The Shotgun/Throwdown: Understated Austin Kendall ready to shine at West Virginia

Welcome, By-Godders, to The Shotgun/Throwdown, WVU’s best place for sports links, information, sophomoric humor and daily distractions.

Football

Understated Austin Kendall ready for time to shine at West Virginia | WV MetroNews
Austin Kendall won the starting job for the Mountaineers, but he won't be ditching his workmanlike attitude.

Kendall ready to start under center | Times West Virginian
With the opening day of the football season just a few days away, newly-anointed starting QB Austin Kendall certainly has his mind focused on the game against James Madison at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mountaineer Field.

Player’s Council keeps young ones in line | Times West Virginian
Coach Neal Brown’s leadership council of players is having a large effect on the team’s locker room and off field behavior. The council of 15 players from offense, defense and special teams was formed after spring practice.

Brown’s butterflies are anxious, not nervous | Times West Virginian
You remember the feeling you had back in high school, maybe as a freshman or a sophomore, the day your good friend set you up on a blind. Neal Brown, who Saturday around 2 p.m. will lead his West Virginia Mountaineers out onto Mountaineer Field for his first game as Dana Holgorsen’s replacement against James Madison, admits he’ll be having those butterflies.

Two “new eras” will clash in season opener | WV Illustrated
Two new coaching staffs will go head to head Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium when West Virginia hosts James Madison, the No. 2 team in the FCS.

JMU’s Curt Cignetti, Part 2: Rising Through The Ranks | Blue Gold News
Curt Cignetti has spent 36 years in the college coaching profession to get to this point. His long and winding road will bring him back to his alma mater this coming Saturday, as the Dukes opener their season under their first-year head coach at Mountaineer Field.

JMU’s Curt Cignetti, Part 3: A Path Taken | Blue Gold News
Curt Cignetti’s position as the first-year head football coach at James Madison brings him back to Morgantown, where he spent so much of his childhood.

Chick-fil-A Kids Zone to Debut at Mountaineer Football Games | West Virginia University Athletics
Young Mountaineer fans must be extra excited about this football season. The Chick-fil-A Kids Zone will debut at Mountaineer football home games this fall.

Basketball

Junior college forward Ethan Richardson not enrolling at West Virginia | WV MetroNews
Junior-college prospect Ethan Richardson will not be enrolling at West Virginia, leaving the Mountaineers with one open scholarship heading into this season.

West Virginia Athletics

Mountaineers Rank as High as No. 12 | West Virginia University Athletics
The West Virginia University women's soccer team ranks as high as No. 12 in this week's national women's soccer rankings.

Eddy to Compete at ISSF World Cup | West Virginia University Athletics
Sophomore Jared Eddy of the West Virginia University rifle team will compete for Team USA at the 2019 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Aug. 28-29.

Around the Big 12

Texas Waited a Decade for Sam Ehlinger. Can the QB Push the Longhorns Over the Top? | The Ringer
From Garrett Gilbert to David Ash and beyond, Texas football has long waited for a quarterback to lead it back to the promised land. This time seems different—and Ehlinger isn’t shying away from the expectations.

Alex Delton named TCU’s starting QB | Frogs O' War
The Kansas State transfer will start the Frogs opener Saturday night against Arkansas-Pine Bluff

K-State fills gaping hole at running back with a trio of transfers | FOX Sports
Chris Klieman probably felt good about the team he was inheriting at Kansas State when the new coach looked down the depth chart and saw a veteran quarterback in Skylar Thompson, experience on the offensive line and plenty of playmakers on defense. Then he looked at running back. Or rather, he looked at the giant hole at the position, which was a favorite position for Klieman at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.

Around the NCAA

College football conference previews and storylines using SP+ | ESPN
A complete breakdown of how SP+ projects every conference, from the SEC to Conference USA, in addition to key storylines for each.

Outrageous College Football Predictions for Week 1 | Athlon Sports
Just scroll past that first prediction...

The preseason Bottom 10 is ready to do its worst | ESPN
Who leads the way in the best of the worst of what college football has to offer? The preseason Bottom 10 is here to break it down.

Michael Dyer *wasn’t* down: the anatomical case | Banner Society
The internet has long debated whether parts of the Auburn hero touched the ground. They didn’t, according to body part experts.

How Tua's title-winning pass set off the wildest QB carousel ever | ESPN
Tua Tagovailoa's game-winning TD pass in the 2017 national title game set off a chain reaction of quarterback transfers from some of the nation's biggest college football programs. We look at how the dust has settled.

SB Nation’s 2019 NFL Preview | SB Nation
Everything’s connected in today’s NFL. Let’s get ready for a new season, as seen through football’s Vitruvian Man.

Why NFL Teams Find It So Hard to Quit QBs | The Ringer
Cheap, young quarterbacks are the holy grail of modern football building blocks. So why do teams keep handing out $30 million extensions to less-than-elite passers?

25 Years Ago, Jim Carrey Changed Comedy Forever | The Ringer
In 1994, a comedic actor previously most famous for his performances on ‘In Living Color’ released three iconic films—‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,’ ‘The Mask,’ and ‘Dumb and Dumber’—that changed Hollywood’s approach and pushed a genre to its commercial limits

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