MORGANTOWN, West Virginia. There is a question floating around Mountaineer social media right now, and I can already feel half of you rolling your eyes just reading that sentence.
Should Scotty Fox Jr. be playing more? Should he be starting?
And before anybody twists this into something it is not, let me be crystal clear: there is no actual quarterback controversy inside this football program. None. Zero. No verified report, no locker room rift, no behind the scenes drama. This is a fan debate, an internet debate, the kind of thing that lives in comment sections and group chats, not in the meeting rooms at the Puskar Center.
But it exists. And honestly? It deserves a real conversation, because the question nobody in Morgantown wants to answer is a fair one.
The Starter Is Not the Problem
Let us start with the facts, because facts still matter around here. Michael Hawkins Jr. is the starting quarterback. That is not up for debate. The Oklahoma transfer arrived on January 5 as a former four star recruit, and through two games he has looked every bit the part.
Against UT Martin, Hawkins went 5 of 7 for 155 yards and two touchdowns through the air. Then he ripped off six carries for 96 yards and two more scores on the ground, including a 71 yard touchdown run that had the entire stadium on its feet. He was so good they pulled him after WVU went up 42-0 in the third quarter.
So what exactly are we arguing about?
Well, that is the uncomfortable part. The fans pushing for Scotty Fox Jr. are not crazy either.
Why the Fox Talk Will Not Die
Fox is the backup quarterback. He is talented. And some fans on social media are calling for him to get snaps, or in the bolder corners of the internet, calling for him to start. They see a young quarterback with real ability sitting behind a young quarterback with real ability, and they cannot help themselves.
It is the oldest tradition in football: the backup is always the most popular guy on the roster.
Make no mistake, this is a compliment to the roster, not an indictment of the starter. When was the last time WVU fans argued about having too many good quarterbacks? Seriously, think about it. We spent years in quarterback purgatory, watching the vanilla raid offense slog through Saturdays where nothing felt possible. Now we have two young quarterbacks that Mountaineer fans genuinely believe in, and somehow we have turned that into an argument.
That is what winning does. It raises the bar so high that even good stops being good enough.
Here Is Where I Land
I am not hedging on this: Michael Hawkins Jr. is the guy. Full stop. You do not bench a quarterback who is producing the way he has through two games. You do not mess with the chemistry of a locker room that is 2-0 for the first time since the Will Grier era in 2018. And you do not hand the keys to a program with this much momentum to anyone but the man who earned them.
But here is the other thing I believe: the fans calling for Fox are not the enemy. They are the symptom of something beautiful. They are fans who watched this program settle for mediocrity for too long and now refuse to accept anything less than excellence at every snap. They want to see what the kid can do. And honestly? So do I, in the right moments, in the right games.
This is where Rich Rodriguez comes in, and this is why I trust this staff more than any staff we have had in a decade. Rodriguez has 195 career wins, third among active Power Four coaches. You do not get to that number by panicking about message boards. He will get Fox snaps when the moment is right, in games where the scoreboard allows it, and the young man will develop exactly the way he is supposed to develop.
So let me answer the question nobody in Morgantown wants to answer: yes, the Scotty Fox conversation is real. It is happening online, and it is not going away. And no, it does not change a thing, because the answer is the same today as it was the day the season started. Hawkins is the starter. Fox is the future insurance policy. And having both of them is a problem that about a hundred other programs would kill to have.
WVU is 2-0. The offense is rolling. The defense is flying around. And we are sitting here debating which talented young quarterback should play more.
Grab some popcorn, Mountaineer Nation. These are the good problems.
