West Virginia Buries UT Martin 52-7 Behind Hawkins
West Virginia led 28-0 at the half and the rest of the day was a formality. Michael Hawkins Jr. attempted seven passes and carried six times, and four of those thirteen touches ended in the end zone, two through the air and two on the ground. The Mountaineers finished with 525 yards, 316 of them rushing, and won 52-7.
The scoreboard got busy early. DJ Epps caught a 53-yard touchdown pass from Hawkins at 12:08 of the first quarter, Cam Cook scored from two yards out, and Hawkins himself ripped off a 71-yard touchdown run before the quarter ended. That was 21-0. A five-yard Hawkins run made it 28-0 in the second, and UT Martin never got a first-half point.
The second half added more of the same. Ryan Ward caught a 32-yard touchdown in the third and Amari Latimer ran 29 yards for another, Jack Cassidy kicked a 35-yard field goal, and Jyron Hughley, 1 of 1 for 27 yards, hit Kedrick Triplett for a score early in the fourth to make it 52-0.
UT Martin's only points came on a 6-yard fumble return by John Betts III with 3:25 left, off the one fumble West Virginia lost all day. Without it, the shutout holds. West Virginia is 2-0 and UT Martin is 0-1.
Six different Mountaineers scored the seven touchdowns, which says something about how deep the day went. West Virginia had 51 rushing attempts against eight passes from Hawkins and Hughley combined, and 316 yards on the ground works out to better than six a carry. That is a team that knew what it wanted to do and did it.
Fantasy owners saw how this offense likes to operate. Hawkins is a quarterback who ran for 96 yards on six carries (yes, 16 a pop), and the points followed.