MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Quarterback Jarret Doege has been ruled eligible to play immediately at West Virginia. The NCAA, which heard Doege’s case for not sitting out a season after transferring from Bowling Green, granted him a waiver.
Coach Neal Brown confirmed that Doege received the waiver, but said the plan is to still redshirt him this season. Doege can play in up to four games and still have two seasons of eligibility remaining.
“That doesn’t really change our plan for him,” Brown said. “As of today, he’s a redshirt. He’s coming off of offseason surgery and is a little bit behind. I think that’s the right decision for him.”
Brown also indicated that he would potentially take away the redshirt and play Doege if his hand is forced later in the season.
“That’s as we start the season, obviously,” Brown said.
Doege started 17 games in two seasons at Bowling Green, including all 12 games of the 2018 season. He completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 4,041 yards along with 31 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
Doege’s brother, Seth, was the wide receivers coach at Bowling Green but was fired along with the entire coaching staff after last season. Jarret stayed with the program through the end of spring practice before deciding to transfer to WVU.
Brown named Austin Kendall as West Virginia’s starting quarterback Tuesday.
Though Doege can play right away, the status of wide receiver Sean Ryan remains up in the air. The Mountaineers applied for Ryan’s waiver well before Doege’s, but still have no answer.
On the surface, Ryan’s case to play right away was more compelling than Doege’s.
The former Temple player decided to leave the program when the Owls changed coaches twice in the offseason– Manny Diaz replaced Geoff Collins, but then departed for Miami following Mark Richt’s abrupt retirement. Temple then hired Northern Illinois coach Rod Carey to replace Diaz.
Ryan enrolled at WVU in May. Doege did not get to campus until the summer session in June.