Did you wake up this morning in a better mood than you have for the past month? Did you go to bed last night in a better mood? Does the sun feel like it’s brighter, the air crisper, the day more invigorating? Because I know I did and it does. For the first time in five games, the West Virginia Mountaineers won, and how they won yesterday wasn’t the “exhilarating come-from-behind overtime win that the Backyard Brawl was” kind of win, but “we are better today and we are going to prove why we are better today”
football. Let’s talk about 45–35 over a ranked team.
Glimmers of Hope
The past several weeks I’ve written about “glimmers of hope” and how sometimes the glimmers might just be as small as not going three-and-out on every drive. That statement and goal of small, incremental changes, which have the potential to lead to larger improvements, ebb and flow with young college players. One week, we’re just hoping to get a first down on a drive so the defense can have more than 30 seconds before it has to go back on the field. Another week, it was averaging more than two yards per carry on the ground, hopefully showing that the offense can indeed get yards and wouldn’t be a 20-year-old offense that hasn’t evolved.
Last week changed those glimmers, however, and for the first time, glimmers weren’t enough for the fanbase to sustain itself through the four-month tour of college football. The Mountaineers took on TCU at home and, despite the record and what the team has shown, 54,000 faithful showed up and showed out on a “Coal Rush” night to support the team. The team responded with one of the best showings in weeks, going toe-to-toe with TCU, matching them in total yards, while freshman quarterback Scotty Fox threw for 301 yards, setting a school record for a true freshman. Suddenly, those glimmers looked more like flashes—you can actually see them and count them, not just squint your eyes and hope to maybe make out something in the back.
This week, all of that potential finally found a place to convert to tangible—Houston. The Cougars were and still are a flawed team, but that flawed team does still have a good defense—one that only allows 21 points per game and 134 rushing yards per game. West Virginia responded to those numbers with 45 points and 246 yards rushing. Glimmers to flashes to actual gold.
Speed
For me, the single biggest thing that has stuck out while West Virginia lost all these conference games in a row—five in a row, but who’s counting now?—was just how slow the Mountaineers looked on both sides of the ball, but definitely on offense, where jet sweeps and outside runs just appeared to get swallowed up before they ever got going. Yesterday, early on in the game, it was evident that the speed slider was turned up, because suddenly we were finding the corner on outside runs, and we looked more and more like we were playing in the same sandbox.
Diore Hubbard turned in a 108-yard performance on 29 carries and showed that speed on several different plays on the very first drive where he found holes and got upfield. Hubbard’s first four rushes were for 6, 13, 7, and 6 yards. Previously those were one- to two-yard carries.
Rodney Gallagher, who I am pretty sure has been stuck in the FBI Witness Protection Program for the past month, finally showed up last week with a five-catch performance against TCU, albeit for 22 total yards and a long of seven. This week, he caught another five passes, but instead of 22 yards, he totaled 53 yards, turning the paltry 4.4 yards per catch against TCU into a much more respectable 10.6 average against Houston.
Scotty Fox showed some speed as well. He has averaged 11 carries over the past three weeks against UCF, TCU, and Houston, but where UCF he gained a total of two yards and TCU held him to negative-14 yards, Houston allowed him 65 yards and two touchdowns.
Whatever the reason, whether it was a reduction of the playbook that got guys to stop thinking, or better blocking by the offensive line and receivers, or Houston was just not into the game, the Mountaineers looked faster, crisper, BETTER yesterday, and it helped and it showed. I think it also goes to show proof of concept that this offense can work and can make teams defend and wear them out—it just needs some playmakers.
Streaks
Yesterday ended a number of streaks for the Mountaineers.
- For the first time since September 13, 2025, the Mountaineers won a game: 50 days between wins
- For the first time since November 23, 2024 (vs UCF), the Mountaineers won a conference game: 344 days between wins
- For the first time since October 30, 2021 (vs ISU), the Mountaineers won against a ranked team: 1,464 days
- For the first time since November 16, 2019 (vs KSU), the Mountaineers won against a ranked team on the road: 2,178 days
- For the first time since September 29, 2018 (vs TTU), the Mountaineers won against a ranked team on the road by more than a touchdown: 2,591 days
- For the first time since September 24, 1988 (vs Pitt), the Mountaineers won against a ranked team on the road by 10 or more points: 13,553 days
- For the first time since November 23, 2018 (vs Oklahoma), the Mountaineers scored at least 45 points against a Power Four team: 2,536 days
Is This Different?
One thing I’ve contemplated and have been gnawing on over the past 24 hours is the thought that yesterday’s win somehow feels different, feels more sustainable, feels better, and feels like progress than anything that happened in 2019, and I am trying to determine why I feel that way.
In 2019, Neal Brown took over as the head coach of the Mountaineers, following Dana Holgorsen. If you want a longer, more detailed history of Dana Holgorsen and why his tenure failed, why he isn’t still coaching here (or anywhere), and why Neal Brown was chosen, at me on Twitter because I will take the bait and go down the rabbit hole and start with all the who’s and why’s and how’s, but for here we will keep it simple—Dana was off to Houston, and Neal Brown was hired.
The 2019 season started with a much-too-close win against FCS James Madison before a shellacking at the hands of the Missouri Tigers (a team that just three years prior West Virginia hosted in Morgantown and won 26–11). The following week, West Virginia would dominate NC State and former defensive coordinator Tony Gibson 44–27, in what might be the best game of the Brown tenure (?), certainly one of the few complete games we played (and notably the most points we ever scored under Brown). Next week, West Virginia beat Kansas and was 3–1 and looking like the hire they made to replace Holgorsen was working out.
Then it all fell apart. A five-game conference losing streak to #11 Texas, Iowa State, #5 Oklahoma, #12 Baylor, and Texas Tech quickly soured fans, just like the previous five-game losing streak had fans at each other’s throats and calling for Rich Rod to be terminated. Fans are fickle and don’t like to lose.
West Virginia inserted a new quarterback, Jarrett Doege, and promptly beat #24 Kansas State in Manhattan 24–20. Here is what I wrote after Kansas State and Oklahoma State:
The Mountaineers are a team that simply operates on the thinnest of margins. Against Kansas State, the Wildcats made more costly mistakes than the Mountaineers and it allowed the team to find a way to win. The Wildcats committed a penalty on a missed field goal that turned into a touchdown. Kansas State committed several uncharacteristic penalties at the most inopportune time that either extended West Virginia drives or killed their own drives. Those types of errors are the ones that this Mountaineers team needs to have to help it overcome its litany of issues.
Against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the errors weren’t there and while the Mountaineers held a thin lead, they couldn’t sustain that success. Against the NC State Wolfpack, the Mountaineers overwhelmed the ‘Pack, and helped build a lead that NC State couldn’t overcome. Against the Cowboys, WVU couldn’t operate in the second half and it eventually allowed Oklahoma State to run no huddle and pick up steam. This team is going to have to find a way to stop operating on such thin margins.
It took me a minute to figure it out, but I’m confident in saying that going back and reading those paragraphs and thinking as much as I can without the frustration and disdain for Brown that we may have, the margins quote is the reason yesterday feels different than the win against Kansas State. Yesterday did not feel like a margins win. It did not feel like a team that needed the other team to make mistakes to win. Yes, Houston made mistakes—they turned the ball over four times, which led to 17 points and the game-sealing drive—but those turnovers appear to be more of the Mountaineers causing turnovers than Houston just screwing up. West Virginia was called for eight penalties to Houston’s two. Kansas State outrushed and outpassed the Mountaineers (299 to 234 passing, 122 to 85 rushing), while Houston outpassed the Mountaineers (318 to 85); West Virginia DOMINATED on the ground (246 to 82). Total yards were nearly equal. Yesterday didn’t feel like a margins win—it felt like we’re going to do our thing, you do your thing, and our thing is better than your thing.
Maybe it’s rose-colored glasses, and maybe it’s the benefit of hindsight, but yesterday felt like growth. As I said earlier, glimmers to flashes to real, building blocks of steps that inch you forward was the progress we were looking for. I am confident that yesterday didn’t just come out of nowhere but was something this staff and team were building toward. It took time, and it might take steps backward, but real progression was seen.
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