Mike Lockhart called his shot as WVU’s two field goal blocks are the difference against TCU

In the final five minutes of West Virginia’s win over TCU, the Mountaineers blocked two field goals.

Both kicks would have tied the game and the Mountaineers blocked both of them. The first one came from Mike Lockhart and the second came from Sean Martin.

“Me and Sean shared the game ball,” Lockhart said. “I grabbed it for him since we both got a blocked field goal. This right here represents our brotherhood.”

Lockhart told the defense if they got a stop on third down he was then going to block the kick.

“I said if we get this third down stop, I’m going to come out here and block the field goal,” Lockhart said. “I told Lee (Kpogba), Tyrin (Bradley), I told all my team, I’m going to block the field goal for us. Then the hole came open and I blocked it and the rest is history.”

Martin’s block came within the final minute of the game. On 3rd and 7 he appeared to have a sack which would have backed TCU up even further, but after replay the quarterback was able to get the ball away in the knick of time.

“The previous play, they took my sack away so I was pretty mad,” Martin said. “Coach told us to come to the sideline. He told us to strike and then to put our arm up. I strike, put my arm up, blocked the kick.”

West Virginia’s defense was playing inspired football. The Mountaineers lost starting safety Aubrey Burks and linebacker Trey Lathan to serious injuries which required them to both be carted off and then stay overnight in Fort Worth.

“The difference in the second half is we was playing for our bothers,” Lockhart said. “We know our brothers are hurt and are in the hospital right now. We was like we got to win this for game. We went out there and balled.”

“We basically came in the huddle and said we’re going to do it for 2 (Burks) and we’re going to do it for Trey (Lathan),” Lockhart added.

“I would say a little bit of AB (Burks) going down kind of affected us a little bit,” Martin said. “Then we came back in the locker room and cooled down. And coach told us we made some mistakes and missed opportunities and then we just came back out and played hard.”

“You hate to see guys go down especially when you see how much work they put in,” Lee Kpogba said. “We just used it as motivation tonight knowing those guys would want us to keep going and just come out with a win. We just used it to motivate us, get us out the game.”

Martin is one of the leaders of the WVU defense, controlling that defensive line for the Mountaineers.

“You just got to tell everybody to keep your head up. Just tell them to fight through,” Martin said. “If he was playing, obviously he’d play hard. So you just got to keep playing through no matter who gets hurt.”

With the win, West Virginia improved to 4-1 on the season as well as 2-0 in Big 12 play after they were picked to finish last in the preseason poll.

“We just got to keep playing. Nobody believes in us. Number 14 for a reason,” Martin said.

Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography, WVU Athletics