MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Neal Brown was much happier with the way his football team performed in its second officiated scrimmage of the spring on Saturday morning inside Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
The Mountaineers got a total of about 140 situational snaps between the three units, Brown said.
 
"We got after it pretty good today," Brown noted. "We didn't want anybody to have more than 55 snaps, and that's the way it worked out just because we were rotating the ones. It was probably the most intense scrimmage we'll have this spring, and that's the way we advertised it to our guys."
 
The offensive line play, an issue during last Saturday's scrimmage, was much improved today. Brown attributes some of that to the return of right guard Josh Sills, who sat out last week's practice.
 
"There was only way to go from last week, but we were better," he said. "The biggest thing is you don't want to see negative runs, and that's something we did last week. This week we came out and the running backs got to the line of scrimmage."
 
Brown, as he does following each practice he meets with the media, listed the players who had caught his eye, beginning first with the defense.
 
The players he mentioned today included junior safety Derrek Pitts, sophomore defensive lineman Dante Stills, sophomore defensive end Taijh Alston, sophomore linebacker Josh Chandler, senior cornerback Hakeem Bailey, junior safety Sean Mahone, junior linebacker Dylan Tonkery, sophomore linebacker VanDarius Cowan and sophomore linebacker Jake Abbott wearing the blue jerseys.
 
Of those guys, Pitts, a former South Charleston High product, drew the most praise from Brown.
 
"The thing that sticks out to me is he loves to play," Brown said. "He plays the game with great energy and he's physical. He has to continue to gain weight so he can play that way over the course of a 12-, 13- or 14-game season. The thing that he's made improvement on is his study habits have been better, he's preparing better, and he knows what to do."
 
Wearing the white uniforms, Brown singled out running backs Martell Pettaway and Leddie Brown, quarterback Trent Jackson, young receivers Dillon Spalding, Randy Fields Jr. and Sam James, and offensive linemen Colton McKivitz and Sills.
 
Brown said Jackson was West Virginia's most accurate downfield passer this morning.
 
"We're too up and down at quarterback right now," Brown said. "We have some things we do really, really well and our best plays today were really good. But what happens is, at quarterback, you're only as good as your bad plays and our bad plays today were really bad – stuff that will get you beat."
 
Brown said some of this is a function of trying to get different quarterbacks work with the ones. 
 
"There was to be some continuity, and we're repping three, sometimes four guys and it's tough," he admitted. "As a quarterback, it's hard to get a rhythm when you go a series, sit a series and go a series, so there is some of that, and that's to be expected. I'm not down on the quarterbacks right now. Do I wish we were playing as good as we possibly could? Yes. Are we about where we thought we would be? Yes."
 
The Mountaineers are off Sunday and Monday and will continue spring work on Tuesday leading into next Saturday's Gold-Blue Spring Game to be played inside Milan Puskar Stadium at 1 p.m. Advance tickets are available online through WVUGAME.com.
 


Scrimmage Notes and Tidbits
 
* Brown said senior running back Kennedy McKoy rolled his ankle during the scrimmage and was held out for the remainder of the practice. He said he didn't think it was anything serious.
 
* He mentioned sophomore Sam James among the wide receivers, saying he's "had as good of a spring as anybody from our receiver position."
 
Youngsters Dillon Spalding and Randy Fields Jr. both made outstanding downfield plays this morning catching passes thrown by Jackson.
 
* Among the cornerbacks, the first name Brown brought up was junior Josh Norwood. "He's been probably as competitive as anybody we have on our football team," he said. "I think the secondary feeds off of his energy. The corners have done a nice job. They didn't make as many plays on the ball today as maybe they have in other spring practices."
 
* Today's scrimmage consisted of various situations from opening drive of the first half, opening drive of the second half, coming off a series, goal line, red zone, third down, short yardage, two-minute, end-of-game and end-of-half.
 
"We did a lot of different things," he said.
 
* On a lighter note, Brown was asked who he liked in tonight's Final Four. He's a big college basketball fan having grown up in the Bluegrass State.
 
"I have to go with the Big 12," he said. "I like (Texas Tech coach) Chris Beard a lot. We were together at Tech, so I will stick with the Big 12."