Asti: Key WVU Football Storylines to Keep an Eye on Throughout the 2026 Season

With the team back together in Morgantown and peroration underway, there are many questions looming over WVU football going into the 2026 season.

Can Rich Rodriguez turn West Virginia into a contender again? How close is West Virginia in the program’s progress? Who will lead the Mountaineers as their starting quarterback? Will the new-look offensive line protect? Will the defense be improved enough to allow the team to win? Will the offense be explosive? There are many others. Even the most optimistic fan recognizes there are far more questions than answers in August, and most of the answers can’t come until at least midway through the season.

With all that said, here are some of the key storylines to keep an eye on:

Pressure on Rich Rodriguez

Despite all the comments Rodriguez made about wanting to win right away, most realties fans knew that simply wasn’t going to happen in year one. The roster wasn’t good enough and WVU still needed to increase their funding. However, those excuses can’t be used again in year two.

Rodriguez enjoyed success in recruiting, both in the transfer portal and by bringing in multiple four-star freshman expected to play right away. He was in the job the full year and by all accounts, including what Rodriguez and director of athletics Wren Baker, have said publicly, the NIL bank has been increased to a level the program has never enjoyed in this era of the sport.

While nothing is guaranteed and the team is far from perfect, a noticeable step has to be taken in 2026. Some fans will forever love and appreciate Rodriguez for the 2005 Sugar Bowl trophy and Big East conference titles. Some will forever hate him for leaving after the 2007 season and ahead of the Fiesta Bowl. But most importantly, Rodriguez’s career resume already argues as being worthy of the College Football Hall of Fame, but is just shy of the win % bar needed for a coach to gain enshrinement. Another losing season and failure to at least make a bowl game will not only cause fans to wonder if WVU can ever win at a high level, but it may keep Rodriguez out of earning his profession’s highest honor.

Will Michael Hawkins Jr. or Scotty Fox Jr. be the next great WVU QB?

Regardless who ends up taking the first snap under center to kickoff the season, that quarterback will need to play at a high level for the Mountaineer offense to be explosive enough to win in the Big 12. And after an uncharacteristically lack luster showing for Rodriguez in 2025, it will be up to Michael Hawkins Jr. or Scotty Fox, both dual-threats who fit the spread style, granted in different ways, to do what’s needed to win games.

“We wanted to have competition at every position, and legitimate competition. We wanted guys that have production, not potential. So at the quarterback spot, Scotty [Fox] coming back, he played as a really young true freshman last year and competed well and he’s got better. But we wanted a guy we thought could compete for the starting job and take us to another level, and that was Mike Hawkins, who had a great spring. He could run, he could throw,” explained Rodriguez when asked about bringing in Hawkins at the Big 12 Media Days event.

WVU quarterback Michael Hawkins and assistant quarterbacks coach and program legend Pat White talk during a scrimmage ahead of the 2026 season. (WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose)

In two seasons with Oklahoma before transferring to WVU, the 6-foot-1, 196-pound Hawkins completed a total of 91-of-147 passes for 950 yards with six touchdown passes to two interceptions. He added 262 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Fox emerged throughout the 2025 season after gaining an opportunity to play due to a depth chart that endured multiple injuries. Fox threw for 1,276 yards, seven touchdowns and six interceptions. He added 201 more yards and three more scores on the ground.

WV Sports Now projects Hawkins to be named the starter due to a higher ceiling and potential, but doesn’t expect any official announcement to be made until an hour before kickoff of WVU’s Week 1 game against Coastal Carolina. The quarterback competition will remain fluid throughout fall camp. 

Pressure on Zac Alley

For as praised as the hiring of Zac Alley as defensive coordinator was at the time, the defense’s body of work from his first season doesn’t provide the young coach anything to hang his hat on as a Mountaineer yet. It’s fair to argue Alley can’t be judged off of one season with a flawed roster that gave up 30.8 points per game, but the whole belief of him as an up and coming future head coach may wash away if the proof isn’t presented by actual results.

Can Cam Cook Cook Enough?

Coming to West Virginia after being the nation’s leading rusher in 2025 with Jacksonville State, Cam Cook still has plenty left to prove as a Mountaineer, namely if he can pivot his ability to be a workhorse over to the Power Four level.

Can he dominate to the same level in the Big 12? Can he handle a big workload without much experience behind him? Will Cook be enough if West Virginia does not find stable backups to share the touches in a run-first offense? These are all valid questions people are asking and wondering about when it comes to Cook as a Mountaineer.

Fully aware of the pressure and expectations, Cook is confident in himself, too. He knows he can take the WVU offense to new heights in 2026.

Cook explained his mentality and why he holds himself to a very high standard after spring practice on Monday, March 30. On the heels of being the nation’s leading rusher in 2025, Cook feels ready to be a featured back in the Big 12 again.

West Virginia running back Cam Cook carries the ball during the Gold-Blue Festival’s scrimmage in April, 2026. (WV Sports Now photo by Kelsie LeRose)

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to help the team,” Cook said about his role as a Mountaineer. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to help us get to where we need to go. Last year, they asked me to do a lot, and I did whatever the team needed.”

“I have changed a lot since then,” responded Cook when asked how he’s changed since starting his college career at TCU.

“I’m a bigger back, I’m faster and smarter. I know what’s going on on all sides of the field. Not just what the running back is doing, but how the offensive line is blocking and where they’re trying to get to.”

Find more coverage of the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.