On West Virginia’s turn, a missed shot at the end of the shot clock careened out of bounds with four seconds left, and officials awarded the ball to K-State.
TURNOVER BATTLE: West Virginia was one of the nation’s best teams at forcing turnovers, while Arizona State was uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball this season.
Arizona State is coming off a 48-46 loss to Cal in the final week of the regular season.
What the loss means for Arizona State: The Sun Devils finish the season 6-7, making them the first ASU squad with a losing record since 2011. “And we didn’t. That’s mismanagement on my part, and that’s my responsibility”.
“Tim White is unbelievable, phenomenal”, Graham said of the junior wideout who finished with 79 yards receiving and a Cactus Bowl-record 177 kickoff return yards. The teams combined for 1,196 yards of offense & the 950 yards passing have been probably the most within the Cactus Bowl’s 27-year historical past as the game crept well past midnight.
On its final scoring drive, West Virginia (8-5) converted a third-and-22 when halfback Wendell Smallwood ran 24 yards up the gut because ASU couldn’t get the proper defense called in time.
WVU’s Skyler Howard (3) is looking for a pass during the Mountaineers’ Cactus Bowl victory.
“It was unbelievable to me that virtually every day I was in that office, somebody came in and said, ‘Coach, is there anything that we can do for you, is there any way we can help?’ I had never had that before”, Huggins said.
“It’s my fault. We have a chart in the box that we go by. This bowl game is going to put everyone one notice”, for next season. The Sun Devils did lead the country in sacks, but for the Mountaineers, trying to exploit that shaky secondary felt like the right route to go. “With the environment of the game, they type of game it was, you had no choice but to make it that type of game”. The West Virginia defense had given up only three touchdowns in the previous 14 quarters.
Arizona St. had offensive struggles early on, as well, gaining just 42 yards in the opening quarter, compared to the Mountaineers who gained 236 yards.
Play of the game: We should have known early on that this game was going to get really weird.
After punting on three consecutive possessions, West Virginia scored its first touchdown when Howard tossed a 59-yard touchdown to Gibson.
WVU kicker Josh Lambert made two field goals to give WVU a 6-0 advantage.
Chaffinch, of Fort Worth, Texas, knows the parents of West Virginia quarterback Skyer Howard, who played high school football in Fort Worth.
“We made too many mistakes today”, Graham said. “We blew a couple coverages”.
With 1:07 to go in regulation and West Virginia up one, Jaysean Paige was fouled driving to the basket.
Iwundu added 16 points for K-State. White scored again late in the third quarter by breaking three tackles and tight-roping his way down the sideline on a 33-yard reception.
Chambers scored the go-ahead score with just under 5 minutes left when West Virginia safety Dravon Askew-Henry slipped, but Howard led the Mountaineers quickly down the field for the winning touchdown. Instead of another long off-season filled with questions about whether this program is actually headed in the right direction, you can look ahead with optimism. “We fought, we just didn’t step up and do some things at the end of the game”.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
