MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Spring football came to a closure Saturday for West Virginia with the Mountaineers conducting their annual Gold-Blue Game at Milan Puskar Stadium.
The final of 15 practice sessions over the last month differed from the 14 before it with the Mountaineers split into two teams and playing a modified scrimmage with a quirky scoring system that began with Gold leading Blue, 7-4, on the strength of its pregame wardrobe.
“Fourteen practices are basically for personnel evaluations, putting units and people in situations to see how they react and know there’s going to be some failure there, and see how we handle the adversity, and also to get repetitions and scheme,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “Today is about performing. We want it to be a fun experience. We did that dressing up. We did some things with competitions because they enjoy that during practice.
“There is a difference when people are in the stands and when TV is there. There’s an extra element of pressure and you have to be able to perform. We’ll use this as a tool to see how some of those guys handled it.”
The Gold team was ultimately victorious 56-51 on a dreary Saturday afternoon with light rain falling for much of it.
While contact to quarterbacks was off limits, all eyes were on the duo battling for WVU’s top job behind center — Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol.
Greene was 8-for-11 with 156 yards and a 40-yard touchdown to wideout Cortez Braham. He also hauled in a 40-yard TD pass from Preston Fox on a trick play on the opening series, something Brown said running backs coach/offensive coordinator Chad Scott and quarterback coach Sean Reagan were intentional about calling as they experimented in new roles.
“I said make sure you have some fun. Guys like practicing trick plays, so that’s one they’d been working on for a few days,” Brown said.
Marchiol hit on 6-of-12 throws for 58 yards.
Greene was credited with 16 rushing yards on five carries, while Marchiol lost 19 yards on three rushes.
“Garrett’s stats were better. One that he hit was probably going to be a sack,” Brown said. “Both of them are runners and in this format it’s hard for their full toolset to be shown. Nicco threw two really nice deep balls and our receivers didn’t play the ball very well. Without having a chance to watch it, it’s hard to tell. They protected Garrett a little better, which is unfortunate for Nicco.
“This is going to be the long game regardless of what happened today or through the first 15 [practices[. This is going to be a deal that goes winter, spring and into the summer and into fall camp before we figure it out.”
The other touchdown came from running back C.J. Donaldson on a 7-yard run in as the sophomore showed no ill effects from a knee injury that brought a strong freshman campaign to an end sooner than expected in 2022.
Donaldson rushed eight times for 36 yards.
“I was one month ahead in the process of returning,” Donaldson said. “I was walking in late December. I wasn’t supposed to start walking until late January and I wasn’t supposed to start running until late in the spring, so a big shout out to those people who helped me.”
WVU’s other tailbacks got work, including true freshman Jahiem White, who broke off a 53-yard touchdown run during his 91-yard effort on seven carries.
“He’s explosive. We’ve seen that in practice. He got banged up a little bit toward the end, but he was healthy today and had the big one,” Brown said.
The longest play came early in the third quarter when Greene connected with wideout Devin Carter for 54 yards. Carter, a North Carolina State transfer, is expected to be a featured weapon in the Mountaineers’ passing game, and he led all players with 77 yards on three catches, with his longest leading to Donaldson’s rushing score.
Still, Brown felt a defense that played without defensive end Sean Martin, who was held out for precautionary reasons, held up well.
“We played the deep ball well minus one time at corner, which is something we’ve been working on,” Brown said.
Cornerback Montre Miller, a Kent State transfer, was a major reason why.
“He defended two go balls and that’s something that hurt us a year ago,” Brown said. “He also had a nice break on a slant and got his hand on a ball. We brought him in to play and today was one of his better days. I was encouraged.“
LSU transfer tight end Kole Taylor had what Brown called “probably the play of the game” on a one-handed catch that was among his three receptions for 36 yards.
“The biggest thing I was looking for somewhere I was going to be wanted and utilized in the offense. I did find that,” Taylor said. “Throughout the spring, I built a lot of trust with the coaches and you could kind of see that today.”
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Offensive lineman Jimmy Bell Jr., a recent addition to the Mountaineers’ spring football workouts, was in action Saturday.
Bell, who started all 34 games for the men’s basketball team last season, was utilized at right tackle in what marked his sixth practice with WVU.
The 6-foot-10, 285-pound Bell played football through his youth and in high school before opting to stick with hoops until this point.
Bell played right tackle and committed the game’s only penalty on a hold early in the fourth quarter.
“Today was probably the second time nobody was out there telling him exactly what to do. He got beat for a sack because he didn’t set off the ball,” Brown said. “In pass pro, if he’ll get depth in his set, he’s going to be hard to beat, just because his arms are so long. Tackles in the NFL are usually an 84, 85 inch wingspan. He’s 87 plus. He’s really long. There are some fundamental things and flow of the game he has to get into. He and I are going to spend some time the early part of this week, I’ll talk to coach Huggins and we’ll come to a pretty quick resolution on where it all stands.”
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As is custom during the spring game, West Virginia announced its Iron Mountaineer Award winners and handed out the Tommy Nickolich Memorial Award at halftime.
The Iron Mountaineers for 2023 are: Offensive lineman Doug Nester, running back Tony Mathis Jr., bandit Jared Bartlett and safety Marcis Floyd.
The winners are chosen based on testing that measures the broad jump, vertical jump, bench, squat, power clean lift, 225-pound bench, 40-yard sprint, pro shuttle, three cone, 60-yard shuttle as well as 10 and 20-yard sprints.
Winners come from three groups that are divided into positions: Fullback/tight end/linebacker/specialist; quarterback/running back/wide receiver and defensive back; and offensive line/defensive line.
Nester, Mathis and Bartlett are now among 18 players to earn multiple Iron Mountaineer Awards. Bartlett and Nester were recipients a year ago, while Mathis earned the distinction for the first time in 2021.
The Tommy Nickolich Award went to wide receiver C.J. Cole, a redshirt sophomore from Washington, Pa.
The Nickolich Award, presented by the Blue & Gold News, is given to a walk-on who has distinguished himself through his attitude and work ethic. It is named in honor of Tommy Nickolich, a former WVU player who passed away from cancer in 1983.
“C.J. is very respected on our football team,” Brown said. “We always talk about there’s three ways you become a leader. You’re one of the best players, one of the best people and one of the hardest workers. There’s no doubt that C.J. is one of the best people on our team and one of the hardest workers. He was a factor for us last year and played on two special teams. He’ll continue in that role. He’s one of our best scout-team players. All those reasons are why he was chosen by the staff.”
Cole, who said he was “really proud” to receive the honor, touched on the praise from Brown,
“I want to be a good person on and off the field and be a good example to those who will follow me, but I also want to be a hard worker,” Cole said. “That’s what got me here. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my work ethic. And as I’m here, I want to inspire others those around me to work even harder and that’s one of my roles on this team.”