West Virginia’s night against Oklahoma State had a strange rhythm to it. Early on, the Mountaineers looked like they had something cooking on offense with Mike Hawkins Jr. and Cam Cook doing damage on the ground. Then the second half settled in, the WVU attack cooled off, and Oklahoma State just kept rolling.
Even with Hawkins getting limited chances to throw, Cowboys head coach Eric Morris walked away impressed by what he saw from the West Virginia quarterback.
“Super dynamic runner in Hawkins. We knew.
He’s just a kid you hope to contain. You’re not going to stop him; you want to limit the bleeding," he said.
“The kid is special. I was in Texas when he was coming up through the ranks, and I was at North Texas, so we really didn’t have a chance to recruit him, but just remember watching him at that point in his career - just super electric.
And I think this is the perfect system for him. Shoot, he’s got two more years after this year, and Rich Rod does a phenomenal job with running quarterbacks; he’s shown that over the course of his coaching career.
But yeah, they’re going to be a problem for a long time with him at the helm.”
That’s the kind of praise that tells you Hawkins has real juice. He’s the sort of player who can tilt a game with his legs, and West Virginia can win plenty with him. The next step, though, is obvious: Rich Rod has to trust the passing game enough to let Hawkins really air it out.
On the other side of the ball, WVU spent much of the night living in a three-man front and showing Oklahoma State a dime look. It didn’t go well. Running back Caleb Hawkins kept pounding into a light box, and the Cowboys still found explosive plays through the air - 10 of them, to be exact.
“We committed to the run because they had three high safeties," Morris told reporters. "It was something they really hadn’t shown. They showed a little bit on tape, but obviously they were going to keep an umbrella and didn’t want Drew to beat them.”
From the outside, it was hard to understand why Zac Alley never moved away from that plan when it clearly wasn’t holding up. West Virginia was giving up 19.5 yards per completion and 5.4 yards per carry. At that point, the damage was already done.
In Other News...
West Virginia Faces A Bigger Defensive Concern Than One Bad Loss
West Virginias loss to Oklahoma State was not the kind you can pin on one bad quarter or one lopsided stat sheet. The Mountaineers actually had some encouraging numbers on defense and put up a strong rushing total, but the film still told a more troubling story. The new defensive scheme was supposed to help unsettle an opponent that likes to push the ball, yet Oklahoma State found too many ways to hit big plays and keep the pressure on.
What made the defeat sting was how often West Virginia let those chances slip through its hands. Missed tackles piled up, explosive plays came too easily, and the staff admitted the game plan simply did not work as intended. For a team trying to build momentum, the bigger concern is not just the result itself, but whether the defensive issues exposed in this one are tied to a deeper problem than a single rough afternoon. [Read more 🡒]
WVU Fans Get A Coal Rush Twist They Werent Expecting
West Virginias October 10 matchup with Arizona now has a start time and a national TV home, and it comes with an early kickoff that should give Mountaineer fans plenty of time to settle in. The Big 12 announced the game will kick at 12 p.m. ET in Morgantown and air on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max, adding another layer of visibility to a nonconference meeting that already carries some curiosity.
Arizona arrives with a little momentum after improving to 3-1 with a win over Washington State, while West Virginia will be trying to build on the familiarity of a series that has been played only once before. The Mountaineers won that 2021 meeting 31-26, and this years game lands in the middle of a busy stretch for the Wildcats, who will turn around and face Cincinnati in a late kickoff the following week. [Read more 🡒]
Rich Rod's Offense Is Giving West Virginia Fans A Real Concern
Rich Rodriguezs latest West Virginia offense is already drawing attention because it looks different from the ones fans remember from his earlier coaching stops. Through four games, the Mountaineers are throwing on just 22% of their offensive snaps, a notably lower rate than Rodriguez has typically used over the course of his career. For a coach long associated with pace and spread principles, that tilt toward the run has become one of the early-season talking points around the program.
The reasons are not hard to see, at least in broad terms. Pass protection has been an issue, and the receiver play has also factored into the equation, making it easier to understand why the offense has leaned so heavily on the ground game. Still, the bigger question hovering over West Virginia is whether a more balanced approach would make the attack harder to defend and more effective overall, even if the current numbers suggest Rodriguez is still searching for the right mix. [Read more 🡒]