January 3, 2016

Stakes were high as West Virginia entered the confines of Chase Field looking to win its first postseason game since the 2012 Orange Bowl. Quarterback Skyler Howard would have to carry that burden on one shoulder, as his other was occupied by a chip driving him to try and erase every question mark surrounding his role as the Mountaineers’ primary signal caller.

Both objectives were met, as Howard led WVU to a 43-42 victory over Arizona State and earned most outstanding offensive player honors in the best performance of his career.

Head Coach Dana Holgorsen chose to put the game in Howard’s hands from the first drive on, which proved to be fruitful after three consecutive completions for a total of 68 yards—one of them being a 53-yard hookup with wide receiver Ka’Raun White.

The familiar air-raid success wouldn’t stop there, though, as Howard continued to launch the ball deep to his receivers for the rest of the night, never hesitating to leave the fate of a drive in one of his teammates’ trusted hands.

“We knew they were good up front,” Holgorsen said. “I think they blitzed 100 percent of the time. We knew they would. They were going to try to fill gaps (and) take away our run game.”

Howard completed 28 of 51 passes for 532 yards—erasing Drew Bledsoe’s Cactus Bowl record of 476 from 1992—and five touchdowns.

“We knew it was going to be high risk, high reward,” Howard said. “If we would hold up front, we would have shots down the field. I was giving those guys a shot and they came down with it.”

ASU would take a similar approach, as quarterback Mike Bercovici completed 29 of 52 passes for 418 yards and four touchdowns.

The game continued to go back and forth, with each drive ending in a field goal until Bercovici found wide receiver Devin Lucien in the endzone to put the Sun Devils up 10-9 with 9:59 remaining in the second quarter.

Shortly after, WVU responded with a relentless aerial attack that split the secondary with vertical routes through the middle of the gridiron. Howard found White for a 21-yard gain, two plays before completing a 59-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Shelton Gibson, giving the Mountaineers a 16-10 lead.

“The toughest thing of the game is we couldn’t contain the vertical pass,” said ASU Head Coach Todd Graham.

ASU kicker Zane Gonzales evened the score on the Sun Devils’ next drive with a 19-yard field goal, cutting the gap to a 16-13 WVU lead.

WVU quickly responded with a strong drive that ended in a touchdown reception by wide receiver Daikiel Shorts Jr.

WVU kicker Josh Lamberts PAT attempt was blocked, however, and returned by ASU wide receiver Tim White for a defensive PAT, swinging momentum in the Sun Devils’ direction with only 0:28 remaining in the half and tilting the score from a two-possession difference to 22-15.

ASU managed to move the ball down the field to the 17-yard line, giving Gonzalez another field goal opportunity with 0:06 before halftime. He found space between the uprights for his third field goal of the night, as ASU trailed WVU 22-18 heading into halftime.

Despite some of WVU’s sloppy tendencies from the regular season, Howard’s efficiency would not falter in the second half, as he threw for another 198 yards and three more touchdowns, including a pass to wide receiver David Sills on what would be a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter.

The decisiveness of that drive, however, was a result of a questionable play call by Graham to kick the PAT instead of going for a two-point conversion with 4:56 on the clock, leaving only a 6-point lead for his defense to protect.

The Sills touchdown, prefaced by a 24-yard rush by running back Wendell Smallwood on 3rd and 22, and followed by an accurate PAT kick from Lambert, would conclude matters in Phoenix, 43-32, WVU.

“It’s my fault,” Graham said. “In the fourth quarter, we have a chart in the box that we go by. We’re supposed to be going for two. We didn’t. (It was) mismanagement on our part. That’s my responsibility.”

Smallwood finished with a team-high 79 rushing yards on the night. Gibson and White both finished over the century mark, with 143 and 116 yards, respectively. Other notable performances at wide receiver included Shorts (97 receiving yards and two touchdowns) and Jordan Thompson (80 receiving yards).

With the victory, WVU finished the season with more than seven wins for the first time since joining the Big 12 in 2012.

“We wanted to finish this one better than any West Virginia University Big 12 team had, and we did,” Holgorsen said. “That’s something positive, something we can build on.”