Hawkins makes first start as West Virginia opens season vs. Coastal Carolina
Michael Hawkins Jr. gets his first start under an entirely rebuilt West Virginia offense as the Mountaineers open the season at home, a 21.5-point favorite over Coastal Carolina.
Hawkins gets his first start, and a roster remade around him
Michael Hawkins Jr. takes his first snap as West Virginia's starting quarterback this morning against Coastal Carolina, capping a competition Rich Rodriguez all but closed a week ago when he named the Oklahoma transfer over sophomore Scotty Fox Jr., according to a report from the Dominion Post. West Virginia's official depth chart still lists the two side by side as "OR," per Sports Illustrated, but nobody around the program is pretending it's still open. Handing off to Hawkins is Cam Cook, the Jacksonville State transfer who led the entire country in rushing last season with 1,661 yards and 16 touchdowns and was named Conference USA's Player of the Year, per On3.
The overhaul runs well past the backfield. Four new starters take the field on the offensive line, with the lone holdover, Nick Krahe, sliding from tackle to guard, and linebacker Ben Cutter is the only player back among last year's top 17 tacklers, per WV MetroNews. Rodriguez has been candid about walking in blind: "I don't know if you ever truly know" a team until it plays, he said this week, and he's singled out special teams as the one phase practice can't fully simulate.
The roster is still growing beyond today's lineup, too — West Virginia has emerged as the frontrunner for former Georgia safety JaCorey Thomas, per our coverage, which would hand Rodriguez another piece for a defense that's turning over almost as fast as the offense.
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Last season ended with a 49-0 shutout, and this camp is the reset
West Virginia's 2025 season didn't fade out quietly — it swung wildly on the way there. The Mountaineers won at Houston 45-35 and beat Colorado 29-22 at home, then lost a 3-point game at Arizona State 25-23, before the season cratered in the finale: a 49-0 shutout at the hands of Texas Tech last November. Four games, three different results, and none of them resembled the ones around it.
That kind of week-to-week whiplash is exactly what an entirely new quarterback, running back and defensive front seven are supposed to cure, and it's why the roster turnover carries more weight than a typical fall-camp reset. A team that beat Houston by 10 and lost to Texas Tech by 49 in the same six weeks was a team still searching for itself, and last season's finish is the whole backdrop Rodriguez is opening 2026 against.
Coastal Carolina's own coach is already scared of what Hawkins can do
West Virginia isn't just facing an 0-0 name on the schedule this morning. Coastal Carolina is starting over under first-year head coach Ryan Beard, who left Missouri State — where he'd just gone 7-5 in the program's first FBS season and earned a bid to the Xbox Bowl — after Coastal fired Tim Beck. Beard brought his own quarterback competition with him: Deuce Bailey, who played for Beard at Missouri State last season, is battling Arkansas transfer Trever Jackson for the job, per Yahoo Sports. Whoever wins it hands off to a backfield with actual juice — sophomores Jevon Edwards and Dominic Lee-Knicely combined for 756 yards at 5.7 yards a carry last season, with Rice transfer Daelen Alexander added for power.
The line in front of them is the problem — Coastal Carolina lost tackle Nick Del Grande to Duke and guard Julius Tate to USF in the portal, and Yahoo's preview put it plainly: there's "decent size up front, but it might take a little while to get together." Beard has already flagged the road trip itself as the bigger issue this week, telling reporters his team simply has to "focus and stay in the moment" against the Milan Puskar Stadium crowd, per WV MetroNews.
Beard has also seen enough tape to be worried about the man under center. "Michael Hawkins Jr. is a tremendous talent. He can run the football. He can make every throw on the field. He's got good vision," Beard said, per Sports Illustrated, adding that Hawkins is "elusive in the pocket" and keeps "his eyes down the field to make those big, explosive plays." He called Cam Cook "all world" in the same breath and said his defense has to find "good rush lanes" and get "selective" with pressure — about as clear a sign as there is that West Virginia's new backfield is the first thing on the scouting report.
A middling total says the market isn't sold on either offense yet
Kickoff for the opener is this morning vs. Coastal Carolina, and the line reflects everything above: it opened at West Virginia -21.5, with the total set at 58.5 — a middling number that suggests the market isn't fully convinced either offense finds its rhythm right away. That's not a shock for a game pairing a brand-new WVU backfield and quarterback against a Coastal Carolina team also breaking in a first-year staff and its own unsettled line.
Beard already sounds like a coach managing expectations more than chasing an upset, telling his team the road trip itself — not the game plan — is the bigger obstacle, and that they simply have to "focus and stay in the moment" against the Milan Puskar Stadium crowd. For a West Virginia team that hasn't taken a single competitive snap with this quarterback or this backfield, that's about as clean a measuring-stick opener as a program could ask for.