MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’’s Gold-Blue Spring Showcase began Saturday afternoon with kickers trying field goals from different distances, a period that largely produced successful results for the specialists.
“I wanted to put the kickers under a little pressure early and that was good,” head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “They had a little bit of wind, but they responded.”
Then came an hour’s worth of work in 11-on-11 periods that featured 88 plays, before Rodriguez turned to fans seated inside Milan Puskar Stadium and presented options for play calls on two-point plays, of which a select few members of the general public settled on a particular choice.
“I don’t know if we’re on target,” Rodriguez said, “but we’re further along than we were on Day 1.”
Quarterbacks Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson both donned black jerseys designating limited to no contact, but otherwise, the 11-on-11 periods were conducted in traditional game-like mode.
Several penalties, including four false starts over the first seven series and two that came in succession, drew the ire of Rodriguez.
“Disappointed today with some of the penalties. We had some not very smart penalties at times and that hadn’t shown up too much,” Rodriguez said. “Procedure and pre-snap penalties, we should have none of those. We take great pride in not having selfing-made mistakes. We’ll get that fixed.”
Marchiol, Henderson and Max Brown switched off at quarterback for the first three series. Each one began needing to cover 65 yards for a touchdown and ended respectively with an Ethan Head 38-yard field goal, a turnover on downs and Brown’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Each of those three signal-callers logged more reps as the afternoon progressed, while quarterbacks Scotty Fox Jr., Scott Kean and Abe Fenwick took over in spots as well.
“I wouldn’t make a whole lot of anything that happened today,” Rodriguez said.
Fans also got their first look at tactics employed by new defensive coordinator Zac Alley, though much of what was on display was basic.
“Zac does a whole bunch of stuff. He’d put in 15 exotic blitzes for the spring game if I let him, so I have to temper that down a bit,” Rodriguez said. “But it’s a lot.”
Above all else, Alley was eager to see communication and aggressiveness from defenders.
“Our communication was really good. We emphasized that throughout the spring,” Alley said. “A quiet defense is a dead defense. You can’t win that way. We jumped offsides on fourth down, so we have to work on that, but I was pleased with the overall communication of the defense and the execution of the calls.”
Much of the execution stems from the level of physicality.
“The No. 1 thing we were tying to do was seeing who would play hard and physical for the entirety of the game and create that toughness and mindset,” Alley said. “For some of the guys, it was good, and for some, it wasn’t. We’ll fix that when we look at the film and continue to work on it going into summer.”
The WVU coaching staff will now continue personnel evaluations over the next week and give personnel a better idea as to where they fit in moving forward. The transfer portal is open from April 16-25, and the Mountaineers are almost certain to lose and add at least several players.
“We have a couple weeks of meetings, still time for workouts and some hard decisions to make,” Rodriguez said, “but they’ve been a fun group to coach.”
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The Mountaineers had 108 players in action Saturday, including 61 on defense and 55 on offense. Eight specialists were part of the offensive and defensive roster.
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Sophomore running back Clay Ash was honored with the Tommy Nickolich Memorial Award prior to the start of the Gold-Blue Spring Showcase.
The award, presented by Blue & Gold News, recognizes a walk-on member of the football team who has distinguished himself through his attitude and work ethic. It is named in honor of former WVU player Tommy Nickolich, who died of cancer in 1983.
As a freshman in 2024, Ash, a native of Leesburg, Va., played 37 special teams snaps over nine games.
“He kind of embodied what Tommy Nickolich was all about,” Rodriguez said. “He earned that for sure.”
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After Ash was presented with his honor, WVU named its three Warriors of Winter Award winners.
Those went to returning linebacker Reid Carrico, returning defensive back KK Tarnue (who also played for Rodriguez at Jacksonville State) and offensive lineman Kimo Makane’ole, an offseason addition who transferred from LSU.