Football: Mountaineers Begin Spring Drills
March 15, 2008 12:53 PM | General
March 15, 2008
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| Bill Stewart |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University football team opened spring drills under first-year head coach Bill Stewart on Friday afternoon amid steady rain showers at Milan Puskar Stadium. The players worked out in shorts during the fast-paced, two-hour session.
“That was a fun first day. It was fast. It was moving and we got a tremendous amount of work done,” Stewart said. “It was just shorts and it was a little brisk but did you see them moving out there?”
One area that was noticeably different from previous springs was the emphasis on the passing game. If day one proves to be the norm, the Mountaineers will be working on pitching and catching with as much ferocity as they have drilled their vaunted run game in the past.
“We probably went 60-40 today pass to run just to put an emphasis on the passing game,” Stewart said. “We worked a lot on deep balls, crossing routes and underneath floods and we ran a few screens outside.”
Stewart was impressed with his young receiving core and took time out to tease Tito Gonzalez for one play he failed to make.
“I thought there were some great flag routes and post corner routs run out there today better than I have seen in a while,” Stewart said. “Tito (Gonzales) made a nice catch and he would have scored but he fell down darnit. I said 'Tito, you need national TV to score.'”
The New Martinsville native was also impressed with the four skill players expected to power the West Virginia offense this fall.
“I thought Patrick White’s reads were really good. The (Brandon) Hogan kid did a good job along with Jock Sanders and Noel (Devine), I’m telling you what now, Noel was just as quick as lightning,” Stewart said. “Even though it was just two-hand touch, guys were falling down just trying to touch him.”
Defensively, veterans Mortty Ivy and Zach Cooper made plays. Cooper will use this spring to adjust to the move from linebacker to defensive end.
“Mortty Ivy caught my attention. Zach Cooper was like a bullet coming off that end. He picked up right where he left off in the bowl and I thought our secondary ran well today,” Stewart said. “Reed Williams is out (shoulder) so it will be good to see what some of these young linebackers are doing.”
With the absence of backup quarterback Jarrett Brown, who will remain on the basketball team until season’s end, redshirt freshmen Charlie Russell and Bradley Starks will split reps with the second team this spring.
“For Charlie Russell and Bradley Starks this is monumental. They are running with the twos. That is big for those two,” Stewart said. “They were in high school this time last year. That’s good for them because Jarrett normally would get all those reps.”
While some coaches would be concerned with their backup quarterback missing a heavy portion of spring drills, with a veteran like Brown, Stewart takes a different approach.
“I would like to have Bobby Huggins take about 20 more of these guys over there and run their guts out three hours a day. He thinks I’m doing him a favor but he’s doing me a favor,” Stewart said. I know what those practices are like.”
West Virginia will continue drills on the 15th, 17th and 19th before Spring Break. The team resumes practice March 31st, holding 10 more sessions until the Gold-Blue game April 19.
