West Virginia hopes to live up to the hype
West Virginia is piling up the preseason awards.
Unfortunately for eight-year head coach Dana Holgorsen and the Mountaineers, preseason accolades don’t translate to success in the regular season, but there is a great deal of excitement in Morgantown for the upcoming season.
West Virginia has been ranked by several publications as the second-best team in the Big 12. The Mountaineers were 7-6 overall last season and 5-4 in Big 12 action, including a 30-14 setback to Utah in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.
“We welcome expectations,” Holgorsen said. “I think we’ve got a good group coming back. We had a decent year last season and did some good things offensively, but there is a lot of things we can do better and improve on, and our guys know that and want that. I don’t care where you are picked, there is always pressure. We have guys that have been around and no what to expect.”
Redshirt senior quarterback Will Grier returns after throwing for 3,490 yards 34 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his junior season. Grier’s 34 passing touchdowns were the second most-by a WVU quarterback in a season despite suffering a season-ended hand injury in the first quarter of the Mountaineers’ game against Texas on Nov. 18.
Grier has earned preseason All-America and All-Big 12 First Team Honors. He is on the several Top 10 Heisman Watch lists (Athlon Sports, Lindy’s, Phil Steele).
“I think the philosophy at the end of the day is to win,” Grier said. “There are a lot of good defenses in this conference. I think college football as a whole is a highly competitive sport week in and week out.”
Grier has David Sills V and Gary Jennings Jr. back at wide receiver. Sills, who tied for the lead in the nation with 18 touchdown receptions, had 60 catches for 980 yards (16.3 average) and Jennings had 97 receptions for 1,096 yards (11.3 average) and one touchdown.
“I think we pretty much know what we have offensively,” Sills said. “I have been trying to improve every part of my game. I think having another year with Will (Grier) and working on our chemistry has been good. I think Will gets better every day and attacks the day to get himself and us better.
“We look forward to the challenge in playing an SEC team in Tennessee. We are super excited about playing a marquee game and we want to show what we can do, but that is every week regardless of the opponent.”
West Virginia will run a spread offensive attack, and Grier will also look to Marcus Simms, Druw Bowen and converted quarterback William Crest Jr. at receiver.
Senior redshirt tight end Trevon Wesco provides a big target for Grier at 6-4, 274 pounds.
“I think Will (Grier) was a good fit for us and we had a need at that position when he transferred here,” Holgorsen said. “In terms of his Heisman Trophy campaign, I would never approve a campaign if I didn’t think a player could handle it. Will is an older, more mature kid and a coach’s son. He’s ready for this and prepared himself his whole life for this. I don’t have any worries about him not handling expectations.”
The Mountaineers must replace Justin Crawford at running back. Crawford gained 1,060 yards on 191 attempts and scored seven touchdowns. Kennedy McCoy (611 yards, seven touchdowns) and Martell Pettaway (149 yards, two touchdowns) will be in the mix to replace Crawford.
McCoy, who hails from North Carolina and is expected to be the top returning back, is excited to play the opener against Tennessee at Bank of American Stadium in Charlotte.
“I am going to be playing in my home state and that will give me a little bit of extra juice,” McCoy said. “It definitely feels like a challenge because everybody always talks about SEC teams and what they can do so we always play with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”
Yodny Cajuste, Josh Sills, Jacob Buccigrossi, Isaiah Hardy and Colton McKivitz will anchor the offensive line. Logan Thimons is penciled in to start at fullback.
The big question mark is if the WVU defense can hold its own against the other talented offenses that loom in the Big 12.
The Montaineers welcome back redshirt senior Dravon Askew-Henry at the spur position. Askew-Henry has played in and started 39 games for WVU.
David Long Jr. gets the nod at the will linebacker spot in Tony Gibson’s 3-3 stack defense. Long has played in 22 games and started in 19.
“You start with (redshirt junior) David Long (Jr.),” Holgorsen said. “We didn’t have him a year ago at this time. So, having him in camp has elevated our defense, in general. He was our defensive MVP last year pretty much. Having him is an awesome start. He looks as good as he ever has, it makes a whole lot of a difference. We can’t block him, and it gets frustrating to get things drawn out to where he’s accounted for, and he still likes to play. That’s good news for our football team.”
Ezekiel Rose, Darius Stills and Reese Donahue are set to get the start on the defensive line. Charlie Benton and Dylan Tonkery fill out the spots at sam and mike linebacker.
“(Redshirt sophomore Dylan) Tonkery looks really good,” Holgorsen said. “He’s another starter that we have in position that’s coming back from having a whole lot of experience.”
“Then, we have a whole lot of young guys on top of that. (Redshirt sophomore) Charlie Benton’s looked good, You’ve got some guys on the sidelines that’ll come back at some point this year that will give us some help as well. The backups are inexperienced, and our job is to not only get the starters to play at a high level, but to have the backups be able to go in and hold things together as well. I think we’re on our way to doing that.”
Hakeem Bailey and Derek Pitts Jr. will start at cornerback, and Kenny Robinson and Toyous Avery Jr. round out the defensive starters.
Evan Staley handled the kickoff duties last season and shared time with Mike Molina at attempting field goals and PATs, but the job is Staley’s this season. Billy Kinney returns at punter. Simms will most likely handle the return duties.
West Virginia follows its season opener with a non-conference home game against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) powerhouse Youngstown State in the home opener on Sept. 8 on Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Holgorsen’s team is at North Carolina State the next week before opening Big 12 play at home against Kansas State.
WVU hosts Baylor on Oct. 25 in a nationally televised game on FS1 at 7 p.m. and closes its regular season on Black Friday when it hosts Oklahoma at 8 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN.