Leading up to Tuesday night’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said Minnesota most reminded him of Baylor among opponents the Mountaineers faced in the regular season.
As it turned out, the contest at Chase Field in Phoenix played out like a mixture of West Virginia’s losses to both the Bears and Oklahoma State. The Golden Gophers limited the Mountaineers to 206 total yards and used a dominant defensive performance to never trail in an 18-6 victory.
“They kind of grinded out a win,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “That’s a credit to them because that’s kind of how they played all year and it held into this game as well. Our guys competed. I’m not disappointed with our effort. We really fought hard to finish the year to get an opportunity to play in the postseason and it’s going to help our program moving forward. We just weren’t good enough today and it’s disappointing because we have a really small group of guys that played their last game, and it hurts.”
The victory was the third straight to end the season for Minnesota (9-4), which won seven of its nine games from October on. The loss ended an uninspiring season for West Virginia at 6-7, with the Mountaineers failing to win three straight games at any point.
“There’s certain aspects of our program we have to get better,” Brown said. “We’re close in a lot of areas. We’re really, really close, but we have to do some things to get better to get back to where we want to be.”
The score was hardly indicative of Minnesota’s dominance as the Golden Gophers led by two-plus possessions for the entirety of the second half.
Outside of the second quarter, West Virginia mustered a mere 85 total yards, 15 of which came on Justin Johnson’s run on the game’s final play.
Matthew Trickett’s missed 32-yard field goal attempt on the Golden Gophers’ opening series prevented them from taking an early lead, as did Ky Thomas’ fumble on their second possession, which was recovered by WVU defensive back Charles Woods at the 6-yard line. Thomas’ fumble marked Minnesota’s only red zone turnover this season.
“Defensively, we did some good things,” Brown said.
But the Mountaineers’ first three drives featured 11 plays totaling 6 yards and one first down, which came on the third series that ended with Tyler Sumpter punting out of his end zone.
Minnesota broke through on its ensuing series, getting a 2-yard touchdown run from 380-pound offensive lineman Daniel Faalele on a play that followed Mar’Keise Irving’s 23-yard run.
Brock Annexstad ran in the 2-point try on a nifty play design out of a point-after kick formation, leaving the Golden Gophers with an 8-0 lead at the 14:19 mark of the second quarter.
West Virginia responded with its lone scoring drive, traveling 75 yards in 12 plays and getting a 1-yard touchdown run from Jarret Doege on fourth-and-goal.
Brown elected to have his team try and tie the game at that point, but Doege’s pass fell incomplete on an unorthodox looking play, leaving the Golden Gophers with a two-point lead 8:48 before halftime.
A 50-yard run from Thomas led to his 5-yard touchdown run and a 15-6 Minnesota advantage with 2:14 remaining in the opening half.
“They hit us with some more gap runs,” Brown said. “They did a good job mixing it up. The one explosive run they hit was really on a cutback. We really had it played well and they got the backside cut and he was able to get it.”
WVU hardly threatened again, with its best chance to cut into the deficit coming on its final first half sequence that ended with Michael Dixon intercepting Doege on third-and-11 from the Minnesota 35.
The Golden Gophers got the ball to start the second half, which inexplicably began with West Virginia taking a delay of game penalty prior to the opening kickoff.
Irving broke free for a 24-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter and likely would’ve scored were it not for a diving shoestring tackle from defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor.
The Golden Gophers ultimately punted, but West Virginia followed suit after one first down and five plays.
“You score six points, you’re not going to win,” Brown said. “We’ve played some elite defenses and Minnesota was an elite defense. We played about four other ones and we have to be better. It starts with me and we have to be better on that side of the ball versus those elite defenses to give ourselves a chance to win.”
Trickett finished off an eight play, 39-yard drive with a 49-yard field goal to up his team’s lead to 18-6 with 5:53 left in the third.
The Mountaineers crossed midfield on their following series, but Tyler Nubin’s first down sack of Doege helped force a turnover on downs.
WVU was still within striking distance after Woods intercepted Tanner Morgan on a pass intended for Michael Brown-Stephens, giving the Mountaineers the ball at their 41 late in the third quarter.
“He ran a deep comeback and I just drove the man and made sure my arms were in the right place,” Woods said. “When I saw he had the ball up, I just took it from him.”
But WVU immediately lost 3 yards on Garrett Greene’s only play at quarterback, before Brown elected to have his team punt it back on fourth-and-4 just short of midfield on the opening play of the fourth quarter.
Over the remainder of the game, the Mountaineers ran only four offensive plays, including Johnson’s scamper to end the contest, which followed four red zone kneel downs from Minnesota.
Minnesota had the ball for 38:29 and averaged 5.6 yards per play compared to a paltry 3.6 for West Virginia.
“We knew coming in this was a tough matchup for us,” Brown said. “They’re really big up front. In the second half, we got tired and their time of possession was higher than us. We weren’t very good on offense on third down and credit to them. They did some things defensively, used their time well and had a beat on us.”
Doege threw for 140 yards while completing 18-of-31 passes. Tony Mathis rushed for 56 yards on 13 carries and caught five passes for 24 yards while serving as WVU’s top tailback after Leddie Brown opted out of the contest.
“I just stayed with what we normally do,” Mathis said. “Nothing different. Just prepared like we normally would if he was here.
“We didn’t win, so not good enough.”
Thomas (21 carries, 144 yards) and Irving (19-129) both found success in the Golden Gophers’ ground-oriented attack.
Morgan was 8-of-13 passing for 109 yards, while Dylan Wright had a game-high 58 receiving yards.
Linebacker Lance Dixon returned from injury to pace the WVU defense with 11 tackles.
The loss was Brown’s first in five bowl games and left him 17-18 through three seasons at West Virginia. WVU is now 16-23 in bowl games.