West Virginia’s Cam Cook tops Big 12 rushing list after Week 6, while Michael Hawkins Jr. leads TDs

West Virginia’s offense is finding ways to move the ball on the ground, even as results have been tougher in recent weeks. Through Week 6 of the 2026 season, Big 12 rushing leaders still point to the Mountaineers’ backfield, with Cam Cook continuing to lead the conference in rushing yards while his teammate, quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr., leads the league in rushing touchdowns, according to a review of Big 12 statistics after the sixth week.

The individual production shows up in the team’s recent outing against Arizona, a game West Virginia ultimately lost. In that matchup, the Mountaineers rushed for more than 300 yards as the offense leaned heavily on its ground attack, turning the game into a long-arc rushing performance rather than a pace-and-space shootout.

Cook’s role in that effort stood out. He produced 141 rushing yards and scored two rushing touchdowns in the Arizona game, figures that reinforce why he remains at the top of the Big 12 rushing-yardage leaderboard after Week 6.

Hawkins Jr. has been doing similar work in a different way, mixing quarterback responsibilities with a steady load as a runner. Against Arizona, he added 98 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown, and he remains the Big 12 leader in rushing touchdowns in the league’s Week 6 look at the conference rankings.

That combination helps explain why West Virginia’s offensive identity remains so run-centric. When Cook is the conference’s top rusher by yardage and Hawkins Jr. is the conference’s top rusher by touchdowns, defenses are forced to account for both a traditional rushing threat and a quarterback who can manufacture scoring plays on his own.

Even so, the picture is complicated by the gap between statistical production and winning. The Mountaineers are piling up rushing yards, but the Week 6 standings context matters, and the Arizona loss is a reminder that converting yardage into points, and points into wins, is not automatic.

For the rest of the season, the key storyline is whether West Virginia can turn its rushing output into more consistent game results, especially in Big 12 matchups where game scripts can shift quickly. With Cook still leading the league in yards and Hawkins Jr. still leading in rushing scores after Week 6, they will likely remain central to how the Mountaineers manage third downs, sustain drives, and protect leads when they earn them. The next test is whether those Week 6 rushing benchmarks translate into outcomes against ranked or defensively stout conference opponents.

Just as importantly, these rankings raise the stakes for opponents preparing each week. A team that can field a yardage leader like Cook and a touchdown-focused rushing threat like Hawkins Jr. forces defensive game plans to bend and rotate, potentially opening passing opportunities elsewhere. Watching how West Virginia balances that run-first approach with play-action and quarterback decision-making will be central to how far the offense can go, even if the team continues to face pressure to find the right mix of efficiency and execution.