Grier dominates, Brown and Simms shine as No. 14 West Virginia routs Youngstown State, 52-17

Though the weather in Morgantown, West Virginia was far from perfect this evening, the West Virginia Mountaineers’ record remains blemish free after drubbing the Youngstown State Penguins, 52-17.

Once again, Will Grier looked Heisman Award worthy, finishing the evening 21-of-26 through the air for 332 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Grier connected with Gary Jennings for three scores, and found Dominique Maiden for a 40-yard touchdown in the closing minutes of the third quarter to end his day.

While Grier-to-Jennings was lighting up the scoreboard, wide receiver Marcus Simms and running back Leddie Brown silently stole the show. Simms caught eight passes on nine targets for 119 yards, with a couple of those passes moving the chains on 3rd down. Brown continued to show why head coach Dana Holgorsen spoke so highly of him heading into the season, finishing with 115 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries.

Kennedy McKoy and Alec Sinkfield, who left the game in the first half with an apparent ankle injury, both added a touchdown on the ground. McKoy carried the ball 11 times for 76 yards, and Martell Pettaway added 77 yards on 12 carries.

The Mountaineer defense continued to look good, holding Youngstown State to only 293 yards offensively. Dravon Askew-Henry led the defense with 10 total tackles, including 2 tackles for loss.

West Virginia travels to Raleigh, North Carolina next Saturday, where they’ll take on quarterback Ryan Finley and the N.C. State Wolfpack. That game is currently scheduled to kick off at 3:30PM on the ESPN family of networks, but current weather projections may pose an issue.