Mountaineers Take Positive Step on Saturday
October 26, 2025 04:10 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sometimes, a step forward must be taken sideways.
For you golfers out there who live in bunkers like I used to, do you ever recall just taking your sand wedge in frustration and trying to blast a ball plugged in the sand toward the pin, only to see it clip the top of the bunker and roll right back down to your feet?
Instead of aiming toward the flag, the more appropriate play is to hit the ball out to the side toward the fairway where you have a much better shot into the green.
In golf parlance, that's called taking your medicine.
Well, coach Rich Rodriguez's Mountaineer offense began last night's game against TCU in one of those giant-sized, church-pew bunkers they have up at Oakmont Country Club.
West Virginia's opening possession of the game started with a 4-yard run, an incomplete pass, a 4-yard sack and a punt.
Its next possession consisted of a 5-yard run, an incomplete pass, a 4-yard pass and a failed quarterback sneak on fourth down that gave the Horned Frogs the football at WVU's 34.
Possession No. 3 was comprised of a 1-yard run, a 7-yard pass, a 1-yard run and another punt. Added up, that's just 22 yards on 10 plays.
Rodriguez probably had thoughts about going to another quarterback seeking a spark, as he has in prior games this year, but he resisted the urge this time and stuck with true freshman Scotty Fox Jr. behind center.
Fox was by no means perfect, but he got better as the game wore on and finished the night completing 28 of 41 passes for 301 yards and two touchdowns. The 28 completions, 41 attempts and 301 yards are all school records for a true freshman quarterback.
"He made some nice throws, but there was some freshman stuff that was out there," Rodriguez said. "He's a true freshman and the kid battled and competed."
Hall of Fame coach Bobby Bowden, forced into a similar situation 51 years ago during a miserable 1974 campaign that saw his Mountaineer football team lose seven and win just four, used three different starting quarterbacks before finally going to Dan Kendra, a true freshman.
Kendra came in relief of starter Kirk Lewis in a 35-21 home loss to Temple and completed 11 of his 15 pass attempts for 208 yards and a touchdown. A week later, the young quarterback again relieved Lewis and led West Virginia to a dramatic 22-21 victory at Virginia Tech that Bowden was convinced saved his job.
Whether or not that's true is debatable.
What's not debate is a year later, Kendra led West Virginia to a 9-3 record and a Peach Bowl victory over NC State.
I think back to the 2005 season when the Mountaineers experienced a depressing 34-17 home loss to third-ranked Virginia Tech. The offense struggled mightily that afternoon, but the silver lining was the discovery of true freshman running back Steve Slaton, who finished the game with 90 yards on just 11 carries, including a 44-yard run. A week later, Slaton ran for 139 yards and a touchdown in a road win at Rutgers, and then a week after that, Pat White finally found his bearings at quarterback against Louisville and the rest was history.
It remains to be seen if last night's TCU performance marks a turning point, but at the very least it is a starting point.
It was the first time this season a West Virginia starting quarterback played the entire game. That's a start.
It was the first time this season the Mountaineers passed for more than 300 yards in a game. That's a start.
It was the first time the defense registered a sack in a Big 12 game, the Mountaineers ending up with two. That's a start.
It was the first time this season West Virginia was still in a conference game heading into the fourth quarter. That's a start.
The starting lineup on offense included eight players with collegiate eligibility remaining – Fox, running back Diore Hubbard, wide receiver Rodney Gallagher III, wide receiver Cam Vaughn, offensive tackles Nick Krahe and Malik Agbo, guard Donovan Haslem and center Landen Livingston. That's a positive.
Rodriguez, ranked fourth among active Power Four coaches with 192 wins, is not into moral victories. He was upset afterward that his offense could only generate 41 yards rushing and failed five times to convert on fourth down.
"You aren't going to win the game rushing for 40 yards, are you kidding me?" Rodriguez said. "But there is also a lot of stuff we can take from here and grow from."
His car was still sitting in the Milan Puskar Center parking lot when we finished the postgame radio show at 11 p.m., and you can bet his car was the first one sitting in the lot bright and early on Sunday morning.
Today, after eight games, the staff finally has a starting point heading into next Saturday's game against surprising Houston, which upset 24th-ranked Arizona State last night and replaced the Sun Devils in this week's polls.
Last Tuesday, while lamenting his team's disappointing effort at UCF, for an immediate mood booster, Rodriguez admitted that he occasionally puts on the tape of some of the incoming high school players that are committed.
He really likes the guys they have coming into the program.
For the 54,110 Mountaineer fans at last night's game who witnessed the blowout losses last year to Iowa State, Kansas State, Baylor and Texas Tech, coupled with this year's defeats to Kansas, Utah, BYU and UCF, being in the game in the fourth quarter is a step in the right direction, even if that step was taken sideways.
The golf ball is at least out of the bunker now and sitting back in the fairway.
