MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With a few days to look back on West Virginia’s 31-24 season-opening win Saturday against Coastal Carolina, Mountaineer head coach Rich Rodriguez made a revelation about what was a rather lackluster second half that saw the Chanticleers outscore the Mountaineers by 17 points and outgain them, 311-77.
“If I look back at it, there were probably a couple opportunities in the second half where I said, ‘OK, we’re going to run and get a first down’, where we had opportunities to take a shot and I should’ve took a shot,” Rodriguez said. “Trust our protection, our wideouts and our quarterbacks to try and get a pass play going there. We kind of played it maybe too close to the vest in the second half with that lead. I was trying to calm us down a little bit and get our defense some rest.
“We could’ve been more aggressive in the second half at times, especially in the third quarter. We only had two possession in the third quarter and one of them was backed up, but we could’ve been more aggressive on one of those two possessions.”
Nearly all of West Virginia’s offensive production came over the first two quarters when the Mountaineers had 13 of 18 first downs and 336 of 413 total yards on 7.5 yards per play — a figure that dropped to 5.5 by game’s end.
Four of WVU’s first six series produced either a touchdown or field goal, while the other two were a three-and-out and one that spanned seven plays and 50 yards and ended with quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. fumbling through the end zone for a touchback.
Starting with the decision to kneel down on their own 14-yard line with three timeouts and 45 seconds left in the first half, however, the Mountaineers’ offensive attack took on a far more conservative approach.
During a scoreless third quarter, West Virginia ran six plays for 12 yards, failed to produce a first down and committed separate penalties on each series — a false start and holding — that left the unit with unfavorable down and distance situations.
After the WVU defense forced its second turnover on the first play of the fourth quarter, the offense again sputtered with three running plays that went for no yardage after a loss of 8 on third-and-2.
Even after possessing the ball for more than 5 minutes on its second series of the fourth, the Mountaineers went from having third-and-7 at the Chanticleers’ 27 to punting after Hawkins was dragged down for an 11-yard loss.
Hawkins went to halftime 7-for-9 with 113 yards and one touchdown, and much of the damage came on third down when he was 6-for-6 with 94 yards and the TD. He finished 11-for-14 with 132 yards.
Despite the Mountaineers running on 61 of 75 offensive plays, including a combined 50 carries for tailback Cam Cook and Hawkins, Rodriguez noted he was not intentionally calling offense during the second half with a purpose to avoid putting more on tape for future opponents.
“I’ve never thought about any game like that,” he said. “There have been end of games where you had a comfortable lead and you’re running the ball out, but even then, you’re just doing it to get the game over with, not so much like we’re going to hold this back. If we’re being ultra conservative, it’s probably because we’re trying to win the game, give our defense a little bit of a break and go on to the next thing.”
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Rodriguez mentioned Monday night on his weekly radio show and confirmed again Tuesday that edge rusher Darius Wiley will miss all of what remains of the 2026 season after suffering a significant and what looked to be a rather gruesome injury on the first play of the fourth quarter against Coastal.
It was on that play that defensive lineman Nate Gabriel sacked Chanticleers’ quarterback Deuce Bailey and forced a fumble recovered by Ezekiel Durham-Campbell, who was playing his first game as a Mountaineer after transferring from Coastal.
The celebration, however, was subdued when it was noticeable Wiley had suffered the injury.
“We want to have it as soon as possible, but it’s an extensive surgery,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a lot of fixing they have to do. He had a great camp, was playing well and he’s a really hard-working guy. I feel 100 percent confident that he’ll be able to come back. It won’t be this year, but he’ll take this as a challenge and come back hopefully healthy in a year.”
A 6-foot-6, 268-pound redshirt sophomore who was making his Mountaineer debut after transferring from Hutchinson Community College, Wiley had offered a strong initial impression, recording three tackles and one tackle for loss over 26 snaps.
“I love the kid. I don’t really care about him from a football player standpoint,” WVU defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “That’s not the point. We’re here to help these guys become men and be better people, and through the game of football, that’s what we do. I love him to death and have a great relationship with him. I feel really bad for him, man. What a brutal energy. I know he’ll have surgery here at some point and hopefully he can come back, be healthy and be ready to play again in the future. Obviously tough to see and what a great kid. Just really hate it for him and his family.”
As for the direction WVU heads in without Wiley, Rodriguez mentioned Tobi Haastrup and Jeremiah Johnson as players that could have a more featured role, and Alley noted they’l look to see who steps up among a trio of Emerson Joy, Wilnerson Telemaque and Brandon Caesar.
“Emerson went into the game later on after D-Wiley went down,” Alley said. “We’ll move some pieces around on some of the sub packages to kind of compensate.”
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The WVU debut of wideout Prince Strachan won’t come before the Mountaineers’ Week 3 matchup with Virginia on September 19 in Charlotte.
Rodriguez confirmed Strachan will be sidelined for the second time in as many games Saturday afternoon when West Virginia plays host to UT Martin at 1 p.m.
“Hopefully he’ll be back maybe for next week’s game. He’ll be out again this week,” Rodriguez said. “He has a chance to play in two weeks. We’ll see where that’s at.”