West Virginia Mountaineers Aim to Silence Ohio in Athens: Can They Deliver the Ultimate Statement?

Opening Thoughts

Gang, we’re back! My sincerest apologies for being asleep at the wheel last week for BobbyMo – my attention was focused on ensuring that Clan Pinto’s first full family football excursion went off without a hitch. The verdict? Mostly successful! Mother Nature gave us a banger of a season opener, we survived the Blue Lot, Dad kept his P’s and Q’s in check (at least for the relevant portion of the festivities), and everybody made it through the first half and into ice cream time with vibes intact. Couldn’t have asked for a better family experience.

As for the game, turnovers aside things mostly played out as expected – the offense moved the ball, the defense bowed up through multiple quick change scenarios, and the good guys ultimately pulled away for a late cover that made me positive on the weekend (I’ve since given it back).

The positives – Cam Vaughn’s a stud, the quarterbacks all looked competent, and the defense seems better than last year (the lowest possible bar to clear).

The only concern – the offensive line. This feels weird to say after a day where we rolled up 600+ and 393 on the ground and were generally pretty explosive, but our SlawAI-powered stats show that primary ball carriers Nicco Marchiol, Jaheim White, and Clay Ash gained 131 of their 179 yards after contact, which when spread across their 35 combined carries yields an average depth of contact of about 1.4 yards. That level of push is subpar against any level of competition, but it’s unacceptable against a ho hum FCS squad. Rod obviously “questioned” the group’s edge at the break and things improved in the second half, but it’s definitely something worth paying attention to going forward.

WHEN/WHERE

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2025

Kickoff Time: 4:00PM ET

Location: Peden Stadium, Athens, Ohio

HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN

Channel: ESPNU | DirecTV Channel 208 | Dish Channel 141

Announcers: Courtney Lyle (PBP) and Rene Ingoglia (analyst)

Online Streaming: ESPN with a valid cable subscription

Radio: Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG (Radio Affiliates) | Sirius Channel 161, XM Channel 199 & Streaming Channel 953 | WVU Gameday App (Apple | Android)

Radio Announcers: Tony Caridi (PBP), Dwight Wallace (analyst), Jed Drenning (sideline), Andrew Caridi, and John Antonik (Pre/Postgame Show)

Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments.

DEGENERATION STATION

Spread: WVU -3.5

Moneyline: -154

Over/Under: 60.5

Big 12 Pulse Check

A very up and down Week 1 showing from the group. Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, and BYU all annihilated subpar competition, but three of the five teams who faced P4 opponents fell in defeat and a few more struggled with lesser opponents. The weekend was ultimately salvaged during the late/Monday slate by two truly impressive performances from Utah, who steamrolled into Pasadena and looked every bit the battleship I feared they’d be, and TCU, who may have ended the Belichick era in Chapel Hill before it well and truly began. Some very early power rankings, in order of teams I’m most concerned about playing:

Know Thy Enemy

When They Have the Ball

Players to Watch

The Numbers

The Gameplan

I watched the Ohio-Rutgers game live on Thursday, and the things that stuck out were A) that the Bobcat pass catchers were more effective than I expected them to be and B) that Parker Navarro is really good. The “I’m fairly alarmed here” energy was very real by about 10pm.

However, I rewatched a lot of the game on Monday in preparation for this week (serious journo innit), and while Navarro is very much confirmed to be a clear and present danger to the program, my primary takeaway on second watch was that the Rutgers DC will be going the way of the Lesleysaur sooner than later. Dude let the Knights get absolutely roasted in man coverage all night, allowing big play after big play with backs turned against balls in the air (we empathize) and guys chasing decoys 30 yards downfield as the Bobcats picked up big yards on the ground. All 4 of Navarro’s touchdowns (3 pass, 1 rush) came against man coverage and the mad lad just kept right on calling it.

I think the base quarters looks we deploy should be much more effective here (90% zone last week), especially against the Navarro designed runs and scrambles, because our defenders should have eyes on him and react more quickly to him when he tucks and runs. Discipline and communication will be especially critical if and when they get into the red zone, as they used an effective package of split zone and split zone RPO (with the tight end running across the formation into the flat) to create three of their touchdowns on Thursday. I’d also be wary of a pop wrinkle being added to the package for this week (with a second tight end blocking for a beat before leaking up the seam) to use what they put on film last weekend against us.

A bit more on Navarro – the guy is legit, and as fans we need to prepare ourselves for him to be a major source of frustration this weekend. He made several good throws into tight windows on critical downs and had some Garrett Greene about him as a ball carrier, displaying good speed and elusiveness in the open field. Stopping him is the clear priority but is much easier said than done, as you somehow have to pressure him (just 2/8 passing when pressured) while playing under enough control to limit his opportunities for out of structure playmaking. Alley will need to get creative about when and where he sends his extra rushers from, and when possible we’ll need to have somebody ready to scoop up Navarro when he inevitably breaks contain. However, if our defensive front kicks their OL’s ass like I think they should then hopefully we will be OK.

When We Have It

Players to Watch

The Numbers

The Gameplan

We got the absolute 101 version of the RichRod offense on Saturday, which is completely understandable considering who we were playing and who we have looming. The offense, and especially Nicco, responded with the efficiency you’d expect from a group running its foundational plays – the reads were good, the throws were tidy, and we were never really stopped outside of the few times we stopped ourselves. It was a good first step, and regardless of weekly schematic evolution I think we can safely assume that what we saw last weekend (70/30 run/pass split, inside zone read foundation) will be at the core of our identity.

In light of that, here are the main things I’m watching for this weekend:

Other schematic questions that deserve your attention:

Strategic questions that deserve your attention:

Turnovers feel like the easy answer here – there’s no better way to let a lesser team hang around than to give them free possessions in good field position. However, I think this one’s going to swing on our play up front on both sides. Can we come together on offense and get our runners a clear path to the second level on a more regular basis? And can we create negative plays and contain Navarro’s legs on the other side?

Prediction

My perception of this game has swung twice in the last three weeks. On initial scout, I felt that Mountaineer Nation’s concerns were overblown, because on paper this was a team that lost its entire defensive front and is bereft of offensive weapons outside of Parker Navarro and Sieh Bangura. My first watch of the Rutgers game had me feeling like maybe the concerns were valid, as they could and really should have beaten a Power 4 team on the road. Now I’m back to thinking we’ll be just fine – Rutgers stinks, especially defensively, and even after doing everything they could to let Ohio back into that game (turtle shell offense + man defense with no adjustments) they were still able to beat them.

I don’t expect us to do Ohio those same favors. We’re going to keep the pedal down and keep the chains moving with the run and short pass game, which I think will ultimately wear them down and allow us to hit some chunk plays late. On the other side, I just don’t see them running the ball on us the way they did against Rutgers, and our zone scheme should be much better suited to preventing all the things that caused the Knights problems last week.

Man for man we’re clearly more talented than them on both sides of the ball to the point that this 2.5-point spread is downright disrespectful. Let’s go lay down a marker and get ready for the big one.

West Virginia 37-17 Ohio