A Season We Will Remember

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Mountaineer fans, I don’t say this lightly: this is the year. Not “the year we might sneak into a bowl game” or “the year we’re building something.” This is the year you tell your kids about someday. Let me tell you why.

The Backfield Nobody Wants to Face

Let’s start with the obvious. Cam Cook led the entire nation in rushing last season with 1,659 yards and 16 touchdowns at Jacksonville State. That’s not a solid transfer portal add. That’s the best runner in college football walking into our backfield. And he’s not even alone back there — true freshman Amari Latimer, a kid out of Sandy Creek High down in Georgia, put up 2,171 yards and 40 touchdowns his senior year and holds the all-time rushing record at his school. He flipped his commitment away from Wisconsin to come be a Mountaineer. Two backs like that in the same room is not normal.

There’s also a new piece to this backfield that old-school Mountaineer fans should appreciate: Kayden “Cowboy” Luke came over from Arizona to take over at fullback, a position this program hasn’t really featured since Owen Schmitt was flattening linebackers back in the mid-2000s so Pat White and Steve Slaton could do their thing. I’ll be honest with you — I don’t think Cowboy Luke is walking into that same kind of workload. Rich Rodriguez leans on tight ends as his blockers these days, so fullback isn’t the every-down factor it used to be. But when this offense needs one yard on third-and-goal, having a legit lead blocker in the backfield is exactly the kind of gritty, physical wrinkle that turns close red zone trips into touchdowns instead of field goals.

A Quarterback With Something to Prove

Full disclosure, nothing is official yet. Coach Rod hasn’t put a name on that QB1 role, and he’s not going to rush that decision just to make offseason writers like me happy. Fair enough. But you already know where my money’s at, so I might as well say it out loud: this job belongs to Michael Hawkins Jr., and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t.

It’s not blind faith. This kid has already started real games at the Power Four level, and his style — a true dual-threat who can hurt you with his legs — lines up almost perfectly with what Rich Rodriguez has always wanted from his quarterback. Nobody handed him anything at Oklahoma either; he went on the road as a true freshman and got the win, first OU freshman ever to pull that off. Football runs in his blood too — his father suited up at corner for the Sooners under Bob Stoops and later played in the NFL, so this isn’t a guy new to big moments. And it’s a two-for-one deal: his brother Maliek transferred in right alongside him to play corner. That’s a family, not just a recruit.

I could end up eating these words come September. That’s how camp battles go. But if you put a “smoking musket” to my head right now and made me pick, I’m circling Hawkins.

Weapons Everywhere You Look

This isn’t a one-trick offense. Jaden Bray is back for his final season as the No. 1 target. DJ Epps came over from Troy and is a legit weapon both as a slot receiver and a kick returner. Add in transfers like Prince Strachan (6’5”, so throw it up and let him go get it) and TaRon Francis, a four-star kid out of LSU who once turned down Florida State and Georgia Tech to get there. When defenses load the box to try and slow down Cook and Latimer, that leaves this receiver room in single coverage all day long. That’s a math problem defensive coordinators are not going to solve easily.

The Schedule Sets Up Right

Seven home games. Five of those are Big 12 games right here in Morgantown. We open at home against Coastal Carolina, a program under a brand new coaching staff still finding its footing. We get Virginia at a neutral site in Charlotte for the first time since 2002. We host Oklahoma State, Arizona, and Cincinnati at home. Yes, there are real road tests — Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech, and a season finale at Utah — but this team gets to build its identity in front of its own crowd before it has to go win the hard ones on the road.

Bigger Than Just This Season

And here’s the part that should get every fan fired up beyond just Saturdays: the conversation about where West Virginia belongs long-term is heating up too. We are the only Power conference program in this entire state with zero pro sports competing for attention. That’s the same identity Arkansas has in the SEC, and it’s exactly why WVU fits that league’s model better than people want to admit. With Congress debating the Protect College Sports Act and a possible freeze on realignment coming this fall, the timing on all of this could not be more important. Win games this year, and that conversation only gets louder.

Why This Year Is Different

We’ve had talented rosters before. We’ve had exciting quarterbacks before. What we haven’t had in a long time is this much talent stacked at the same time, on the same roster, at the same positions that actually decide games. A generational running back tandem. A quarterback with real starting pedigree. A receiver room deep enough to make opposing coordinators pick their poison. And a schedule that gives this group every chance to build real momentum before the toughest road tests arrive.
Buy the tickets. Get to the tailgate early. Bring your kids, because you’re going to want them to remember exactly where they were for this one.

Let’s go Mountaineers! This is our year.

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