Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. (3) warms up before the start of an NCAA college football game against LSU Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Norman, Okla. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia football’s quarterback situation last year was a mess. Rich Rodriguez didn’t name a starter at all during the season until he ran out of options later through six games. He went through Nicco Marchiol, Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson, Charlotte transfer Max Brown and returner Khalil Wilkins. After all of them went down with injuries, Rodriguez was forced to start true freshman Scotty Fox.

Rodriguez might’ve stumbled on something good, fortunately. In Fox’s first game as the full-time starter, he took TCU down to the wire. Then, he upset top-25-ranked Houston, beat Colorado, and almost beat Arizona State. Then, Fox faced Texas Tech’s top-rated defense, and it wasn’t entirely his fault, but the offense was stagnant. It rehashed the question on if the youngster was going to be the starter of the future.

Rodriguez never said he was the QB starter for years to come, but he didn’t say he wasn’t, and said he’d bring in a veteran quarterback in the portal, so the whole injury debacle happened.

Soon after the portal opened, Rodriguez signed Oklahoma transfer quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. Hawkins was a talented high school recruit at 4-star and had some Power Four experience, with a couple of starts. Rodriguez had a lot of quarterbacks on the board in the portal that he was evaluating, but with his and his coaches’ connections to the program, Hawkins stood out.

During his pre-spring press conference, Rodriguez made it clear that Hawkins isn’t a safety net, but he’s competing for the starting spot.

“We wanted somebody to come in and compete with Scotty, Max for the job,” Rodriguez said. “Somebody who had the skill set that we thought could be special in it. Mike has that. He’s shown that so far… He can run, he can throw, he’s smart, he’s competitive, and that was a big target for us to find a guy in the portal that we thought could compete with Scotty and Max and the rest of them to be our quarterback.”

There’s no question Hawkins has the makings to be a strong fit in Rodriguez’s offense. He showed flashes of speed and rushing ability in his short time with the Sooners. Hawkins can toss the ball downfield, too.

From the limited time Rodriguez has had with him, Hawkins is what he expected.

“He’s been what we thought he’d be so far, in workouts, in some meetings, and so spring practice is going to be important,” Rodriguez said.

If Rodriguez can’t decide after spring and into the summer, he again isn’t afraid to run a two-quarterback system. Especially if two of them meet his metric that they’ve shown they are “good enough to win with.”

“We could do some two-quarterback stuff, and I’ve done that in the past, but inevitably somebody may surge to the front,” Rodriguez said. “Practices now, and practices in August will kind of tell that part of it.”

That’s what Rodriguez really wants, just like he did and thought last spring. Rodriguez wants all his players to be pushed enough so they all act like starters and could be. Not just at quarterback.

Rodriguez said at the beginning of his pre-spring press conference that WVU doesn’t have a lot of starters returning, leaving a lot of spots up for grabs. Quarterback is definitely one of them.

“We’re hoping that at every position, not just a quarterback, that we have at least two guys that are good enough to win with,” Rodriguez said. “That’s kind of a kind of coach speak, but that’s what we want. If we can get three guys that we can win with at every position, boy, we’ll be a whole lot deeper and can sustain any bad luck.”