MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Neal Brown hardly had a choice.

A 32-yard touchdown run from Kansas’ Luke Grimm, who dashed down the sideline directly in front of West Virginia’s sixth-year head coach, left the Jayhawks with a 28-17 lead and 5:39 remaining last Saturday at Mountaineer Field.

Needing to make up that deficit in timely fashion, the Mountaineers were forced to go into 2-minute mode offensively to start their next series. That became a nine play, 75-yard drive that produced a touchdown, which combined with a successful two-point conversion, allowed WVU trail by three with 3:27 remaining. Following a defensive snap, the Mountaineers got the ball back, again operated at a quick pace, and scored a second touchdown in as many possessions with 26 seconds remaining to rally for a much-needed 32-28 victory.

Despite the abundance of success on the final two series, Brown believes the Mountaineers must continue to pick and choose when to go utilize their 2-minute offense.

“If you do that all the time, you make it really hard on your defense,” Brown said. “If you’re going to do that all the time, then people are working that all the time. When people are going to play us, that’s not the first thing they’re working on. They’re working on how they’re going to play our run game concepts, how they’re going to play quarterback run stuff and how do you stop shot plays. They probably get to the 2-minute stuff later in the week, but at the very start, they probably go, ‘how do we play the run game and keep the ball in front of us on shot plays?’ There’s some cat and mouse stuff that you can do that makes it really hard, and you’re putting your offensive line in a tough spot.”

The play of quarterback Garrett Greene was especially imperative to the success in the come-from-behind win against KU. One week earlier, Greene was in a tough spot when West Virginia got the ball back with 30 seconds left, no timeouts and a four-point deficit at Pitt. He threw three incomplete passes and then an interception on fourth down that sealed the Mountaineers’ fate.

“They did a good job covering it,” Greene said afterward, “and I couldn’t find the open guy.”

That was anything but the case late against Kansas. Greene finished the second-to-last scoring series 4-for-7 with 60 yards and a touchdown, while rushing twice for 7 yards.

On West Virginia’s final full possession, Greene completed both of his passes for 26 yards with a touchdown, had another throw that drew a pass interference penalty and rushed four times for 25 yards. Altogether, the senior signal-caller was 6-for-9 with 86 yards and two passing TDs to go with six carries for 32 yards on his team’s final two scoring drives.

“I felt like our best opportunity was to spread them out and use plays where it was basically one, two, run. That’s not always the best,” Brown said. “You allow him to be who he is. There’s some things he does that are really frustrating to me, but he also does some things that I can’t coach. I can’t coach him to break tackles. It’s give and take. I don’t get really frustrated outwardly. I know there’s going to be some latitude taken by him. I have to be OK with it.

“We got in that 2-minute mode the other day and I was like, ‘if you pull down and run, that’s fine. Get your eyes where they’re supposed to be.’ The kid makes plays. He’s a play maker that can continue to be better as a passer.”

While Greene has proven he can thrive operating a 2-minute offense on several occasions over his two seasons as a starter, his accuracy remains a work in progress. 

Greene made it known significant improvement to last year’s 53 percent completion rate was one of his main priorities in his final college season, but thus far, he’s hit on 63-of-11 passes for slightly less than 57 percent.

In three games against FBS competition, Greene has completed 46-of-88 passes for slightly better than 52 percent.

Brown believes better fundamentals within the pocket are a clear starting point for Greene to complete more passes.

“If he would consistently do what he’s supposed to do with his feet, he’d have a higher completion percentage,” Brown said. “I’m good if he’s going to run around. I’m fine with all that. But when the play is in the pocket, let’s be fundamentally sound. That’s what he has to get better at. He throws the deep ball extremely well, and all kinds of different types of deep balls. But in rhythm throws, he has to make sure his base stays the way it should be.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kentucky men’s soccer (1-2-4, 0-0-2 Sun Belt) earned the second consecutive draw of Sun Belt Conference competition with a 0-0 tie against No. 6 West Virginia (5-0-3, 1-0-1 Sun Belt) at the Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

The first half of the contest remained scoreless as both programs were unable to get a ball in the net. West Virginia held most of the possession in the first 45’ recording nine shots to Kentucky’s four. With only two of the nine shots on goal for the Mountaineers, junior goalkeeper Ryan Jack denied the WVU offense with a save in the second minute and at the 25’ mark.

With the halftime period complete, the Wildcats and Mountaineers faced off once again for the second half of the match. Shortly after play resumed, freshman Bertil Alban found a shot opportunity which was saved by WVU’s keeper, Marc Bonnaire. Followed by two Kentucky corner kicks, the ball was repossessed by West Virginia. A battle in the box did not phase Jack as he recorded his third save of the night in the 55^th minute.

The remaining 35 minutes of time presented unsuccessful scoring opportunities for both the Cats and Mountaineers. Joel Gonzalez was the second Wildcat to shoot a shot on goal which was saved. Despite effort to get a point on the scoreboard, regulation concluded resulting in a 0-0 scoreless draw. UK tallied 12 total shots throughout the match with eight in the second half while WVU only added two to their total of 11. Jack recorded the Cats’ second clean sheet of the season improving his junior record to 0-0-2.

Kentucky opened Sun Belt Conference competition last week also with a 0-0 draw against Georgia Southern at The Bell Soccer Complex. Friday’s match in Morgantown, W.Va. marked the second road contest of the regular-season schedule and the first of conference play for the Cats. The Mountaineers opened their Sun Belt schedule with a road test and 1-0 victory at Old Dominion.

Kentucky and West Virginia hold an updated all-time series record of 3-0-2 UK following the evening’s battle. The first face-off between the programs was took place in 2001.

The Wildcats will continue their two-match road trip in Columbia, S.C. taking on the Gamecocks of South Carolina in a match commonly dubbed the men’s soccer Southeastern Conference Championship.

For the latest on Kentucky Men’s Soccer, follow @UKMensSoccer on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKAthletics.com.

With the Denver Broncos playing back-to-back games on the East Coast, they opted to stay on the right side of the country.

However, with Hurricane Helene in the area, they were right in the storm’s path.

The team has been staying at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, which has two grass fields and a turf field outdoors.

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The storm, of course, made practicing outside impossible, but with roughly 48 hours before their game against the New York Jets, they had to improvise.

So, the team was forced to run a practice on indoor tennis courts.

“Everything went good … we got our work done,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said. ” … The change was made relative to the lightning forecast.”

A Denver Broncos fan waves a team logo flag in the second half against the Los Angeles Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.  (Ron Chenoy-USA Today Sports)

COWBOYS’ ALREADY-DEPLETED DEFENSE HIT WITH MORE INJURIES TO STAR RUSHERS

Wide receiver Josh Reynolds says he has actually practiced on basketball courts and in ballrooms in the past, “but this is a first time on a tennis court.”

Denver is coming off an impressive win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, their first of the season after losing their first pair of games.

The storm affected other leagues as well. Two games between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets were postponed to a doubleheader on Monday that could determine who goes into the postseason. Saturday’s game between Appalachian State and Liberty was also canceled, while a preseason NHL game was postponed.

Waves from the Gulf of Mexico crash on shore as Hurricane Helene churns offshore on September 26, 2024, in St. Pete Beach, Florida.  (Getty Images)

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Remnants of the storm figure to be in the New Jersey area on Sunday, as the Jets will look for their third straight win after losing their season opener to the San Francisco 49ers. 

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