MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s defense displayed marked improvement in its Week 3 win against Virginia.
Seven days later, the Mountaineers took a major step back in their Big 12 Conference opener against Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys amassed 609 yards of total offense and scored on five straight possessions during a second half they dominated to upend WVU, 41-24, at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Oklahoma State’s performance was highlighted by a stellar showing from redshirt sophomore quarterback Drew Mestemaker. He completed 20-of-27 passes for 389 yards and three touchdowns.
“We never touched him,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “He’s a good passer, has great vision and made some great deep throws, but guys are wide open. When you don’t pressure the guy at all and let him get comfortable, a good player like that, NFL quarterback, is going to beat you. One or two times we got pressure and tipped a pass or something, but other than that, we didn’t get pressure.”
It’s the sixth straight win in Morgantown for Oklahoma State, which improved to 3-1 and has the same record as the Mountaineers.
The Cowboys faced a 21-13 deficit less than 4 minutes into the third quarter after West Virginia quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. scored on a 9-yard run for his third rushing touchdown of the game and ninth this season.
From that point forward, it was all OSU.
The Cowboys answered in four plays, scoring their second touchdown on Mestemaker’s 4-yard pass to Terrence Lewis that came one play after the quarterback had connected with Wyatt Young for a 40-yard gain. Trailing 21-19 at that point, OSU elected to go for the tie, and after Mestemaker’s incompletion was wiped out on a pass interference penalty, he connected with Lewis to pull the visitors even.
WVU put together a solid possession in response, but it stalled in the red zone and ended with a go-ahead 27-yard field goal from Jack Cassidy to make it 24-21 with 3:57 left in the third quarter.
Oklahoma State had an immediate response again, and one play after Mestemaker’s 48-yard pass to Young, tailback Caleb Hawkins broke loose for a 22-yard touchdown run that gave the Cowboys their first lead at 28-24.
With the Mountaineers trailing by four, OSU came up with the most important defensive stop of the matchup when it stuffed Amari Latimer for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-1.
That enabled the Cowboys to take over at their 42-yard line just before the start of the fourth quarter, and they got deep into WVU territory after yet another long connection between Mestemaker and Young of 48 yards. OSU ultimately settled for Sam Keltner’s 29-yard field goal and a seven-point lead 59 seconds into the final frame.
Michael Hawkins was sacked on third down of the Mountaineers’ ensuing possession, forcing WVU to punt. When it got the ball back, West Virginia’s deficit had doubled to 14 points as a result of Mestemaker’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Young with 5:46 remaining.
“We had long drives, they had long drives, and then when we had a couple of short drives, we let them get up by two scores,” Rodriguez said. “It was tough to come back.”
Michael Hawkins was sacked on fourth down of WVU’s penultimate possession, and the Cowboys capped the scoring with a 47-yard field goal from Keltner that made it a three-possession game with 2:49 to play.
Oklahoma State had 359 yards in the second half, 274 of which came from Mestemaker through the air.
“He’s a big-time quarterback, and he’d probably tell you this is one of the best atmospheres on the road he’s ever played in,” Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris said. “He was able to experience our last two home games which have been phenomenal with the crowd, but it’s different when they’re loud when we have the ball. His response was phenomenal. He was great in the huddle and I talked to him on the sideline. Like sometimes quarterbacks, with what we do offensively, get a little bit impatient when a defense comes out and they play an umbrella defense for us.
“Hey, like this is what they’re giving us. We’re going to have to commit to the run and continue to do that and get these safeties up in the fence. So, you know, handle the whole game like a professional. Drew’s going to play football for a long time.”
While there were plenty of offensive fireworks, both teams punted on their first possession, before the Mountaineers jumped ahead on Michael Hawkins’ 5-yard touchdown run.
Keltner’s 30-yard field goal marked the first points for OSU, but the Mountaineers answered with a 16 play drive that covered 75 yards and ended with Michael Hawkins’ 3-yard TD run for a 14-3 advantage.
The Cowboys neared the goal line on their next possession, but settled for Keltner’s 19-yard field goal to pull to within eight.
WVU had a chance to increase its lead relatively late in the first half after getting into the red zone, but Michael Hawkins was intercepted by Mose Phillips III on third-and-4 from the OSU 18, marking the first time the Mountaineers’ quarterback has been picked off this season.
A 30-yard return from Phillips positioned Oklahoma State at its 45, and the Cowboys capitalized on the quality field position for their first touchdown, which came on Mestemaker’s 21-yard pass to Justin Bowick, who slipped out of a tackle attempt from Geimere Latimer II at the 9 to score.
That allowed Morris’ team to trail 14-13 at halftime, and while the deficit grew to eight in the second half, the Cowboys dominated from that point forward to end an 18-game skid in Big 12 play and record their first conference victory since November 2023.
Caleb Hawkins rushed 31 times for 180 yards and Young had eight receptions for 192 yards.
Michael Hawkins was 10-for-22 with 132 yards and rushed 27 times for 102 yards.
“The second half, we had too many mental mistakes, including myself,” he said. “Can’t win a game with a ton of mistakes causing us to have three-and-outs.”
Cam Cook carried 29 times for 193 yards and ripped off a 75-yard run that marks West Virginia’s longest play this season.
The Cowboys had all four sacks in the contest.
“Offensively we were moving OK, but defensively we didn’t play well at all,” Rodriguez said. “We gave up 609 yards. We didn’t give our guys a chance. It’s the head coach’s responsibility to make sure we have a plan that could succeed, and it didn’t succeed. I didn’t do a good job of making sure our plan was going to help us succeed. Offensively, there was some good stuff, but there were some things we missed in the passing game. Defensively, it was nothing.”