MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When West Virginia entered its lone bye week of the season following a 24-20 victory at TCU back on October 24, the Mountaineers knew they’d next be opposing nationally-ranked Texas Tech team in Lubbock.
What they didn’t know at that time was that the 15th-ranked Red Raiders would make a change at quarterback ahead of their 34-26 win against No. 22 Arizona last Saturday, electing to start Thomas Castellanos in place of Will Hammond.
Hammond had started each of the team’s first seven games, while Castellanos played sparingly in several.
A fifth-year veteran, Castellanos wasn’t sure he’d be able to play at all this season as he battled for eligibility.
He didn’t commit to the Red Raiders until 10 days before their season opener and was ineligible for two weeks in October before being granted a new temporary injunction that allows him to play the remainder of the season.
Castellanos previously played for UCF, Boston College and Florida State and made his 34th career start against the Wildcats.
He had thrown five passes and rushed 15 times before his first start with the Red Raiders, but provided a spark by completing 11-of-24 passes for 144 yards with two touchdowns to go with 117 rushing yards and a TD on 19 carries.
Castellanos did not turn it over and was instrumental in helping Texas Tech (7-1) move forward from its only loss of the season the week prior at Cincinnati, 37-24.
“Even though he wasn’t there in the spring, it seems like he learns really quickly,” WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. ”He’s been in a bunch of different systems. I’m sure their game plan will be expanded a little more for us, because he’s now been a starter for two weeks as opposed to one week.”
Hammond threw 109 passes for the Big 12 champion a year ago before suffering a torn ACL in his right knee that ended his season.
Although the Red Raiders won each of their first six games this year and had 53 points in a four-touchdown win over Arizona State the week prior to their only setback, Hammond struggled in spots, namely when he threw three interceptions in a late September win against Sam Houston State and then for 134 yards in a 29-7 win at Colorado the next week — a game in which the Red Raiders had three first-half points.
“Hammond was coming off a knee, so they probably weren’t going to do a whole lot of quarterback run with him, whereas with Castellanos, they do a whole bunch of quarterback run,” Rodriguez said. “He has 33 starts or something on the Power 4 level, so he’s an experienced guy. He’s been there and done that.”
Castellanos’ mobility has long been one of his best assets. He rushed for 1,113 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first of two seasons at Boston College and rushed for 557 yards and nine scores a year ago as a Seminole.
His elusiveness, speed and ability to extend plays mean the Mountaineers are in for a different challenge than they would be facing Hammond, who did not play against Arizona.
“We’ll definitely be conscious of it,” Mountaineer defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “We worked some of that this past week. There’s some things we like versus the quarterback run game and things we don’t that you always take into account because you’re playing a guessing game a little bit of are they going to run it with the quarterback this play or is he going to drop back and launch that thing? A little bit, but not overarching.”
WVU has faced a number of quarterbacks with mobility this season. Coastal Carolina’s Deuce Bailey, Virginia’s Beau Pribula, Iowa State’s Jaylen Raynor, Arizona’s Noah Fifita and Cincinnati’s JC French IV come to mind, though Castellanos poses as much, if not more of a challenge, to be a threat on the ground as anybody in that group.
“They definitely do a lot more quarterback run game with Castellanos in there, but overall, the structure of the offense is similar with what they’re trying to do and how they’re trying to attack you,” Alley said. “A lot of those things are pretty consistent from week to week. They just use his legs a lot more. Some things they’ve done with him in the past, and even with Will Hammond as well, but just emphasize it more knowing he can get around. They got healthier last week. The tailbacks were back. Some of the offensive pieces they were missing were back. I feel like they were trying to get their best guys on the field.”
Considering West Virginia’s defense goes against its own quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. in times at practice, the unit has a good idea of what someone who excels as a runner at that position looks like.
Hawkins has 836 rushing yards and 198 more in that category than the next-closest quarterback from a power conference program, while his 16 rushing touchdowns are second among all FBS players.
Our guys are used to seeing quarterbacks run the ball and all that, but it is a different challenge. Your eye discipline, fundamental discipline and all that stuff when the quarterback is a run threat has to be on point. Our guys on defense will work really hard on it, because that’s what we’re going to see. I assume Castellanos will be the starter.
“Our guys see it every day, but not all the time every day. We’ll go good on good for 15 or 20 minutes,” Rodriguez said. “Our guys are used to seeing quarterbacks run the ball and all that, but it is a different challenge. Your eye discipline, fundamental discipline and all that stuff has to be on point. Our guys on defense will work really hard on it, because that’s what we’re going to see. I assume Castellanos will be the starter.”