MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s matchup with Kansas on Saturday was moved up 2 hours to a 3:30 p.m. kickoff, as announced Friday night.
The Mountaineers never bothered to show up.
Kansas gashed WVU on the ground throughout the first two quarters and shut down an offense that had been plenty productive this season to have its way in a 37-14 victory at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“I apologize to every West Virginia fan out there. I didn’t see this coming,” Mountaineers’ head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “It was as poorly coached as could be — offense poorly coached, defense poorly coached. I thought we had a decent week. Give them credit. We have a lot of work to do. I think our players are resilient. We’re not going to let this game define us or define our season, but we have a lot of things to fix in a hurry.”
With the win, KU (4-6, 2-5 Big 12) kept hope alive for bowl eligibility, while the Mountaineers (5-5, 2-5) failed to get bowl eligible for a second straight week and suffered their most lopsided defeat this season, while also being held to their lowest point total.
“Credit to the whole defense and our defensive staff,” KU head coach Lance Leipold said. “Defensively, we put together a good plan to be disruptive. we were able to create some pressure with the defensive ends early in the game, and we got them out of rhythm.”
West Virginia did next to nothing well and fell behind 3-0 early when Martin Connington made a 24-yard field goal on the game’s first series.
Kansas linebacker Trey Lathan, a former Mountaineer, intercepted Michael Hawkins Jr. on West Virginia’s second play from scrimmage, and the Jayhawks gained a 10-0 lead shortly after when Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman crossed the goal line on a 5-yard run.
The Mountaineers countered with one of two scoring drives on the day, getting a 38-yard pass from Hawkins to TaRon Francis before the quarterback capped the series with his 20th rushing touchdown this season from 2 yards out to bring WVU to within three.
But KU answered immediately and regained its 10-point lead when Cummings-Coleman got to the edge on a 26-yard TD run that left the visitors with a 17-7 advantage at the 1:01 mark of the opening frame. Cummings-Coleman assumed an increased workload following an early injury to lead tailback Dylan Edwards, who was limited to three carries.
WVU prevented its deficit from increasing when cornerback ChaMarryus Bomar intercepted Isaiah Marshall for a touchback less than 3 minutes into the second quarter, but the Mountaineers punted it back to KU after picking up only one first down.
KU kept it on the ground for all seven plays of its next possession, including a 50-yard run from Marshall, before Chase Belcher finished off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1. Connington’s point-after attempt was no good, leaving the Jayhawks with a 16-point lead.
“We’ve really strung together some good weeks of practice, and to have the two last-minute, last-second losses is tough,” said Leipold. “It’s tough because they’ve worked hard. There isn’t a moment where you’re sitting there wondering if they are going to respond, or if they are going to show up to play or any of that.”
After forcing a three-and-out, KU got the ball back and made the most of its final series of the first half, with Marshall scoring a TD on a 2-yard run 45 seconds before the intermission. Marshall had been stopped short on a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak from the Mountaineers’ 9, but the Jayhawks picked up the first down on that sequence as a result of KJ Henson being flagged for offsides.
The Jayhawks held a 30-7 halftime lead along with a 339-79 edge in total yardage. Outside of Hawkins’ 38-yard pass to Francis, the Mountaineers had 41 yards on 28 plays through two quarters.
“Today was an outlier,” Rodriguez said. “Our offense had played pretty well all year. The defense hasn’t played well all year and continued to play poorly. We haven’t played well defensively in any game.”
WVU prevented its opponent from scoring in the third quarter for a second straight week, but the Mountaineers continued to sputter offensively and had 14 plays for 19 yards in what was a scoreless frame.
Belcher’s 8-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter capped the KU scoring, while Hawkins later found John Neider for a 17-yard touchdown.
Before Neider hauled in the TD, the Mountaineers had produced points on one of their last 14 possessions dating back to the fourth quarter of last week’s 53-48 loss at Texas Tech.
KU finished with 448 yards, 296 of which came on the ground.
“I’ve done this a long time. I’ve not had this much frustration to this level season-wide, maybe ever,” Rodriguez said. “Guys are trying, but the answers are not coming like they should.”
Marshall was the leading rusher with 164 yards on 19 attempts, while Belcher added 58 yards on 14 carries and Cummings-Coleman totaled 56 yards on 15 attempts.
Marshall was also plenty efficient and completed 15-of-18 passes for 152 yards.
WVU was held to 262 yards and a mere 35 rushing on 37 attempts.
“They HAD a different scheme than they had shown, but it’s not something that we haven’t seen, but it was a completely different deal than they had shown before,” Rodriguez said. “Give them credit. It was good.”
Tailback Cam Cook entered as the eighth-leading rusher in FBS with 1,072 yards, and was limited to 12 yards on nine carries.
Hawkins had 36 rushing yards and completed 19-of-34 passes for 227 yards.
WVU receiver Jaden Bray suffered what appeared to be a significant lower-body injury in the fourth quarter, but Rodriguez had no postgame update on Bray’s status.