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Los tres

April 18, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Saturday was a treat for the media invited to watch practice. because the third time the doors were opened was the first of three scrimmage situations West Virginia will use to close spring football. The Mountaineers ran about 100 plays, and they’ll do that again Thursday before Saturday’s Gold-Blue Game at the The Greenbrier.

The first was insightful, and those highlights tell part of the story.

The media couldn’t shoot or film anything during the scrimmage, but the highly touted video staff was on the job, and several of the plays are from the action, including touchdowns by Gary Jennings (two!) and Ka’Raun White and the pick six by Rasul Douglas.

That came early, by the way.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s get to the literal beginning of the scrimmage and who was where for the 12th practice.

Man, Cajuste looked so smooth. Wellman ran the ball and caught some passes, and Kennedy McKoy wasn’t as involved as the spring’s headlines might have predicted. Crest had a few moments as a passer and a runner both as quarterback and running back. Jennings was very good, and he played solely on the left side as Shelton Gibson’s backup, while David Sills seemed to be White’s backup on the right side, but he left early after going up for a pass and getting hit in the back on the way down.

Two other reserves to watch: Tony Matteo, who played right guard and center and is going to play a bunch this season, and Colton McKivitz, who’s chasing Marcell Lazard

I don’t know if there are or aren’t any surprises there. Justin Arndt isn’t going anywhere for now, and Xavier Preston remains the backup, though there might be a reason for that. Gross remains the spur, but he doesn’t play as clean as WVU wants. Kyzir White will be here soon and Jarrod Harper will give WVU more options when he’s healthy. The Mountaineers are short on cornerbacks, but the ones  the Mountaineers do have had some problems Saturday. For now Nana Kyeremeh might be playing the best of the group, but that title belonged to Antonio Crawford two weeks ago. They’re going to need and get some help from the summer arrivals.

As for special teams, we only saw extra points and field goals, and Mike Molina has the leg, but Josh Lambert was at practice and spent the latter parts of the scrimmage stretching his right leg. Turns out Lambert is no longer suspended. He practiced Thursday and was held out Saturday.