Areas to improve on offense, defense for WVU football for the remainder of the season
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football is currently resting on its long-awaited bye week. It's time to rest and finally focus on internal matters, rather than preparing to play an opponent this weekend.
The Mountaineers are 5-3 on the year, a win away from a bowl game, and are on a two-game win streak over Big 12 opponents. Those back-to-back wins were not perfect, but as Rich Rodriguez said, it's hard to win in college football, which you can ask BYU and Texas Tech how true that is. After a 0-3 start to Big 12 play, Rodriguez has WVU trending in the right direction.
The Mountaineers’ last four games of the season could be the hardest stretch. WVU heads to No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 6 Utah, and hosts No. 18 Houston. The Mountaineers do play Kansas, who just had its first Power Four win last weekend, but to get over .500, they need to win one of those ranked games.
There are large areas for correction, like on defense, but shrinking it down into smaller aspects of the game could create a bigger difference and win one of those ranked games. Here is one aspect on offense and defense.
Completing passes consistently
There's no question quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. is a talented ball carrier with the ball in his hands. He is tied with Army quarterback Cale Hellums for the most rushing touchdowns in the FBS -- not just for a quarterback, the whole nation. He is 11th in the nation in rushing and second in the Big 12, just behind his teammate running back Cam Cook.
The questions and room for improvement surround his passing ability. He's a very capable passer and has the arm talent to make jaw-dropping throws. Hawkins has beaten teams with his arm. He threw for a career-high 464 yards and three touchdowns in the victory over Cincinnati.
It's Hawkins consistency of completing passes that could improve. He doesn't throw the ball much, but when he does, he's completing 56% of his passes this season. Hawkins' completion percentage ranks 108th in the nation and is second-to-last in the Big 12.
Hawkins knows his passing is an area to work on.
"For me, connecting with my receivers that I shouldn’t have missed," Hawkins said. "Those were big moments in the game.”
It's not all his fault. WVU's had a couple of costly drops this season, where Hawkins places it right in the breadbasket. Receiver D.J. Epps dropped a walk-in touchdown against TCU as an example.
If Hawkins can be more consistent, especially on deep ball throws, and his receivers catch the ball when he hits them, WVU could sneak out a ranked win in the final four games.
Coverage breakdowns consistently
The defense was widely blamed for the 0-3 start to Big 12 play. In the past two games, it's slowly gotten better. The defense had a big stop against Cincinnati to set up the win, and forced a fumble to close out the TCU game. The defense still needs work.
One of the biggest issues this season is the coverage. This was an issue last season, too. Someone will not be in the right spot, allowing for a big play for the offense.
There was a play late in the second quarter when TCU had a crossing route, and linebacker Cam Torbor looked like he was going to cover him, but then hesitated and went back to cover him. It was too late, and the Horned Frogs picked up a big gain on third down.
TCU had seven passing plays over 20-plus yards. A couple of times, the Horned Frogs just made a great catch, but there were instances where the receiver went untouched for 10 yards.
Most of the time, WVU has a coverage breakdown on third down. The Mountaineers allow a first down 40% of the time on third down, which is in the bottom 50 in the country. It was a similar issue in 2025. WVU worked hard on the first two downs to get a stop, and then let up a pass behind the linebackers for a first down or a touchdown.
There are other spots to fix, like tackling, but the breakdowns in coverage are the most head-scratching moments that are costly, especially on third down.