This is how it all began for Nick Meadows. Today, he’s West Virginia’s long snapper, replacing John DePalma and helping build the new snap-catch-kick combinations across special teams. New snapper, new holder, new kicker (if only for three games), new punter.
But before this spring was that tape.
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We’ve detailed some of the success of the passing game and the struggles of the pass defense Saturday, and we’re wrong to allow these to be indelible impressions. But count Dravon Askew-Henry among the converted.
“I promise you,” he said, “we will probably have one of the best wide receiving groups in the Big 12 this year.”
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The NCAA’s latest round of academic data was released today, and West Virginia is in good shape throughout the athletic department. Seven teams had perfect scores, the department-wide average is up five points from last year and none of the 17 sports checked in under the 930 level that triggers penalties.
“I would like to congratulate the men’s basketball and rowing programs for their tremendous academic success by posting a perfect four-year APR score of 1,000,” said Lyons. “I would also like to recognize and congratulate the rifle, wrestling, men’s basketball, women’s soccer, rowing, tennis and women’s swimming & diving teams for their perfect scores in 2014-15. I’m pleased that we have had 30 teams with perfect scores in the last four years.”
Hey, look at Bob “Zero Percent Graduation Rate” Huggins checking in with a four-year perfect score, and those four years include some heavy roster upheaval. Overall, it’s not riveting stuff, but it’s a measure schools have to monitor these days. No one’s in real danger, though volleyball (949), baseball (948) and football (945) are close to the minimum level.
Actually, there’s really no suspense here, since Gold is offense and Blue is defense, but here are your rosters and the scoring system for Saturday’s Gold-Blue Game.
Bob Huggins says Devin Williams has signed with an agent, ending his days at WVU. "We hope he has a very long and prosperous career."
— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) April 19, 2016
That agent, it appears, is Aaron Turner. WVU now has 13 scholarships promised to returning and enrolling players, which is the NCAA limit and assumes everyone returns and enrolls. That’s never guaranteed, of course, but that’s the status today.
Williams still isn’t included in any mainstream two-round mock draft, and invitations to next month’s draft combine have not yet been extended. The deadline to choose to stay or go is May 25, which is 10 days after the combine ends, so perhaps Williams knows he has an invitation on the way and believes he’ll knock it out when he’s there.
If there were a statistic to pull from Saturday’s scrimmaging and pin up on a board somewhere in the Puskar Center, it’d probably be the number of long gains the defense surrendered in the passing game.
That, of course, is a concern, because West Virginia is trying to replace cornerbacks Terrell Chestnut, Daryl Worley and Ricky Rumph. The times a ball went over a corner’s head didn’t reflect favorably upon that process, and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson confessed that’s already his big concern for the summer.
“Right now, we’re working on depth and experience, and the guy with the most snaps in his career so far would be Nana (Kyeremeh),” he said. “It might not even be a 100 yet. That is the crucial spot. We have four guys coming in that will be able to throw into it. What has to happen, we have to have guys that can cover, because I like to blitz.
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Bad news: West Virginia hasn’t identified five starters for the offensive line, which even in the spring should qualify as a surprise for a team that returned five players who started games at the five positions last season.
Good news: WVU has seven players for those five jobs, and that, too, should qualify as a surprise, even in the spring, because one of the seven is a redshirt freshman right tackle.
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Touchdown reception by @chasinbandzz on the play #Practice10 #WVU pic.twitter.com/hUxyBLTLau
— Kyle Butler (@Kyle__Butler) April 12, 2016
Marcus Simms is one of a handful of true freshmen already on campus who seems likely to play in the fall. Simms has missed three straight Saturdays following the death of his older brother, but when he’s been around, he’s made plays. This is not a guarantee, but it’s possible he defensive end Reese Donahue, running back Kennedy McKoy avoid redshirts. Maybe four others have a shot, and so far all of them have made the most of enrolling early to get used to what others will encounter later.
“You come in and you’ve got prom coming up, you’re riding on a Blue Bird and you should still be taking senior English,” WVU offensive coordinator Joe Wickline said. “These are some mature guys to be able to come to college and take a load of coursework and go through what we put them through downstairs [in the weight room] and the demands we have upstairs.
“The spring’s a little lighter. It’s not the same as other times, but by the same token, they should still be in high school, so from a maturity standpoint, we like what we have.”
This morning, Ricky Rogers went to his modern dance class, and he’ll go again on Wednesday. Tomorrow, he has a ballet class. Friday is for contemporary dance.
He’s been a dancer since he was 4, and he’s done that for longer than he’s played football, but he’ll never be one or the other.
“I want to be known as me,” the 6-foot-1, 203-pound Rogers said. “If people think I’m the football player who dances or the dancer who’s a football player, it doesn’t matter to me. I just want to be unique, and I feel like I am.”
To Rogers, dance and football have always worked with and not against each other. They require and reward balance and body control, detail and discipline, footwork and flexibility, physical strength and mental stamina. He practices to perform for crowds that are excited to see a show and applaud a job well done.
He fits in his dance classes before football, but he finds himself working on football in the dance studio and dance on the football field. The instruction and the instructors are similar, too.
“If you mess up in dance class, they’re going to tell you that you messed up right then and there,” Rogers said. “If you mess up here, they’re going to tell you that you messed up right then and there, and they’ll also tell you how to correct it. ‘You messed up this. You need to do this.’ It’s the same there. ‘You messed up this. You need to do this.’ You’ll get yelled at and then you’ll get corrected.”
One more week of spring football! In the meantime, check out highlights from Saturday's scrimmage. https://t.co/WbpNf4wzhw
— WVU Football (@WVUfootball) April 18, 2016
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.
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