UCF got 277 yards and two touchdowns through the air from quarterback Tayven Jackson to defeat West Virginia 45-13 at Acrisure Bounce House in Orlando, Florida, this afternoon.

Jaden Nixon contributed 116 yards on just seven rushing attempts, while Chris Domercant added 89 yards and both of the Knights' scores via the pass.

The home team outgained the visitors 578 to 210.

"We stunk in every phase, in every way," a disappointed coach Rich Rodriguez said afterward. "I'm hoping this is bottom."

UCF improves to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in Big 12 play with today's victory, while West Virginia drops to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in conference action.

Scotty Fox Jr. earned his first start of the season today for WVU, becoming the first true freshman quarterback to do so since Fred Wyant in 1952.

Fox played the first three series before giving way to redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins, who started the BYU loss two weeks ago. Wilkins played the entire second quarter, a portion of the third and some of the fourth before getting injured while attempting to throw a pass with 11:23 remaining in the game.

Fox, Wilkins and wide receiver Cam Vaughn tried 28 passes, completing only 11 for 79 yards.

"You are playing young quarterbacks, so there are growing pains, but it's more than them when the pieces around them aren't performing," Rodriguez said.

WVU has tried four different starting quarterbacks over the last four games, all in conference play, dropping each of those by double-digit margins. 

All of the first-half scoring was the result of fourth-down decisions made by UCF coach Scott Frost. The Knights generated both touchdowns on fourth-down plays, the first a Jackson 40-yard touchdown strike to Domercant and the second a 34-yard hookup, also to Domercant.

Leading 14-0 late in the first quarter, Frost opted to go for it on fourth and 1 from UCF's 39, but Myles Montgomery failed to reach the sticks.

This gave West Virginia a short field and Wilkins, who entered the game, ran 16 yards to the UCF 23, and then added 11 more to the 12. Three plays later, he called his own number on third down and scored from the 6.

The Mountaineer defense, which allowed 165 yards on UCF's first two possessions, tightened up in the second quarter to force a pair of punts, the second coming with just 1:41 remaining in the half and WVU possessing all three timeouts.

A kick catch interference penalty called on Braedon Marshall while running into Preston Fox gave WVU an extra 15 yards out to the 32. 

An Oliver Straw rush on a fake punt on fourth and 7 netted 12 yards and a first down at the WVU 47. Then, a personal foul penalty called on Nyjalik Kelly for  hitting Wilkins out of bounds gave West Virginia another fresh set of downs at the UCF 41.

Wilkins completed a first-down pass to Vaughn for 12 yards to the Knights' 30, but the drive stalled at the 29 and Kade Hensley's 44-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the half sailed wide right of the goal post. 

UCF reasserted itself on its opening possession of the third quarter, driving nearly the entire length of the field to reach the end zone for its third touchdown. The Knights converted a pair of third downs, including a third and 9, when Jackson completed a 20-yard pass to Caleb Rollerson to the Mountaineer 26.

After West Virginia was called for being offsides, two Nixon runs, the second coming from the 12, got UCF into the end zone.

Moments later, the game turned into a rout when Wilkins, attempting to elude pressure, was hit from behind by Kelly, who knocked the football out of the quarterback's hands and into the arms of Keli Lawson. The linebacker scooped up the football at the WVU 32 and returned it for a touchdown.

In a matter of 73 seconds, a one-possession game turned into an insurmountable 28-7 deficit.

Fox reentered the game on West Virginia's third possession of the second half, following a nifty, over-the-shoulder interception made by cornerback Jason Chambers, and got the offense to midfield before Walter Young Bear's holding penalty killed that drive.

UCF quickly tacked on seven more on Nixon's 83-yard touchdown jaunt up the near side of the field. Noe Ruelas' conversion kick made it 35-7.

Ruelas put three more points on the board with a 51-yard field goal, 2 yards shy of his season-long against Kansas State. His career long is 54 yards against Utah State in 2022.

With mostly backups in the game, Davi Belfort completed a 39-yard pass to Rollerson down the near sideline that was originally ruled a touchdown on the field but was overturned by the replay official and placed at the 1. The next three plays saw the football move backward to the 10, which just gave Belfort more room to run it in.

Jordan Walker's interception and 31-yard return to the 1 put the Mountaineers in position to tally their second touchdown, although it took a little extra work to get the ball over the goal line.

Fox was unable to handle an eye-level shotgun snap, requiring him to retrieve the football at the 20. He then completed a 19-yard pass to Justin Smith-Brown, setting up Diore Hubbard's 1-yard touchdown run. Hensley's conversion kick failed.

It was UCF's first victory over West Virginia in the five-game series, which dates to 2003.

"There are a multitude of things we've got to fix, and that falls on us as coaches," Rodriguez said. "We've got to do everything we can to get fixed what we can fix now."

West Virginia returns to Milan Puskar Stadium to face TCU next Saturday on Homecoming. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.