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WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2018

Will Grier

Lubbock, Texas

West Virginia - 42, Texas Tech - 34

WILL GRIER: We got the win. It's tough to win in this league, and that's our goal every week is winning. Happy to get out of here with a win.

Q. Was there a little bit of a letdown when the lid came off in the third quarter, especially after the defense got the first stop? You moved the ball some, but there weren't any finishes, any kill shots, I guess.
WILL GRIER: Oh, absolutely. We hurt ourselves. It's going to need to be corrected going forward, but came out with a win, and that's all that matters right now.

Q. How much of it was in your mind execution and how much of it was just energy or just mental --
WILL GRIER: A lot of it was energy and where guys were at, and I put that on me and the other leaders of keeping everybody in it, making sure that just when we get up, there shouldn't be any letup. We talk about it, we say it. We obviously said it at halftime. Third quarter we talked about it. But there's a difference. I don't think there was -- I think it was about just executing and finishing plays, finishing the block, finishing the run, finishing the catch, and then I missed a couple things, and that's not okay at any point in the game, whether we're down, up. Those are things that have to be corrected.

But like I said, what's great about this team is we played team football, and our defense played outstanding, and we won the game.

Q. How about that first quarter execution? It was there.
WILL GRIER: Yeah, we executed. That's what -- we were playing hard. We were finishing blocks. We were finishing catches and making the right reads, and that's how we need to play football for all four quarters, I think. It was a great start, a great first quarter, even second quarter I thought we were doing good things. But like I said, we won, but we've got to get better, and that's part of the season. I talked a lot throughout the week about getting better every game, and we're going to go watch this film and make corrections. I think energy, like I said, has something to do with it, but it's also just playing a complete game of football and executing like we did in the first quarter for an entire game.

Q. Can that lack of energy lead to physical mistakes, a drop, an overthrow, a missed block, whatever?
WILL GRIER: I think so, and like I said, I don't think our energy was terrible. There was a lot of guys talking, like I said, we were talking about it. We knew there was a crucial point to keep the energy up, keep everybody in it. But like I said, we hurt ourselves on some things, and I don't think we were going as hard as we were in the first quarter. These are things, like I said, that we've got to correct.

Q. The continuity between you and Marcus is so much better this year, but why is it so much better?
WILL GRIER: I mean, he's playing really well. He's playing at a really high level. He's winning in man press coverage. He makes really tough catches, 3rd down tough catches that move the chains, really trustworthy guy to go to. He makes tough catches. His hands are great. He gets to the right spot. He understands where to be, and he's doing a great job for us right now. When you build that trust, it's easy to look for him out there.

Q. RPOs, you really hit them hard in the first half. What did they do to take that away in the second half?
WILL GRIER: I think we were hurting ourselves more than anything and just getting in -- there was certain things, we weren't just finishing plays, I think. We didn't come in here trying to hit a bunch of RPOs. That wasn't the game plan to just throw a bunch of RPOs. The way the game played out, we did hit some, but at the same time, we wouldn't be able to establish the run game real well and pass the ball well. There's things that I'm reading out there and I see openings and run situations, but that wasn't the game plan at halftime.

I think that it really was more us hurting ourselves and not executing and not finishing every play, not executing as well as we should.

Q. It looked like the second half Texas Tech said we're just coming out --
WILL GRIER: They blitzed us a couple times, and like I said, I think there's just things we've got to clean up execution-wise. We've got to -- there's things that we've got to do a better job of making calls, and I've got to do a good job of getting the ball out of my hands. They hit a couple blitzes, and that's going to happen sometimes, but like I said, it comes down to us playing a complete game. That could have happened at any point. It comes down to us making the right call, getting a hat for a hat and making tough catches.

Q. Seemed like the one to Gary was so close, just right off his hands.
WILL GRIER: Yeah.

Q. Was that frustrating a little bit?
WILL GRIER: Yeah, it's frustrating when you miss a couple things. I missed one to Marcus that he was open. It was very similar to the one we hit in the first quarter, and I just missed it, and that's not okay, and we've got to correct it, and I've got to do a better job of getting our guys the ball when they get open like that.

Q. When there's no juice like that, what do you have to do to change --
WILL GRIER: Grind it out, man. That's part of football, and you've got to be the team that when stuff is not always going your way, and it speaks to adversity, deals with adversity. I just thought we were a different team in the first half than we were in the second half from an execution and drive standpoint, and like I said, I'll put that on myself, and we've got to correct it throughout the week and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Q. To be able to absorb that lesson in a conference road win has got to be pretty encouraging.
WILL GRIER: No doubt. That's the thing we've got to keep coming back to. It's not easy, like I said, to win at all, to learn from what we did today and still come out with a win and correct it for next week. Like I said, it's a long season, and you have to continue to get better. Those are the teams that end up winning championships and being remembered are the teams that play well in November and December, so we've got to continue to play better as the season goes and learn from things like that. It was great to come out with a win. That's a good football team that we just played.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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