STILLWATER, Okla. -- There was no need or want for fourth-quarter drama for the Mountaineers in Saturday's 38-14 win at Oklahoma State. After back-to-back, down-to-the-wire games against Pittsburgh and Kansas, West Virginia scored on each of their five first-half possessions to build a 24-point lead at intermission.
"In the red zone, we didn't score touchdowns every time. But we were 6-of-7. And the one we didn't get was the kneel down at the end of the game," said WVU head coach Neal Brown.
The Mountaineers rushed for 389 yards on 65 carries. CJ Donaldson found the end zone twice and rushed for 77 yards. And Jahiem White enjoyed a breakout game with a 19-carry, 158-yard effort.
"I see things a lot better just because of the practice work, trusting the O-line and picking up my blocks," White said.
"Jahiem, I think he is a great player," Brown said. "He showed that and he was a tough tackle today. CJ did a nice job and he had some tough runs. Jahiem really made people miss."
Much as they did two years ago in their last win in Stillwater, both Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol shared the snaps. Greene bounced back from a hard tackle in the first quarter to account for 245 all-purpose yards. Marchiol stepped in to deliver a 10-yard touchdown toss to Traylon Ray and he rushed for 53 yards on seven totes.
"He is going to be a phenomenal player here," Greene said of Marchiol. "He stepped up really, really big when I went down. He also trucked somebody, which if he wants to play a full season, is probably not the best."
"We are intentional during the week of getting him reps. So we have a lot of faith in him. He came in and he threw a strike," Brown said.
West Virginia's defense stifled the Cowboy rushing attack and Ollie Gordon, holding OSU to just 36 yards on 21 carries.
"We had a bad taste in our mouth compared to last year," said WVU redshirt freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter. "That was something going into the bye week that we wanted to focus on, making sure we stopped [Gordon] from getting going, especially downhill. I feel like we did a really good job as a front seven and as a team stopping him."
The Mountaineers will reach the halfway point of their regular season next Saturday night when they host a 5-0 Iowa State team. With back-to-back league victories, WVU is one of five teams still sporting perfect Big 12 records.
"This is a really big deal," Brown said. "We came into a tough venue versus a program that has won ten games a lot of times against a head coach that is going to be in the hall of fame at some point. We played a complete game."