West Virginia will look to build on plenty of positives and work through the mistakes it made in Week 1 when it hosts UT Martin on Saturday afternoon in Morgantown, W.Va.
The Mountaineers opened their season with a 31-24 home win over Coastal Carolina last Saturday. Michael Hawkins Jr. amassed 235 yards (132 yards and a touchdown through the air, plus 103 yards and a TD rushing) in his West Virginia debut, and Cam Cook rambled for 142 rushing yards and two scores on 30 carries in the win.
West Virginia led 24-0 at halftime but did little after the break. Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez said Monday that he likely became too conservative in his play-calling in the second half.
“It was one of the first times I’ve ever had a staff meeting directly after the game,” Rodriguez said. “I wanted to have that meeting while I was still pissed off. We know what we did wrong. A lot of the stuff was avoidable. The discipline part was the problem.”
The Mountaineers surrendered 425 total yards, including 373 through the air, in last week’s win.
“We had bad eyes more than bad angles,” Rodriguez explained. “There were a couple times when we matched the wrong way and had bad eye discipline.”
Rodriguez confirmed Monday that defensive lineman Darius Wiley will miss the rest of the season due to a right knee injury he sustained in the fourth quarter against Coastal Carolina.
UT Martin (1-1), an FCS program, heads to Morgantown after a 42-7 win over Chicago State last week. The Skyhawks scored all six of their touchdowns in the victory via a pounding rushing attack that produced 216 yards on the ground. Tommy Ansley’s 106 yards and three TDs on 16 totes paced UT Martin, while Chris Franklin added two running scores.
“We have a really good offensive line — we leaned on those guys and ran behind them,” UT Martin coach Jason Simpson said. “We are still (a) work in progress; we’ll use this nonconference season to get guys some experience and keep evaluating. We will look different by the time we get to (Ohio Valley) conference play.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback Tate Surber finished 16-for-23 with 222 passing yards and an interception in his collegiate debut.
West Virginia and UT Martin have never met on the gridiron. Saturday’s contest is the first of four consecutive road games for the Skyhawks.
