Oct. 18—MORGANTOWN — It officially became painful Saturday.
Too painful to watch. Too painful to look for positives, not that there were many after UCF demolished West Virginia 45-13 inside the Acrisure Bounce House.
The Knights, who had never tasted a win before against WVU — albeit in just four previous tries — simply bounced the Mountaineers right out of Orlando, Fla.
And so we ask: What now ?
That just may be the issue, because what WVU (2-5, 0-4 Big 12) put on film against the Knights was it is now a team without any more options. There is nothing up head coach Rich Rodriguez’s sleeve. No spark left to insert. No amount of Xs or Os that will suddenly give these Mountaineers some hope.
Not this season.
“We didn’t do anything well, ” Rodriguez said after the game. “We looked slow. We were out of position, missed tackles, didn’t block. I’m hoping this is the bottom.”
If the thought among football coaches is to stick with what works, WVU’s offense for the remaining five games is going to basically be limited to some jet sweeps to Rodney Gallagher and some designed quarterback runs.
The passing game is nonexistent, which is a shame since receiver Cam Vaughn has the appearance of being a potential Big 12-level talent on the outside. That wasn’t the appearance against UCF. Vaughn caught just two passes for 15 yards.
His most exciting play was running a reverse pass early in the third quarter that got eyebrows raised for a second, until he underthrew the pass to Grayson Barnes.
Scotty Fox Jr. made headlines early, becoming the first true freshman to start at quarterback for WVU since 1952.
It turned out to be just a footnote, because Fox just isn’t ready for big-time college football just yet. In came Khalil Wilkins, who was an instant spark with his feet. There were a couple of nice designed runs. He scrambled his way into the end zone early in the second quarter to cut UCF’s lead to 14-7.
And then UCF basically said, “Enough of that.”
Wilkins’ running ability was squashed and then he was literally sandwiched between UCF defenders John Walker and Jamaal Johnson (a combined 579 pounds of bread in that unfortunate sandwich).
WVU’s passing game produced a season-low 79 yards. It wasn’t because the running game was humming. The Mountaineers’ best run of the day likely came from punter Oliver Straw. No joke.
“You can say, ‘Well, you’re playing young quarterbacks, ‘ and we are, ” Rodriguez said. “There are growing pains with that, but that doesn’t explain everything.
“It’s a lot on them, but it’s a lot on them more when the pieces around them aren’t helping. We’ve got to figure out a way for that to happen.”
WVU’s defense is equally just as limited. Poor safety play led to the Knights’ first two touchdowns. Both came on fourth down and both times a UCF receiver broke free 20-some yards down the field, while the WVU safety either lost track of his man or just got outran.
UCF’s remaining big play was Jaden Nixon basically going untouched for an 83-yard run. He finished with 116 yards rushing. It only took him seven carries to get it.
UCF finished with 578 yards. That’s now 1, 626 yards WVU has allowed over its last three games.
Fix it ? Sounds good. How ? That’s a good question. Play younger guys, well, there really aren’t that many younger guys on the depth chart. Start benching some guys. Maybe, but do you really think that fixes things in the short term ?
Maybe the most painful part is the realization that this all came against UCF, a program that has severely struggled since joining the Big 12 in 2023. The Knights, too, have a first-year coach in Scott Frost, who also had to rebuild his roster mostly from scratch.
This wasn’t the same as losing to nationally-ranked BYU or even to Kansas with its exciting quarterback in Jalon Daniels.
This also wasn’t the same as losing to Temple back in the old Big East days, but it’s somewhere in that neighborhood. It’s knocking on that door.
The only difference is WVU’s situation. The Mountaineers have been decimated by injuries. Losing Jahiem White in the second game of the season was deadly. Now, running back Tye Edwards is officially out for the season with his hip injury.
WVU is in full rebuild mode. We knew that at the beginning of the season. We better realize quickly it’s going to be in that same mode come next August.
It’s going to be a while before the Mountaineers are respected again. The unfortunate part is it’s already been some time since WVU was considered a true top 30-ish type program.
Yeah, we feel your pain. We certainly felt it Saturday. There will be more pain to come, because if this UCF loss told any type of story, it’s that the Mountaineers have simply run out of options in 2025.
