WVU Football Falls Flat in Embarrassing Loss to Kansas

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With bowl eligibility and a monumental achievement for Rich Rodriguez on the line, WVU fell flat against the last place Kansas Jayhawks.

Starting on defense and facing pressure to put up a respectable performance, West Virginia allowed some early big plays, both through the air and on the ground from quarterback Isaiah Marshall. However, WVU swung momentum at the end of the possession by holding the Jayhawks to a short 24-yard field goal.

But that momentum was quickly ruined when former Mountaineer Trey Lathan picked off Mike Hawkins, setting up a Jayhawks’ touchdown. WVU responded with a long drive that ended with a touchdown. Hawkins threw for 50 yards and ran for six before running into the end zone. KU 10, WVU 7.

Kansas answered themselves scoring on a big run on the play following Marshall’s exit the game. Then, several minutes later early in the second quart, ChaMarryus Bomar picked off Marshall on a deep ball attempt in the end zone, granting Hawkins and company another shot. But it wouldn’t end up mattering as WVU was forced to punt despite one 16-yard run during an otherwise lack-luster possession.

And to further demoralize the Mountaineer faithful in attendance, Kansas added to their already sizable lead. Set up by a 50-yard run by Marshall while completely faking out the defense, and pretty much everyone here, Kansas punches the ball in to extend their lead as WVU is putting up an effort that argues as their worst showing of the season. A missed extra point made the scoreboard read 24-7 with 6:07 left in the half.

Overcoming WVU forcing one fourth down, Marshall eventually kept it himself to get his team their fourth touchdown of the day.

The second half would open with multiple unsuccessful attempts to move the ball by the offense. West Virginia only had 82 yards in total with 9:35 on the clock in the third quarter.

And right as the fourth quarter got underway, the official final dagger, which wasn’t even really necessary, saw Kansas running back Chase Belcher run through a gaping hole in the WVU defensive line. A score of 37-7 in favor of the Jayhawks triggered most of the remaining fans to head out of Milan Puskar Stadium.

Hawkins did improve his stat line a bit – he had 184 passing yards and 36 on the ground at 5:01 to go in the game, throwing a 17-yard touchdown pass to John Neider on a fourth down attempt, but that only made the score 37-14 and preceded a failure to recover on the onside kick.

After the loss, West Virginia sits at .500 at 5-5 with two games left, both against winning teams.

At the end of the game, Kansas won 37-14.

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