As for the only interception Daniels threw on 40 attempts in his West Virginia debut, more often than not, the pass would’ve been a first down completion to Ford-Wheaton, who to that point, had enjoyed a strong showing. Ford-Wheaton led all players with nine catches for 97 yards and had two of the game’s three receiving touchdowns.
“The first thing you do is try and make a tackle,” Daniels said of his reaction to the interception. “After the play, I said, ‘Who cares?’ It makes the story cooler. If I throw Bryce a thousand stop routes, that might happen once. It’s a fluke thing that happened. As soon as that play is over, it’s like, ‘Next play, let’s go out and score.’ We did a great job in the last 2 minutes of the game. We weren’t put in a great situation. Reese made a hell of a play and we came up just that little bit short.”
Daniels was seen talking to Smith after his attempted catch between a pair of Pitt defenders was ruled an incompletion.
The veteran signal-caller was offering encouragement to a receiver who finished with two catches for 10 yards, but nearly came up with the most notable catch of his career.
“I told him I was proud,” Daniels said. “I don’t know how many targets he had that game, but I don’t think it was too many and he didn’t really [care]. He was ready to go as soon as his number was called.
“They gave us a two-man look and Reese read it perfectly. He ran a great route. I could’ve gotten that ball up a little bit to try and keep it away from both safeties that were collapsing on it. Reese has caught a few of those in practice. He did a great job and there was not one time he said, ‘I need the ball.’ He ran his ass off every play and when his number was called, he did everything he could’ve.”
After seeing the play, Daniels thought Smith hauled the pass in, though the signal-caller admitted he wasn’t entirely clear on the rule.
“I wasn’t aware that the ball could hit the ground as long as the receiver has control. I thought he had control, but I guess not,” Daniels said. “I don’t make the calls.”
Daniels finished with 23 completions for 214 yards. Although two of the Panthers’ three sacks came on the Mountaineers’ final drive, Daniels stood tall in the face of pressure for much of the matchup.
“They got to us and had some pressure, but JT really did a nice job and had some good checks,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “He threw the deep ball well and gave our guys a chance. I thought going into it we’d make a few more plays down the field than we did, but they made some plays on the ball. We made our share.
“In his first game out and first time playing in a long time, he handled himself very well. He got hit, bounced back and showed some resiliency, but I thought he played well.”
The intelligence and football IQ of Daniels’ that both Brown and first-year offensive coordinator Graham Harrell praised throughout preseason camp was also on display.
As Brown alluded to, Daniels made checks at the line of scrimmage. For the most part, they yielded positive results.
True freshman CJ Donaldson, who rushed for a game-high 125 yards to go with one TD on seven carries, credited Daniels for his strong output.
“He trusted me knowing that when I get the ball, I’m going to make a big play with it. A lot of times, it was a pass play and he checked it and handed me the ball,” Donaldson said.
The productivity from the 240-pound Donaldson made it easier to settle on run plays, according to Daniels.
“CJ’s pretty special and it doesn’t seem like anybody wants to tackle him,” Daniels said. “If it doesn’t seem like anybody wants to tackle him, I’m going to give him the ball.”