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News and Notes from Fall Camp with the WVU Mountaineers.
I have a hard time updating this stream about camp because, in the immortal words of Allen Iverson, "Practice? We're talking about practice?!?!" That said, the past few days have brought a couple of interesting stories to the forefront:
The West Virginia University Mountaineers football team capped off the first week of practice with an intrasquad on Saturday. With less fanfare than the spring game, the first scrimmage of the fall often is a bit more telling in how the team is doing to this point. The answer…. not well. The upside is this gem of a quote from head coach Bill Stewart:
“There’s one team that can beat the Mountaineers,” Stewart said. “One team. And they’re on this field today. And they won. The team that can beat West Virginia, beat West Virginia today on this field. Sloppy tackling, not breaking on the ball, not doing backside cutoff blocks, not hustling, drops, exchange snaps.”
That said, there’s nothing to get to worried about. It’s early. Of course it’s going to be sloppy! However, there were a few positive things worth noting:
-Noel Devine broke a 79-yard touchdown. Here’s hoping we see a whole lot of that out of #7 this year. That said, let’s not make this a habit for the defense. Ahhhh… the dualities of an intrasquad game!
-Tyler Bitencourt was 3-for-3 on Field Goals. That’s a plus! He also put a PAT off of the cross bar. That’s a minus!
-New DE Bruce Irving found himself in the backfield multiple times (but not hitting the QB, it is a scrimmage!).
-The Offense scored six times, but all on the ground.
Well folks, fall camp opened this past weekend for the Mountaineers. I tend not to put a lot of stock in the stories that come out of these camps, but there are a few things to make note of.
-Bruce Irvin. The JuCo transfer seems to be turning plenty of heads. Some envision him playing DE, others outside LB. Either way, he seems to have the explosiveness of Robert Sands but, you know, HUGE. He looks like the kind of guy who can blow some people up, but oftentimes the Mountaineers' Defense relies too much on hitting and not enough on tackling. If he can wrap folks up, he's a welcome addition.
-Coley White. Pat's little brother spent all spring taking QB reps, but has since moved back to slot receiver. With Geno Smith healthy and highly touted frosh Johnson and Brunetti now on campus, it looks unlikely that we'll ever see Coley under center. If he has half of Pat's athleticism, then he needs to be on the field. Slot receiver or KR/PR seems like a good fit to me.
-Scooter Berry. He missed much of 2009 and all of spring practice with a shoulder injury, but seems to be back into the swing of things. This is a huge gain for the 'Eers D. Without Scooter playing and playing well this year, the D Line could have serious issues.
-Check out the current depth chart here.
That's what jumped out at me from reports of the first two days of camp. Again, I don't put much stock in these things. Other than a few position battles, we won't really know what's up until the 'Eers face some live opponents. Until then, keep checking back with this stream as new stories bubble to the surface.
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Jeremy Johnson Returns
Turns out Jeremy Johnson isn’t transferring to Baylor after all – the Post-Gazette reports today that Johnson is back in camp after missing the past two days of practices due to homesickness.
Good for him for coming back, but if Johnson ever does play for the Mountaineers, he has given opposing fans all kinds of opportunities for “Does Jeremy need his mommy?” types of taunts.
Aug 18 6:10p by Charlie Wilmoth - 0 comments