Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com
West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene (6) fires a quick pass to Traylon Ray (7).
MORGANTOWN — As we flip the page on the calendar at midnight on Wednesday, common knowledge tells us that July then becomes August, but, contrary to popular belief, the real significance is that football season begins.
The thermometer may scream summer, but the heart screams out fall.
West Virginia’s football team begins summer camp on Wednesday with only one month before Penn State comes to Morgantown for the first time since 1992 to face the Mountaineers in an opening game. It almost certainly ranks as the most important to the school’s football fortunes since they hosted No. 1 Ohio State in 1998.
Hopes for the 1998 season were of fielding a Top Ten team that could be a contender for a national championship, and a home victory over Ohio State was a reasonable expectation that would go unrealized.
This year is no different with Penn State ranked No. 9. It is historically a flat tire on the Mountaineers’ road to success, having beaten WVU 49 times in 60 previous meetings, including last year in State College, Pa. WVU last beat the Nittany Lions in Morgantown in the undefeated 1988 season.
But to worry about Penn State is a bit premature as WVU Coach Neal Brown knows that the early days of any season’s summer camp are not about plotting to keep the first opponent from beating you but, instead, about seeing that you don’t beat yourself.
“The first couple of weeks are about us,” Brown said this summer, indicating they don’t get into the real Penn State preparation until two weeks before the opener.
Normally, you would say this is “coach speak”, but the truth of the matter is that Brown has a lot of personnel decisions that must be made before getting into those pre-game preps. It is a lot more than you might imagine coming off a nine-win season, with positions very much up for grabs.
What are the most important position battles that will rage through the summer as Brown tries to find which pegs — be they square or round — fit best into the available holes?
It begins with an offensive line that was the rock of last season’s improvement, setting up one of the nation’s strongest running games and offering great protection for the passer.
Two key elements have moved on to the NFL in All-American center Zach Frazier and tackle Doug Nester, setting in motion a lot of competition. The center spot is inherited by Brandon Yates, a guard/center a year ago who filled in admirably when Frazier missed the bowl victory over North Carolina.
As camp opens, Nick Malone, a local product from Morgantown, is the starter after earning valuable experience over a career that now reaches its final year, but WVU will closely evaluate Xavier Bausley, a Charleston product who comes in after playing for former West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez at Jacksonville (Ala.) State.
“Nick Malone is a great guy. We have all the respect in the world for each other. We’re going to compete, but at the end of the day, Coach [Matt] Moore is going to put out who he feels is best equipped to help us beat Penn State,” Bausley said over the summer.
With the emphasis being on having a physical offense, one suspects the player that comes out of camp showing the most physicality will take the lead, but the feeling is that time will be split rather evenly at the position.
Perhaps the most interesting position competition will come on the defensive side at the similar Will and Mike positions where there will be a three-way competition for playing time.
This is something that really has its roots in injuries from last season when both Trey Lathan and then freshman Josaiah Trotter went down with season-ending injuries. Latham had won a starting job and was displaying great athletic skills and anticipation, looking like a future star.
When he went out, Ben Cutter got a chance to play and quickly showed himself to be one of those players who plays games better than he practices, surprisingly helping to minimize the loss of Latham.
Meanwhile, Trotter now has healed completely from his lower leg injury and brings a totally different set of skills than Cutter has and is expected to be an impact player throughout his career.
Then there is the transfer of Reid Carrico from Ohio State to all of sudden leave WVU with three players battling for the spot which Lathan doesn’t occupy.
“Getting Trotter back and Trey back, it’s the deepest we’ve been at linebacker the whole time,” defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said this spring.
Trotter’s return has been highly anticipated, he being the son of two-time all-NFL linebacker Jeremiah Trotter of the Philadelphia Eagles and carrying 240 pounds that would fit nicely into a linebacking crew that has a lot of potential.
“Now we have five guys we have there that can really help us,” Brown said. “We’ve got a couple more coming, and that’s been beneficial. It’s definitely put us in the best spot we’ve had so far.”
The most pressing situation – as it always seems to be these days – is at cornerback where Beanie Bishop has moved on from his All-American spot to the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp with Zach Frazier and where Malachi Ruffin left to enter the NFL draft.
As WVU enters camp, its depth chart shows transfers Ayden Garnes at left corner backed up by another transfer TJ Crandall and transfer Garnett Hollis Jr. backed up by returnee Jacoby Spells and transfer Dontez Fagan.
“He’s going to surprise people,” Brown said of Garnes, a transfer from Duquesne, whom Brown saw up close and personal when the two teams played last year. “He really jumped out to us when we played him last year and he can run. He can run stride for stride with EJ (Horton), who’s as fast as anybody we are going to play. He’s always around the ball. He had multiple picks and is really smart and can play a lot of different positions.”
Hollis did not play much his first two years at Northwestern but picked it up the last two years and figures to fight Jacoby spells and transfer Donez Fagan for the starting role.
Perhaps the most options that must be worked out for Brown are at wide receiver, where there are no proven stars but where there are a number of plays who mix and match well and offer big play capabilities.
Off last year’s breakout performance from Hudson Clement, who showed maybe the most important trait a receiver can have – a nose for the end zone – he would figure to be the key deep threat but he is at the same position as the experienced top receiver transfer, Jalen Bray from Oklahoma State.
Clement, a walk-on from Martinsburg, burst on the scene against Duquesne with a scholarship-winning performance when he caught five passes, three of them touchdowns, for 177 yards.
“It’s the greatest day of my life,” Clement said. “That was life-changing. I was a walk-on and nobody really knew my name, and I got an opportunity.”
He would later catch a stunning touchdown pass in the final minutes that seemed to beat Houston, only to have a Hail Mary beat the Mountaineers. He finished the year with 480 yards in receptions, averaging 21.8 yards per catch while scoring four touchdowns.
But Bray comes off a season for the Cowboys where his career showed 48 receptions for 686 yards and four touchdowns, one of them last year against WVU.
He’s come in and become a quiet leader in the receivers room, impressing everyone with his approach.
“He’s kind of quiet and just puts his head down and works,” quarterback Garrett Greene has said. “I’ve really been impressed with him so far and he’s going to do a lot to help us out this year.
“The thing that really impresses me is he’s extremely humble,” coach Neal Brown said. “He’s had success at Oklahoma State and he knows he’s capable and talented enough to have a lot more success. He’s a natural ball-catcher and a really good football player.”
At the same time Brown is figuring out how to use those two, he has another situation inside with Preston Fox, the man who makes impossible catches possible, and last year’s other discovery along with Clement, Travon Ray.
Not often used early, he came on in the final five games to catch 11 balls for 255 yards, setting in motion a situation where Brown has to find a way to get him the ball, too.
Fox had 26 catches on the year, seemingly none of them easy, for 368 yards and has brainwave connections with Garrett Greene.
At the same time all this is going on, Brown has to find an additional football to put into the hands of Rodney Gallagher, who is learning his trade but is a potential big-time playmaker on reverses, punt receptions and kick returns.