West Virginia offered a strong response to its first loss by rallying for an overtime win in last week’s Backyard Brawl against Pittsburgh.
Now the Mountaineers get a chance to see how they handle an emotional victory against a rival when they start Big 12 Conference play at 6 p.m. Saturday with a matchup against Kansas at David Booth/Kansas Memorial Stadium. The contest is airing on FS1.
“If there’s any hangover or anything from the last game, I’ll probably notice it early in practice and get that corrected as soon as we can,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Our practice doesn’t change. We’re going to practice the same way with the same type of hope, focus and intensity.”
The fourth game for West Virginia (2-1) marks the team’s first extended road trip by way of flight. The Mountaineers endured offensive struggles two weeks ago in their only other road game this season, a 17-10 loss at Ohio that was marked by in inability to sustain drives and capitalize on quality field position.
In that game, WVU changed quarterbacks from Nicco Marchiol to Jaylen Henderson before going back to Marchiol. That was again the case against Pitt, though this time Marchiol was spelled by true freshman Scotty Fox, who was then replaced by Henderson before giving way back to Marchiol.
While Rodriguez attempted to “find a spark” at signal-caller, Marchiol was far and away the most effective of the three. He led the Mountaineers to 17 points over their final three series against Pitt, including an 87-yard game-tying touchdown drive over the final 2 minutes of regulation.
“Typically, when somebody is in there and you take them out and put somebody else in, they could go in the tank or go and pout or not be engaged anymore in the game — and he didn’t do that at all for us,” Rodriguez said. “He stayed engaged in the game and when he got his opportunity to go back into the game, he did a great job. That tells you he’s made of the right stuff.”
Marchiol is responsible for all but four of WVU’s 55 completions this season. He’s attempted 71 passes and thrown for 594 yards with a pair of touchdowns and one interception.
Running back Tye Edwards emerged a week ago after not recording a carry through the first two games. Edwards rushed for 141 yards and three scores on 25 carries and figures to assume a heavy workload at KU despite being labeled probable with an injury.
Edwards’ 141 rushing yards are a team-best to this point.
“Tye is still getting in shape. The hardest thing with him was he probably got a little tired there,” Rodriguez said. “He’s not used to that much of a workload. As the season goes along, he’ll get in better shape.”
WVU’s offense figures to be tested by a KU defense allowing 18.7 points on average through its first three games.
D.K. McDonald is in his first season as defensive coordinator and guides a unit being led in tackles by linebacker Trey Lathan, a WVU transfer with 25 stops and 3.5 tackles for loss this season.
Defensive end Leroy Harris III has 3.5 sacks to lead Kansas.
With the Jayhawks (2-1) off last week, Rodriguez believes the Mountaineers will see looks KU has yet to display this season.
“They’re very similar to us defensively from a standpoint that some teams you see a certain base defense on first and second down and on third down you’ll see all the exotic stuff,” Rodriguez said. “You’ll see a lot from these guys on every down. With two weeks, there are probably things we haven’t seen that we have to be prepared for. The only good part for us is our defense does a lot of that stuff, too, so we saw a lot of different stuff in camp. I know we’re going to see some stuff Saturday that we probably haven’t seen yet and we have to be ready for that.”
West Virginia’s defense has been solid in its own right, displaying a variety of pressure packages and different looks under coordinator Zac Alley that have largely proven successful thus far.
The defense will get linebacker Chase Wilson back in the lineup after he missed the Backyard Brawl with an injury suffered against Ohio. Wilson has a team-leading three sacks, while teammates Fred Perry, Hammond Russell and Edward Vesterinen have two apiece for a defense that ranks second in FBS with 13 sacks.
The Big 12 opener will mark perhaps the toughest test to date for the WVU defense, which must contend with a Jayhawk offense guided by a sharp mind in head coach Lance Leipold and with a proven quarterback in veteran Jalon Daniels.
Daniels is 54-for-75 with 679 yards in 2025. He’s thrown nine touchdowns and two interceptions.
“He can throw any route combination on the field,” Alley said.
Wideouts Emmanuel Henderson Jr. and Cam Pickett have combined for 22 catches, five of which have been touchdowns, and 307 receiving yards. Tight end DeShawn Hanika has nine grabs for 95 yards and three TDs.
Running back Daniel Hishaw has a team-high 169 yards and one touchdown on the ground.
Under Leipold, the Jayhawks are known to try and confuse defenses through various motions and pre-snap looks strived to get defender’s eyes in the wrong places.
KU spent a portion of its bye week trying to fine-tune mistakes found in its 42-31 loss at Missouri.
“To open up conference play at home and have a chance to play against a team like this is exciting,” Leipold said. “Our guys understand that we need to play our best to have a chance to win and get this conference season kicked off the right way.”