Gray, Texas stop sluggish West Virginia

AUSTIN, Texas -- Johnathan Gray scored three touchdowns and Texas inched closer to a possible bowl game in head coach Charlie Strong's first season with a 33-16 win over No. 23 West Virginia yesterday.

Gray scored on runs of 39, 2 and 15 yards as Texas (5-5, 4-3 Big 12) ended a streak of nine straight home losses to ranked opponents. The Longhorns need to win one of their final two games to be eligible for a bowl. Texas last missed a bowl in 2010 when the Longhorns had a losing season the year after playing for the national championship.

Gray had 101 yards rushing on 10 carries. He scored twice in the second quarter to propel Texas to 24-3 halftime lead.

West Virginia (6-4, 4-3) made a late charge for a comeback when Dreamius Smith scored early in the fourth quarter. But after a long punt pinned West Virginia at its own 2, Trickett was sacked by Texas' Cedric Reed for a safety.

Those two points loomed large when the Mountaineers scored again but were still down by 16 and failed on a two-point conversion. Gray put the game out of reach with his final touchdown with 3:06 to play.

The Mountaineers looked tired, both emotionally and physically after last week's last-second loss to TCU and the 1,400-mile trip to Austin.

But West Virginia had a chance to make a game of it by driving inside the Texas 10 early in the third quarter, but two big tackles by linebacker Jordan Hicks on third and fourth down stopped the drive.

Mountaineers quarterback Clint Trickett passed for 248 yards, but had two turnovers.

Smith ran for 100 yards for West Virginia. Kevin White had 16 catches for 132 yards.