WVU football: 5 Mountaineers who you’d want to be quarantined with
By Phil Poling
3. Will Grier, Quarterback (2016-18)
Another great memory created by WVU football is a more recent one: Will Grier’s touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion against the Texas Longhorns in 2018. Grier endured a redshirt season in 2016 full of possibilities and a disappointing junior campaign for the ‘Eers the following year, but the sky was the limit heading into November’s meeting in Austin during his senior campaign.
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West Virginia (6-1) was ranked No. 12, while Texas (6-2) was ranked No. 15. And along with the Mountaineers’ hopes of being the Big 12’s best, Grier had Heisman Trophy aspirations. He also cemented his name in the conversation with these Heisman moments.
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The Mountaineers possessed the football as first-and-10 from the 33-yard line was the task in front of them. But trailing 41-34 with just 24 seconds remaining didn’t leave much room for error. Luckily, Grier was able to deliver a strike to a streaking Gary Jennings who hauled in the pass and cut the lead to just a single point. We all know Dana Holgorsen team’s aren’t known for their defense, so kicking the PAT and going to overtime wasn’t really in the cards.
The Mountaineers’ opted to go for two, and put the ball in the hands of their senior signal-caller once again. This time, though, Grier used his feet to scramble left and push past the pylon for the conversion. Texas fans were rightly stunned.
I refer to this game as the, “Horns Down,” game because, well, Texas fans cried – and are still crying — about the hand gesture Grier and many other Mountaineers introduced to a the WVU fanbase that day. Sure, the Sooners and Pokes and plenty of other schools have flashed *Horns Down!* toward the Longhorns, but being relatively new to the Big 12, it hadn’t been of much use to West Virginia. Now, it’ll live forever within the program and fanbase.
If I were quarantined with Grier, we wouldn’t even need to talk all that much. We could simply communicate through Horns Down gestures.