Coming into this season, sophomore running back CJ Donaldson was looking to build off the success he had last season before an injury ended his season early. However, this season has not exactly gone to plan in the eyes of Donaldson prior to the Mountaineers game against UCF.
“I definitely had some highs and some lows,” said Donaldson. “I started the season off strong against Penn State, didn’t play too well against Duquesne, I have a great game against Pitt then I go in this stretch where I’m not being very productive for the football team.
“Last week I just had to go back to the basics of what made me very productive, which was just running the football, running the football hard and just getting downhill fast. That’s just my two things I have to do, I have to be a tough tackle and run the ball very hard.”
For head coach Neal Brown, he feels that was Donaldson’s best game in over a month.
“CJ, that was the best he’s played since Pittsburgh,” said Brown.
Going into the game against UCF, Donaldson was moved out of the starting running back role in favor of Justin Johnson which co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach Chad Scott said was a “message.”
“Absolutely, it exactly was a message,” said Scott. “He did get the message and it’s one of the reasons why I like to say we won this game. I was very proud of how this team played, it’s more of a team versus a need or team versus a we deal and you always have to do what’s best for the football team. He absolutely did get the message and he responded and I like the way he responded throughout the week.”
To Donaldson, the way to keep this momentum going is consistency in practice.
“Consistency within my practice, I have to take the same preparation I did last week, the same intensity, the same focus, the same detail I took last week but even to a different level because we need these next few games, but we need to win this game first.”
