Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Brown Tabs Kendall His Game One Starter
August 20, 2019 03:01 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia coach Neal Brown has named Austin Kendall his starting quarterback for the Mountaineers' season opening game against James Madison at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019.
"Austin Kendall won our starting quarterback job," Brown said Tuesday afternoon. "We tracked everything from spring practice through fall camp - decision making, completion percentage, number of turnovers, scoring drives, and it was clear after Friday night's scrimmage in the stadium that he earned it."
Kendall appeared in two games in a backup role as a freshman at Oklahoma in 2016, completing 16 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
Last year, he lost a preseason quarterback battle with eventual Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft pick Kyler Murray.
Kendall played in six games during his sophomore season in 2018. His most extended action came in OU's blowout victory over Florida Atlantic when he completed eight-of-10 passes for 88 yards and a touchdown.
Following the offseason, Kendall transferred to West Virginia soon after the Sooners added Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts, who was named OU's starting quarterback earlier this week.
"The thing that doesn't get talked about a lot is Austin hasn't played a lot of football," Brown pointed out. "We purposely designed practice so our quarterbacks could get a lot of live reps. There have been a lot of positives with his situation at Oklahoma and being around winning and seeing highly productive offenses play, but he hasn't gotten a lot of live reps.
"At quarterback, it's harder to simulate in non-live segments. He's needs more live bullets flying at him, and the more live reps he's gotten he's improved," Brown added.
The coach said he liked the way Kendall has handled himself since arriving in Morgantown in January.
"He's mature," Brown said. "You've got to remember, he went through this song and dance before. I don't believe (Oklahoma coach) Lincoln (Riley) named a starter until about the same time last year so he's gone through that. He's gone through the whole transfer piece with Jalen coming in from Alabama, so he's matured. He's an older kid. He's already graduated, and I think he's handled it well."
Kendall has been battling former Miami transfer Jack Allison, who quarterbacked West Virginia's 34-18 Camping World Bowl game loss to Syracuse last December.
"Jack Allison did a good job, and I believe in him, I think that's important for everybody to know," Brown mentioned. "I think Jack Allison has been as good of a teammate as anyone we've had in our program over the last nine months. I believe in him, and I think he's got skills that can be productive in our league."
Brown also noted the work redshirt freshman Trey Lowe III has done this fall and mentioned the possibility of Lowe seeing some action this fall in certain packages.
"Trey Lowe is a guy that has prepared well and continues to improve and could potentially see some game action," he said.
A fourth quarterback, Bowling Green transfer Jarret Doege, was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA last Friday, Brown confirmed, and he is now available as well.
Brown indicated Tuesday that their plans for Doege have not changed at this point.
"Our plan for him as of today is to redshirt," Brown said. "He's coming off offseason surgery, and he's been a little bit behind. I think that's the right decision for him and obviously that's as we start the season."
Meanwhile, earlier today James Madison coach Curt Cignetti announced that former Pitt transfer Ben DiNucci has won the starting job by beating out redshirt junior Cole Johnson.
Tickets are still on sale for the season opener against the Dukes and can be purchased online through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Tuesday Notebook
* Brown began today's news conference on a somber note by sending out his condolences to his good friend Blake Anderson, head coach at Arkansas State, whose wife Wendy lost her lengthy battle with breast cancer earlier today.
"It's a sad day, and I've been thinking about Blake and his three kids," he said. "She fought hard, fought a valiant fight and beat breast cancer once, but it wasn't to be. I've been thinking about his whole family for a while now."
* Brown singled out the play of sophomore defensive lineman Dante Stills, junior safety Sean Mahone, true freshman corner Nicktroy Fortune, senior cornerback Devan Wade and Michigan graduate transfer Reuben Jones from the defensive side during last Friday night's scrimmage under the lights.
The offensive stalwarts Brown mentioned were junior left guard Michael Brown, senior left tackle Colton McKivitz, Kendall, senior running back Kennedy McKoy and redshirt freshman wide receiver Sam James.
Michael Brown is a name Brown keeps mentioning because of the rapid development he has made since arriving from Eastern Arizona College.
"He is big, he's strong, moves laterally well, has good balance and part of the reason I talk about him is because it's really kind of an incredible story going from somebody who didn't play high school football from Compton, California, and he ends coming to Morgantown, West Virginia, and all of a sudden he's going to start and play Big 12 football," Brown said. "Him showing the ability to keep improving and showing he belongs has been impressive to me."
* Brown said today's practice consisted of goal-line and short-yardage work as well as a "kick scrimmage" entailing a lot of live kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return and live field goal and punting situations.
He cited senior Martell Pettaway's effort during today's red-zone drills and the surge Josh Sills and Mike Brown had creating holes along the goal line. On the other side, he said Dante Stills once again created some negative yardage plays.
Brown indicated that Evan Staley's placekicking has continued to become more consistent with the addition of LSU punter Josh Growden, who Brown tabbed as his starting holder.
"It was important that we added Josh as a punter, but maybe equally important was adding him as a holder," Brown said. "He's a guy that started three years at LSU as a holder, and he will be our starting holder when we open up next week.
"That probably won't get as much press as my first announcement," he joked.
The coach noted that some of their choices for backup roles on defense will be influenced by how they perform on special teams, which makes them sort of two-for-one players.
"If you've got a chance of being a factor on special teams then you're going to be more likely to travel than the guy who is not playing special teams," he said.
Today's practice was the final one of fall camp. The team will have tomorrow off and will resume work on James Madison beginning Thursday.
"We've got a lot of work done," he said. "I was not pleased with our Monday practice, but I thought we bounced back and did some better things today."
* Regarding the tight end position, redshirt freshman T.J. Banks is back to full-go, and the Mountaineers are hopeful junior Jovani Haskins will be available later this week, which has meant most of the tight end reps have gone to redshirt freshman Mike O'Laughlin.
"Mike has played well, but it's a big transition," Brown said. "The last time he played full tackle football when he was a senior in high school, he weighed 190-something pounds. Now he weighs upwards of 250-plus."
* According to Brown, there is nothing new on Temple transfer Sean Ryan's waiver to play immediately. Ryan has been extremely impressive in preseason work this fall.
"It's getting kind of close," he said. "How we're handling that is we're preparing him to play and we're hopeful he gets the waiver. If he doesn't there's nothing we can do about it. I think he has an extremely strong case, I will say that."
* Finally, Brown had this to say about senior running back Kennedy McKoy, "When you get into coaching you can sense when guys are sitting on big years, and I'm hopeful and I believe he's sitting on a big year."
"Austin Kendall won our starting quarterback job," Brown said Tuesday afternoon. "We tracked everything from spring practice through fall camp - decision making, completion percentage, number of turnovers, scoring drives, and it was clear after Friday night's scrimmage in the stadium that he earned it."
Kendall appeared in two games in a backup role as a freshman at Oklahoma in 2016, completing 16 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
Last year, he lost a preseason quarterback battle with eventual Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft pick Kyler Murray.
Kendall played in six games during his sophomore season in 2018. His most extended action came in OU's blowout victory over Florida Atlantic when he completed eight-of-10 passes for 88 yards and a touchdown.
Following the offseason, Kendall transferred to West Virginia soon after the Sooners added Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts, who was named OU's starting quarterback earlier this week.
"The thing that doesn't get talked about a lot is Austin hasn't played a lot of football," Brown pointed out. "We purposely designed practice so our quarterbacks could get a lot of live reps. There have been a lot of positives with his situation at Oklahoma and being around winning and seeing highly productive offenses play, but he hasn't gotten a lot of live reps.
"At quarterback, it's harder to simulate in non-live segments. He's needs more live bullets flying at him, and the more live reps he's gotten he's improved," Brown added.
The coach said he liked the way Kendall has handled himself since arriving in Morgantown in January.
"He's mature," Brown said. "You've got to remember, he went through this song and dance before. I don't believe (Oklahoma coach) Lincoln (Riley) named a starter until about the same time last year so he's gone through that. He's gone through the whole transfer piece with Jalen coming in from Alabama, so he's matured. He's an older kid. He's already graduated, and I think he's handled it well."
Kendall has been battling former Miami transfer Jack Allison, who quarterbacked West Virginia's 34-18 Camping World Bowl game loss to Syracuse last December.
"Jack Allison did a good job, and I believe in him, I think that's important for everybody to know," Brown mentioned. "I think Jack Allison has been as good of a teammate as anyone we've had in our program over the last nine months. I believe in him, and I think he's got skills that can be productive in our league."
Brown also noted the work redshirt freshman Trey Lowe III has done this fall and mentioned the possibility of Lowe seeing some action this fall in certain packages.
"Trey Lowe is a guy that has prepared well and continues to improve and could potentially see some game action," he said.
A fourth quarterback, Bowling Green transfer Jarret Doege, was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA last Friday, Brown confirmed, and he is now available as well.
Brown indicated Tuesday that their plans for Doege have not changed at this point.
"Our plan for him as of today is to redshirt," Brown said. "He's coming off offseason surgery, and he's been a little bit behind. I think that's the right decision for him and obviously that's as we start the season."
Meanwhile, earlier today James Madison coach Curt Cignetti announced that former Pitt transfer Ben DiNucci has won the starting job by beating out redshirt junior Cole Johnson.
Tickets are still on sale for the season opener against the Dukes and can be purchased online through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Tuesday Notebook
* Brown began today's news conference on a somber note by sending out his condolences to his good friend Blake Anderson, head coach at Arkansas State, whose wife Wendy lost her lengthy battle with breast cancer earlier today.
"It's a sad day, and I've been thinking about Blake and his three kids," he said. "She fought hard, fought a valiant fight and beat breast cancer once, but it wasn't to be. I've been thinking about his whole family for a while now."
* Brown singled out the play of sophomore defensive lineman Dante Stills, junior safety Sean Mahone, true freshman corner Nicktroy Fortune, senior cornerback Devan Wade and Michigan graduate transfer Reuben Jones from the defensive side during last Friday night's scrimmage under the lights.
The offensive stalwarts Brown mentioned were junior left guard Michael Brown, senior left tackle Colton McKivitz, Kendall, senior running back Kennedy McKoy and redshirt freshman wide receiver Sam James.
Michael Brown is a name Brown keeps mentioning because of the rapid development he has made since arriving from Eastern Arizona College.
"He is big, he's strong, moves laterally well, has good balance and part of the reason I talk about him is because it's really kind of an incredible story going from somebody who didn't play high school football from Compton, California, and he ends coming to Morgantown, West Virginia, and all of a sudden he's going to start and play Big 12 football," Brown said. "Him showing the ability to keep improving and showing he belongs has been impressive to me."
* Brown said today's practice consisted of goal-line and short-yardage work as well as a "kick scrimmage" entailing a lot of live kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return and live field goal and punting situations.
He cited senior Martell Pettaway's effort during today's red-zone drills and the surge Josh Sills and Mike Brown had creating holes along the goal line. On the other side, he said Dante Stills once again created some negative yardage plays.
Brown indicated that Evan Staley's placekicking has continued to become more consistent with the addition of LSU punter Josh Growden, who Brown tabbed as his starting holder.
"It was important that we added Josh as a punter, but maybe equally important was adding him as a holder," Brown said. "He's a guy that started three years at LSU as a holder, and he will be our starting holder when we open up next week.
"That probably won't get as much press as my first announcement," he joked.
The coach noted that some of their choices for backup roles on defense will be influenced by how they perform on special teams, which makes them sort of two-for-one players.
"If you've got a chance of being a factor on special teams then you're going to be more likely to travel than the guy who is not playing special teams," he said.
Today's practice was the final one of fall camp. The team will have tomorrow off and will resume work on James Madison beginning Thursday.
"We've got a lot of work done," he said. "I was not pleased with our Monday practice, but I thought we bounced back and did some better things today."
* Regarding the tight end position, redshirt freshman T.J. Banks is back to full-go, and the Mountaineers are hopeful junior Jovani Haskins will be available later this week, which has meant most of the tight end reps have gone to redshirt freshman Mike O'Laughlin."Mike has played well, but it's a big transition," Brown said. "The last time he played full tackle football when he was a senior in high school, he weighed 190-something pounds. Now he weighs upwards of 250-plus."
* According to Brown, there is nothing new on Temple transfer Sean Ryan's waiver to play immediately. Ryan has been extremely impressive in preseason work this fall.
"It's getting kind of close," he said. "How we're handling that is we're preparing him to play and we're hopeful he gets the waiver. If he doesn't there's nothing we can do about it. I think he has an extremely strong case, I will say that."
* Finally, Brown had this to say about senior running back Kennedy McKoy, "When you get into coaching you can sense when guys are sitting on big years, and I'm hopeful and I believe he's sitting on a big year."
Players Mentioned
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DL
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