MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez says his team has no choice but to fix the plethora of defensive issues that have surfaced throughout the first three games in Big 12 play.
If and when that occurs is anybody’s guess after yet another lackluster defensive effort Saturday against Arizona.
The Wildcats averaged 9.5 yards per play and scored touchdowns on three consecutive second-half series over a stretch of seven plays while the outcome hung in the balance, allowing Arizona to pull away for a 52-31 victory at Milan Puskar Stadium.
WVU (3-3, 0-3) has now surrendered 138 points and 1,668 yards in three games against league competition.
“It’s as frustrated as I’ve ever been defensively,” Rodriguez said.
There were plenty of struggles on defense for much of the matchup, but for the second consecutive week, the Mountaineers failed to generate a stop at the most critical points of the contest.
WVU freshman tailback Amari Latimer scored on a 2-yard run to cut the Mountaineers’ deficit to 31-24 with 1:28 remaining in the third quarter.
It took the Wildcats (5-1, 2-1) all of three plays to respond despite being faced with a second-and-20 on their own 15-yard line. Noah Fifita’s 13-yard completion to Brandon Phelps created a manageable third down, and Fifita found Isaiah Mizell on a quick slant, with the receiver beating defensive back Jason Chambers on the play and racing 70 yards after the reception for a 72-yard touchdown that allowed his team to regain its 14-point lead.
The Mountaineers answered with a 75-yard drive that featured a 36-yard pass from Michael Hawkins Jr. to Prince Strachan, and that series culminated with Cam Cook’s 1-yard TD run that brought the home team back to within seven with 12:33 to play in the fourth quarter.
“When a team blitzes a lot, you have a chance to get big plays,” Rodriguez said. “We got some, but not as many as we needed.”
At that point, West Virginia had run 82 of 121 offensive plays between the two teams, but that was no matter for Arizona. Instead, the Wildcats again had an immediate answer in the form of Fifita’s 42-yard touchdown pass to Phelps that came one play after his 33-yard connection to an uncovered Shane King.
“You’re always trying to capitalize on the opportunities that are presented to you in a football game. But I think the fact that we have a non- defeated quarterback offensively gives us a chance to do that because he is so efficient and he is unflappable back there,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said.
An untimely three-and-out from WVU forced the Mountaineers to punt, and the Wildcats produced another two play scoring drive that saw Antwan Roberts race untouched to the end zone for a 30-yard run with 9:40 left to provide the final margin.
Including Kedrick Reescano’s 8-yard touchdown run on the first series of the third quarter, Arizona’s four second-half scoring drives that all generated touchdowns lasted 3, 3, 2 and 2 plays.
“The level of frustration everybody has in this program right now is at an all-time high,” Rodriguez said.
West Virginia held its only lead 4:48 into the matchup after getting inside the Arizona 5 and settling for Jack Cassidy’s 25-yard field goal.
Down three of their top receivers, the Wildcats answered with a 75-yard drive and capped it with Fifita’s 14-yard TD pass to Mizell for a 7-3 lead.
Arizona produced a defensive touchdown 32 seconds after scoring its first points when Hawkins pitched to Cook on an option play and the tailback was unable to cleanly possess the ball, leading to a fumble that Lee Molette III recovered and returned 32 yards for a touchdown, allowing the visitors to lead 14-3.
WVU got inside the Arizona 5 again, but came up empty when it began the second quarter with Cook’s 1-yard run on third-and-4 and Hawkins’ 1-yard pass to Latimer on the next play from the Arizona 4.
“We can score every drive. We just have to eliminate the mistakes on offense,” Hawkins said. “I don’t think there’s any pressure.”
That miscue was largely negated by a diving interception from David Afogho, who capitalized on Nate Gabriel’s deflection of a Fifita pass to give the Mountaineers the ball back at the Arizona 3. Hawkins kept it for a touchdown run from that distance to bring WVU back to within four points 13:02 before halftime.
A 44-yard field goal from Michael Salgado-Medina gave the Wildcats a seven-point lead, before Cook broke off a 30-yard TD runt to tie it at 17.
Following an exchange of punts, the Wildcats went on top to stay when Quincy Craig ripped off a 40-yard touchdown run 2:52 before halftime.
Cook lost a fumble that Arizona’s Taye Brown recovered on the Wildcats’ 3-yard line with inside 1 minute to play in the first half, allowing Brennan’s team to maintain a seven-point halftime lead.
“We had great crowd noise. We just didn’t reward them enough,” Rodriguez said. “Very frustrating. We couldn’t get a stop on defense, and offensively, there’s probably a little bit of a feel that you can’t have a turnover and have to score on every possession. I think we’re playing hard, but there are some things we have to figure out in a hurry and get it fixed in a hurry. We didn’t get it fixed today.”
Fifita completed 16-of-23 passes for 341 yards with three touchdowns. Mizell hauled in six passes for 183 yards with a pair of scores and Phelps had four receptions for 88 yards.
Cook led WVU’s 303-yard rushing effort with 141 yards on 34 carries and Hawkins added 98 yards in 25 carries, but completed 11-of-28 passes for 219 yards.
Strachan totaled five catches for 121 yards in defeat.
“We have to get it fixed. It’s as simple as that,” Rodriguez said. “You can’t win playing that poorly on defense and offensively, you can’t win turning the ball over when you have 7 points down there.”
Normally on the sideline, WVU defensive coordinator Zac Alley was in the coaches’ box for this game.
Asked afterward if a change in the defensive coaching staff is possible in the imminent future, Rodriguez said, “not at this point.”
“It’s not my first rodeo,” Rodriguez said, “but it is as frustrated as I’ve ever been as a head coach with one side of the ball.”