Gold Team Wins Gold-Blue Spring Games 25-9

Everyone in Mountaineer nation has been waiting to watch what Neal Brown and his staff would do with this roster. The hype surrounding the team was reaching high levels with a new head coach and a new transfer quarterback, Oklahoma Sooner quarterback Austin Kendall.

Austin Kendall started as the first team on the gold team. Kendall was 0-2 on first series but did throw the ball away unlike Grier. Jack Allison started as the second team on the blue team. First pass a quick screen to Alec Sinkfield. After a first down, Allison was “air sacked” by Brennan Thrift, a PSU transfer, on 3rd and 12 to end the first blue series. The team was not allowing players to come near their quarterbacks. Quarterbacks were down when a defensive player got close or touched them.

Kendall’s first completion to Isaiah Esdale. Kendall connects with Sam James on the first big play of the game. James beat Hakeem Bailey but came back to the ball. The gold team was unable to capitalize on the big play and Casey Legg put the first points of the game on the board, which started 2-2 after some Spring Game individual game scoring, with a short field goal.

The defense, especially the defensive line, were way ahead of the offense and offensive line. Both quarterbacks looked shaky in the first quarter. Austin Kendall was just not wowing as a first team quarterback.

Derrick Pitts gets caught looking in the backfield as T.J. Simmons runs by him for a 60-yard touchdown for the first touchdown of the game.

Following that touchdown, Tevin Bush on the blue team flashes his speed on a jet sweep that gets 9 yards. On the blue side, the coordinators made a definitive push to get Bush touches on swings and jet sweeps.

Jack Allison has looked more comfortable as the game gets on. Allison does a great job staying in the pocket and delivering a good throw to Tevin Bush on a fourth down that extended a drive. Allison followed that throw with another air sack but then came up with a 16-yard strike to Randy Fields to make the score 11-9.

Trey Lowe comes out for Gold team with 4:30 in 2nd quarter. Martell Pettaway made a great one-handed catch to extend the downs on a swing pass then on the next play, Lowe is flushed out of the pocket and Keith Washington picks it off that would have a pick-six in a real game.

On the basic final drive of the first half, Jordan Adams picks off Jack Allison but then gets called for a unsportsmanlike conduct for doing a “throat slash”. I’m not sure I would have called it a throat slash but the officials did. It wasn’t the only questionable officiating decision we had for a spring game when a receiver appeared to catch a ball in the field of play but the play was ruled incomplete.

After the first half, West Virginia debuted new uniforms.

Austin Kendall looked slightly better in the 3rd quarter as he drove the gold team down and scored on a short QB read.

The announced attendance was 18, 865, which is the third highest spring game attendance at West Virginia. The player of the game might have been Stone Wolfley who had several sacks and tackles for loss. The final offensive play of the game was a touchdown pass from Trey Lowe to Dillon Spalding.