The West Virginia Mountaineers won just four games last season. Now, they've still got one game left in September, and have almost matched that win total.
WVU footballwent into Charlotte as double-digit underdogs this weekendagainst No. 25 Virginia, who also entered the matchup undefeated, with many college football fans and experts counting the Mountaineers out well before kickoff on Saturday night.
But in the end, the Mountaineers managed to shock the sports world with a 38-21 victory over the defending ACC runners-up, taking a seven-point lead into the half and staying strong through the second half to move to 3-0 for the first time since the 2016 season.
Rich Rodriguez breaks drought stretching back to Dana Holgosen era as Mike Hawkins Jr. has his coming out party
The 3-0 start for the Mountaineers ends a drought sating back to the Dana Holgorsen era of the program, as they failed to get off to a 3-0 start at any point during the Neal Brown era. Ans it was a game mostly won by West Virginia's prized transfer quarterback Mike Hawkins Jr.
Don't get me wrong: the defense had to hold a veteran Virginia offensive line in check and keep the Cavaliers at 21 points. And you don't get a performance like his without a strong performance from West Virginia's clearly improved offensive line. But Hawkins looked like an absolute star on the national stage in his first taste of Power 4 copmpetition while playing for the Mountaineers.
He went 10-for-17 passing with 190 yards and two touchdowns, and added 123 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries. Hawkins Jr. now has five touchdown passes and six touchdown rushes on the season, with just one lost fumble and no interceptions. He has looked like everything he was hyped up to be and more, and that was made as clear as possible by his performance on Saturday.
What does West Virginia's win mean?
Well, you hate to jump right to the phrase "West Virginia is back," because that could come back to hant you later this fall. But you sure feel muchbetter about the Rich Rodriguez experiement moving forward.
In the short-term, West Virginia has a resume-boosting, non-conference win against a Power 4 team – one that came against a Top 25 opponent. They immediately look like a legitimate contender for the Big 12. And with that, you feel much better as a fan about their chances in games you may have previously considered toss-ups like Oklahoma State, Arizona, TCU, and Kansas.
Is West Virginia an eight-win team? It's hard to tell right now. But they feel a lot more like one than they did last week. Certainly, they're good enough to beat a top 25 team. And they could compete for the Big 12. And if the college football world didn't believe that was possible, they learned on Saturday night.
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