Houston shocks West Virginia with unbelievable Hail Mary as time expires

It was an ending for the ages on Thursday night between the Houston Cougars and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

In a last-ditch effort to win the game, quarterback Donovan Smith launched a hope and prayer 49 yards looking for a miracle.

And that’s exactly what he got. 

The Cougars pulled off the 41-39 win over WVU thanks to the Hail Mary throw that created a jump ball in the end zone.

The ball looked as though it had been tipped by a West Virginia defender at first, but then it landed right into the arms of Stephon Johnson, who instantly went bonkers with excitement over what had just transpired. 

A Cougars teammate came up behind him to lift him in celebration as the entire team came rushing over to bask in the win. 

“Hats off to Donovan Smith. That was an incredible, incredible play,” Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen told reporters. “ We had pressure, which is normal. They spied him, so he broke the paint and he’s running left. He’s got to flip his hips at midfield and throw that thing and get it there. [Joseph Manjack IV] high pointed it and ended up tipping it. 

“I could barely see it, but I just saw [Johnson] running and the crowd goes crazy. I was like ‘wow we executed it, how about that.’” 

“We practiced that, and we always have a guy who is ready for the tip,” Smith said after the win, per the Associated Press. “We just executed that.”

Johnson said it wasn’t planned to go down the way it happened, but he was pleased nonetheless.

“It wasn’t really planned to be tipped to me,” Johnson said of the Hail Mair, per the AP. “It just happened like that, and I made a play on that. I’m just thankful we were able to pull out the win.”

It was certainly an exciting game between the two programs that came down to the wire. 

Houston had led 35-24 in the final five minutes of the game before West Virginia scored two consecutive touchdowns, including one with 12 seconds left on the clock to take a four-point lead.

The win was a big one for the Cougars, who picked up their third win of the year and their first in Big 12 play.

The loss was the Mountaineers’ first loss of the year against a conference opponent. 

—With Post wires