Why We Beat Cincinnati

MORGANTOWN, WV - OCTOBER 17: The West Virginia Mountaineers sing Country Roads in front of the student section following the college football game between the Cincinnati Bearcats the West Virginia Mountaineers on October 17, 2026, at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, WV. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesMichael Hawkins Jr.

We could probably just end the article here. Michael Hawkins Jr. has been great all year for us, but against Cincinnati he took it to another level, and he did it with his throwing ability. His stats on the day:

• 25/33 464 yards 3 touchdowns 0 interceptions
• 26 rushes for 77 yards 2 touchdowns

People have been asking all year if he could win a game with his arm if he had to and while he has shown flashes of arm talent all year, he hadn't definitively answered the critics until today. All that said, his running ability still had an huge impact on the day, but the difference today was that he scrambled to buy time to throw instead of running downfield as soon as he felt pressure. Perfect example of this was in the 4th quarter on a 3rd and 3, Mike extends the play scrambling left then to the right and launches the ball downfield to a streaking DJ Epps. He put the ball right on the money for a 32 yard gain and we would eventually get a TD on the drive and tie the game.

Defense got a stop when they had to.

I'm not going to tell you the defense played well. We all have eyes and can see that the problems that have plagued us all year on that side of the ball still existed. But in the 4th quarter with the game tied we needed a defensive stop to get the ball back to Michael Hawkins and company with a chance to win the game, and they delivered. They even stopped an attempted fake punt that could have put the nail in the coffin for what has felt like a cursed season at times. In the 2nd half we entered familiar territory with the back and forth scoring on both sides, and neither defense getting a stop. We saw this against Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and Arizona. All 3 games resulted in a loss because we blinked first. This time was different because the defense stepped up. Still a long way to go on that side of the ball, but winning makes everything better.

Rich Rodriguez adjusted his play calling.

If you would have told me before the game that Cincinnati would have over 600 yards of total offense and would hold us to 134 rushing yards, I would have had us losing by at least 2 touchdowns. The reason that didn't happen? Rich Rod opened up the playbook and dare I say... abandoned the run. I've watched pretty much every WVU game coached by Rich Rod, I can't remember ever seeing him lean on the passing game as much as he did today. And it was beautiful. The RPO's with Michael Hawkins made Cincinnati pick their poison, and Mike made them pay time and time again. We showed the intermediate passing game that let playmakers get yards after the catch. A perfect example of this adjustment was the screen play to Cam Cook that resulted in a touchdown. Cam had been almost completely shut down in the run game all day. Rich found another way to get him involved.

Key play of the game.

With the score tied 42 -42 and 1:48 left in the game, WVU faced a 3rd and 9 from their own 2 yard line. Michael Hawkins Jr. throws a deep ball to our 6' 5" receiver Prince Strachan. Prince fights through what should have been a pass interference flag to make the catch for a 41 yard gain. 2 plays later he would connect with Prince again for an additional 39 yards to get us into field goal range.

What are your thoughts from the game? Did this win change your outlook for the rest of the season?