BlueandGoldNews.Com WVU’s Fred Perry delivers a hit against TCU on Saturday.

MORGANTOWN — The history books will simply note that West Virginia lost its fifth straight game of the 2025 season, 23-17, to TCU on Saturday, but in truth, it was a game without a loser.

West Virginia may have lost the game but it won back its respect.

The team, the school, the city, the state put on a heckuva show for an entire weekend, with so much spinning crazily throughout Morgantown.

Homecoming parade. Ballin’ at Woodburn as the men’s and women’s basketball teams were introduced to Mountaineer fans. A coal rush crowd of 54,110 fans, none of whom left in despair as they had in the first games of the season.

Think about that, 54,110 fans for a 2-5 team that had lost four straight and was as beaten up as one of Mike Tyson’s early opponents.

“They were great,” coach Rich Rodriguez said, admitting he didn’t know what to expect.

The uniforms were black to honor the coal industry.

And they were cool.

There was a concert before the game.

The stadium often darkened as electronic wristbands danced through the stands. The Man Walk was unique in that there were coal miners waiting to welcome the team, Rodriguez shaking each’s hand.

West Virginia even got a sack, its first since the Pittsburgh game, which seems like a decade ago.

Oh, and a quarterback was born.

His name is Scotty Fox, Jr. He is a true freshman, the same true freshman who was the first to start at the position for WVU in 73 years last week.

All that sly Fox did was outplay Josh Hoover of TCU, one of the league’s best quarterbacks, a man who has thrown for more than 6,000 career yards. Fox completed 28 of 41 passes for 301 yards and two touchdowns.

Hoover could complete 24 of 39 for 247 yards. Fox finished with a quarterback rating of 123.2, Fox was at 142.6

“We had a true freshman with 10 guys as new starters and he played his butt off,” Rich Rodriguez said as he left the field.

His play inspired his team. Rodriguez called last week’s performance “embarrassing”, and said there was loafing. It wouldn’t do.

“We played physical today,” he said.

“I think everybody on this team looked themselves in the mirror and made decisions this week that there’s going to be missed plays, there will be some mental errors, but effort can make up a lot for that,” linebacker Reid Carrico said.

Truth is, WVU not only could have won this game but probably should have.

Oh, but for a yard or two here and there and bounce of the football.

West Virginia went 2 of 7 on fourth down tries, three of them of less than two yards.

“We got to be able to get one yard,” Rodriguez said as he left the field at halftime “It’s embarrassing.”

WVU wound up once again unable to run the ball, gaining just 41 rushing yards, but still there were there at the end.

That’s when an on-sides kick was loose on the field, bouncing crazily away from a TCU player but winding up in the hands of another.

And then there was a completed pass to TCU’s dominating receiver Eric McCalister, who caught nine passes for 124 yards 82 of those yards after the catch. But the last one saw him fumble as he fought for yards and WVU had a shot at that one, but could not come up with it.

Carrico, who made seven tackles, five of them solo, may have been closest to the ball.

“Really close,” he said. “That one is going to sting for a while. You know, in football, sometimes the ball bounces your way. That’s the exact scenario. If it had bounced four inches to the left, then it would have been Mountaineer football with about 1:40 left.”

That’s how close it was.

Was this the equal of the unveiling of Pat White against Louisville all those years ago? No, but was in its way the unveiling of the combination of Fox and wide receiver Cam Vaughn, just as it joined White at the hip with Steve Slaton that day.

Vaughn was a star waiting to happen. In this one Fox gave him the chance targeting him 12 times and having come away with six catches for 85 yards, some of them difficult to describe in words.

And there was the late 28-yard touchdown throw that Fox made to Jeff Weimer in the fourth quarter that gave the Mountaineers a chance to win the game in which Weimer did a tap dance on the sideline into the end zone.

“It’s catching the ball and then your feet,” Weimer said when asked about the balancing act.

Make no doubt, TCU will take the victory, which marked the sixth consecutive Homecoming game WVU has lost.

But the Frogs know that they were in a game, and that is a victory for WVU at this stage.