MORGANTOWN — At the start of the week, quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. was a name to keep in mind leading up to the TCU game because Khalil Wilkins was banged up after the UCF beatdown. Sure enough, Fox was the headline for WVU after Saturday night.
All season, Fox has been a wild card. His first appearance was against Robert Morris, where he took off for a big touchdown. He came in during the Pitt game and led the Mountaineers on a touchdown drive, but then proceeded to throw back-to-back interceptions. Against UCF, he couldn’t get anything going on the first three drives, so Rodriguez benched him for Wilkins.
With WVU 2-5 on the season, and running out of quarterbacks to play, you might as well take a chance on the young guy. As Rich Rodriguez said after the UCF loss, this was rock bottom, so it couldn’t really get any worse.
Fox made his second start against the Horned Frogs. His start against UCF made him the first true freshman to start a game since Fred Wyant in 1952. Fox threw for 301 yards on 28-for-41 passing and two touchdowns in his second start.
“I thought the kid acquitted himself pretty well,” Rodriguez said.
Fox made a couple of nice throws and, for once, made WVU have a vertical threat, instead of just relying on the run. He hit Jeff Weimer late in the game on a 28-yard pass, making it a 23-17 game with 3:15 left in the game. He connected with Weimer three times.
“Me and Scotty have been watching film together during the week and just trying to build that chemistry throughout the week,” Weimer said. “I think we’ve been doing a good job of that. Obviously, we left some plays out there, so there’s a lot to build off of, which is a good thing, but at the same time, we want to capitalize. I think there’s a lot of room to grow as well.”
Fox spread the ball around. Nine different WVU receivers caught a pass, with Cam Vaughn catching the most with six grabs. He also led with 85 yards.
Rodriguez said the playbook is a little bit limited since he’s so young, and its first year in the system.
“Obviously, as he gets more comfortable with experience, there’ll be more things that we can let him do,” Rodriguez said. “Typically, we still have a very small menu with our quarterback situation. This is crazy how it all unfolded. But as Scotty gets more experience, he’ll get a bigger menu, and we’re gonna have to deal with the way teams are playing us.”
Even with a “smaller menu”, Fox threw for the most yards and passes a WVU quarterback has thrown for this season. Fox was also the first WVU quarterback to start a game and finish a game without being benched at some point. There was no quarterback carousel Saturday night.
Rodriguez said there’s still some stuff to work on for the kid.
“He made some nice throws,” Rodriguez said. “There was some freshman stuff that was out there. He’s a true freshman. Kid battled, competed.”
WVU might not have gotten the win, and Rodriguez said after the game he doesn’t really believe in moral victories, but WVU learned that Fox is a quarterback it can compete with. Fox gave the offense some life and made it close against a strong TCU team.
As long as he stays healthy, WVU might as well let him start the rest of the season, even if the other quarterbacks, like Khalil Wilkins and Jaylen Henderson, get healthy. Fox has already burned his redshirt, so get him as many game reps as you can, so next year, when you start fresh, you have a better idea of what you’ve got at quarterback.
After Saturday night, Fox won over some of the veterans with his performance.
“I’m impressed,” Weimer said. “Obviously, you guys see how well he threw the ball today, but it’s about how well he’s been taking advantage of Sunday through Friday. I think I’ve been impressed with that. He’s going about his business very well, especially well, especially being new. I remember when I was a freshman, I’d be very overwhelmed with just the schedule of Division 1 football, the pressure, and all these other things. I’ve been very impressed with that.”
