The rumors were swirling last week that West Virginia was looking into applying for the SEC Conference. On Saturday night, they had the perfect chance to audition with #2 LSU coming to town. The stage was set for the Mountaineers as they had a SEC type atmosphere at Milan Puskar Stadium and with ESPN College Gameday in town. However, the stout LSU defense proved to be too much to overcome as the LSU Tigers (4-0) continued to impress this season defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers (3-1) 47-21.
LSU wasted no time as quarterback Jarrett Lee hit wide receiver Rueben Randall on a slant pattern to cap off an eight play drive. From there on out, the Mountaineers were forced to play catch up.
“Like I said earlier this week, they are a good football team. If I was to have scripted it, I probably wouldn’t have scripted it this way,” Coach Dana Holgorsen said.
Mountaineer quarterback Geno Smith showcased his talents Saturday night as he set school records in passing attempts (65), completions (38) and passing yards (463). Against a defensive unit like LSU, those numbers are impressive. Unfortunately, the game isn’t decided by stats, but by points. The four turnovers committed by the Mountaineers didn’t help out either.
“You can talk about the 500 yards that we put up and all, but tomorrow I’ll just talk about the four turnovers we committed,” Holgorsen said to the media.
To Smith’s defense, both of his interceptions were off deflections, though the second one was on Smith.
” (Tyrann) Mathieu was the best player on the field all season for them and he was the best player on the field tonight too,” Holgorsen said. “We knew he was going to come on the blitz and it was up to Geno as to whether or not he could make the throw, so that interception is on Geno.”
The Mountaineers proved they could move the ball on the Tigers as Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey both racked up over 100 yards in the contest. Dustin Garrison led the way for the rushing attack with 46 yards on 10 carries.
Lee was 16-of-28 for 180 yards for the Tigers. The stats aren’t eye popping, but according to Bruce Irvin, he did his job.
“We were so concerned with playing the run, that the pass was the second option,” Irvin told reporters. “Lee played a good game, he managed the game good. When we started making a little run, he got his guys together. That’s what a quarterback does.”
The loss marks the first of the Holgorsen era, but if a loss is going to come, it’s best to come before conference play starts.
“You learn from it. You learn from your mistakes and the things you did wrong. The best thing we can take away from this game is it’s an out of conference loss. It doesn’t affect us as far as the Big East is concerned and we can correct our mistakes,” senior linebacker Najee Goode told reporters.
West Virginia looks to bounce back next week against Bowling Green (3-1) at Milan Puskar Stadium.
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