WVU football dropped its third straight game on Friday night as the Mountaineers were felled by the BYU Cougars 38-24. The PFF grades are in for West Virginia, so let's see what they tell us about the Mountaineers this week.
Khalil Wilkins' Wasn't The Best Quarterback For WVU On Friday
Khalil Wilkins might be the right option at quarterback right now, at least with Jaylen Henderson hurt. He did look tough, competitive, and aggressive in his first career start against the Cougars. But he wasn't the best quarterback for the Mountaineers, according to PFF.
Scotty Fox Jr. also saw limited action against BYU and was awarded an overall grade from PFF of 89.6 for his play on offense, with his passing grade being an 87.5, and his rushing grade a 63.0 – which just so happens to surpass Wilkins' grades. Wilkins graded out with a 60.7 overall offensive grade, earning a 63.7 passing grade and a 59.5 rushing grade.
Now there is a major caveat – that being that Fox saw six snaps, and Wilkins saw 60. It's hard to judge how well a quarterback who saw 1/10th of the action as the starter played, and a couple of Wilkins' plays that likely lowered his score came on mistakes from his receivers, not himself. But Fox did look pretty good – he went 3-of-3 passing for 54 yards and one touchdown and carried the ball twice for 22 yards. Meanwhile, Wilkins was 7-of-15 passing for 81 yards and two interceptions, and ran the ball 23 times for 89 yards and one touchdown to lead the team.
One Offensive Line Starter Improved, But The Unit Still Has Work To Do
Starting right tackle Ty'Kieast Crawford showed major improvement against BYU. He's been pretty poorly graded by PFF this season, with his highest grade yet through the five games prior to BYU being a 61.7 against Group of Six opponent Ohio. But on Friday, he posted an overall offensive grade of 71.0, and an 85.9 pass blocking grade.
But the starting five still struggled as a unit, with the average combined overall offensive PFF grade between the five starters coming out to a 56.68 – higher than it's been since then games against Ohio and FCS opponent Robert Morris, but still nowhere near what would be considered an average Power Four offensive line. Head coach Rich Rodriguez was unhappy with their efforts following the game.
Cornerbacks Once Again Becoming Weak Point
WVU's defense didn't grade out anywhere near as badly as one might expect for a team that gave up over 500 total offensive yards, with over five players grading out with an overall defensive PFF grade of 70.0 or higher. Even in the pass game, where freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier had the best game of his young career with 351 passing yards and carved up WVU's defense with ease, WVU saw three defenders earn pass coverage grades from PFF of 70.0 or higher.
But those three players were linebackers Chase Wilson and Reid Carrico and safety Kekoura Tarnue. Meanwhile, the players who you'd expect the most out of in pass coverage – the cornerback unit – did not grade out nearly as well. Jason Chambers was given a 59.9 pass coverage grade, Jordan Scruggs earned a 54.9 pass coverage grade, and Michael Coats Jr. was given a 32.2 pass coverage grade. They were targeted a combined four times and gave up three receptions for 138 yards, and had zero combined pass breakups. All three were in the bottom fourth of the team's overall defensive grades as well.
Safeties Justin Harrington, Fred Perry, and Darrian Lewis were also weak links in pass coverage, getting targeted eight times and giving up eight receptions for 70 yards with no pass breakups among the three.
No Good Answer (Yet) At Running Back
WVU's top-graded rusher was wide receiver Jarod Bowie, and the next two highest-graded rushers were quarterbacks Scotty Fox Jr. and Khalil Wilkins. The highest rushing grade for a running back was 58.5 for Clay Ash, with Diore Hubbard earning a 57.3 rushing grade and Tye Edwards earning a 56.7 rushing grade. Outside of the games against Robert Morris and Pitt, no WVU running backs have found much of a rhythm, and that didn't change in Provo.
Tackling Shows Improvement
The Mountaineers had an abysmal 24 missed tackles against Utah and 39 combined missed tackles in the Kansas and Utah games. On Friday night, the Mountaineers missed just six total tackles, indicating that Alley has done something to get one glaring issue fixed on his defense.