The West Virginia coaching staff seems to have found their guy in quarterback JT Daniels. It was Daniels’ first collegiate start in 340 days when he took the field against Pitt, and for the most part, he was able to knock the rust off early.
“I felt like he’d be even keeled,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said. “I didn’t think a hit would bother him or a dropped pass or any kind of setback and he was really even keeled. I thought he was really good in game being able to tell you what he saw,” Brown said. “That’s not the case with every quarterback. That’s not the case with every quarterback so I think that was something that was extremely positive.”
As far as Daniels’ personal assessment of his performance, he said he felt the offense as a whole played well and there are just some minor things they have to clean up.
“Going through it all, I was happy with it. Coach Graham (Harrell) was definitely very happy with it,” Daniels said. “Overall, as an offense I was really happy with us. There was a few small things and I talked about it; execution is something you can clean up. In general, though I think we did great up front, a lot of great things in the receiver room and a lot of great things in the running back room. All around I think we played a good game. There’s just a few small things to clean up and the score looks different if you clean them up.”
Daniels would finish the day passing for 214 yards and two touchdowns, while completing 23 of his 40 pass attempts and throwing an interception. Daniels also had a rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak.
Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell agreed with Daniels, as he was very happy with how his quarterback played.
“I thought JT played very well. I was proud of the way he competed. I thought he gave us a chance to win,” Harrell said. “I thought he did a lot of good things. Made a few too many mistakes as a team to come out on top.”
Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography
