ATHENS, Ohio – ESPN’s College GameDay announced it’ll be headed to Knoxville for Tennessee-Georgia in Week 3. It’s not surprising. The hopes of the premier college football program coming to Morgantown for the Backyard Brawl of Pitt and West Virginia were completely shot down Saturday night.
Pitt handled Central Michigan, winning 45-17, but WVU couldn’t handle business as a 3.5-point favorite on the road to Ohio, losing 17-10. WVU wasn’t a heavy favorite and a clearcut winner, but it was expected that the Power Four team would beat the Group of Five squad.
It was the first loss of Rich Rodriguez’s second tenure at WVU. It was a deflating one, with all the hype coming into the season, but it should’ve been a little expected after a slow offensive performance in the first half against Robert Morris.
Rodriguez thought his team adjusted from that poor first half, and thought the Mountaineers actually had a good week at practice.
“Thought we were ready to play and we worked,” Rodriguez said. “We didn’t execute. Lots of things to work on, and I knew there were going to be some growing pains.”
Linebacker Ben Cutter, who had an interception, agreed.
“We were prepared,” Cutter said. “We just didn’t execute.”
Rodriguez thought the team played hard, too. The defense had a strong performance, aside from a couple blown coverages. It picked off quarterback Parker Navarro three times, and shutout Ohio in the entire second half. Aside from quarterback Nicco Marchiol’s interception at the end of the game, the turnovers were cleaned up, too.
“The guys were playing hard,” Rodriguez said. “The guys went in there and battled.”
Rodriguez acknowledges there is a lot to improve. The offense being one of them. The defense provided so many opportunities, but whether it was Marchiol, or Jaylen Henderson, who came in for two drives, neither of them could move the ball. The special teams also struggled at times.
“I mean, whether you win or lose, after 24 hours, you have to move on,” Rodriguez said. “I think the biggest thing we got to do with the losses, and the wins, but the losses, you got to learn as much as you can from it, like everybody. I mean, players, coaches and everybody in the program.”
It’s hard to win with a team of 70-plus new players, a new coaching staff and a new location. Look at North Carolina, who had 48 hung on them, or Oklahoma State, who lost to Oregon 69-3. Both those teams were up there with WVU for the most transfer portal additions.
Luckily, there’s a lot of time to grow as a team. This was just Week 2. WVU has a lot of season left. After seeing some of the Big 12 scores, there’s no clear favorite to win the conference. It’s wide open like always. Cutter said the team needs to have a “goldfish” mentality to flush the loss.
Rebounding starts next week. The Backyard Brawl with rival Pitt. Pitt is no slouch, and a lot better than Ohio. Quarterback Eli Holstein is a better mobile quarterback than Navarro. If WVU struggled with Navarro, it’ll have a bigger challenge with Holstein.
But if WVU beats Pitt in Morgantown, the poor start to the season would go completely out the window. No one will care about the Ohio loss. Realistically, one loss against a bad team doesn’t affect anything. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois and was in the national championship.
After the loss to Ohio, though, it’s a big if.
“I want it to hurt, and it’s going to hurt all of us,” Rodriguez said. “I think it really does. For the next 20 hours or so, we know who’s next. We’ve got to get to work, and I’ve got to get these guys ready to go. They’ll be ready to play next Saturday.”
