A Spring Thing
April 19, 2008 03:10 PM | General
April 18, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The offense West Virginia displayed on Saturday afternoon during the Gold-Blue Spring Game was the one Mountaineer fans have become accustomed to seeing.
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| Jock Sanders catches a pass during Saturday's Gold-Blue Spring Game at Milan Puskar Stadium. An estimated crowd of 18,000 attended today's scrimmage.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
After having the defense get the best of it in a pair of weekend scrimmages earlier this spring, the offense piled up 336 yards of total offense, had 20 first downs, scored three touchdowns and converted six field goals during Saturday’s 80-play controlled scrimmage.
“That was a pretty special performance,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “We had a couple of holds which I hated to see that and we have to learn get better blocking, tackling, hitting and hustle.”
The first and second offensive units took turns operating from different parts of the football field in different down and yardage situations.
“That was situational football that we will face throughout the season,” said Stewart. “You can’t wait to practice that.”
Quarterbacks Patrick White and Jarrett Brown were particularly efficient, completing a combined 22 of 31 passes for 198 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Brown found Kendall Washington for a 4-yard touchdown with the second group to begin the scoring. Later, Patrick White hooked up with Bradley Starks for a 4-yard score. Brown tacked on an 8-yard TD run for the final TD of the scrimmage.
White was 12 of 16 for 133 yards while Brown completed 10 of 15 passes for 65 yards. Third-team quarterback Charlie Russell was 2 of 4 for 7 yards.
Brandon Hogan led all receivers with 6 catches for 49 yards while Jock Sanders added 5 catches for 71 yards. Starks, a converted quarterback, finished the scrimmage with 3 catches for 41 yards including a pretty 23-yard catch and run.
“As far as helping the team out I’d rather be there than sitting on the bench in two years,” Starks said. “Going from the QB room to the wide receiver room is really no different. It’s just the style of play is more aggressive than what you would see at quarterback.”
Mike Poitier led all ball carriers with 54 yards on 17 carries working with the second group. Noel Devine had 6 carries for 33 yards. Six Mountaineer rushers accounted for 131 yards on 45 carries.
“We didn’t do a lot of motion and movement out there because there were a lot of films out there,” Stewart said. “We didn’t want the whole world seeing our new attack.”
Defensively, Najee Goode led all tacklers with 10 stops. Safety Derek Knight had six tackles while five different players had five stops each.
Sacks were recorded by Joe Rhein (two), Sidney Glover, Ovid Goulbourne, Julian Miller and J.T. Thomas (one each). Quarterbacks wore black jerseys (no contact).
Linebacker Pat Lazear had the only interception of the scrimmage, picking off a White pass in the end zone.
“That was the only bad decision Pat White made all day,” said Stewart.
“It slipped right through my hands and into my legs,” said Lazear. “I just clenched it so I got lucky.”
The offense was flagged six times for 56 yards while the defense had three penalties for 37 yards.
“The twos frustrated me,” said Stewart. “We had a motion; we had a lineman jump and we had to use three timeouts and that frustrated me. We got those guys settled down and then they did fine.”
Pat McAfee converted field goals of 47, 24, 34 and 39 yards. Chris Glenn (39) and Ben Rios (30) also made field goals.
“Pat McAfee is a true weapon. He’s special,” said Stewart. “If there is a better kicker/punter in the country I’d like to hear about it.”
The defense was credited with 15 points based on turnovers, three-and-out possessions and drive stops.
“The defense kept it base,” said Stewart. “They brought some pressure and they got to us with the corner blitz. They got to us with the strong safety blitz and that was good to see,” said Stewart.
“There’s a lot of skill out there. We’ve got to pray and knock on wood that we don’t get anybody injured between now and fall camp,” Stewart said.
An estimated crowd of 18,000 attended today’s scrimmage representing the second largest attendance ever for a spring game.
Scoring Summary
Gold – McAfee 47 FG
Gold – McAfee 24 FG
Gold – Washington 4 pass from Brown (McAfee kick)
Gold – McAfee 34 FG
Gold – McAfee 39 FG
Gold – Glenn 39 FG
Gold – Starks 4 pass from White (McAfee kick)
Gold – Rios 30 FG
Gold – Brown 8 run (White pass failed)
Scrimmage Statistics
Rushing – Poitier 17-55, Devine 6-33, White 6-15, Sanders 4-12, Johnson 3-12, McCloskey 6-minus 1, Total 45-131.
Passing – White 12-16-1-133-1, Brown 10-15-0-65-1, Russell 2-4-0-7-0, Total 24-35-1-205-2.
Receiving – Hogan 6-49, Sanders 5-71, Starks 3-41, Poitier 2-8, Crow 2-5, Jalloh 1-10, McCloskey 1-7, Arnett 1-5, Gonzales 1-4, Washington 1-4, Devine 1-1, Total
