The Black Diamond Trophy will be staying with West Virginia after the Mountaineers overcame a slow start to dominate regional rival Virginia Tech, 33-10. A sellout crowd of 65,632 was on hand at Tech's Lane Stadium in Blacksburg to witness the Hokies' drubbing at home.

J.T. Daniels threw for 203 yards, completing 20 of his 30 pass attempts on the night. Meanwhile, CJ Donaldson continued to have a big 2022 season, topping the 100-yard mark for the third time this year, racking up 106 yards on 23 touches.

"I felt really good about our preparation coming into this game," said WVU head coach Neal Brown after the game. "We've been close, and I don't know if our record really tells our story. I feel like we've got a good football team.

"The Black Diamond Trophy is coming back home with us and it can stay in our Hall of Traditions for a long time," Brown continued.

Neal Brown entered the week on the hot seat, and while the West Virginia coach is far from off of it, the heat has cooled for at least a week with a big win over former Big East rival, and current regional recruiting rival, Virginia Tech.

The scoreboard wasn't "on fire" early, but the Mountaineers were consistent in scoring against the overwhelmed Hokies most of the evening. The JT Daniels-led offense scored on five straight possessions across three quarters of play. When Daniels hit Sam James on a 24-yard TD pass to put the Mountaineers up, 13-7, West Virginia never looked back.

"I thought coming in we could control the line of scrimmage, which we did, but we didn't get deterred offensively because we made some mistakes early and we settled in defensively and covered them better," said WVU's Brown. "We were the better team and we came out here, executed and showed it."

They certainly did.

West Virginia returns to Big 12 Conference play next Saturday with a trip to Texas to face the Longhorns. As for the Hokies, they'll try to rebound when Virginia Tech hosts UNC on October 1st in Blacksburg.