West Virginia upends No. 15 Virginia Tech, stops late scoring drive on downs

The renewal of the on-campus rivalry between Virginia Tech and West Virginia was one the 15th-ranked Hokies would like to forget.

Jared Doege threw for two touchdowns and Leddie Brown added 161 rushing yards and a score as the Mountaineers held on to a 27-21 defeat of their former Big East rivals Saturday.

Virginia Tech opened the season with an impressive win against then-No. 9 North Carolina and a defeat of Middle Tennessee, but the Hokies' offense struggled all game until mounting a late rally.

Hokies quarterback Braxton Burmeister had a touchdown throw in the first quarter for the team's only points until his third-and-23 run for 25 yards set up a score with one second left in the third quarter. Burmeister then hit Jalen Holston for a 23-yard touchdown on third-and-17 with three minutes left to cut the deficit to six.

Attempting to run out the clock on the ensuing drive, Doege was intercepted with less than three minutes left. Jermaine Waller returned the pick to the West Virginia 17 and Virginia Tech was poised to cap an unlikely comeback.

MORE: Southern Cal's plane tips backward on tarmac

MORE: No. 8 Cincinnati repels Indiana in wild game

ANALYSIS: Bearcats have two weeks to prep for biggest game in program history

Two runs would get the Hokies three yards from the go-ahead score, but Burmeister threw consecutive incompletions to stop the drive on downs. The Mountaineers would run out the clock for coach Neal Brown's second win against a ranked opponent in his four years at the school.

This is the first of consecutive games between the schools after they met every year between 1973-2005. Their only other meeting since was in a neutral site game in Landover, Maryland, in 2017.

Follow colleges reporter Erick Smith on Twitter @ericksmith

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football: No. 15 Virginia Tech falls to West Virginia, 27-21