Instant Recap: Pair of scoop-and-score touchdowns dooms West Virginia in season finale shootout

If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s the West Virginia Mountaineers finding the most creative way to rip your heart out. This time it came in the form of two Will Grier fumbles that were recovered by the Oklahoma Sooners and returned for touchdowns.

Those two touchdowns are what gave the Sooners the winning score, but it was a chickenshit defensive call by defensive coordinator Tony Gibson that allowed Oklahoma to escape Morgantown with that score intact. On 4th and 5, with just over two minutes left in the game, Gibson called a play that saw the Mountaineers only rush their three defensive linemen, allowing Kyler Murray to scramble around until he found a receiver on the left side of the field for the first down. The Sooners were able to kneel it out after that, and escaped with a 59-56 win.

So where do we go from here?

Conversations will have to be had. Can anyone honestly make a case for Tony Gibson to return as defensive coordinator after turning in that performance this evening? We’ve been beating the Jake Spavital drum during the latter part of this season, but the playcalling was mostly passable tonight. Would we be okay with Jake next season if we had a defense that could pick up the slack when Spav calls in boneheaded calls? Do we just reset both coordinators?

There’s so many questions, but we now have plenty of time to figure them out as we sit by next week and watch the Big 12 Championship Game from home and await our bowl fate.

Key Takeaways:

• Gary Jennings had a career night in his final game in Morgantown. He finished with 225 yards and 2 touchdowns on 7 receptions.
• David Sills V finished with 131 yards and 2 touchdowns on 8 receptions.
• Will Grier threw for 539 yards on 32-of-49 passing for 4 touchdowns. Grier didn’t throw any interceptions, but fumbled the ball twice with each resulting in a scoop-and-score touchdown for the Sooners.