MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia went about its offensive success a much different way than usual in Saturday’s 45-42 victory against Cincinnati that allowed the Mountaineers to break into the win column in Big 12 Conference play.
Owners of the nation’s No. 5 rushing offense, the Mountaineers’ yardage per game on the ground dropped from 295.5 to 272.4 after the Bearcats held WVU to 134 rushing yards on 46 attempts.
Quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. was responsible for more than half of the carries (26) and yardage (77) and leads all FBS players in rushing touchdowns with 14 after adding to his total with two against the Bearcats.
But where Hawkins made a major difference in the outcome was through the best passing performance of his college career. The redshirt sophomore completed 25-of-33 attempts for 464 yards with three touchdowns.
“He was really decisive in that game and made some big plays on some scramble stuff,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “That was good. He’s going to keep getting better. One, he’s going to still keep learning, and two, the pieces around him can grow. He was the difference in the game frankly with the way he played and some of the plays he made.
“The exciting part is that he’ll continue to grow, and as he continues to grow and learn our offense, we can expand. It’s not just him we can expand with. It’s the other guys as well, so that’ll be a lot of fun.”
While Hawkins was solid throughout, he saved his best for last. The redshirt sophomore completed 9-of-10 passes for 241 yards with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
On what proved to be the game’s final series, with the score tied at 42 and the Mountaineers backed up against their own goal line, Hawkins found 6-foot-5 wideout Prince Strachan for a 41-yard gain on third-and-9. Two plays later, that connection struck again for 39 yards to firmly put WVU in field goal position, and Jack Cassidy would knock in a 35-yard boot on the final play to provide the Mountaineers with their only lead.
“It was the simplest play call in our offense,” Rodriguez said of Hawkins’ 41-yard completion to Strachan. “We had a seven-man gap protection and three guys locked on vertical. For Mike, it was like, don’t overthrow it, give us a shot. We have big wideouts. That’s what he did. He gave him a shot and Prince made the catch.
“I didn’t think they’d blitz, but we wanted to have max protection. I just didn’t want to punt it back there and give them the ball on our side of the 50 to win the game. Once we got that first down, the mode was now we have to get in field goal range. Somebody had to make a play. Mike made the throw, Prince made the catch and that was it.”
Following the triumph, Hawkins noted he liked Strachan’s chance to make the play in single coverage.
“Prince was 1-on-1. The safety came down pretty low and I knew we had a matchup we liked,” Hawkins said. “He’s a guy that can make those plays and he made the play.”
Hawkins, who was named Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week, hadn’t completed more than 11 passes in any of his first six games at WVU. Against UC, he was 15-for-17 after halftime and completed all but one of his last 16 attempts.
Hawkins continued his penchant for long pass plays with 16 completions of at least 10 yards, nine of at least 20 and seven that went for 30-plus, including six in the final period. That leaves Hawkins first nationally with 21 completions of at least 30 yards and No. 7 with 31 completions of 20-plus yards.
The next challenge for the Dallas native comes at noon Saturday at TCU and figures to be Hawkins’ toughest to date this season.
In a return to his hometown, Hawkins will oppose the Big 12’s top scoring defense that’s yielding a mere 12.2 points on average.
The Horned Frogs (3-3, 1-2) have yet to allow more than 21 points in a game and are allowing an average of 14.7 in conference play.
Opponents average 264.2 yards against and only 172.2 through the air against TCU, which has surrendered the fewest passing touchdowns (2) of any FBS team.
Oddly enough, in setbacks to Central Florida and BYU, the Horned Frogs allowed a total of only 222 passing yards. Baylor threw for 310 last week, but was held out of the end zone in a 17-6 loss.
“Best defense in the league. Statistically, they’re No. 1 in most categories,” Rodriguez said. “Very athletic. They know what they’re doing and play hard. Andy [Avalos] does a great job with their defense. He’s been there for a few years. They don’t give up anything easy. Baylor has a really good football team, and TCU controlled that thing from start to finish. It’ll probably to this day be maybe the best defense we’ve played so far, so we have that challenge. Offensively, they have enough athletes. We have to find a way to play better defensively, because we won’t be able to score 45 points. This is going to be a big challenge.”