Late in the third quarter Saturday, with Oklahoma State leading 28-24 and West Virginia facing fourth-and-a-half-yard, Rich Rodriguez called a run for true freshman Amari Latimer. Latimer was stuffed for a 2-yard loss and West Virginia turned the ball over on downs. The Mountaineers had led 21-13 in the third quarter; Oklahoma State scored 28 of the final 31 points and won 41-24 in Morgantown. Afterward Rodriguez said, "The plan we had failed," and put the blame on himself for not having a better one.
He was even blunter about the defense. "Defensively, we didn't play well at all the whole time. We gave up 609 yards... We never got any pressure." No pressure on the quarterback is the problem that carries into Ames. For Oklahoma State, the night ended an 18-game Big 12 losing streak and an 11-game road losing skid, and it was the Cowboys' sixth consecutive win in Morgantown. A home date against a team that had not won a conference game since 2023 was supposed to be where this schedule paid off, and West Virginia let it go.
What the loss confirmed and what it exposed
Cook is not the problem. He carried 29 times for 193 yards, about 6.7 per carry, in the loss to Oklahoma State. That is the one thing about this offense you can plan a Saturday around.
The defense is a different story. Player-level PFF grading of the secondary was grim across the board. Cornerback Nick Taylor graded 54.8 while allowing 69 yards on four targets, safety Andrew Powdrell graded 42.9 while allowing 116 yards on three, and the outlet could not find a single Mountaineer defender who played a solid game. The front wasn't better. Among West Virginia's defensive linemen, Corey McIntyre Jr. (67.7) and Zeke Durham-Campbell (67.1) graded best, several others landed below average, and Yendor Mack graded lowest at 33.7. That is a rotation surviving on numbers, not a replacement who wins a down by himself. Which is exactly how a team gives up 609 yards without generating pressure.
Keep the roster in mind before treating one afternoon as the verdict. West Virginia entered the spring with 37 transfer additions, 36 high-school signees and 12 junior-college arrivals alongside only 34 returning players, and preseason projections had the Mountaineers anywhere from a tie for seventh in the Big 12 (Phil Steele) down to 16th (Sporting News). A team built that way reaching its best start since 2018 was already ahead of schedule. Losing a conference opener to a hot quarterback is not a collapse of the rebuild; it is the fourth data point in a season that will produce plenty more.
West Virginia quarterback Hawkins is also further along than his Saturday passing line suggests. He won the job after a close competition with Scotty Fox Jr., and in his first start he completed 11 of 14 for 132 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions while adding 20 carries for 103 net yards and another score. The dual-threat piece Rodriguez's offense needs is there. The downfield passing has been the thin part all year, and it got thinner against Oklahoma State.
Saturday in Ames
West Virginia plays at Iowa State at noon ET on TNT, the Mountaineers' first true road game of the season after three home dates and the neutral-site win over Virginia in Charlotte. The model gives West Virginia about a 10% chance, which is honest. Iowa State is favored comfortably, and the defense Rodriguez said never got any pressure is the main reason.
There is a real path anyway. Iowa State comes in 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12 after a 31-17 loss to No. 15 Utah, so both teams are hunting their first conference win of 2026. And coach Jimmy Rogers said afterward that his defense, the linebackers specifically, "didn't tackle well enough," with missed tackles in space showing up everywhere as Utah piled up 411 yards. Cook running behind Hawkins' zone-read threat is precisely the problem that defense has not solved.
The game turns on the front four on Iowa State's early third downs. If nobody bothers Jaylen Raynor, the afternoon will look like last Saturday's second half with a Homecoming crowd attached. If McIntyre and Durham-Campbell win a few snaps and force a throw before Raynor wants to make it, a 10% game gets interesting in a hurry, and Rodriguez gets the pressure he said his defense never generated. Full Big 12 odds and the rest of Week 5 are in the interactive guide, and the simulation details are in the methodology.