Mountaineer Rewind: West Virginia Decimates Clemson in Historic Orange Bowl Romp
If you're a football "purist" that favors defensive chess matches and 60 minutes of tedious ground warfare, this one isn't for you. Similarly, if numbers aren't your strong suit, you might also find yourself tuning out the events that took place in South Florida back in January of 2012 because West Virginia is still putting up points.
Make no mistake, the Mountaineers have been involved in some high-scoring affairs over the years with a variety of high-profile opponents- just ask Baylor, Texas Tech, Georgia and Arizona State to name a few- but West Virginia's thrilling, unexpected dusting of Dabo Sweeney and then-14th ranked Clemson in Miami Gardens is perhaps the most memorable of them all.
It wasn't just the point total or the offensive numbers produced by Geno Smith, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, and co., though those are comical in their own right (70 points and 589 total yards). No, more than that was West Virginia once again finding themselves in a nationally-televised game with BCS stakes in which the national press gave the Mountaineers paltry odds of winning.
Clemson was a solid team that year, after all. Headlined by one-time West Virginia commit Tahj Boyd, the Tigers featured a number of future NFL weapons in Sammy Watkins, Dwayne Allen, and Deondre Hopkins. Three times that year, Clemson downed ranked opponents, including two beat-downs against a top-five Virginia Tech team to secure the ACC championship. Not to mention, Dabo Sweeney was the subject of universal acclaim and, at the time, was regarded as one of the best young, up-and-coming coaches in America. Those Tigers were legit.
West Virginia, owners of nine wins, had barely emerged from a three-way tie in a dead-on-its-feet Big East conference and needed a matrix-like diving grab from Stedman Bailey to edge South Florida in order to grab the league's BCS bowl bid, a fact not lost on both the talking heads and college football fandom at large. Further, when you look back on West Virginia's 2011 regular season, you quickly realize that five of West Virginia's wins were decided by six points or less, with only one of those victories scored against a ranked opponent (hello, Cincinnati). Not exactly the type of resume that would convince anyone outside of Mountaineer nation that this was a team capable of taking down a Power 5 conference champ loaded with future NFL talent.
Clad in white, chip firmly mounted on its shoulder, West Virginia lined up against Clemson on a clear January evening and, at least for the first quarter of play, things seemed to go as scripted. Clemson capped off consecutive drives with Andre Ellington and Sammy Watkins gouging West Virginia on big scoring plays. Boyd and the Tigers offense looked poised, full of swagger and, well, about as good as advertised. While the Mountaineers were keeping pace, a shoot out with a Clemson offense that was averaging 440.8 yards per game was the type of nightmare scenario Dana Holgorsen and his staff wanted to avoid.
For a quarter of play, the Mountaineers, despite the odds, were making it a game. Then, Darwin Cook happened.
With 10:28 on the clock in the second quarter, Clemson lined up three yards out from the end zone when Andre Ellington took a handoff up the middle and ran head-on into a pile of white and orange at the goal line. As several Clemson players lifted their hands in celebration, safety Darwin Cook emerged from the pile in surreal fashion with the ball cradled in his arm. The Ohio native dashed, with hellish speed, down the field, and through Clemson's very heart, tackling Obie, the Orange Bowl mascot, some 112 yards on the opposite end of the field in raucous fashion.
No one could have known it in that instant, but the route was very much on. Cook's improbable steal & score lit the fuse on something incendiary. Whether fueled by all the laughter resonating from the media or a sudden, overwhelming need to prove that it belonged in and among the Power 5 ranks, West Virginia unleashed a torrent of gold and blue flame on Clemson and never let up.
Geno Smith was practically flawless en route to piling up 407 yards and six touchdowns while keeping the turnover count at zero. Of course, as far as wingmen are concerned, he couldn't have asked for better help. Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey and Wake Forest Transfer Devon Brown teamed up for 276 yards and 5 scores. Even Willie Millhouse, a former walk-on, chipped in three catches for 71 yards and score of his own in the fourth quarter that proved to be the final nail in Clemson's coffin. Austin especially, as his still-ridiculous highlight reel touts, was electric as he systematically shredded a gassed Clemson defense to the tune of 163 yards and four touchdowns.
On the opposite side of the ball, West Virginia's defense handled its business and then some. Cook's game-changing play was only one of the four turnovers created by Jeff Casteel's 3-3-5 that night, reducing a formerly-formidable Tigers offense into an East coast paperweight that could only muster 13 points in the entire second half, seven of which didn't arrive until the final minute of gameplay. If Clemson had any gas left in its tank, it officially hit empty just before halftime when Bruce Irvin, flashing his sub-4.5 speed, ran down Boyd and stripped the ball from his hands, setting up West Virginia with prime field position from which it punched in its fifth TD of the quarter.
West Virginia celebrated that night, collectively two-stepping all over vegas odds and the pundits alike. It's an understatement to call West Virginia's Orange Bowl rout an offensive-heavy game. Only a week after Baylor and Washington melted faces in a 67-56 blitzkrieg, West Virginia and Clemson's combined efforts set or tied nine (9!!!) bowl records. It's the performance that spawned 100 memes. It's the big one that forced Herbstreit and longtime West Virginia critic Mark May to eat super-sized portions of crow. It's also, unarguably, the beginning of Clemson's upward trek towards world domination. Following the loss, Dabo Sweeney moved heaven and earth to bring in lauded defensive mind Brent Venables to do a ground-up re-tooling of Clemson's and build a program capable of challenging college's blue-bloods. Judging by the pair of national titles the Tigers have since collected, I'd say it worked.
For West Virginia, that win marked the high point of the Dana Holgorsen era in Morgantown. The strength of disassembling Clemson on national television propelled the Mountaineers to a preseason top-15 ranking heading into the 2012-2013 season and Geno Smith received acclaim as an early-season Heisman favorite while leading West Virginia to an impressive 5-0 start before the wheels fell well and truly off. Looking back, it's fair to wonder what West Virginia could have done had it fielded a serviceable defense and developed a run game to balance the prolific air attack led by Smith, Austin, and Bailey.
While that record-setting night in Miami Gardens didn't propel Mountain Mama to higher heights in the Big 12, time has done nothing to diminish that moment in West Virginia football lore. It was gaudy football in the warm glow of Miami lights. It was the most air raid the Mountaineers have ever looked with a shot or 10 of Red Bull thrown in for good measure. It was pure fun.
Never stop scoring, 'Eers.
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