HOUSTON– The No. 22 Houston Cougars suffered their second defeat of the 2025 campaign by issuing their most uncharacteristic performance on the season in a 45-35 loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers Saturday at TDECU Stadium.
Houston entered Week 10 as a two-score favorite over West Virginia, who entered with an 0-5 mark in Big 12 play and down to its fifth-string quarterback in true freshman Scotty Fox Jr. amongst a bevy of injuries.
In what felt like a flash, the Cougars ultimately surrendered the most points on their season to the team second-to-last in the conference standings, who entered only averaging 17 points scored and giving up 33.7 points per game.
All around, it was a brutal day on field for the Cougars, who might have seen their Big 12 contention hopes dwindle away by handing the Mountaineers their first conference win. In breaking this down, we take a look at the good, the bad and ugly of it all:
Nov 1, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Cougars quarterback Conner Weigman (1) completes a pass to running back Dean Connors (44) as West Virginia Mountaineers linebacker Curtis Jones Jr. (18) rushes the quarterback in the first half at TDECU Stadium. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
Although it seems there isn’t much good to point out, there were some pieces of the offensive display, mostly in the second quarter, that felt responsive to the early deficit and mirrored the way the Cougars came back from their early deficit to winless Oregon State in Week 5.
In throwing for a 154-yard first half on an early 16 of 19, junior quarterback Conner Weigman helped the Cougars knot the game up at 21 heading into the half with touchdowns to his top targets in junior wide receiver Amare Thomas and senior tight end Tanner Koziol.
Unfortunately, these efforts did not build up the same way in the second half.
Nov 1, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Cougars quarterback Conner Weigman (1) fumbles the ball against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the first half at TDECU Stadium. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
Although Weigman did finish his afternoon with 309 yards on 25 of 35 passing with four touchdown passes of his five altogether, there were moments of his own that were deemed slightly uncharacteristic.
Weigman was sacked three times today on a total loss of 24 yards in part due to dwindling protection once in opponent territory.
On his end though, he threw two interceptions: one was deflected off the hands of junior wide receiver Harvey Broussard III and into the hands of redshirt junior free safety Derek Carter Jr., and the other was taken back 80 yards by redshirt senior cornerback Jordan Scruggs for a pick six.
Along with two lost fumbles, the Cougar offense committed four turnovers on the day, matching the mark on the season they entered with which was the fewest in FBS.
Nov 1, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. (15) rushes for a touchdown against the Houston Cougars in the second half at TDECU Stadium. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
Whether blaming the morning start or not, the Cougars put up a scare defensively in the first quarter that put their contention hopes in a two-score hole to the league-winless Mountaineers.
In that frame, the Cougars allowed an early 164 yards on 6.7 yards per play for the first two Mountaineer drives of the game, with 115 of those yards rushing among a room of redshirt freshman Diore Hubbard and keepers by true freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr., who posted an early 53 yards on 5 of 6 passing looking to replicate his 301-yard performance in Week 9.
Although Houston issued stops on West Virginia’s next five drives and issued a streak of seven consecutive third down stops, what ultimately issued the panic button to be hit for the Cougars was when a hole in the secondary allowed for a 34-yard keeper by Fox for a touchdown to put the Mountaineers up 38-28.
Diore Hubbard’s 11-yard touchdown run was the final scoring dagger for West Virginia in which he ended his day with 108 yards on 3.7 yards per carry, in which the rate would have been inflated if it weren’t for those five consecutive stops.
In all, Houston’s defense carried the bulk of this sloppy performance by missing multiple assignments and executing poorly. Though it’s not the worst on paper, it physically looked worse than its Week 6 performance against Texas Tech.