MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s defense kept things basic last Saturday while the Mountaineers had their way in a 45-3 victory against an overmatched Robert Morris squad.
There was no need to display exotic looks or a surplus of blitzes and tip off opponents to what they could be up against in the future. But come 4 p.m. Saturday when the Mountaineers face Ohio at Peden Stadium, that’s likely not going to be the case as West Virginia opposes an experienced quarterback in fifth-year senior Parker Navarro.
Navarro guides a Bobcat offense that scored 31 points and amassed 440 total yards in a three-point season-opening setback at Rutgers. He is playing his fifth and final season of college football and his fourth at OU, while serving as the full-time signal-caller for a second straight year.
A season ago, Navarro completed 195-of-295 passes for 2,423 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. On the ground, he was among the more productive quarterbacks in the country and rushed for 1,054 yards and 18 TDs on 160 attempts.
“He’s a top five quarterback in the country when he gets outside the pocket,” first-year West Virginia defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “He’s unbelievable if he’s on the move, so do everything we can to keep him in there. It’ll involve the defensive line, some spy players, man, zone, anything I feel like we can do to corral him.”
In the 2025 opener against the Scarlet Knights, Navarro had one of the more productive passing performances of his career, finishing 21-for-31 with 239 yards and three touchdowns. He was his usual effective self on the ground as well, rushing for 93 yards and a 17-yard touchdown on nine attempts and garnered Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors.
“I’d rather them have some big slog back there that doesn’t run,” West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Schematically, you have to have that in mind defensively when you’re putting your packages together. It’s not one these deals where you don’t have worry about the quarterback taking off. That’s the big part of it. You can’t let him run around, scramble, run for first downs and throw on off-scheduled plays. He thrives in that atmosphere.”
West Virginia safety Darrian Lewis opposed Navarro last year while playing for Akron and remembers all too well what the quarterback is capable of. Navarro was 12-for-18 passing with 204 yards and rushed for 113 yards and a score on 13 carries in the Bobcats’ 30-10 win over the Zips in 2024.
“He’ll beat you with his arm and his legs. He’s a really good runner for sure,” Lewis said. “Once he starts to move, he can throw the ball really well. We have to be really sound with our details.”
Alley is stressing the importance of his unit wining first down, something the Mountaineers may be best off accomplishing by being overly aggressive. In its only game to date under Alley, WVU didn’t need to consistently bring extra defenders to generate a strong pass rush against the Colonials and was able to record four sacks, eight tackles for loss and a pair of fumble recoveries, while allowing 123 yards on 2.1 yards per play.
Yet last week at Rutgers, Navarro carved up blitzes, completing 9-of-12 passes for 95 yards and a pair of touchdowns when facing them. He did, however, finish 2-for-8 when pressured, adding to a theme from 2024 that he struggles against it.
“I remember [WVU linebacker] Chase Wilson said to me when I got here, ‘Coach, you’ll bring six guys on first-and-10,’” Alley said. “I said, ‘yeah, because second-and-12 is harder than second-and-2.’ We want to knock them backwards consistently and put them at a disadvantage, because you get them more one-dimensional. You’re limited on your play calls on third-and-12 compared to third-and-1. We want to win first down so we can win second down so we can win third down and get off the field.”
The Mountaineers will need to be especially wary of Navarro when Ohio is on the move. Over the last two seasons, all but one of his rushing touchdowns have come in the red zone.
Three came against Jacksonville State in last year’s Cure Bowl, a game Rodriguez would have guided the Gamecocks in had he not accepted the WVU head coaching job a week earlier. Navarro’s play helped guide the Bobcats to a 27-7 halftime lead in that matchup and Ohio hung on to win, 30-27.
“When they get down there, they score and they do a good job of it,” Alley said. “They like running him and it just goes up as you get closer to the goal line. Plus-one run game is something you see from a lot of teams down there that have that kind of ability.
“I’ve been studying like hell the Jacksonville State film from last year. I like a lot of the things they did to him in the bowl game, and in the second half in particular, they really shut him down. That’s the closest thing we have to how I feel like they’re going to play and how the game might look. They did some good things as far as stopping him and preventing them. But they do a good job and they’re trying to get the ball in their best players hands when it matters the most.”
