Saturday, November 1
Houston, Texas
12:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
at
Houston
Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
United Bank Playbook: Mountaineers Face 22nd-Ranked Houston on Saturday
October 29, 2025 01:36 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia returns to the University of Houston's TDECU Stadium, site of one of the most disturbing losses in Mountaineer football history back in 2023.
The Cougars, then led by former West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, surrendered a fourth-down, 50-yard Hudson Clement touchdown reception with just 12 seconds remaining to put WVU ahead 38-35.
But Mountaineer quarterback Garrett Greene was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taking his helmet off while celebrating the play, setting up the Cougars at their own 43 following Stacy Sneed's 18-yard kickoff return.
Then, with no timeouts remaining and only seven seconds showing on the clock, Donovan Smith was inexplicably allowed to complete an 8-yard sideline pass to Dalton Carnes, setting up Smith's miraculous 49-yard Hail Mary heave that went through the hands of safety Hershey McLaurin and right into the arms of Stephon Johnson for the game-winning touchdown.
The handful of students still remaining in the stadium rushed the field, and once it was cleared, WVU declined the conversion kick, thus ending the game with Houston winning 41-38.
The Keystone Cops conclusion resulted in Houston's first-ever Big 12 Conference victory.
Now, two years later, second-year coach Willie Fritz has the Cougars near the top of the conference standings with a 7-1 overall record and a 4-1 mark in Big 12 play.
Houston's only hiccup so far this year was a 35-11 home loss to Texas Tech on Oct. 4. The Cougars opened the season with nonconference victories over Stephen F. Austin and Rice, a 16-point Big 12 win versus Colorado, an overtime nonconference win against Oregon State and triumphs over Oklahoma State and Arizona.
Most recently, Houston upset 24th-ranked Arizona State last Saturday night at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. It was the Cougars' best performance of the season.
"They've very athletic and a well-coached team," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "They're playing really good football right now."
Junior quarterback Conner Weigman, a Texas A&M transfer, passed for 201 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 111 yards and two more scores against the Sun Devils to produce Houston's first road victory against a ranked team in eight years.
Now, the Cougars are back in the polls for the first time since 2022, and the oddsmakers have installed them as two-touchdown favorites against West Virginia on Saturday afternoon.
Weigman is completing 63.7% of his 193 pass attempts for 1,581 yards and 12 touchdowns. He is also the team's second-leading rusher with 354 yards to go with a team-best eight touchdowns.
Rice transfer Dean Connors is tops on the team with 586 yards rushing, including a season-high 132 yards earlier this year against his former team.
Houston's leading receiver is one of the top pass-catching tight ends in the country in 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior Tanner Koziol, who shows 43 catches for 450 yards and four touchdowns, tied with junior wide receiver Amare Thomas for the team lead.
Koziol caught seven passes for 100 yards and a touchdown against the Sun Devils last Saturday.
Thomas (17.4 yards per catch) and Mountaineer slayer Johnson (21.2 yards per catch) are the team's top down-field threats.
"Offensively, they'll make all the deep throws and get into a lot of different formations, Rodriguez said.
Defensively, Houston is allowing just 18.6 points per game, the 21st-fewest allowed in FBS play this season. The Cougars rank 25th in sacks with an average of 2.63 per game and are also in the top 40 in turnover margin (27th), third-down defense (35th), total defense (36th), first-down defense (36th) and rushing defense (38th).
"I've really been impressed with their defensive front and how actively they are defensively," Rodriguez said. "There will be a lot more press man than we saw last week, and they will challenge us a bit up front. My concern is our ability to handle their interior guys. They have disrupted every team they've played so far."
Houston's success against the run does not bode well for a Mountaineer rushing attack that generated just 41 yards during last Saturday's 23-17 loss to TCU.
However, West Virginia did find a spark in the passing game from quarterback Scotty Fox Jr., who set a school true freshman record for passing with 28 completions and 301 yards against the Horned Frogs.
Fox is the fourth different quarterback to start a game for the Mountaineers, now 2-6 overall and 0-5 in Big 12 play following last Saturday's defeat.
Against TCU, Fox became the first starting quarterback this season to play an entire game. The defense sacked the quarterback for the first time in conference action, getting to Josh Hoover twice, and the Mountaineers were still in the game in the fourth quarter for the first time in conference play this season.
Those are positives Rodriguez hopes to build upon this Saturday afternoon in Houston.
"I think we can slowly add (to Fox's play call sheet), but we have to be careful because everything you add, it complicates everything a little bit more, not just for him, but everybody else," Rodriguez explained. "I think we simplified it pretty well in the last game, and we'll add a few more things for this game and see if he can handle it."
The coach said his team's effort was much better against TCU, and he expects it to continue for the remainder of the season.
"The effort part, that shouldn't have to be asked for at this point," Rodriguez said. "To have to ask for it, or want to see it, it's taken too long. But that being said, that's a non-negotiable every time and when our culture is really set, I won't have to ever worry about it again."
A noon kickoff is on tap for Saturday's game, to be televised on FS1 (Connor Onion and Mark Helfrich).
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning begins with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 9 a.m. leading into regular network coverage at 11. The broadcast is available on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
This will be the second-ever meeting between the two schools, both taking place in Houston.
The Cougars, then led by former West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, surrendered a fourth-down, 50-yard Hudson Clement touchdown reception with just 12 seconds remaining to put WVU ahead 38-35.
But Mountaineer quarterback Garrett Greene was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taking his helmet off while celebrating the play, setting up the Cougars at their own 43 following Stacy Sneed's 18-yard kickoff return.
Then, with no timeouts remaining and only seven seconds showing on the clock, Donovan Smith was inexplicably allowed to complete an 8-yard sideline pass to Dalton Carnes, setting up Smith's miraculous 49-yard Hail Mary heave that went through the hands of safety Hershey McLaurin and right into the arms of Stephon Johnson for the game-winning touchdown.
The handful of students still remaining in the stadium rushed the field, and once it was cleared, WVU declined the conversion kick, thus ending the game with Houston winning 41-38.
The Keystone Cops conclusion resulted in Houston's first-ever Big 12 Conference victory.
Now, two years later, second-year coach Willie Fritz has the Cougars near the top of the conference standings with a 7-1 overall record and a 4-1 mark in Big 12 play.
Houston's only hiccup so far this year was a 35-11 home loss to Texas Tech on Oct. 4. The Cougars opened the season with nonconference victories over Stephen F. Austin and Rice, a 16-point Big 12 win versus Colorado, an overtime nonconference win against Oregon State and triumphs over Oklahoma State and Arizona.
Most recently, Houston upset 24th-ranked Arizona State last Saturday night at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. It was the Cougars' best performance of the season.
"They've very athletic and a well-coached team," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "They're playing really good football right now."
Junior quarterback Conner Weigman, a Texas A&M transfer, passed for 201 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 111 yards and two more scores against the Sun Devils to produce Houston's first road victory against a ranked team in eight years.
Now, the Cougars are back in the polls for the first time since 2022, and the oddsmakers have installed them as two-touchdown favorites against West Virginia on Saturday afternoon.
Weigman is completing 63.7% of his 193 pass attempts for 1,581 yards and 12 touchdowns. He is also the team's second-leading rusher with 354 yards to go with a team-best eight touchdowns.
Rice transfer Dean Connors is tops on the team with 586 yards rushing, including a season-high 132 yards earlier this year against his former team.
Houston's leading receiver is one of the top pass-catching tight ends in the country in 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior Tanner Koziol, who shows 43 catches for 450 yards and four touchdowns, tied with junior wide receiver Amare Thomas for the team lead.
Koziol caught seven passes for 100 yards and a touchdown against the Sun Devils last Saturday.
Thomas (17.4 yards per catch) and Mountaineer slayer Johnson (21.2 yards per catch) are the team's top down-field threats.
"Offensively, they'll make all the deep throws and get into a lot of different formations, Rodriguez said.
Defensively, Houston is allowing just 18.6 points per game, the 21st-fewest allowed in FBS play this season. The Cougars rank 25th in sacks with an average of 2.63 per game and are also in the top 40 in turnover margin (27th), third-down defense (35th), total defense (36th), first-down defense (36th) and rushing defense (38th).
"I've really been impressed with their defensive front and how actively they are defensively," Rodriguez said. "There will be a lot more press man than we saw last week, and they will challenge us a bit up front. My concern is our ability to handle their interior guys. They have disrupted every team they've played so far."
Houston's success against the run does not bode well for a Mountaineer rushing attack that generated just 41 yards during last Saturday's 23-17 loss to TCU.
However, West Virginia did find a spark in the passing game from quarterback Scotty Fox Jr., who set a school true freshman record for passing with 28 completions and 301 yards against the Horned Frogs.
Fox is the fourth different quarterback to start a game for the Mountaineers, now 2-6 overall and 0-5 in Big 12 play following last Saturday's defeat.
Against TCU, Fox became the first starting quarterback this season to play an entire game. The defense sacked the quarterback for the first time in conference action, getting to Josh Hoover twice, and the Mountaineers were still in the game in the fourth quarter for the first time in conference play this season.
Those are positives Rodriguez hopes to build upon this Saturday afternoon in Houston.
"I think we can slowly add (to Fox's play call sheet), but we have to be careful because everything you add, it complicates everything a little bit more, not just for him, but everybody else," Rodriguez explained. "I think we simplified it pretty well in the last game, and we'll add a few more things for this game and see if he can handle it."
The coach said his team's effort was much better against TCU, and he expects it to continue for the remainder of the season.
"The effort part, that shouldn't have to be asked for at this point," Rodriguez said. "To have to ask for it, or want to see it, it's taken too long. But that being said, that's a non-negotiable every time and when our culture is really set, I won't have to ever worry about it again."
A noon kickoff is on tap for Saturday's game, to be televised on FS1 (Connor Onion and Mark Helfrich).
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning begins with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 9 a.m. leading into regular network coverage at 11. The broadcast is available on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
This will be the second-ever meeting between the two schools, both taking place in Houston.
| Tale of the Tape | Houston | West Virginia |
| Points Per Game | 28.8 | 20.5 |
| Points Against | 18.6 | 29.9 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 171.3 | 176.1 |
| Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game | 120.4 | 160.1 |
| Passing Yards Per Game | 210.0 | 176.5 |
| Passing Yards Allowed Per Game | 210.4 | 247.1 |
| Total Yards Per Game | 381.3 | 352.6 |
| Total Yards Allowed Per Game | 330.8 | 407.3 |
| First Downs For | 156 | 155 |
| First Downs Against | 137 | 162 |
| Fumbles/Lost | 7/1 | 15/6 |
| Interceptions/Return Yards | 6/94 | 8/121 |
| Net Punting | 38.1 | 39.3 |
| Field Goal/Attempts | 16/19 | 6/8 |
| Time of Possession | 31:04 | 28:18 |
| 3rd Down Conversions | 51/121 | 33/116 |
| 3rd Down Conversion Defense | 41/118 | 40/117 |
| 4th Down Conversions | 9/17 | 11/28 |
| 4th Down Conversion Defense | 7/17 | 13/20 |
| Sacks By/Yards Lost | 21/126 | 13/75 |
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