COLUMN: WVU football running out of chances to get season back on track
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football's 52-31 loss to Arizona handed the Mountaineers their third-straight loss of the season. WVU is 3-3 on the year and winless in the Big 12 (0-3). The Mountaineers are one of five teams in the Big 12 without a conference win, but are the only team with three conference losses, making them last in the standings. For the second-straight season, Rich Rodriguez has started conference play 0-3.
Last year, the sky wasn't falling because Rodriguez had the excuse of its Year 1, but that no longer applies, so hexagons are falling from above. The fire defensive coordinator Zac Alley chants have made their way from the burner accounts to home games, with fans bringing signs, and after Rodriguez said he wasn't making a playcalling change, fans are calling for his head, too. Halfway through the season, and after three weeks with no defensive improvements, the heat is really cranking up.
This weekend, the Mountaineers host Cincinnati for their last home game until Nov. 14. WVU hits the road, has a bye and hits the road again the next three weeks. This might be the final chance to restore some faith in the program for the rest of the season.
The Bearcats sit at 4-1 this season and were undefeated until Arizona rolled them on the road. Cincinnati had AP Poll votes prior to that game after beating Boston College in Week 1, and undefeated Kansas State the week before.
The Bearcats lost major offensive pieces this offseason, including quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who transferred to Texas Tech and ultimately ended up not even playing college football this year. Instead, head coach Scott Satterfield pivoted to Georgia Southern transfer quarterback J.C. French IV.
French hasn't lit up the stat books. He has thrown for 949 yards and six touchdowns. French uses his legs quite a bit in the red zone and has run for five scores. He's carried the ball 50 times for 193 yards.
Like WVU, the Bearcats rely on running the ball. Cincinnati ranks third in yards per game in the Big 12 and second in rushing touchdowns. The Bearcats use two backs, Notre Dame transfer Gi’Bran Payne and Stanford transfer Cole Tabb. Cincinnati runs the ball behind an experienced offensive line, which helps. It could create problems for WVU's awful defense.
The Bearcats aren't perfect, even if they won their first four games on the season. Cincinnati's defense is the fourth-worst in the Big 12, which means the Mountaineers offense should have a field day. WVU's defense could show improvement against Cincinnati's offense that is 10th in the conference overall.
There's some optimism the Mountaineers can win this game. They need to. The road doesn't get much easier. WVU heads to TCU, who has been very up and down. The Horned Frogs lost to North Carolina, but they only lost to the top team in the Big 12, BYU, by a touchdown over the weekend. The Mountaineers hit the road again to play conference contender Texas Tech, home against Kansas and top 25 Houston, and play on the road against top 12 Utah. Not a lot of winnable games left.
Cincinnati and Kansas look like the only chances to get back in the win column, so if WVU loses to the Bearcats, oh my, you could be talking about at best 5-7 or a back-to-back 4-8 season. There's a chance it's worse, and they don't win a game the rest of the year. It all falls on whether the defense can improve.
I think we see slight improvement this week, playing a not-so-great offense, and in a must-win game, WVU's offense is too much for Cincinnati to keep up with.
Prediction: West Virginia 35, Cincinnati 31