WVU football runs off late Coastal Carolina surge to win first game of season
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MORGANTOWN -- Heading into the locker room at half, West Virginia football looked like it was cruising to a season-opening win. The Mountaineers led 24-0, and Coastal Carolina wasn't showing much fight. But out of the locker room, the Chanticleers, under new head coach Ryan Beard, showed life and scored 14 unanswered points, while WVU's dominant first-half offense went quiet.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Chanticleers were called for a penalty on a field goal try, and gave the ball back to the Mountaineers. WVU quarterback Michael Hawkins scampered for 11 yards to put the game just out of reach late, and put the Mountaineers (1-0) in position to beat the Chanticleers (0-1) 31-24 to win the first game of the season.
"First half, we played well in all three phases," Rodriguez said. "In the second half, we stunk and didn't do anything good."
Coastal Carolina didn't stop after Hawkins' touchdown. The Mountaineers' defense had a penalty to extend the drive, and Chanticleers quarterback Deuce Bailey, like he had in the entire second half, took advantage. He led Coastal Carolina on a quick one-minute touchdown drive to make it 31-21.
With more heroics from Bailey and more WVU penalties, Coastal Carolina had the ball in the red zone again. Beard elected for a quick field goal on first down, making it 31-24. Coastal Carolina failed the onside kick, closing out the game.
Bailey had 373 yards through the air and three touchdowns as a redshirt freshman, and in his first game starting. He had 293 passing yards in the second half.
"He's a pretty speedy quarterback," defensive tackle Nate Gabriel said. "Got out of the pocket really well, running around, but we still sacked him."
WVU's offense completely went dormant in the second half. Aside from the touchdown late, the Mountaineers didn't register a point. WVU had 77 yards of offense in the second half. Coastal Carolina had 311 yards.
"There's a couple of things I'm not going into detail that stick at the top of my head that were really frustrating in the second half that we did not get corrected," Rodriguez said. "That falls on me as the head coach and getting it done with my staff."
The second half completely overshadowed the Mountaineers strong first half on the ground. Rodriguez's offense in the past succeeded when he ran over teams with his talented backs and quarterbacks. Last year, with an inexperienced offensive line and banged-up running backs, it wasn't possible. But in Year 2, at least in the first half, with Jacksonville State running back, Cam Cook leading the charge, the Mountaineers were rolling.
Cook started the game with a 72-yard rush, which set up a three-yard touchdown run. He punched in another touchdown later in the game. At the half, with Cook, Hawkins and true freshman Armani Later, WVU had a 24-0 lead and 223 yards on the ground.
Cook had two scores and had 119 yards, averaging 7.9 yards per carry, in the half. Hawkins picked up a couple of his own, and ended the game with 103 yards on the ground. Latimer had 32 yards and six carries.
All that changed in the second half.
"They had more people in the box towards the end of the game, which is understandable," Cook said. "We just got to be able to adjust and just move on the fly."
The rushing attack in the first half opened up the passing attack. Hawkins won the starting quarterback battle over returner Scotty Fox Jr. Rodriguez said it was a very close battle, and if the game wasn't close in the second half, Rodriguez would've put in Fox.
But Hawkins played the entire game. He hit Armoni Weaver-Bomar for a 49-yard touchdown on a busted coverage. Hawkins completed 11 out of 14 passes, threw for 132 yards and a touchdown. He had the big touchdown at the end of the game on the ground, too.
"My play felt efficient out there," Hawkins said. "I felt pretty confident throwing the ball."
With Hawkins' late touchdown and Coastal Carolina running out of time, the Mountaineers snuck out of the first game of the season with a win. It might not have looked pretty in the second half, but Rodriguez will always take a win.
There's a lot to work on for next week's game against U.T. Martin.
"Not really happy about that," Rodriguez said. "But it's hard to win. It's really hard to win. I don't know what the results in the games were today, but just in the last week with what's happened in college football in some games... We take the win and correct our mistakes, starting in the next 15 minutes with the coaches."