MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Quarterback Garrett Greene completed 8-of-11 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown and caught another touchdown during today's two-hour, 74-play Gold-Blue Scrimmage before a sparse crowd at soggy Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday afternoon.
 
"I appreciate the fans, the band and the cheerleaders that showed up today," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "The weather was much better than anticipated, but I wish we had yesterday's weather."
 
Greene scored the first touchdown of the scrimmage on the opening offensive possession when he caught a reverse pass from wide receiver Preston Fox and scampered 40 yards into the end zone.
 
Brown chuckled when asked if he was leaving the reverse pass on his play-call sheet when the Mountaineers meet Penn State in their season opener in State College.
 
"They will get some practice reps on that now, right?" Brown laughed. "I told (offensive coordinator) Chad (Scott) and (quarterbacks coach) Sean (Reagan) to make sure they have some fun. Guys like practicing trick plays and so that's one they've been working on for a few days."
 
The Tallahassee, Florida, resident was also responsible for the second touchdown with 8:22 left in the second quarter when he hit Cortez Braham in stride on a quick slant for a 40-yard score. 
 
Greene's 57-yard bomb to NC State transfer Devin Carter set up the scrimmage's third touchdown, a CJ Donaldson 7-yard run with 7:12 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Jahiem White, a freshman running back from York, Pennsylvania, scored the final offensive touchdown of the afternoon when he broke free and ran for 57 yards on the second play of the fourth quarter.
 
"Obviously, Jahiem is a fan favorite already," Brown said.
 
Danny King wrapped up the afternoon by making a 42-yard field goal.
 
Nicco Marchiol finished today's scrimmage completing 6 of his 12 pass attempts for 58 yards. White led all ball carriers with 91 yards on seven carries, Carter had three catches for 77 yards and LSU transfer Kole Taylor made the catch of the scrimmage, a one-handed grab over the middle for one of his three receptions for 36 yards.
 
Marchiol and Greene got about an equal number of plays through three quarters, Marchiol with 30 and Greene with 26. Brown said their statistics were a little deceiving.
 
"If you look at it statistically, Garrett's stats were better," Brown noted. "One of those he hit probably was going to be a sack and both of them are runners and in this format it's hard for them for their full tool set to be shown.
 
"I thought Nicco threw two really nice deep balls and our receivers did not play the ball very well, but without having the chance to watch (the tape) it's hard to tell. I thought they protected Garrett a little better, which was unfortunate for Nicco, but this is going to be the long game, regardless of what happens today or the first 14 (practices)," Brown added. "This is going to be a deal where we've gone through the winter and spring and it's going to go through the summer and into fall camp before we figure it out."
 
Safety Jairo Faverus led all defenders with six total tackles. There were no turnovers and just one penalty, an illegal procedure called on the offense late in the afternoon.
 
"Defensively, we held some guys out but I thought Lee Kpogba really showed up. I thought he was really physical in the run game early and probably would have had two sacks if the quarterbacks were live," Brown said. 
 
Other defenders Brown singled out were defensive lineman Hammond Russell IV, Faverus, and the cornerbacks defending the deep ball.
 
The scrimmage began with a kickoff challenge pitting King of the Gold team versus Michael Hayes of the Blue resulting in a 7-4 lead for the Gold squad before game action began.
 
The first half featured a 10-minute clock with normal TV stoppages for timeouts. The first break included a red zone one-on-one competition which had Tyler Evans of the Gold facing Aubrey Burks of the Blue, Preston Fox against Malachi Ruffin, and Devin Carter versus Jacolby Spells.
 
The first stoppage of the second quarter had a pass protection/pass rush competition pitting Wyatt Milum against Eddie Vesterinen, Tomas Rimac versus Davoan Hawkins and Doug Nester against Mike Lockhart.
 
Halftime had the players and coaches remain on the field and featured the announcements of the Tom Nickolich and Iron Mountaineer Awards, as well as a special teams competition. 
 
C.J. Cole, a wide receiver from Washington, Pennsylvania, was this year's recipient of the Nickolich Award while Nester, Jared Bartlett, Marcis Floyd and Tony Mathis Jr. were recognized by the WVU strength and conditioning staff for their offseason work in the weight room.
 
Individual competitions concluded at the end of the third quarter with a punting matchup pitting Oliver Straw against Leighton Bechdel and a field goal challenge with Danny King competing against Hayes.
 
A running clock was utilized for the fourth quarter. 
 
Brown observed the scrimmage from the field standing behind the offense.
 
"The spring game, going back a long time to coach (Don) Nehlen, has been about Children's Hospital so I want to recognize them, and it was special to have them on the field as we started the game," Brown said.
 
The scoring system for today's spring game included points for defensive stops, three-and-out possessions and turnovers, in addition to the normal point values for typical football scoring plays. Based on this, Gold defeated the Blue 56-51.
 
The day began with a free concert performed by touring West Virginia singer/songwriter Philip Bowen, who boasts more than one million followers on TikTok.