WVU’s Greene still questionable as TCU game looms
MORGANTOWN, W.Va — Little has changed at the quarterback spot for West Virginia this week as Garrett Greene continues to try and work his way back from the ankle injury that put him on the bench for most of the Pitt game and the entire Texas Tech game, opening the door to Nicco Marchiol to get his first collegiate start.
“Garrett Greene was available Saturday but he did not warm up very well,” coach Neal Brown said. “He was emergency ready but we would have had to help him out.”
And right now he remains questionable for Saturday night’s game at TCU.
“I don’t want to play him until he’s fully healthy, and he didn’t make a whole lot of progress from Wednesday to Saturday last week,” Brown said. “He worked with our trainers today, and we’ll see what he has on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“If he can practice full go Tuesday and Wednesday, then he’ll play. If not, it will probably be the same because then we give him two weeks from Thursday to get him healthy,” Brown said.
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Also on the injury front, safety Keyshawn Cobb’s season is over as he will have surgery this week on an injury and be out for the year. He does have a redshirt year still available.
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If there were two areas of the game where WVU needs to improve offensively it is at running back and wide receiver, according to Brown.
“We got to play way better at either of those two positions,” the coach said. “We got to do more. We have to make more plays, help the quarterbacks. We called a lot of passing plays but we didn’t do a very good job of executing.
“We didn’t make a lot of plays in space and we have to do better than that.”
Running back CJ Donaldson, who was out late in the Texas Tech game, is physically healthy but Brown says “he has to play better.”
After gaining 102 yards against Pitt with some hard running, he rushed for just 48 yards against Texas Tech.
“CJ played great in the second half against Pitt,” Brown said. “He really did. He didn’t finish runs the way he can against Texas Tech. He’s got some nagging things; nothing that’s going to keep him out. It’s hard to play running back. You take a lot of shots.
“I try to tell him, the quarterback is handing it off and you’re running it, so that’s nine on 11 every time. We design it the best we can so there’s going to be a free hitter at some point.”
Wide receiver Devin Carter had a rocky game, including having a catchable ball bounce off his chest and turn into an interception.
“He did not play as well as he could,” Brown said. “He’s our No. 1 guy and he’s earned that right but his grandmother passed away during the week. I think that bothered him. Sometimes, in college sports, we lose sight of things like that. These kids are dealing with a lot off the field, and that can affect performance.”
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WVU’s offensive lineman of the game was center Zach Frazier, again. Brown said he graded out at 94% with four knockdown blocks.
But the offensive player of the week, according to the coaching staff’s awards, went to tackle Wyatt Milum.
“I thought he was the best player on the field,” said Brown. “He played really, really well. Had five knockdowns, was dominant.”
The defensive player of the week was Marcus Floyd.
“He played 60 snaps after playing 16 a week ago,” Brown said. “We played him at three different positions, had three tackles, a sack, three quarterback hurries and three passes broken up.”
The special team player of the week was punt returner Preston Fox, who returned three for 45 yards and had another lengthy one called by penalty.
The team’s weekly blue-collar award on defense went to nose guard Eddie Vesterinen. He had seven tackles.
“You don’t see that from a defensive lineman and they were mostly pure effort,” Brown said.
Treylan Davis won the award on offense. “He does the dirty work, doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but he makes us go in the run game,” Brown said.
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Something else we all lose sight of is just how unworldly some of the players are and that leads to something for Brown to consider when the team travels to TCU this week in Fort Worth.
“We’re in a pretty good routine on the road now, but the biggest thing is a lot of these guys have never flown. Guys coming in from high school have to make an adjustment and we try to deal with that early in the week,” Brown said, noting that may have to break out the Dramamine.