To cap wild final minute, Houston beats West Virginia on Hail Mary
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HOUSTON — Donovan Smith threw a 49-yard touchdown pass that was caught by Stephon Johnson as time expired to give Houston a thrilling 41-39 win over West Virginia on Thursday night.
Smith finished 21 of 27 for 253 yards and four touchdowns. He threw a Hail Mary from midfield, the ball was tipped at the goal line and Johnson caught it to end the game.
“We practiced that, and we always have a guy who is ready for the tip,” Smith said. “We just executed that.”
Smith, who completed his final 16 passes, also ran for a touchdown as Houston (3-3, 1-2 Big 12) earned its first Big 12 win.
“Donovan Smith came alive at the end of the second quarter and had a great drive for a touchdown and then a great second half,” Houston coach Dana Holgorsen said. “The kid is turning into a really good player.”
Holgorsen described the play as “incredible” and Smith’s throw as “unbelievable.”
“We played all four quarters,” Holgorsen said. “I don’t know how that happened at the end. I guess the football gods were on our side today. We’ll take it. It’s good to get that first Big 12 win. … I’m just proud of that group in there for hanging in there. Donovan Smith and Boogie Johnson, I’ve never been a part of that.”
Johnson caught four passes for 96 yards and two scores, and Stacy Sneed rushed for 78 yards on seven carries.
“It wasn’t really planned to be tipped to me,” Johnson said of the final play. “It just happened like that, and I made a play on that. I’m just thankful we were able to pull out the win.”
HOUSTON WINS IT ON A TIP DRILL HAIL MARY‼️ pic.twitter.com/4BQb0GR1FB
— ESPN (@espn) October 13, 2023
Garrett Greene threw for 391 yards and two touchdowns. Greene, who was 20-of-38 passing, also rushed for 47 yards and two touchdowns for West Virginia (4-2, 2-1). The loss snapped West Virginia’s four-game win streak.
“We didn’t lose the game on the last play of the game,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “We had multiple chances to win the game, but we didn’t do it. I’m not very pleased with how we played in two out of three phases. Defensively and on special teams, we did not play good enough.”
Tonight's Houston-West Virginia game was the 3rd FBS game in the last 25 years to feature 2 go-ahead touchdowns in the final 12 seconds of the 4th quarter (Tennessee over Georgia in 2016 & Miami (FL) over Duke in 2015). pic.twitter.com/gZftXS8n2Y
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 13, 2023
Devon Carter caught five passes for 116 yards. West Virginia outgained Houston 546-393 total yards.
Trailing 35-24, West Virginia cut the lead to three on an 8-yard touchdown run and a 2-point conversion pass to Traylon Ray. After Houston was forced to punt, Greene found Hudson Clement for a 50-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 to give the Mountaineers a four-point lead with 12 seconds left.
The teams combined to score 42 fourth-quarter points.