MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After watching transfer cornerback Vernon Davis return punts on Tuesday, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen shifted the redshirt freshman to receiver, where Davis remained Thursday.
“We were watching him catch and run, and he was running forward at a faster rate than he was running backward,” Holgorsen said. “He was sticking his toe in the ground and he was fluid and he was coming out of his cuts (well).
“It looked good enough to us on Tuesday for us to keep him on offense Thursday. Whether that’s a bona-fide full-time position move, we’ll probably keep evaluating that.”
Davis was a Miami signee who transferred to WVU last August after only a few practices with the Hurricanes. At that point, Chevas Clements, his former coach at Coral Reef (Fla.) High School, said Davis was changing programs because Miami was stocked at cornerback and WVU “had two walk-ons who are backups.”
However, even as the WVU secondary tries to rebound from a brutal 2012 showing, Davis didn’t appear to be pushing for a starting job.
“Vernon was somewhere around the third- or fourth-team corner, so we decided to see if he could crack the two-deep at receiver,” Holgorsen said. “It’s probably in the best interest of our team to have a first-team receiver than a third- or fourth-team corner.”
While recruited by Miami, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, WVU and Cincinnati as a cornerback, the 5-foot-11 Davis amassed more than 1,200 receiving yards his last two seasons in high school and returned four punts for touchdowns as a senior.
SPRING GAME
With a decide emphasis on team reps and fundamentals so far this spring, Holgorsen said WVU won’t engage in its first full scrimmage until Tuesday, four days before the Gold-Blue spring game.
“Spring games are tough,” Holgorsen said. “You want it to look good for the audience … and you want it to resemble football but we’re not trying got make any actual decisions based on that game. There’s going to be a lot of moving parts.”
MEDIA BLACKOUT
Claiming that “nobody thinks we’re any good,” Holgorsen advised players to avoid the crush of preseason projections and predictions and focus inwardly.
“I encouraged our guys not to read anything or get online with message boards or publications,” he said. “Who knows what our team is going to be like? The only people that can dictate that are coaches and players.”