West Virginia held their annual Gold-Blue Spring Game on Saturday, featuring a practice setting along with a scrimmage between the offense and defense. West Virginia head coach Neal Brown spoke on both the offense and defense, along with the play of quarterbacks, among other things following the game.
On the Defense
“I thought defensively, we held some guys out, but I thought Lee Kpogba really showed,” Brown said. “I thought he was physical in the run game early, probably would have had two sacks if the quarterbacks were live.”
Kpogba was credited with four total tackles, along with a sack and a tackle for loss.
Another brightest on defense was Hammond Russell and Jairo Faverus, with them combining for 8.0 tackles on the afternoon.
“I thought Hammond Russell did a nice job in the run game, really pushing and getting some penetration there. “Jairo Faverus who’s had a quiet [spring] but he’s really improved. I thought he made a couple nice plays and I thought we played the deep ball well minus one time at corner.”
One of the guys who played that deep ball well was transfer Montre Miller. Miller was credited with one official pass breakup, but he played good coverage down the field multiple times.
“That’s who I really alluded to when I was talking aobu tthe corners playing the deep ball. He defended two go-balls and that was something that hurt us a year ago,” Brown said. “He also had a nice break on a slant and got his hand on a ball. Obviously we brought him in to play. Today was one of his better days, I was encouraged.”
On the QB’s
Garrett Greene had the better day statistically no question. However, Brown said him and Nicco Marchiol are going to continue to compete heading into the summer and the remainder of fall camp.
“I need to go and watch it. If you look at it statistically, Garrett’s stats are better. One of those that he hit rabble was going to be a sack,” Brown said. Both of them are runners and in this format it’s hard for their full tool set to be shown. I thought Nicco threw two really nice deep balls and our receivers didn’t play the ball very well. Without having a chance to watch it, it’s hard to tell.”
Greene passed for 156 yards and a touchdown on 8-for-11 passing, while Marchiol threw for 58 yards on 6-for-12 passing.
“This is going to be the long game,” Brown added. “Regardless of what happened today or what happened through the first 15. This is going to be a deal that went winter, spring, it’s going to summer, into fall camp before we figure it out.”
Working on fundamentals paying off in the short term
All spring long, there has been an increased focus on fundamentals. Penalties were a problem a year ago for the Mountaineers and today there was only one. That one was basketball player turned football player Jimmy Bell with a holding call.
“We really concentrated when you think back, we had some procedure penalties that hurt us offensively last year and so that was a point of emphasis,” Brown said. “Then defensively, we really worked fundamentals. And sometimes it showed today and sometimes it didn’t. But we’ve put a lot of work on fundamentals because what happens a lot of times, your defensive penalties — whether [pass interference] or holding — is because you’re playing out of position and you’re playing with either bad pad leverage or bad hand leverage.”
Coach Scott’s positioning
Both new offensive coordinator Chad Scott along with QB coach Sean Reagan called plays in today’s spring game. Brown spoke on Scott and what is next for him play calling wise, including positioning, and who is calling plays.
“We’ll worry about that in the fall,” Brown said on who will be calling plays come September for WVU.
Scott had previously said it would be hard to be up in the box compared to down on the field where he can better connect with his players.
“He’ll be on the field, that’s kind of who he is,” Brown said of Scott. “He’s got a positivity and an energy level that guys really appreciate. His best service to the team on game day is for sure to be on the field just because he’s such the energy guy and they feed off him.”
What’s Next for WVU?
West Virginia will take a break — the longest of their season. Brown said his team will get a three-week break in May, before returning for summer work and then getting into fall camp.
“We’ve got to hold our roster, I think that’s where you start,” Brown said for this upcoming break and transfer portal entry window. “And then we’re going to add some pieces, been pretty open about where we’re going to add some pieces. Then, the guys are going to get some down time which is important. We’ve got one week of class left and then the month of May is the longest break football student-athletes get.”
Brown said the focus for the Mountaineers in the summer will be continuing to grow on the foundation they built this spring. West Virginia valued fundamentals this spring, and going forward it is about readying to play week one against Penn State.
“We’ll come back for the summer and we’ve got to get a lot of work done,” Brown said. “Not only from a strength and conditioning standpoint, but from a football standpoint too in all three phases. We’re not easing into this thing. Two of our first three are teams that are rivalries and then in week four we play a team that has been a thorn in our side. We’ve got to be ready to go from the get-go.”
Get Takeaways from the Gold-Blue Spring Game: HERE
