Texas @ West Virginia

[Tejastrue]

Will be interesting to hear from the McCoy derpers on this one...

[PhiI C]

What a great win in a well played game by two great teams.

[Scoop27]

From the Austin American Statesman
The Longhorns salvaged that all-important category when linebacker Steve Edmond made a huge tip and diving interception in the end zone to thwart the Mountaineers’ upset bid and preserve a 47-40 overtime victory over West Virginia.

And Edmond saved so much more than that.

Intact is an impressive win streak that has now reached six in a row. (Take that, AP voters and coaches, though we do understand West Virginia is 4-6 with four losses in its past five games.)

Intact is an unbeaten Big 12 record that aligns Texas with steamrolling Top 10 team Baylor. (Sorry, Art, you may just have to beat the Horns yourself.)

Intact is Mack Brown’s job as a head coach. (Do vampires come back this often?)

First, Oliver Luck loses out on the Texas athletic director’s job, now the Mountaineers have to win out against Kansas and Iowa State. Tough week. But know this: Both are worthy. Texas President Bill Powers and Luck hugged it out during pre-game, and preseason Big 12 favorite Oklahoma State knows all too well how tough it is to win in Morgantown, losing its league opener in this stadium.

Longhorns 47, Mountaineers 40 (OT): UT defense makes critical plays in OT win

Texas 47, West Virginia 40: Longhorns notebook

Third and Longhorns: Inside Texas 47, West Virginia 40

Texas 47, West Virginia 40: Horns’ five pregame questions answered

But Brown and this team are all about survival, especially considering they were all but given up for dead after leaving September with a 1-2 record by getting spanked by Ole Miss. John Denver may have considered these parts as almost heaven, but Brown’s got the Blue Ridge Mountains pegged as pure nirvana. Still, he can’t wait until the country roads take him home, safely away from Charles Sims and Paul Millard.

Yeah, you might say Edmond’s play was rather large. It seems rather ridiculous to say Texas pulled out all the stops in this one, because it never could stop West Virginia’s dashing, darting Sims and an explosive passing game that few expected out of Millard, a junior who came off the bench and has just two career starts.

But the Longhorns won this one in most improbable style. How else can you describe Case McCoy’s game-winning touchdown pass to, yes, a fullback. Alex De La Torre hauled in the first catch of his career.

Few would have figured Texas would win a game in which McCoy would have to heave it 49 times, three of which went for touchdowns, including a beaut to Jaxon Shipley. Shipley’s score, which came in the final nine minutes of the game, marked his first of the season, putting him just behind Whaley. Yeah, a defensive tackle. That’s how strange this year has been.

Just survive, baby. That’s got to be Texas’ new mantra as it continues to overcome injury and insult, not to mention the almost hourly rumor that Nick Saban is perched on Mack’s doorstep. Brown is making it awful hard on his detractors in one of the best years of his coaching career.

“He’s one of the greats in this profession,” said West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen, who was talking about Brown, not Saban. “Always has been, always will be. We just didn’t make the plays that counted. We didn’t make enough throws, didn’t make enough catches.”

Texas did.

That’s how big this monumental moment in the mountains was. Give the 7-2 Longhorns an A for fortitude.

After all, Texas had lost three starters to injuries, including rising star Chris Whaley on the defensive front and starting tailback Johnathan Gray, but this is a team that’s already lost its starting quarterback and best linebacker. What’s a little more adversity?

And the Longhorns had trailed for all but 2 1/2 minutes of the game in a game so frenzied, the 58,570 fans at packed Milan Puskar Stadium should have been treated for whiplash. The lead changed hands six times until at the end of regulation, no one had the lead.

This game was dead even for most of the evening as neither team could gain more than a field goal’s worth of separation after West Virginia had jumped out to a 9-0 lead, but it was always bizarre.

The Longhorns had six sacks and three fumbles in the first half. And still trailed.

Thanks to two Mountaineers fumbles, Texas started two drives at the West Virginia 7. One series lost a yard, the other lost four.

A West Virginia team that got shut out 37-0 by Maryland came within an eyelash of knocking off Texas.

But it didn’t. The survivors just manned the lifeboats.