MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When West Virginia faces Kansas State at noon Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, it will mark the fourth time Wildcats’ quarterback Skylar Thompson has faced the Mountaineers.
Oddly enough, one of those times was not last season, when Thompson suffered a shoulder injury that caused him to miss K-State’s final seven games, with a 37-10 loss at West Virginia among them.
Thompson, however, saw extensive action against WVU annually from 2017-2019. While he’s never beaten the Mountaineers, he enters this week’s contest playing at a level he’s rarely gotten to before during his KSU career.
Having completed 112-of-157 passes, hitting on 71.3 percent of his throws ranks Thompson seventh among FBS quarterbacks.
“Skylar Thompson is the biggest difference this year,” third-year Mountaineer head coach Neal Brown said. “When he’s been healthy, they’ve played at a different level. He’s a tough kid. He’s a really good decision maker. He’s accurate and he can ad lib and makes plays with his feet as well.”
Thompson, a senior, missed a win over Nevada and loss at Oklahoma State earlier this season after suffering a knee injury in a victory against Southern Illinois.
He has since played in five straight games and helped direct the Wildcats to three consecutive victories. In those wins over Texas Tech, TCU and Kansas, Thompson is 56-for-75 for 792 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Overall, he’s thrown for 1,558 yards with eight TDs and four picks.
He also has only 32 rushing attempts to this point after having 69 in 2017, 105 in 2018 and 114 in 2019.
“He can, but he’s not running as much,” Brown said. “I don’t notice them calling as many run plays for him. His accuracy has really improved. He’s always had a strong arm. He still has that rare ability to extend plays. A lot of those explosive plays have been on him extending plays and some scramble-type opportunities. I’m not studying him all the time, but what I see is his accuracy has gotten better.”
Four of Thompson’s 32 rushes have gone for scores, and he remains capable of creating problems for opposing defenses with his mobility.
However, the combination of Thompson’s injury history, accuracy and weapons at his disposal make the need for him to be an asset with his feet less of a necessity, according to West Virginia defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley.
“Why he’s not running as much, maybe he got beat up over the last two years,” Lesley said. “He has a big arm and is one of the better quarterbacks in our league at sitting back and diagnosing a defense. When you look at the ability they have with [running back] Deuce Vaughn and all their running backs, how they get them in a formation and situations, and then those receivers outside, he doesn’t have to run as much, because he can deliver the ball and diagnose. It’s probably a little combination of both.”
Thompson has not had much success against West Virginia. While Brown and Lesley weren’t around in 2017 and 2018, he failed to throw a touchdown in either game, and completed 24-of-43 passes for 304 yards with two interceptions over those two games.
In 2019, Thompson was 24-of-39 for 299 yards and threw one touchdown, but was intercepted twice.
K-State was competitive in both the 2017 and 2019 losses, but suffered a 35-6 loss in between.
This year, however, Thompson is benefiting from an improved offensive line, and that aspect can’t be overlooked as a factor in his success.
Having allowed only 15 sacks all season, K-State is tied for No. 39 nationally.
“They do a really nice job of limiting your opportunities to do that, whether it’s moving the pocket with play actions of different forms or max protection, which people do to us a lot and Oklahoma State did that to us a lot and almost every play they throw the ball downfield,” Lesley said. “Some of the structure of their offense is how the quick game is built.
“They don’t give you a lot of those opportunities and their offensive line is as good of a unit playing collectively together and not making mistakes as anybody in our league. It’s a little bit of everything, which makes a good offense.”