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Mountaineers Open Fall Camp
August 01, 2016 03:11 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - We’re mere hours away from the start of the 2016 West Virginia University football season, or, at least the start to the start of the ‘16 campaign - the 125th year for major college football here in Morgantown.
The Mountaineers were predicted to finish seventh in the Big 12 this season in preseason media polling revealed two weeks ago, but there are many close to the program who believe that might be too low. That’s based on the number of experienced players returning on offense and the veteran players the Mountaineers have back on defense.
Specifically, West Virginia has 161 games worth of returning starting experience on offense, led by senior center Tyler Orlosky’s 29 career starts and left guard Adam Pankey’s 25 career starts. On the other side of the ball, junior free safety Dravon Askew-Henry and senior defensive end Noble Nwachukwu lead the way with 26 career starts each.
West Virginia also has one of the most experienced and productive placekickers in the country returning in senior Josh Lambert, who must sit out the first three games of the season for a violation of team rules.
“Just like everybody else in the country, I’m pretty excited about the upcoming season,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said as he prepares to begin his sixth year in Morgantown. “I think we’ve had a fantastic summer. I think the one thing that stands out at this point in time with our football program that hasn’t existed in the past is what our summer was like. We went through June and July, and even a little bit of the last week of May, with over 100 guys in the program, and that’s going to get us a little ahead in August.”
Well, August is here and all of those experienced players are ready to go, including senior quarterback Skyler Howard. He has 17 career games worth of starting experience under his belt and is coming off one of the best passing performances in school history in the 2016 Cactus Bowl, completing 28 of his 51 attempts for 532 yards and five touchdowns in West Virginia’s 43-42 victory over Arizona State.
Howard’s top pass-catching targets are also back, including junior speedster Shelton Gibson, whose 24-yard-per-reception average ranked among the best in college football last year. Senior Daikiel Shorts Jr. led the team with 45 receptions last season, while youngsters Jovon Durante, Ka’Raun White and Gary Jennings had their moments a season ago as well.
Two exciting newcomers, Marcus Simms and Steven Smothers, could turn an already deep and talented pass-catching corps into one of the strongest units in the nation in 2016.
West Virginia running back Elijah Wellman gets his helmet fitted Monday afternoon at the Milan Puskar Center. The Mountaineers begin practicing Tuesday in preparation for the 2016 season opener against Missouri at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, September 3. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo.
Senior tailback Rushel Shell III finally gets to show this fall if he is capable of being the featured back that everyone expected him to become after his All-American prep days at Hopewell (Pa.) High. If not, there is promising freshman Kennedy McKoy, and a pair of summertime additions in Detroit running back Martell Pettway and junior college All-American Justin Crawford, considered one of the top juco running back prospects in the country last winter, in the fold.
Offensive line is perhaps the strongest area of the team with Orlosky, Pankey and former Michigan transfer Kyle Bosch likely manning the three interior spots, with up-and-comers Yodny Cajuste, Marcell Lazard and Colton McKivitz available to work at the two tackle positions on the outside.
“We know what we’ve got to do offensively and I think Skyler is in a really good place right now,” Holgorsen said. “We’ve got to be able to do what we do what we need to do each and every week from scoring points and moving the ball to be able to be competitive because the quarterback play and the offenses are so good in this league.”
Defensively, WVU appears to be strong up front with three veteran players returning in Nwachukwu, senior Christian Brown and senior Darrien Howard.
Lined up behind them is an upper-class-laden linebacker corps led by junior inside linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton. The secondary will be built around the myriad skills of Askew-Henry and improving bandit safeties Jarrod Harper and Jeremy Tyler, who is coming off a strong spring.
Two key areas to watch on defense will be cornerback, where veteran defensive coordinator Tony Gibson and cornerbacks coach Blue Adams must find replacements for departed starters Daryl Worley and Terrell Chestnut, and spur safety where senior KJ Dillon was a four-down player capable of disguising what Gibson wanted to do.
“We’ve got a lot of options at corner and we got a lot of older guys, two junior college guys, a fifth-year transfer (Iowa’s Maurice Fleming), another fifth-year transfer from Miami (Antonio Crawford), another junior college kid that’s been on campus for two years (Rasul Douglas) and then four freshmen as well,” Holgorsen said. “That’s going to be Coach Adams’ main priority and Coach Gibson’s priority to get those guys to become reliable to do what we do defensively.”
The defense is expecting to get a boost from highly touted prep All-American linebacker Brendan Ferns, from St. Clairsville, Ohio, and junior college safety standout Kyzir White, the younger brother of Kevin and Ka’Raun White, along with promising redshirt freshman outside linebacker David Long, a four-time WVU rookie of the week last year while playing on the scout team.
If the Mountaineer defense can maintain its third-down success, produce more negative yardage plays and continue to create more turnovers, that will give Holgorsen’s potentially explosive offense additional opportunities to put points on the scoreboard.
“We’ve shown improvement the last two years,” Holgorsen pointed out. “Looking back on last year we won more games than we have in the previous three years in the Big 12 - we were two points away from winning 10, so I think we’re pretty competitive.”’
One other aspect that bodes well for West Virginia this year is a seven-game home schedule that does not see the Mountaineers get on an airplane until mid-October when they travel to Lubbock, Texas, to play Texas Tech on Saturday, October 15.
Prior to that, WVU has home dates against Missouri (Sept. 3) and Youngstown State (Sept. 10). Then comes a bus ride over to Landover, Maryland, to play BYU (Sept. 24), and another home date against Kansas State (Oct. 1) before playing the first true road game.
West Virginia also has league preseason No. 1 pick Oklahoma at home on Saturday, November 19, preseason No. 2 selection TCU at home on Saturday, October 22, and preseason No. 4 choice Baylor at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, December 3, to conclude the regular season.
“I think the schedule sets up a little bit better this year,” Holgorsen admitted.
Practice begins Tuesday evening and continues daily throughout the remainder of the week. The team is scheduled to have open media availability on Tuesday and Friday of this week, with player interview availability on Wednesday and Saturday.
Assistant coaches will be available for interviews on Thursday afternoon.
The annual Mountaineer Football Fan Day will take place on Sunday, August 14, inside the Caperton Indoor Practice facility and classes for the fall semester begin on Wednesday, August 17.
West Virginia opens the regular season on Saturday, September 3, at noon against Missouri in a Big 12-SEC matchup that will be televised nationally on Fox Sports 1.
Tickets for all seven home dates are still available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
What is the strongest area for @WVUfootball heading into fall camp?
— John Antonik (@JohnAntonik) August 2, 2016
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