MORGANTOWN — It sort of came out of nowhere, about midway through the third quarter, courtesy of the BYU band.

The theme to “Rocky,” in what finished as a 38-24 victory by the 23rd-ranked Cougars over West Virginia in the way-too-early Saturday morning hours in the Mountain State — the clock was just a few ticks away from 2 a.m. at the final gun — was maybe as fitting as a pair of yoga pants.

WVU (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) has been knocked down and beaten up this season. BYU (5-0, 2-0), which racked up 516 extremely physical yards, certainly landed its share of uppercuts behind impressive true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier.

What did the 19-year old kid accomplish? Try 351 yards passing – although he was picked off for the first time in his college career – and 43 yards rushing. He accounted for two touchdowns, although some of the plays Bachmeier made on third and fourth down led to other points.

In the movies, Rocky Balboa found a way to keep getting back up. His eyes swollen, nose busted, but with his heart intact, Balboa kept pulling himself off the canvas to fight again.

If WVU is to imitate the movies, the Mountaineers need to find their heart and soul. Don’t read that as calling this team soft or weak. Instead, read it as WVU needs to find its foundational block, its pulse, its future.

WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez needs to finally settle on one quarterback and go from there.

Just make the decision, Rich, because at this point, with WVU in full competition with Colorado and Oklahoma State for the worst team in the Big 12, neither Khalil Wilkins or Scotty Fox have enough healthy pieces or talent around them to turn this season around.

There won’t be a wrong decision – at least not over the remaining six games – between those two. The only wrong decision would be to not give the golden ticket to one of them.

The more the question of who is WVU’s quarterback continues to drag on, the further the program gets away from its ultimate goal. Look at it this way, you have a dam with one giant gaping hole and then a ton of smaller holes.

In order to fix that dam, true, all the holes have to eventually get plugged. Shouldn’t you take care of the biggest one first?

Continuing to share the quarterback reps between two guys or three or four, OK, it keeps more guys motivated and prepared. It also hinders the development to a degree of one of those two young quarterbacks.

Does a freshman get better by getting developed with 45% of the practice reps as much as he would by getting 95%? Think Bachmeier would be this good at such a young age if he was working with the first team only half the time?

Now, I don’t see Wilkins as the future Pat White. The young redshirt freshman from Maryland is a tough son of a gun, though. He ran the ball 23 times against BYU, took a pretty good licking on most of those runs. Wilkins finished with 89 yards on the ground. He completed 7 of 15 passes for 81 yards and was intercepted twice.

Is that nearly good enough to keep you up the next time WVU plays into the wee hours of the morning? Probably not, but if you put a tough kid back there who is willing to put his body on the line each and every play, that could be the beginning of plugging up that gaping hole in the dam.

It could be the beginning of creating some type of consistency, which at this point, would be a minor victory for the program.

Consistency is a great word to have associated with your quarterback. Not just for the fans, who wouldn’t have to keep wondering from week to week who their QB is, but for the sanity of the other 10 guys on WVU’s offense.

There are certainly other great adjectives you want connected with your quarterback and, well, those words are likely not going to be spoken this season.

Fox, to his credit, showed some sparks against a BYU defense that was in prevent mode. Still, he went 3 for 3 for 54 yards and hit Cam Vaughn on a nice 29-yard scoring strike that ticked off a lot of gamblers in Las Vegas.

For the love of Knute Rockne, please, Rich, throw your hat into the ring for one of them. You’ve got so many other problems to worry about, beginning with a defense that has allowed a total of 1,048 yards over the last two weeks.

You’ve also got a running game that is void of any ability other than quarterback runs. Injuries have mounted. Your starting quarterback from the beginning of the season is putting his name in the transfer portal. You need more talent.

Most of these holes won’t be fixed in the next six games, but you have the opportunity to begin plugging one big hole right now.

With all things considered, and with the bigger picture in mind, it would be a step worth taking to put your arm around either Wilkins or Fox and say, “You’re my guy.”