WVU football offense getting more receivers involved as QB Michael Hawkins Jr. progresses
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football hadn't thrown the ball too much in the first half of the season. The Mountaineers hadn't had to because they were running the ball so efficiently. But against Cincinnati, quarterback Michael Hawkins was forced to air it out a lot more, and he had a career-high 464 passing yards. He completed 25 of 33 passes and had three touchdowns.
"I didn't think we had our best game (run) blocking-wise," Rich Rodriguez said. "Give them some credit for that. But it also opened up some big pass plays."
When Hawkins does throw, he has his favorites. He usually hits D.J. Epps over the middle of the field, like against Virginia, or in the past two games, where he connected multiple times with Southern California and Boise State transfer Prince Strachan.
Those two were pretty involved in a pass-heavy game script when the run game wasn't working hosting Cincinnati. Epps had eight catches for a season-high 163 yards. He had a big 43-yard touchdown, where he spun out of multiple tackles for the score. Strachan had two big catches late in the game, leading to the game-winning field goal. On third and long, Strachan caught a 41-yard pass through contact. He finished with three grabs for 84 yards.
"I'm just trying to make a play whenever my name is called," Epps said.
But for the first time really all season, WVU really spread the football around. The Mountaineers had nine different receivers catch a pass. It was the most in a single game this season, even more than in the blowout win against U.T. Martin, where WVU played almost the entire roster.
Tight end Ryan Ward caught two big passes in the game, and one came in the fourth quarter, when he took off for 36 yards on third and 10. Parkersburg, West Virginia, native Cyrus Traugh had three catches for 40 yards. Tight end Josh Sapp caught one of Hawkins' pop passes for a touchdown. It was Sapp's second catch and first touchdown for the Mountaineers since transferring from Clemson this offseason.
Hawkins and his weapons had created a lot of explosive plays. The Mountaineers had 14 passing plays over 15 yards and half of those were for over 30 yards.
"We had a lot of explosive passes," Hawkins said. "I just kept getting my guys open, allowing me to put the ball there, and they just kept winning all game, which kind of helped the offense."
Hawkins knew he'd have a strong matchup against Cincinnati and have to throw the ball a lot more, especially in a high-scoring game. The Bearcats played a lot of zone coverage, according to Hawkins. The middle of the field would be pretty open with the linebackers coming down into the box to stop the run.
Hawkins took full advantage.
"I just knew we were gonna have to throw the ball a lot," Hawkins said.
WVU distributed the ball around a lot more because of Hawkins' ability to extend the play and keep his eyes downfield. Most of his big passes were on broken plays. This is Hawkins’ seventh game in the system, and the game is starting to really slow down for him.
"Just taking it week by week, especially in the passing game," Hawkins said. "Just kind of getting comfortable with my receivers and my running backs when they're in the open field. It's definitely slowed down each week, just seeing it well."
The passing attack will have to click on all cylinders again in WVU's last game before a bye this weekend against TCU. It'll be tough throwing the ball because the Horned Frogs have one of the best passing defenses in the Big 12, allowing under 200 yards per game.
Hawkins is from Dallas, Texas, so it’ll be a homecoming for the quarterback and should provide a little boost to let it fly.
"It's a game I've been looking forward to,” Hawkins said. “I'm gonna have a lot of family there. Just having them there, allowing them to see me play. I live so far away now, so it'll be a great feeling just for them to see me play, just playing back home."