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.