Three Rapid Takeaways from West Virginia's Devastating Loss to Ohio

In their first true test of the 2025 season, the West Virginia Mountaineers failed, falling to the Ohio Bobcats 17-10, dropping them to 1-1 on the year.

Here are some of my initial thoughts from today's action.

Need more of Jaylen Henderson

Waited too long to get a more mobile quarterback in the game, in my opinion. Henderson didn't check into the game until the final minute of the third quarter, which was nearly a full quarter later than he should have. Marchiol missed some reads in both the pass and run game, and once a pass play was covered up, the play was basically over. Marchiol couldn't run past anyone or shake someone out of their shoes. With White out, having that dual-threat at quarterback is going to be even more pivotal moving forward.

Offense could be in for a long year

Jahiem White's status is obviously going to be key in this, but even with him, they still have a long, long way to go before Rich Rod can truly feel comfortable with where they are. They can't continue to go uptempo if they can't move the ball. That will have the defense on the field for 35+ minutes per game, like they were today, and you saw how that went. There are way more questions than answers on that side of the ball, and I'm not sure they'll find enough answers in time. Also, there's zero explosiveness. Cam Vaughn can be dangerous, of course, but WVU has to find an answer at quarterback for him to even matter.

Bowl game? Probably not

I viewed this as a swing game coming into it, but I'm not sure even winning this game would have had me thinking WVU would have a good chance of going bowling. With the Backyard Brawl on deck and a brutal Big 12 schedule, the Mountaineers are going to have to either catch some serious breaks, see massive improvements, or perhaps a little of both.