The Musket Meter is in for Week 2, and the mood swing is pretty easy to explain: West Virginia’s second half against Coastal Carolina wiped out a first half that had looked nearly perfect.
For anyone new to the process, the Musket Meter comes from asking WVU fans on Twitter/X the day after a game to rate their excitement from 0-100. The number is simply the average of those responses.
The case for the frustration starts with what happened after West Virginia built a 24-0 lead. From the point the team chose to take a knee with almost a full minute left in the first half, the game never looked like the same one.
The second half was a mess by comparison: just 77 total yards on 30 plays, which works out to 2.6 yards per play, along with six penalties for 65 yards. The Mountaineers still escaped with a 31-24 win, but it was a far shakier finish than the scoreboard should have allowed.
And this wasn’t just a matter of playing it safe while the defense handled business. Coastal Carolina’s quarterback was allowed to settle in and pile up 373 passing yards, and West Virginia even helped extend one drive with three defensive penalties that ended in a touchdown. The game was far too close for comfort, and it came down to one onside kick away from turning into a real scare.
Still, there’s another side to this. Coastal Carolina isn’t an FCS team, and it’s a Group of 6 program that can be compared to Ohio, the team WVU lost to last year.
There’s also no clear read yet on just how good Coastal Carolina really is, and the quarterback looked good enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him at a Power 4 school next year. West Virginia didn’t help itself with poor angles, but he also extended plays and delivered accurate throws on the move.
There was one clear positive to take from the defensive side: Coastal Carolina’s run game was completely shut down. That matters heading into Week 3 against Virginia, even if Coastal Carolina and Virginia aren’t being compared directly. Holding an opponent to one-dimensional football is still a useful sign.
Michael Hawkins Jr. also gave West Virginia plenty to like. Outside of the touchback turnover, he had a strong day.
His third-down decision-making stood out, and he did a good job extending plays while throwing accurately on the run. He also brings real value as a runner, which adds another layer defenses will have to deal with.
In Other News...
WVU Sees New Revenue In Two Venues With One Big Catch
WVU is leaning harder into the business side of college athletics, and Wren Bakers latest restructuring puts Don Robinson in charge of a key slice of that effort. Robinson will serve as the liaison to Learfields Mountaineer Sports Properties while also helping lead the push to bring concerts and other events to Hope Coliseum and Milan Puskar Stadium, part of a broader plan to create new revenue streams for the athletics department.
The ambition is there, but so are the hurdles. Hope Coliseum still needs major work, including no air conditioning, and both venues have loading limitations that make it tougher to stage larger productions. WVU wants those issues addressed well enough to host bigger shows by 2028, turning two familiar campus sites into something more than game-day buildings, even if the path to get there is going to take some real upgrades. [Read more 🡒]
Rich Rod Is Trying To Shield WVU From Portal Chaos
West Virginias roster management has become just as important as the on-field work this fall, with Rich Rodriguez and general manager Chuck Lillie leaning hard into one goal before the transfer portal opens again: keep the Mountaineers from getting hit by another wave of turnover. The staff has spent time trying to retain players through multi-year contracts, part of a broader push to create some stability in a sport that keeps making roster building more complicated.
The timing matters because the new eligibility rules have reduced the number of free transfers available, giving programs a chance to be more aggressive about locking players in for their full college careers. West Virginia has not disclosed which players are involved or what those deals look like, but the direction is clear. Rodriguez is trying to get ahead of portal chaos before it starts, and for a program that has seen how quickly a roster can change, that matters just as much as anything happening on Saturdays. [Read more 🡒]
West Virginias Latest FPI Shift Sparks A Debate Fans Wont Like
West Virginias first game of the season was enough to shake up ESPNs Football Power Index, and not in a way that will make the fan base feel any better about the road ahead. The latest projections have already moved on several upcoming matchups, including games against Virginia, Cincinnati, Texas Tech and Kansas, giving a clearer picture of how the computers are viewing the Mountaineers after one week of play.
The changes are especially notable because the most dramatic movement came in the outlook for Oklahoma State and Kansas, two games that now look different than they did before the opener. Even with those shifts, the broader picture remains stubbornly familiar for West Virginia, and the debate is less about whether the schedule got harder or easier than it is about how much room there is for the numbers to improve from here. [Read more 🡒]