MORGANTOWN — Everything that led up to the play was a disaster.
Everything that led up to the play was nothing short of pure pain and carnage thrown at WVU freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr.
And then, well, we could try and describe in words Fox’s third-and-27 completion to running back Cyncir Bowers that went for a 90-yard touchdown, but there is likely not a word in the dictionary that would properly describe the moment.
Amazing. Astonishing. Stunning. Bewildering. They all fall short.
Sadly, so did West Virginia. Arizona State’s Jesus Gomez kicked a 49-yard field goal with 2:44 remaining to give the Sun Devils a 25-23 victory on Saturday inside Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
The Sun Devils (7-3) led for the majority of the game, so say what you want about the proper team finishing on top. WVU (4-7) was officially eliminated from bowl game contention in Rich Rodriguez’s first year back at the school.
With all of that said, it is officially time to anoint Fox as the current and future quarterback of the Mountaineers. What he went through in that four or five-minute span in the fourth quarter should tell everyone all they need to know about the competitor and the heart that lies within the Mentor, Ohio native.
And he wasn’t even the guy who did the bulk of the work on the drive in question. Without a doubt, that was Bowers, which we’ll get to in a moment.
But, back to Fox, who began the drive with 8:06 remaining at WVU’s 27-yard line. The Mountaineers trailed 22-17.
Play No. 1 was a quarterback draw that went absolutely nowhere. Fox was smacked by some guy with 90-something on his jersey who got there with an attitude.
It was a bad play call. The straight quarterback draw hadn’t been there the entire game. It had only gained minimal yards the previous times it was called. It was simply not working.
Play No. 2 was maybe Fox’s worst moment of the game. He dropped back and got pressured. He tried to get away and continued to give up ground, before Arizona’s State’s Justin Wodtly – a 260-pounder – just flattened him.
Now it’s third-and-27.
Fox somehow picked himself back up after getting pancaked on the two previous plays and flicked out a pass in the flat to Bowers.
The WVU sophomore had open space. A great block was thrown on the perimeter by WVU tight end Jacob Barrick. Bowers made Arizona State cornerback Keith Abney II miss in the open field. He somehow crossed up ASU safety Javan Robinson and made Robinson look foolish. If he had just kept running, Robinson would have probably had Bowers and this story would have never been written.
Except Bowers made a move and Robinson literally stopped in his tracks.
Bowers was off to the end zone. He had teammate Cam Vaughn out in front of him as a blocker. The only issue was Bowers either began to cramp up or simply ran out of gas around the ASU 20. Defenders began to catch up. Vaughn couldn’t block them all.
At the ASU 5, Bowers made one last move against Myles Rowser and fell into the end zone for the touchdown and a 23-22 lead.
What happened next was just as dumbfounding against WVU as the previous moment had been euphoric. The decision was made by Rodriguez to go for two. Fine.
Rodriguez had but one job at that moment – get the darned play call to Fox.
Here is a true freshman quarterback who just threw the third-longest scoring pass in school history. He is not losing his cool in celebration.
Instead, he’s looking at the sideline for the play call. In fact, he’s begging for it to come in.
It never did and the WVU coaching staff truly let Fox down right there. It missed a great opportunity to take advantage of the chaotic moment to add two more points on the scoreboard that, as it turned out, were desperately needed.
“He’s a competitive guy,” Rodriguez said of Fox. “He loves to compete. He doesn’t have any quit in him.”
WVU instead wasted its final timeout and out of that timeout came absolutely no creativity whatsoever. Curtis Jones Jr. was handed the ball up the middle and he was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. It may have been the worst play call of the game.
Arizona State drove down the field in the final minutes and Gomez’s kick gave the Sun Devils the win.
Fox finished with 353 passing yards, the most since Garrett Greene threw for 391 against Houston in 2023. That has nothing to do with why Fox became the man on Saturday.
He had just been beaten up with a stiff jab and then a roundhouse right on two consecutive plays. Fox didn’t lose his cool. Instead, he threw a 90-yard touchdown pass.
When everyone else was caught up in that hysteria, Fox was begging for the next call.
True, Fox also threw a bad pick on the final possession. He threw too wide on a slant pass to Jeff Weimer and Abney was there for the pick. That was one of those unfortunate “true freshman moments” Rodriguez also mentioned to the media in his press conference.
But, it was in that quick glimpse, when Fox turned despair into quick momentum that he looked like anything other than a true freshman. He looked like WVU’s future.
