Mountaineer Rewind: Will Grier Leads Comeback Over Texas Tech in 2017
Still missing football? Yeah, me too.
While hitting play on old game film might not be a cure for anything, it's at least a decent enough salve. As we continue our 'Mountaineer Rewind' series, we turn back the clock three long years to October 14, 2017, when Nic Shimonek and now-Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury brought a 24th, ranked Red Raiders squad to Morgantown. As a quick refresher, this was the sixth game in the era of Air Grier and West Virginia was entering this game riding a wave of frustration. By this point, Will Grier, David Sills, and co. had already swallowed two doses of heartbreak, the first one at the hands of longtime blood rival Virginia Tech at FedEx Field and the second coming on the road at TCU (remember that offensive PI call? of course you do). More importantly you'd have to go back to 2014's upset over then-no. 4 Baylor to unearth a Mountaineers victory over a ranked opponent. West Virginia was overdue for a big win and Grier needed a feather in his much-heralded cap.
For an entire half of football, however, it looked like the drought would continue.
From the opening kick, Nic Shimonek was absolutely dealing. Between hooking up with receiver T.J. Vasher for a 60-yard catch & run barely two minutes into the game and then three more scoring throws to Keke Coutee, Dylan Cantrell and once more to Vasher, the kids from Lubbock put together 335 yards of offense and an 11 point lead that looked sure to grow. Bear in mind, West Virginia's defense was only two weeks removed from surrendering, in horrific fashion, 34 points and 564 yards to Kansas. It didn't look good.
Then Grier happened.
To be fair to the one time-national player of the year at the high school level, his season up to this point wasn't a bust. In fact, through those first five games, Grier compiled a strong line of 1,740 yards for 16 TD's on 119 for 189 passing. Simply put, Grier was playing good football. But that "moment", where his play elevated and even transcended any amount of hype or media bluster, remained elusive. Broiling East Carolina and Delaware State doesn't count. That was before the second half commenced. That was before, for lack of better phrasing, Grier became pissed off.
Over the course of the next 30 minutes of play, Grier and key weapons David Sills and Ka'raun White disarmed the Red Raiders. If the first half was entirely "Guns Up" then the second half was all "boom goes the musket". Big, big credit to Tony Gibson's defense for digging deep and burying Nic Sminonek and Tech's offense in the coal mine, allowing only seven points and 149 yards across the next two quarters to go along with five forced punts and an interception.
Of course, all of that amounts to a mountain of waste if your offense doesn't do its job. Thankfully, West Virginia's offense took a Red Bull bath at halftime and showed up wired.
While the third quarter would only see West Virginia break the goal line once, the fourth quarter was an end zone block party. Grier orchestrated scoring drives of 66, 58 and 45 yards, teaming up with forever-red zone threat David Sills for two scoring grabs and White, channeling older brother Kevin, pulled in a sprawling, skyward gem of a catch in the corner of the end zone at the start of the fourth quarter to ignite a run of 22 unanswered points for the gold and blue.
The most absurd figure of the day? West Virginia was able to paste 45 points on a ranked Texas Tech team with only 44 rushing yards to its name. It just doesn't get more air raid than that, friends.
Even then, at the tail end of the Grier-led offensive surge, Texas Tech still had life and was driving down the field with 1:50 to go when Kyzir White flashed his NFL potential and leaped in front of Shimonek's pass near the sideline. 64,000 thousand close friends breathed a raucous sigh of relief and West Virginia assumed victory formation. Game: mountain blouses.
Since transferring amidst mounting disarray at Florida, weathering a season-long suspension and being away from football for the better part of two years, Will Grier finally had a quality win to lean on as a Mountaineer. While he finished the day with 352 yards and five scores on 78.2% passing, Sills, White, Gary Jennings, and Marcus Simms combined for 343 yards and five scores. You have to imagine what the end tally would have been for the offense had the running game showed even a modicum of life.
Conversely, West Virginia's defense didn't put together a complete game and ceded 500 yards for the second time in as many weeks but played well enough in the second half to let its offense get surgical. It was not only a feel-good win but a fairly galvanizing one, at that. In the weeks to come, West Virginia would win four of its next five, including a road win against 14th-ranked Iowa State, while holding three of those teams to under 30 points.
Alas, the juice ran out after Will Grier called his own number on the now-infamous goal line scramble against Texas and graphically injured a finger on his throwing hand, ending his season on a note both low and early.
However West Virginia's come-from-behind victory over a hot Texas Tech team on that warm Saturday was peak Morgantown and Will Grier, surfer hair in full bloom, played a statement game that pushed West Virginia back in the national rankings and fueled the nucleus that would eventually become one of the nation's premier offenses in 2018.
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