WVU Runs Past Kansas, 49-0
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – On a day three different West Virginia players tallied 100-plus yard efforts on the ground, Kansas sophomore linebacker Joe Dineen, Jr., dug in and led the field with 16 tackles Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
The Mountaineers’ (6-4, 3-4 Big 12) Skyler Howard (129), Wendell Smallwood (115) and Rushel Shell (109) became the first trio to post 100-plus yard rushing games against the Jayhawks since Nebraska accomplished the same feat in 2000, guiding WVU to a 49-0 shutout on Saturday. The loss was the largest margin of scoreless defeat KU (0-11, 0-8) has suffered since Kansas State held the Jayhawks scoreless in a 64-0 victory Nov. 2, 2002.
Dineen’s 16 tackles against WVU were the most by a Kansas defender since Ben Heeney wrapped up 21 at Texas Tech in 2014. Dineen’s efforts weren’t lost as KU forced two turnovers by way of first career interceptions for both senior safety Michael Glatczak and sophomore cornerback Derrick Neal.
The Jayhawks failed to convert those Mountaineer miscues into points and were held to just 221 yards of total offense – 94 yards rushing and 127 yards passing. Freshman quarterback Ryan Willis finished the game completing 13-of-38 passes while throwing a career-high three interceptions, which snapped a streak of six-straight games throwing for 150 yards and at least one touchdown.
West Virginia’s three takeaways through the air solidified its dominance on defense in the Big 12 Conference as they ranked eighth in the nation and second in the conference in turnovers gained heading into the matchup. The squad also entered the day leading the league with 16 interceptions, adding three more against a stagnant Jayhawk offense.
West Virginia found success on the ground early in the game as three of their four touchdowns in the first quarter came from runs, helping them jump out to a quick 28-0 lead. The Mountaineers defense was equally impressive as they held the Jayhawks to 59 total yards in the opening half. Kansas didn’t help itself as two turnovers were converted into 14 points for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers added 14 more points in the second quarter, forcing KU to face a 42-point deficit heading into the locker room. The Kansas defense tightened up in the second half holding West Virginia to seven points in the final 30 minutes of play, leading to an outcome of 49-0.
Kansas closes out the season with the Dillons Sunflower Showdown against in-state rival Kansas State Saturday Nov. 28 at 3 p.m. Fans can catch the action live on Fox Sports 1, or tune in to the Jayhawk Radio Network for an audio broadcast.
Kansas head coach David Beaty
Opening Statement
COACH BEATY: All right. Dana (Holgorsen) and those guys played really well today. They did a good job. They should be commended. I thought they outplayed us on both sides of the ball, and the kicking game. They outcoached us. There is no other way to say it. At the end of the day, I’m responsible for that, our coaches are all responsible for that, and our players are responsible for their performance as well, so, you know, that was a disappointing performance by us, and it’s one that we can’t afford to have happen again. We’ve got a great opportunity next week, big rivalry game coming in but, man, that doesn’t make this week any less, you know, easier to deal with. That was disappointing.
Q. Coach, we may never know if you guys were able to pounce on that first loose ball from West Virginia and maybe not have that early turnover where this would have went, but can you describe the momentum of that first quarter and how it got away so quick?
COACH BEATY: It got away quick. I thought we started off pretty good defensively there, got a quick three and out, had an opportunity at a turnover. First play from the scrimmage, we complete a nice little seam pass down the middle, and we fumble it. And from that point forward, the wheels kind of fell off offensively. Defensively I think they scored four touchdowns there, consecutively, one of which was a pick six. A lot of self-inflicted wounds there. That’s coaching; we all have to get better as coaches. That’s on us.
Q. You’ve been doing your best to motivate and keep guys in it. What did you tell them after that first quarter and how did you try to keep you kids in it?
COACH BEATY: I mean, the big thing is talking to each side about all the plans are good; that’s not the problem. The problem is just trusting, executing and not letting the previous play turn into creating a bad play on the next play, or down the line there. That was really kind of the same message as we went into halftime, talking about playing a completely different half.
I did think that we played a different half in the second half, but they still played much better than we did, but we did play a little bit better than we did in the first half, which was not hard to do.
Q. Offensively hard to move the football. Looked like they were bringing a lot of guys at Ryan Willis, and then doing a nice job covering the outside.
COACH BEATY: Yeah, you know, what they do schematically is sound. Tony (Gibson) does a tremendous job; I said that coming into this game. He’s been pretty good in this conference, and they did a good job of stopping the run. I didn’t think we were physical up front again. I didn’t think that Ryan (Willis) played one of his better games today and, you know, we had lots of drops today that — you know, those are things that are self-inflicted, and we’ve got to eliminate those things to have a chance to play good offensive football, and we haven’t been able to do that, yet.
Q. Big match-up next week. It’s the last opportunity to get some momentum against a rival. We know what this game means to your fan base. How big of a week is this week coming up?
COACH BEATY: It’s a huge week. “K-State week,” rival game, storied tradition. It’s going to be a great atmosphere here; I know it will be. We’re excited, obviously about playing that game, but, you know, we’ve got a lot to learn from this game before we can move forward to the next one so we’ve got a lot of work to do before now and then.
Q. They ran the ball right off the bat? Is there any thought to immediately loading up against the run?
COACH BEATY: Well, the thing that these guys do well is they scheme you pretty good now. There was some — we knew going into the game that some of the things that they do will give you — they’ll leave you a gap short from time to time with what they do with the quarterback.
They did some good things, and I’ve said that before. Dana has done a really nice job. They have run the ball an average of 50 times a game, coming into the game, so the majority of our game plan was based on trying to stop the run. I thought they were a very physical unit up front. They lived up to that today. They definitely played very well up front, moved us around. I thought the backs got loose and ran well and. I thought the quarterback did a good job of running the ball.
It was one of those deals where there was opportunities, and there were times where we did pack the box, and they were able to schematically beat it. You know, we’ve got to get off blocks, when you’re a gap short sometimes, and you’ve got to make a play that you’re not supposed to.
Q. What’s the hardest thing to digest about the discrepancies in first downs?
COACH BEATY: I think just that, period. That’s about as bad offensive football as I’ve been a part of. That’s on me. We’ve got to figure out a way to manufacturer an offense around here because right now it hasn’t been getting done. For us — we really did not have a first down until midway through the third quarter. We had one I think in the first half, on that first drive, but we fumbled the ball, I think. It is what it is. We didn’t get a first down until midway through the third quarter, and that’s very disappointing, and that’s down to me; it always comes back to me, and I’ve got to find a way to get that fixed, because right now we’re not very productive on the offensive side of the ball.
Q. Your first possession was fumbled, second possession Willis gets picked and they take it the other way for a touchdown is it just impossible to get out of a hole when it’s 14-0 five minutes in?
COACH BEATY: Absolutely not. I called the offense over there right away, and I said, “Look up at the clock,” I think said 11:50-something, maybe 11:51, I know it said 11:50-something. I said, “There is an entire game left to play. We made a couple of mistakes. They’re gone. They’re erased. We have to focus now on moving forward. We’ve got a lot of football left to play. We’ll be fine. We’ll cut it to one. Let’s cut it down by one, and then we will go from there, but just one play at a time.”
So there was plenty of time left. There is no excuse there. We didn’t do a good enough job of stopping the bleeding ourselves there, and that’s our fault.
Q. Derrick Neal saved two touchdowns and had two pass break-ups, he also had a pick later in the game. How much has he grown, and how much has his game evolved?
COACH BEATY: I will say this, there was a couple of bright spots, I thought, today, guys that stuck out to me: Joe Dineen, I thought, made a lot of open-field tackles. I think he was in the double digit tackles; I think a lot of them were solo. He had some mistakes, but he was playing his tail off through the entire game. He stuck out to me.
And then Derrick Neal. You know, Derrick let the guy get on top of him a little bit early in the game, and he was able to break up that pass down there in the end zone. I thought he, by far, played better than the corners that we had playing in this game. I thought he had a really good game today. That was a nice instinctual play by him. He slid inside, did a good job of doing what he was coached to do and protected the inside, and he got the pick, so he’s continuing to develop. That’s been a good thing for us to see and him move from receiver over there, pretty athletic guy.
Q. Is Fish (Smithson) still pretty banged up?
COACH BEATY: Fish was a question mark coming into the game. We felt like he might be able to recover and get there. We just didn’t get to practice him a whole lot because of the ankle, and when we tried to put him on the field today to warm up, you could tell he was going to be a liability because he couldn’t move.
He’s injured, so hopefully we can get him back next week. We certainly need him.
Q. How much did you miss him out there today?
COACH BEATY: We missed him. He’s the quarterback of the defense out there. He’s the guy that leads the country in tackles and leads the Big 12 in tackles, so you got to feel like his presence would have helped a little, but I don’t know if it would have helped prevent what happened to us today.
Q. Can you talk about the decision to play T.J. Millweard at quarterback?
COACH BEATY: You know, we were just to a point there where we needed to give it a change. We needed to go ahead and give it a change, and he practices his tail off. He’s a senior. He deserves that opportunity, and, you know, we had not been moving the ball to that point, so it was a point in time where we need to do try to get some momentum going with another guy.
Q. Did you think as well as you all played last week, and it was a competitive game, did you think there would be more momentum from that coming into this game?
COACH BEATY: You know, you would like for it to be that way but honestly as a coach, each individual game is itself. It’s what you did when you get there. There’s a lot of things that go into it, obviously within the media and things that continue to bring it back up, and you talk about it and things like that, but at the end of the day it’s going to be what you do in that moment, in those moments, and we started the game off really well, really well.
You know, for some reason, things went south really quick, and it took us a while to stick our foot in the ground, if we ever did, you know. I think — we played much better in the second half, but that’s compared to what that first half looked like.
Q. Fourth quarter, (Jeremiah) Booker almost touchdown, is that just a matter of going to meet the ball? Positioning? What was the difference in that play?
COACH BEATY: We had a couple of them that I didn’t think the ball was quite out there far enough. We had a guy beat down the left sideline, as you’re looking from right to left on the home side, to our right side, excuse me, and it was on the far side of the field, and the ball was underthrown and it got picked off. We were behind him, and the ball was underthrown, and it got picked off. When we got picked off with T.J. (Millweard) down there in the end zone, same thing. The ball was underthrown, and it got picked off.
So, the accuracy is very important, the trajectory and the distance is so important when you’re trying to complete passes, and that’s how those turnovers happened.
Q. Do you think the nagging groin injuries are affecting Ryan’s passing?
COACH BEATY: I don’t think so. I’m not going to use that as an excuse. I don’t think he was any worse today than he was in the last few weeks. For whatever reason today, he didn’t have it, the whole time. He had a couple of flashes of some good things, but he didn’t play his best game. But he’ll come back. He’ll come back, all those guys will. They will be ready to go this week.
Q. Would you think the fan base would have it in them to forget the record and result from today and show up in force for next weekend against K-State, or are you worried about that?
COACH BEATY: I certainly hope they will. I think we have the greatest fans on the planet, bar none, we do. The Jayhawk Nation, they deserve better than what we’re giving them right now. I would ask them to value the rivalry, next week, show up, be there for us. You are literally the magic, and we need you there next week. It’s going to be a great environment; it always is, so we need them.
We need them there, but, hey, at the same time I said it when I first got hired, man, you earn it one fan at a time, and we’ve got to earn it. We just haven’t played to the point where we’re proud of it yet, but we’re working to get there.
Q. There are several subplot story lines going into next week. It’s the last game of the season, last chance to get that first win, it’s going to be Senior Day, it’s rival K-State. How do you simplify it and just focus on just playing your best?
COACH BEATY: You know, we really don’t have any choice; that’s how you prepare. Is a rivalry game, and they’re going to be up for it naturally because of the rivalry that is, KU/K-State, and that’s exciting, and it’s something that — I mean, I’m excited about being a part of it, because it’s one of the greatest rivalries in all of college football. So we’re all excited about it, but the way we can do something about it is by focusing on our preparation. Proper preparation, aligning our accuracy with, you know, our ability to execute. That’s going to be so important, and we got to go back to the drawing board this week because we obviously had some breakdowns this week with the team that runs the ball pretty well, with the quarterback, just like K-State does.
So we’ve got some things we’ve got to go get shored up as we head into this game. And then offensively, we’ve got to find a way to create more offense than what we’ve got to be able to pull that thing out next week in a big game, a great competition next week against those guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Kansas sophomore LB Joe Dineen, Jr.
On his 16-tackleperformance:
“I tried my best. I try my best every game and I was just finding the ball pretty well today. Obviously it’s not enough. We still have to get better.”
On West Virginia’s rushing offense:
“They were more physical than us up front. The front seven didn’t play well today. They played hard, but we just didn’t have an answer. They ran the ball well, really well.”
On Kansas’ performance:
“This team is pretty resilient and we fight back hard. I feel like in the second half, the defense came out and played a little better. We just can’t start like that in the first half. We get down like that and we dig ourselves into such a deep hole that we can’t get out of it.”
On the upcoming game against Kansas State:
“We have to go to work this week. We have no school, so we’re going to spend a lot of time in the film room and get to know them really well. We just have to get ready to go play on Saturday.”
Kansas senior S Michael Glatczak
On West Virginia’s running game:
“Coach (Clint) Bowen said during the week that the past two weeks they’ve run 50 plus times and we knew that we had to stop their running game. Their quarterback has an alright throwing arm, but all he does is run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. We just had to stop the run.”
On the attitude on the sidelines:
“We just have to keep everybody up. When adversity hits everybody just looks around and looks at the seniors and we just have to have that leadership and keep everybody up.”
On Fish Smithson’s absence:
“He’s a big factor but Coach (David) Beaty and Coach (Clint) Bowen always say, ‘The next Hawk up,’ so we just have to come ready to play.”
On how they keep a positive mentality:
“This coaching staff really helps out. They bring energy to every practice no matter what the record says. Like Coach (David) Beaty always says, he’s been on winning, 10-0 teams and they don’t act like this. It’s up to the seniors to keep everybody up. The freshmen look up to us, so we just have to keep everybody up.”
Kansas junior TE Kent Taylor
On the offense’s struggles:
“Yeah, I mean it’s definitely frustrating, you work hard in practice and then go out and perform and it just doesn’t happen. Credit to them, they had a good game plan and schemed up some good coverages and they were ready. We have to come out and play better next week.”
On WVU’s defense creating turnovers with pressure:
“We have seen that a lot this year, with a young quarterback and offensive line, teams tend to do that to create pressure, and pressure creates interceptions and us receivers have to take advantage of one-on-one coverage and get open for Ryan Willis.”
On the message from the coaching staff after a lost fumble on the first possession:
“First off, let me say that we wouldn’t be in some of the games we have been in without Tre’ Parmalee. He’s a great player and fumbles happen, he made a great play and the guy just stripped him. We just have to keep going and they (coaches) told us to keep our heads up and keep playing when that happened and try and get the momentum back.”
On the final game of 2015 against Kansas State:
“Rivalry games are always big. Any time it’s a rivalry game you’re going to get their best and you’re going to give your best, not that we don’t give our best every week, but it is a little different. We just have to prepare for them and come out excited to play .”
On the team’s morale after the loss:
“It was a pretty tough loss, anytime you don’t score on offense it is definitely not good enough. We know that we just have to come back and do better next week.”
West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen
Opening Statement:
“I am really proud of the guys the way they attacked this week. Two big wins at home over some quality opponents, we put a lot into those games and for them to be able to continue that, I was proud of them. We knew what it was going to be like here and obviously it was important for us to rectify what happened two years ago. So a lot of our guys took that to heart, attacked and we looked really good. I woke up this morning and told them to be at our meeting at 6:45 and they were all bright eye at 6:30, so we started 15 minutes early. That told me that they were ready to go, that they were excited about being here and ready to play. They hit the field for warmups and had a whole bunch of energy that was important. So proud of the guys on how they played on all three sides was good. I thought our special teams were solid. Nick O’Toole was really good. I think he has matured. He couldn’t handle these conditions in the past and he did great. Offensively, we ran the ball, wanted to run the ball but I didn’t know that Skyler (Howard) was going to be our leading rusher. Having three 100 yard rushers, that’s obviously important to us and defensively, getting turnovers and having another shutout. We did a great job with those guys and got a lot of seniors on that side that it is important to them so I feel like we’re in a good place. Three-straight wins but we still got a lot of football left. Getting the six wins was important to us, we’re bowl eligible but we can start talking about scenarios now but still got two huge games left that will be important for us to finish strong. So, proud of the guys. “
On offense:
“I thought it was good, I thought it’s been good. You don’t rush for over 400 yards without getting a push from the offensive line. Led by Tyler Orlosky, we didn’t even play (Adam) Pankey today, he went out with an ankle injury towards the end of the game against Texas. He was hobbled all week and a game time decision, he started but after one series he said he couldn’t go. He is important to us but (Kyle) Bosch is playing well, Orloskty is playing well and it starts with those inside guys. The running backs are doing a good job running behind their pads and Skyler (Howard) is doing a great job making decisions in the run game that are allowing him to get free. “
On if you value playing backups:
“Yeah two reasons, one the starters in game 10, getting a lot of snaps under their belt without exerting as much energy as it takes to win is big, so that will give us a boost for next week. Then continuing to build up is important, we haven’t had a game like this in a couple of seasons. Getting that many guys snaps is huge and having some guys make some plays. Rasul (Douglas) and Nana (Kyeremeh) are our second and third team corners, they got in there and both make a play to save the shutout, so that was really important. “
On retribution from loss two years ago:
“It had nothing to do with Kansas, it had everything to do with us. Our inability to handle that situation two years ago, it meant a lot to our team to come here and play well. It had everything to do with us and nothing to do with them and I give our players a lot of credit for attacking this week the right way and they were ready to play. If there was ever a situation where we didn’t come ready, this would be it. It was cold, windy, and all that stuff, but our guys didn’t care, ignored that and went out there did what they needed to do.”
West Virginia redshirt-senior DL Kyle Rose
On coming into the press room two years after a Kansas victory in 2013 being unhappy with his teammates performance:
“I’m really proud of our guys coming out and playing like they did. We knew we were going to have to create our own energy on the sidelines. That’s something we harped on all week. Making an effort to make big plays and get hyped up if the offense made a play or if the defense made a play. If someone made a play we would rally around them. I thought we did a really good job with that. Kansas plays with a lot of effort, credit to them for a program that’s 0-11 that doesn’t look like an 0-11 team to me, credit to those guys.”
On setting the goal to get six wins this season to be bowl eligible:
“I credit our seniors. That really goes on our guys making sure that it starts with our seniors or our starting line and going down through our juniors and sophomores and freshmen. We set the tempo from our older guys, guys who have experience and have done this before. We lean on our senior class and we all came in together five years ago and this is something we want to finish and have a great season or the best one we can have. This was the next win we needed to get to get six, so now we look to Iowa State next week at senior night at home.”
West Virginia redshirt-senior CB Terrell Chestnut
On the first interception of the game:
“That was great. It was a momentum swing in our favor and set the tone for the whole game.”
On his personal injuries in the last few weeks:
“It is just another thing I have to overcome, another obstacle I have to overcome. I have to continue to get treatment and get healthy and get stronger.”
On the loss to Kansas in 2013 being on his mind:
“That stung to lose to them a couple of years ago.”
On bowl eligibility being enough for this team:
“We want to continue to win out and continue to get better. We want to enjoy the last few weeks of getting the opportunity to play with my brothers. I just have to embrace it.”
West Virginia redshirt-senior LB Nick Kwiatkoski
On getting the team’s sixth victory:
“We haven’t really talked about it much, but it’s safe to say that it’s a big deal. It’s something we can talk about a little more now that we got the sixth win. We will start thinking about situations. It feels good to get that especially after the road we’ve been on in October. It means a lot to us.”
West Virginia junior RB Wendell Smalllwood
On bowl eligibility being enough for this team:
“No it’s definitely not enough. I think were going to go out and try to win the rest of them. We’re going to get back to work tomorrow and get ready for Iowa State. “
On the best effort of the team so far:
“I definitely thought this was the best effort we have brought so far and the energy, especially coming to Kansas, I thought this was the best we’ve played all year. “
West Virginia redshirt-junior RB Rushel Shell
On the next goal for the season:
“Get our seventh win and then go from there. It’s just about worrying about this week. It’s the Big 12, anything can happen. We just have to prepare like we’re playing the best team in the country. “
West Virginia junior QB Skyler Howard
On having three players go over 100 yards rushing:
“We were just taking what they were giving us. We saw the looks all week in practice. It’s just preparing all week for it and seeing the mental reps and checks.”
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