Rich Rodriguez Details the Decision to Start Scotty Fox Jr.

West Virginia quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. earned his first career start in the 45-13 loss to UCF on Saturday, although it came as a bit of a surprise the freshman was leading the offense onto the field.

Redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins started for the Mountaineers in the last outing against BYU, but following a bye week, head coach Rich Rodriguez opted for the true freshman versus UCF.

“Just trying,” Rodriguez said. “Got to give everybody a shot and do it based on what they’ve done in the game, but also what they’ve done in practice,”

Wilkins battled throughout the night against a stingy BYU defense. He led the team in rushing for 89 yards, but was falling short through the air, producing 81 yards on 7-15 passing. However, you could see some maturation during the contest and the thought heading into the bye week was ‘Wilkins’ is the guy moving forward.’

Fox entered the game against with two minutes remaining in the contest and the score was well in favor of the Cougars 38-17. Nevertheless, he completed all three of his passing attempts for 54 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown pass.

“I’ve got to make a decision based on practice, and to have the two young guys, the only guys that are healthy, are the two young guys,” Rodriguez said. “Scotty got the first shot based on practice the last two weeks, but it’s a lot on them.

In the first three drives against UCF, Fox was 1-2 for three yards, although the game’s first play from scrimmage, he rolled right, Jeff Weimer was streaking down the sideline, the pass fell short, causing the defender to run into Weimer for pass interference.

Rodriguez looked for the same action from Fox and Co., however, the UCF defense snuffed it out on each occasion and struggled to find his footing in the running game and multiple sacks left him with -9 yards in the first half.

The offense was turned back over to Wilkins after the Knights offense gave WVU the ball at the UCF 39. Wilkins took advantage of the generous field position and led the Mountaineers on their first touchdown drive of the game to cut the UCF lead in half, 14-7. However, it was the only scoring drive of the half after leading the offense 42-yards in the two-minute drill to set up a 44-yard field goal, which sailed right.

Wilkins finished the first half with 58 rushing yards on 11 carries and a touchdown and again, had difficulties finding a rhythm in the passing game, throwing for 20 yards on 2-5 passing.

In the second half, Wilkins was, looking to respond to UCF’s opening touchdown drive, and on third and eight, he was sack and stripped by senior edge rusher Nyjalik Kelly and redshirt senior linebacker Keli Lawson scooped it up and returned it 32 yards for the touchdown.

Wilkins in the offense only mustered 17 yards and Fox re-entered the game.

“It’s a lot on them more when the pieces around them aren’t helping,” Rodriguez said. “And we got to figure out a way for that to happen because if you got a young quarterback and you can run the ball, or you don’t have to get rid out it so quick when you drop back and that kind of stuff.”

The offensive line allowed seven sacks against a UCF defense that had eight sacks on the seven, two of which were in the three previous Big 12 games.

West Virginia was also held under its season rushing average of 199.3 yards per game against league competition, rushing for 14 yards in the second half to finish for 131 on the afternoon.

“They know we’re going to run it inside there a little bit, some inside zone stuff. There’s going to be some things on film where its, ‘Golly, this should have worked,’ but then there’s going to be some other stuff like, ‘We got to help them out with a better play,’ So, it’s a combination.”

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