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Campus Connection: QB Transfers and Other Notes
April 08, 2016 02:06 PM | Football
West Virginia has enjoyed considerable success with quarterback transfers from four-year schools, dating back to Jeff Hostetler’s two seasons at WVU in 1982-83 and continuing in the early 1990s with Jake Kelchner, and most recently, Clint Trickett.
Former coach Don Nehlen believes Hostetler’s decision to transfer from Penn State following the 1980 season was one of the key components in his early success turning around a Mountaineer program that had experienced five consecutive non-winning seasons from 1976-80.
“Had Jeff not transferred in we would have never turned the program around because there were no other quarterbacks in the program of that caliber and we couldn’t recruit any,” Nehlen once told me.
A decade later, West Virginia once again found a winning formula with Notre Dame transfer Jake Kelchner, who teamed with Darren Studstill to lead the Mountaineers to an undefeated regular season in 1993 and a trip to the 1994 Sugar Bowl to face Florida.
And, two years ago, Dana Holgorsen was able to get a productive season out of Florida State transfer Clint Trickett, the nation’s 10th-best passer that year. At one point, Trickett had West Virginia 6-2 and ranked 20th before suffering a concussion in a one-point loss to 10th-ranked TCU.
Trickett played sparingly the rest of the way and was not cleared to play in West Virginia’s Liberty Bowl loss to Texas A&M. His 3,285 passing yards and 18 touchdowns rank among the better statistical seasons in school history.
Now, Holgorsen looks to a future with Florida transfer Will Grier in his quarterback room. Grier’s prep credentials are impressive - Parade Magazine National Prep Player of the Year, Tom Lemming National Offensive Player of the Year and Mr. Football USA Player of the Year - as well as his brief time leading the Gator offense last year completing 106-of-161 passes for 1,204 yards and 10 touchdowns in six games.
Grier is expected to arrive in Morgantown in May to begin taking summer school classes and participate in offseason workouts.
He will have to sit out the 2016 season and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.
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Spring football practice No. 9 will take place on Saturday, most likely inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility with frigid temperatures and snow predicted for Morgantown this weekend. Holgorsen is scheduled to provide a team update Saturday morning and his remarks will be available later in the afternoon on WVUsports.com.
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Tyron Carrier
One interesting tidbit from new wide receivers coach Tyron Carrier’s biography is the fact that he returned an NCAA-record seven kickoffs for touchdowns during his four-year career at Houston. Carrier also set a record by making two or more receptions in all 53 career games as a Cougar.
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I keep reading positive reviews for former West Virginia safety Karl Joseph. Here is one:
Here is another:
And another:
And, one more:
There is now a possibility of Joseph sneaking into the first round of this year’s draft and if that happens, it will make three out of the last four years Coach Dana Holgorsen has had at least one first rounder.
As many as five WVU players could go in this year’s seven-round NFL draft.
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We are still months away from the 2016 season opener against Missouri, but it’s never too early to get a scouting report on the Tigers.
Missouri has a new coach - its 2015 defensive coordinator Barry Odom - and a defense returning most of its key players from a unit that finished second in the SEC.
However, Missouri was totally inept on offense last year, ranking 127th out of 128 FBS teams with an average of 13.6 points per game. Seven starters are gone on offense (which may be a good thing for Missouri), but starting quarterback Drew Lock does return.
Lock will also have his primary receivers back, as well as Alabama transfer Chris Black.
Now running Missouri’s offense is a coach we know well - former Oklahoma offensive coordinator Josh Heupel.
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Randy Mazey
Randy Mazey’s young Mountaineer baseball team has rebounded nicely after being swept by Canisius on March 29-30. Since then, West Virginia has taken two of three from then-16th-ranked Oklahoma State in Morgantown, and followed up with a pair of midweek wins over Marshall and Eastern Michigan to improve 16-11.
If the weather cooperates, West Virginia steps outside of Big 12 play for a three-game series against Furman at Monongalia County Ballpark this weekend. Then comes a Tuesday night game against Pitt followed by an important three-game, Big 12 series against Kansas State.
Heading into this weekend’s games, the Mountaineers have an RPI of 53, according to the website Warren Nolan.
And, earlier this week, the website DIBaseball.com had West Virginia among its NCAA Tournament Midseason Field of 64 projections.
The Mountaineers are looking to snap a 20-year NCAA Tournament drought dating back to 1996.
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The newly refurbished WVU Coliseum should have strong men’s and women’s basketball teams playing in it next year. The WVU men were recently included in several “Way Too Early Top 25 Rankings”:
The Mountaineers are coming off back-to-back Top 25 finishes for only the second time since 2005-06.
Veteran coach Bob Huggins has at least three starters returning from last year’s 26-9 team, and possibly four if forward Devin Williams removes his name from the NBA draft.
Meanwhile, Mike Carey’s WVU women’s team could be exceptionally strong despite the loss of 2,000-point career scorer Bria Holmes.
West Virginia has three key starters returning from last year’s team that won 25 games, finished third in the Big 12 and ended the season nationally ranked for the fourth time in the last nine years. Carey is bringing in a very strong recruiting class that includes national junior college player of the year Kristina King.
King, a 6-foot-3-inch forward who helped Gulf Coast College to a national championship last month, could end up filling the four spot in the lineup vacated by graduated senior Arielle Roberson.
Tynice Martin
USBWA national freshman of the year finalist Tynice Martin will step in to Holmes’ spot in the lineup at the three, teaming with returning point guard Chania Ray, returning two-guards Katrina Pardee and Alexis Brewer and the nation’s best returning shot blocker in 6-foot-5-inch Lanay Montgomery.
The Mountaineers are going to have exceptional size up front with Montgomery and King, outstanding outside shooters in Teana Muldrow, Brewer, Martin and Pardee and a deep and talented bench that will include freshman guard Bailey Thomas, the granddaughter of NFL Hall of Fame defensive back Emmitt Thomas.
Thomas, a 5-foot-9-inch guard, played for one of the top prep programs in the country at Centennial High in Las Vegas.
This could be Carey’s strongest team since 2014 when the Mountaineers won 30 games, finished seventh in the AP poll and was the Big 12 runner-up to Baylor.
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Villanova just gave every school that doesn’t have the luxury of signing a bunch of McDonald’s All-Americans the blueprint for winning a national championship.
A quick scan of Jay Wright’s Wildcat roster shows just one five-star player, guard Jalen Brunson, six four-star players and the rest three-stars.
Two of Villanova’s key players on this year’s national championship team, guard Ryan Arcidiacono and forward Daniel Ochefu, were seniors, while three others, guard Josh Hart, forward Kris Jenkins and forward Darryl Reynolds, were juniors.
As far as I can tell, Brunson was the only Villanova player chosen to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game, and although he prepped at Lincolnshire (Illinois) High, he has deep Philly ties with his father, Rick Brunson, having played at Temple.
Otherwise, Villanova’s roster is full of East Coast guys - players from places such as Pitman, New Jersey, Wilmington, Delaware, Baltimore, Maryland, Malvern, Pennsylvania, Silver Spring, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Langhorne, Pennsylvania and Westtown, Pennsylvania.
If you recall, Maryland accomplished something similar in 2002.
West Virginia’s Billy Hahn helped recruit many of the Terp players that defeated Indiana in the Georgia Dome to win the 2002 NCAA title. The Terps didn’t have a single McDonald’s All-American on their roster that season, but four players ended up playing in the NBA, including guards Juan Dixon and Steve Blake.
And a lot of Maryland’s guys were also East Coast players such as Dixon, Lonny Baxter and Chris Wilcox.
Does Villanova have four NBA players on this year’s roster? We’ll see.
Of course, it’s a lot easier when your team is stocked with prep All-American players, but what the Wildcats did this year proves that a good plan, good, experienced players and a little bit of good fortune can take you a long way.
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And finally, a word of advice - never mow your grass twice before Easter! I did so and now we’re looking at three inches of snow on Saturday morning!
Fortunately, the thermometer is expected to rise back into the mid-50s by Sunday.
Otherwise, have a great weekend!
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