Moore no longer calls WRs prima donnas

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When Logan Moore left behind a starting quarterback spot at Division II Fairmont State and transferred to WVU, he wasn’t going to settle for simply making the Mountaineers roster.

“I didn’t come up here just to sit on the bench and watch,” said Moore, a junior who’s now in his second week practing at inside receiver. “I’ve been working my butt off to play, so hopefully I’ll get some results.

“I may not be as fast as some of the receivers, but athletically I think I can play with them. It’s just a matter of getting the reps and getting comfortable.”

Based on the tentative depth chart coach Dana Holgorsen released last week, junior Conner Arlia and sophomore Jordan Thompson are the top contenders at the ‘Y’ slot receiver, and Moore credited both with helping him hone his technique.

“I may not be as fast as some of the receivers, but athletically I think I can play with them. It’s just a matter of getting the reps and getting comfortable.” — converted quarterback Logan Moore

Undersized among the WVU quarterbacks, the 5-foot-11 Moore enjoys a height advantage among the slot receivers compared to the 5-9 Arlia and the 5-7 Thompson. And after only seven practices at the new position, Moore has modified his stance on receivers being soft.

“Growing up as a quarterback, you thought they were prima donnas,” he said. “But getting out there and doing what they do, you realize how difficult it is.

“The practices are a lot harder at receiver — a lot more running. And I’m not used to getting hit during practice.”

He’s also not used to the kind of crowd he’ll see Saturday afternoon at the Gold-Blue spring game.

“At Fairmont we never had enough guys to have a spring game,” Moore said. “It was more like first-string vs. first-string, and it was short.”

GUARDED OPTIMISM
For now, sophomore Marquis Lucas is the first-stringer at left guard, though hardly any position is settled along the offensive front.

Two guards — Pat Eger and Tyler Orlosky — shifted to center this spring and are versatile enough to move back if summer arrivals Stone Underwood and. Another impressive interior lineman, Adam Pankey, was lose to ACL surgery.

“We’re doing way better than I thought we would with everybody moving positions,” Lucas said.

CORNERS KEEP IT SIMPLE
The two-deep at cornerback features one senior, two sophomores and a redshirt freshman. With so much youth, the plan for spring has involved a heavy dose of fundamentals.

“If you have talent but you can’t sharpen it up, then you’re like wasting it,” said sophomore Nana Kyeremeh, the current starter at field corner. “You want to be fundamentally sound so you don’t make little mistakes. Last year we lost a lot of games because of little things, so we want to tighten those up.”

Kyeremeh, who made one start in 2012, hopes the spring game gives WVU’s pass defenders a chance to show that last season’s struggles won’t be replicated.

“The coaches  expect a lot more out of us,” he said. “They know we’re good, but they want us to be great, so we have to push even harder.”





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