COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It took a concussion, unfortunately, to bring some intrigue to Saturday’s football game in Ames.
And while we give thanks for heavy coats, sideline heaters and improved concussion protocols, Dana Holgorsen should be grateful for Skyler Howard providing West Virginia’s offense with a plausible Plan B.
What’s more, Howard should be Plan A, at least for this week.
On Monday, as Holgorsen awaited updates on Clint Trickett’s brain, he offered no pronouncement as to which quarterback would play against Iowa State. That’s fine. No need for a coach to tip his hand publicly or to make a guess on what the doctors will say before the actually say it.
What Holgorsen already knows, however, says plenty.
He knows that last season Trickett sustained two concussions in a three-week span, the first of which—against Kansas State—the quarterback concealed from coaches. (“I’m never really going to pull myself out of a game,” he said back then. “It’s not in my DNA. It’s not how I was raised. You’ve got to fight through things.”) Trickett was too woozy to fight through concussion No. 2 after the Texas blitz turned him from player to piñata.
Now, late in a senior year where sentimentality pulls at a player even more, Trickett has been re-concussed against K-State. That makes three traumatic head impacts in 13 months. That should make Saturday’s choice obvious.
With six wins, West Virginia appears locked in for a Liberty Bowl berth, and a seventh win over the languishing Cyclones (2-8) probably wouldn’t alter the travel plans. Yet even if a Big 12 championship game hung in the balance, Trickett shouldn’t be exposed to more collisions so soon after yet another head injury.
That likely won’t sit well with Trickett, who returned to West Virginia for a chance to end his career as a player and not an onlooker. The toughness in his DNA has been noted, but toughness shouldn’t come at the sacrifice of smarts. This is a sharp, 23-year-old young man with a love for digging into film and a deep-rooted exposure to the sport that signifies a promising future in coaching. No time like the present to practice sound decision-making, especially a decision aimed at keeping him clear-headed for the years that ensue.
Peering solely through the prism of performance, Holgorsen addressed whether Howard’s rejuvenating play in the K-State loss meant he deserved to start at Iowa State.
“We do have a starting quarterback—Clint’s done a good job the majority of the year,” Holgorsen said. “He didn’t have his best game and I know he was disappointed in that. But Clint has been our starting quarterback, has played at a high level, has done lots of great things.
“I’m not in the business of just replacing people because of a bad game or an average performance.”
That’s a coach propping up his senior, reminding everyone how a recent slump hasn’t stopped Trickett from ranking seventh nationally with 3,285 yards and 31st in passing efficiency (four spots behind TCU’s Heisman candidate Trevone Boykin). That’s a coach sticking to the best-man-plays theory and refusing to prioritize building for 2015 when two games remain in 2014.
That’s a solid policy, one Holgorsen should follow a month from now when West Virginia heads to a bowl game and Trickett is sufficiently recovered from the latest concussion.
For this game, the best policy is caution—with Howard in the shotgun and Trickett on the sideline.