MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene might never be completely satisfied with his offense’s performance as long as opportunities to get into the end zone are left unfulfilled.
“There’s two drives we didn’t score on,” Greene said. “We’ve got to clean those two things up. Other than that, I thought it was a productive day.”
Greene threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score, two West Virginia running backs rushed for over 100 yards and the Mountaineers beat Albany 49-14 on Saturday night.
CJ Donaldson ran for 125 yards and Jahiem White had 100 for the Mountaineers (1-1). Both had a rushing touchdown. The Mountaineers compiled 305 yards on the ground in shaking off some of the sting from a lethargic 34-12 loss in the opener to No. 8 Penn State.
A week ago, Greene was responsible for three fumbles and got West Virginia into the end zone just once on five trips inside the 30-yard line,
This time, the yards came much easier against an Albany defense with 11 new starters.
West Virginia coach Neal Brown said Greene “just did a better job of being in control” compared to a week earlier.
“You’ve got to be real careful because he does have high energy,” Brown said. “I don’t ever want to put out that flame. But at the same time, he can’t get overly hot. He’s got to continue to play within himself. And I thought he did a better job of that.”
Greene scored on a 40-yard run just before halftime and he engineered a 15-play, 99-yard drive to start the third quarter, capped by his 10-yard scoring toss to Hudson Clement for a 35-14 lead. Greene, who sat out the fourth quarter, completed 17 of 23 passes for 236 yards and added 68 rushing yards.
Seven different players scored a touchdown for West Virginia.
“We showed our inexperience on defense,” Albany coach Greg Gattuso said.
On defense, West Virginia had trouble corralling Albany quarterback Myles Burkett. He kept alive one touchdown drive with runs of 19 and 14 yards.
After White fumbled at the end of a 39-yard run on West Virginia’s next series, Burkett drove Albany 76 yards in seven plays, capped by his 33-yard TD toss to Jacari Carter to cut the deficit to 21-14. Burkett finished 18 of 39 for 306 yards.
“If you’re able to go up against a Big 12 team and beat them deep as much as we beat them, I feel pretty good about that,” Gattuso said.
THE TAKEAWAY
Albany: The Great Danes (1-1) fell to 1-9 all-time against Bowl Subdivision opponents. Seven McGee had four receptions for 90 yards, giving him 209 yards in two games. He had 287 receiving yards in three previous seasons combined.
West Virginia: The Mountaineers allowed eight completions of at least 19 yards. Cornerback Dontez Fagan was flagged for interference twice on the same Albany drive, including in the end zone.
“We’ve got to play the ball downfield better,” Brown said.
But after giving up pass plays of 41 and 49 yards on the opening drive of the second half, West Virginia’s defense forced a pair of incompletions and the Mountaineer took over on downs at their 1.
TWO-WAY GALLAGHER
West Virginia’s Rodney Gallagher caught three passes for 34 yards and had a solo tackle and a pass breakup on defense.
UP NEXT
Albany, ranked 13th in the FCS Coaches Poll, travels to play Idaho next Saturday.
West Virginia plays in the Backyard Brawl at archrival Pittsburgh on Saturday.
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