WVU’s junior linebacker played so well and made so many meaningful plays with one good hand and one hand in a cast last season that the question had to be asked: Would a healthy Rigg keep playing with the cast this coming season?

“I love it off and I’m keeping it off,” he said. “It’s so much better and so much easier to go through it with two functional hands without the pain I had last year.”

After the loss to the Tigers, Rigg had surgery that sat him down for three weeks and kept him from playing in wins against Bowling Green and Connecticut. He returned in time to play in reserve in the loss at Syracuse.

Rigg wore the brace the rest of the way and started three of the final four games while playing at a pretty high level given the circumstances.

“I was playing linebacker with one arm for a good amount of it,” he said. “I was using my left, but not like I needed to. I didn’t want to injure it more than it was.”

Still, he had 16 of his 30 tackles and his only sack with one arm. When the Mountaineers absolutely needed something to happen on defense, Rigg was the one to do it.