West Virginia held their annual Gold-Blue Spring Game on Saturday, ending 15 spring practices for the Mountaineers.
Head coach Neal Brown reflected on what he learned about his team this spring, as well as different guys who flashed this spring.
“Really good day back in Milan Puskar. Appreciate the fans for being here, I thought it was a great atmosphere for a spring game,” Brown said. “Today, to be determined as far as football. There’s some things I thought were really good and there’s some things we got to get better at.”
Part of the headlines for the spring game this season was the return of WVU greats Pat Shite and Pat cafe. Both returned and were the respective coaches of the two teams.
“Very, very, thankful for Pat White and Pat McAfee coming back. Blaine [Stewart] definitely played a role in getting them back and we wanted to do something where they could be around the players,” Brown said.
Spring Recap
Brown said this spring was a productive one. He said they remained healthy for the most part this spring,
“I think that we’re a hungry team that likes to compete. I think that was evident in how we went about our business practice 1-14. That shows. It’s a group that likes to practice. Been stressing to our coaching staff, we wanted the best people, who love football,” Brown said. “A lot of our better players really love football and love to compete and that was evident as we went through the spring.”
Secondary
Brown said in the secondary, the Mountaineer are still trying to figure out who is going to fill exact roles.
“Defensive back, we’re still a work in progress,” Brown said. “Garnett [Hollis] is going to help us. And I think some of those freshman, we have some guys back there that have played some snaps at safety. Those guys, we continue to move them around and they have position flex.”
Kickers
Brown said they wanted to put a lot of pressure on their specialists, and it worked in his favor. WVU’s Michael Hayes knocked down a 44-yard field goal, while RJ Kocan connected on a 54-yard field goal.
“We wanted to put pressure on our specialists where they had to perform with all eyes on them,” Brown said. “Michael Hayes came out and piped one and we brought RJ in and RJ from 54.”
