COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When its prized left tackle staggered off with a knee injury, West Virginia found a reliable contingency.
But when its senior quarterback departed for the X-ray room? Carl Jung couldn’t have made order of such chaos.
Luckily for the Mountaineers, 26-11 winners over Missouri in Saturday’s debut, Skyler Howard’s absence lasted only four plays. Even such a condensed span was long enough for his backups to squeeze in two dreadful-looking turnovers.
Backup No.1, William Crest, scrambled out of and back into the pocket, a doozy of a backyard play surely developing as he cocked his right arm to fire deep. In all the improvised excitement, however, Crest lost the ball on his windup. Lost it backward, in fact, and Missouri recovered at the West Virginia 7.
After a first-rate defensive bailout, WVU turned to Backup No. 2, Chris Chugunov, presumably to extinguish the final minute and take a 10-point lead into half. Instead, the redshirt freshman floated a deep pass into a gaggle of defenders.
First college pass? Check. First interception? Check. How’s Skyler feeling? Hurry, somebody check.
While Howard spent halftime receiving treatment from the medical staff, coach Dana Holgorsen wasn’t treating Crest and Chugs with kid gloves.
“I love ‘em both, but those guys, when they have that opportunity, they have to do better,” he said. “I wasn’t real happy with the way the second quarter ended.”
Who knows what calamity might have transpired had the relentless Howard not surprised Holgorsen—and indeed most of the offense—by trotting out to start the second half. X-rays showed no broken ribs, though the cartilage damage made breathing painful.
Daikiel Shorts presumed his quarterback was concussed after Howard asked him what the score was.
“I said, ‘For real? Are you sure you’re good?’ But Skyler said he was ready, and that’s good. We function better with him in there.”
The offense wasn’t fully functional in the second half because WVU couldn’t risk running Howard. Yet he completed 12-of-17 passes for 145 yards after the injury, compared to 12-of-18 for 108 yards before it.
The situation at left tackle didn’t create the same panic, though All-SEC terror Charles Harris must have been salivating once Yodny Cajuste lasted only two series. Enter 6-foot-7 plugin Colton McKivitz, a redshirt freshman who spent the final 69 plays essentially silencing Harris.
The Mizzou defensive end was a nonfactor with only two tackles and got a faceful of McKivitz on the draw play that sprang Rushel Shell for the game’s first touchdown.
“I got ahold of (Harris) and then I saw Shell go flying by,” McKivitz said. “As soon as he hit the end zone I was going nuts.”
McKivitz became a popular interviewee after the game—discussing his 45-pound bulk-up to 305 over the last year, the shoulder-length hair he shaved after the Cactus Bowl, and even recounting some basketball tales from high school. Yet there were forces at work to keep him grounded.
Like center Tyler Orlosky playing oblivious to McKivitz’s extended action by looking over in the fourth quarter and asking the kid, “What the hell are you still doing out here?”
And there was offensive line coach Ron Crook preparing his notoriously tough film evaluations, to be absorbed Sunday.
“Yeah, I know my grade will be worse than I think it’ll be,” McKivitz said.
He should see the one Holgorsen gives the backup quarterbacks.
Amid the relief West Virginia feels over Howard’s injury, remember how he survived two games with a wrapped-up wrist last season and limped through the fourth quarter at K-State. He’s tough and determined, but not unbreakable. Odds point toward Howard being incapacitated again, especially when running the read-option turns him into a piñata.
Holgorsen expects the inevitable, saying, “Somebody has to step up. We’re going to get to that second guy a good bit.”
But how often and for how long? We didn’t need an X-ray to see how broken the offense became without Howard in Week 1.