Instant Reactions to West Virginia's Loss to Kansas

Morgantown, WV – The West Virginia Mountaineers (5-5, 2-5) fell to the Kansas Jayhawks (4-6, 2-5) Saturday evening 37-14.

Here are my initial thoughts from West Virginia’s abysmal loss to Kansas.

Defense

The defense remains the top priority. Yes, it’s bad and a lot of has to do with their size. They are the smallest unit in the Big 12 and it is noticeable on the sidelines. These Big 12 teams make the defense look like a high school team from a size perspective. And quite honestly, some of the defensive backs look like middle schoolers out there, and they get pushed around up front as such.

While it’s easy to say, “spend more on NIL”, but then the question needs asked, where will the money come from? Theres no big business in the state that has the kind of money to fund one side of the ball. And if I had to guess, the teams competing at the top have double the NIL funding (possibly more) on defense.

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It is easy to use Zac Alley as the scapegoat, and if he is fired at some point, the next defensive coordinator better come with annual NIL funding of at least 15 million to compete for a conference title.

Mike Hawkins Jr.

Hawkins had his worst performance of the season. It’s unfortunate too because he was, and still is, having an outstanding season.

He missed multiple reads in the passing game, and he and Cook seemed off balance. Hawkins didn’t have his usual quickness or speed about him, and it could be due to the wear and tear of the season is maybe be taking a toll on the redshirt sophomore. This is after all, his first full season as the starting quarterback.

Offense

Welp, I did not see this coming, especially after last week. The offense had been increasingly improving every week and looked near unstoppable last week in Lubbock, although the fourth quarter was a little rough.

Nonetheless, the only chance this team has to record wins is if the offense can put up points in bunches, and against the Jayhawks, they only produced 262 total yards, 164 of which came in the fourth quarer, and were nearly shutout for three-straight quarters till the late touchdown. A complete 180 from what we’ve seen this season. It is a cause for concern, and it may be demoralizing for a group that’s played well enough to win most of the games this season.

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