MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Even after the 30 receptions and four touchdown catches we witnessed during Saturday’s Gold-Blue spring game, Dana Holgorsen issued this notice regarding WVU’s 2013 playmakers:
“They may not be here yet.”
The Mountaineers head coach, previously reluctant to pump up players before they arrive on campus, pinned encouraging projections on four such receivers: freshmen recruits Shelton Gibson and Jacky Marcellus and junior-college transfers Ronald Carswell and Mario Alford.
None of them are scheduled to arrive until summer, at which point Holgorsen apparently expects their fresh faces to compete for immediate playing time.
“Those are four guys we feel good about coming in, (players) that have the ability to make plays in space,” Holgorsen said.
“Each and every year that we’ve lost great players, the reaction is, ‘How are we going to score a point?’ and then other guys step up.” — Dana Holgorsen
Perhaps Holgorsen merely was being complimentary, though he typically doesn’t trade in niceties. Perhaps he was issuing a public challenge to the current set of receivers, none of whom have distinguished themselves in a Division I game.
A better guess is that the summer enrollees are so explosively skilled Holgorsen fully expects them to earn spots on the two-deep, even without the benefit of experiencing spring practice. After all, Gibson was a four-star signee ranked by Rivals as the No. 15 receiver in his class. Carswell looked promising enough out of high school to sign with Nick Saban and Alabama. Alford was being recruited in February by at least six power-conference bowl teams. Marcellus chose WVU over Big Ten and SEC offers.
From the combined group of summer arrivals and players who developed through spring practice, Holgorsen sounded confident West Virginia will find productive replacements for Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey and J.D. Woods — a trio that made 289 catches last season and 41 of the team’s 44 touchdown receptions.
Holgorsen’s always-attacking offensive system has dealt with graduation before, so he’s not much for the hand-wringing over WVU’s inexperience.
“We’ll have guys that can make plays — I’m very confident in that,” he said. “Each and every year that we’ve lost great players, the reaction is, ‘How are we going to score a point?’ and then other guys step up.
“We’ll have guys step up. We’ve got a whole bunch of receivers who’ll be competing their butt off all summer and all camp.”