West Virginia beat Duquesne 56-17 in convincing fashion on Saturday, earning a victory in their home opener, and their first of 2023.
After the game, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown gave his thoughts on the win including Hudson Clement’s performance, what impact the weather delay had, as well as injury updates going forward.
Hudson Clement
The highlight of the night for WVU was the play of redshirt-freshman Hudson Clement. Clement caught five passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns, and was put on scholarship after the game.
Clement got the start in place of Devin Carter who was held out after getting injured in practice this week. Brown said they hope to have Carter be a full go for practice come Monday.
Carter went through warmups before he was ruled out, meaning Clement did not find out he was going to start until right before the game.
“Hudson got the start, probably in the best way possible,” Brown said. “I think life’s about opportunities and what you do with your opportunities… He earned a scholarship and we put him on scholarship.”
“He’s been really productive in practice. We were just waiting for him to do it in the game and he broke out. Super happy for him,” Brown said.
Secondary Struggles
The struggles continued somewhat for WVU’s secondary. The Mountaineers gave up six pass plays of 15 yards or more, and they allowed the Dukes to have multiple wide open receivers.
“It’s concerning,” Brown said. “We got to be better in the secondary. Our hope was we brought in some veterans and we were going to fix that and quite frankly we haven’t done that through two games. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board.”
Weather Delay
Tonight’s game included almost a two-hour weather delay due to thunderstorms which passed through the area. Brown said he left the players alone for the most part, and was happy with how they responded to adversity.
“We really kind of just left them alone,” Brown said. “We met as coaches for a minute. I wasn’t real pleased at the start of that. Probably the break was as good for me as anybody. I was at kind of a breaking point there just with how we played early. We really just left the guys alone.”
“That’s hard to do, shut down everything. Credit to our guys. I’m frustrated with how we played early, but I’m really pleased with how we handled adversity,” Brown said. “They came out and took care of business.”
Slow Start
Brown and WVU had a slow start. They had trouble on the first punt which allowed Duquesne to recover it after WVU touched the ball. They then had breakdowns on defense and the offense wasn’t crisp early either.
“To be honest, there were some frustrating things, but I dont think it’s necessarily a bad thing that they had to overcome some adversity,” Brown said. “The score ended up where it needed to be, but it wasn’t pretty early. I credit our guys for hanging in there, taking care of business late.”
Injuries
WVU dealt with numerous injuries today, mostly on the offensive side of the ball.
Besides Carter, the Mountaineers were without Traylon Ray, and also punter Oliver Straw was hurt early on in the game as well.
“Traylon Ray’s out,” Brown said. “He dealt with an injury the week before Penn State. Didn’t practice on Tuesday, didn’t practice on Wednesday, played a little bit against Penn State. Then practiced a little bit Tuesday.”
Brown said after Tuesday they made the decision to shut him down and get him rest.
“The hope is that he can get back on Monday and be ready to go.”
As far as Oliver Straw, he was ran into and was later in a walking boot on WVU’s sideline. Brown said it’s wait and see for him.
“He turned his ankle,” Brown said. “We’ll know more a lot of times overnight see how those things swell.”
