Therrian Alexander stepped in front of Khalil Wilkins’ third pass for an interception, returned it 48 yards to setup the game’s first touchdown, and No. 23 BYU played with a double-digit lead for the majority of a 38-24 win over West Virginia at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Parker Kingston’s 1-yard touchdown run gave BYU (5-0, 2-0) the 7-0 advantage, and Kingston hauled in a 54-yard touchdown pass less than 6 minutes later to double the Cougars’ lead.
Kingston’s long TD reception came three plays after West Virginia tailback Tye Edwards was stopped short on a fourth-and-2 run from the BYU 44-yard line.
Making his first career start, Wilkins eft briefly during the Mountaineers’ next series and was replaced by Scotty Fox, who broke off a 23-yard run that led to the visitors’ first points — Kade Hensley’s 45-yard field goal on the second play of the second quarter.
Chase Wilson’s interception of a Bachmeier red zone pass prevented the WVU (2-4, 0-3) deficit from growing on the ensuing series.
“On screen plays, you’ll kind of feel the O-line is kind of half-blocking you. I kind of felt that and read the quarterback’s eyes and the ball ended up there,” Wilson said.
However, BYU found the end zone shortly after on LJ Martin’s 4-yard run that followed Bachmeier’s 85-yard pass to wideout Chase Roberts.
The Mountaineers scored their first opening-half touchdown in Big 12 play on a 3-yard run from Diore Hubbard that was setup by Fred Perry’s fumble recovery off a pitch he deflected at the BYU 3.
The Cougars countered with a pivotal drive, reaching the end zone on Bachmeier’s 2-yard run 22 seconds before halftime. Bachmeier had rushed for 14 yards on third-and-15 a brief time earlier, then 3 yards to convert the following fourth down.
BYU held a 31-10 third-quarter lead following Will Ferrin’s 37-yard field goal.
After Wilkins was picked off by Tanner Wall on a catchable pass intended for Cam Vaughn, Perry forced a Jovesa Damuni fumble off a reception that Mountaineer linebacker Ben Cutter recovered at the BYU 22.
Five plays later, Wilkins reached the end zone on a 6-yard run to bring the Mountaineers to within 14 with 37 seconds left in the third quarter. It marked the redshirt freshman’s first career touchdown run.
BYU again answered in the exact fashion it hoped to and Martin capped a 12 play, 75-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run.
Hubbard was stopped short of the goal line on fourth-and-1 to end WVU’s ensuing possession.
“Hell, if you can’t score from the one-inch line, that’s ridiculous,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “You get shoved around on offense and shoved around on defense. That’s not good. We’ve got to get better on that.”
“That’s a play we have to score on,” said WVU redshirt junior offensive lineman Landen Livingston. “There’s no reason we should not do that. Obviously, we didn’t get enough push. That’s something we’ve got to work on, especially in this bye week and going into next week at UCF.”
Fox spelled Wilkins for the final series and threw his first touchdown pass — a 29-yarder to Vaughn.
“The two young quarterbacks, they are freshmen. So in that environment, I thought they accounted for themselves okay. Scotty made some nice throws and had a nice run. Khalil made some nice runs,” Rodriguez said.
Wilkins completed 7-of-15 passes for 81 yards and was the team’s leading rusher by a wide margin with 89 yards on 23 attempts.
Hubbard was limited to 32 yards on 17 carries and WVU rushed 47 times for 156 yards.
Bachmeier completed 18-of-25 passes for 351 yards.
“We made him look like the Heisman winner in the first half. Hand him the Heisman. And he is a good player. He’s tough. He runs. It was everything we thought,” Rodriguez said.
Roberts had 161 receiving yards and Kingston added 111. Both players had four receptions.
Martin rushed 21 times for 90 yards.
BYU had 516 total yards to 291 for WVU.
“If you limit a lot of the explosives, I think this is a different football game,” Wilson said. “A lot of the touchdowns came off explosives. You can’t play great defense and give up a bunch of explosives.
The Mountaineers are 0-3 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2021.
“I think we fought until the end. I don’t think that these guys give up,” Wilson said. “I don’t think our team gives up. It wasn’t perfect and it is not perfect and we need to get closer to perfect. I can get behind a bunch of guys that are not going to quit on each other.”
“We need an open date. We are tired. We are beat up, mad, frustrated, all of the above,” Rodriguez said.
“Are we doing everything we can do win with every person in the program? I am not saying we are not. But I think there is another level we can get to.”