MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Preparing for a season opener in college football has never been more difficult with an abundance of roster turnover nearly everywhere.
Exactly who plays first and how often for West Virginia and Coastal Carolina come noon Saturday remains to be seen, but it’s certain both teams will work in a large continent of personnel that weren’t with their respective teams last season.
“I think we’re a deeper team than we were a year ago,” said WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez, who is preparing to start his second season in his second stint with the Mountaineers. “If they’re the right guys, we’ll have experience coming back. Not just next year, but the next couple years because we don’t have as many seniors.
“We’ll always be a big developmental program and I think we have the right guys. We’ll keep adding to it next year, but having two years in a row with this much turnover on your roster is kind of crazy and nobody wants to go through that again. But I like our team, the way they’ve worked and I think they’re ready to play a game.”
In addition to sorting through his team’s depth chart, which WVU released Tuesday, Rodriguez and his staff have spent much of the lead-up to the first game attempting to develop a better understanding of the Mountaineers’ first opponent.
The Chanticleers have a largely new-look roster playing for an entirely different coaching staff after former Missouri State head coach Ryan Beard was brought in with the same title to replace Tim Beck.
Coastal Carolina finished 6-7 each of the last two seasons and 8-5 in Beck’s first year as head coach, but much of that is hardly relevant to the Mountaineers.
“They’re going to be very well-coached. They very rarely give up big plays or easy, cheap ones,” Rodriguez said. “They’re going to be in the right spot all the time. You can tell that by watching their games and the scheme in what they’re doing. They have some really good football players and you’re not sure where they’re going to be lined up all the time. Offensively, there could be a whole lot of new stuff we haven’t seen [and] that [defensive coordinator Zac] Alley hasn’t seen. He’s really good at adjusting stuff, but in the first half, that’s the biggest challenge we face on defense.”
Rodriguez nor Beard has publicly named a starting quarterback, though all signs point to Oklahoma transfer Michael Hawkins Jr. getting the nod for WVU.
Beard praised his group of signal-callers, and redshirt freshman Deuce Bailey could be the most likely in line for extensive work behind center. Bailey was with Beard and Coastal offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Nick Petrino last season at Missouri State when he completed 23-of-47 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns. Bailey also rushed for 81 yards and a TD and earned Conference USA Freshman of the Week honors after a 278-yard passing performance in a win at Middle Tennessee.
“Our team has really rallied around the fact that they feel confident and comfortable with whichever triggerman we go with,” Beard said, “and I’m excited to see who we run out with on Saturday.”
Bailey has battled with Tyler Junior College transfer Tre Guerra, redshirt sophomore Trever Jackson (who previously spent one season at both Florida State and Arkansas) and true freshmen Osiris Lopez and Luke McBride for the right to direct the Chanticleers’ attack at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Beard didn’t want to tip his hand, but did not rule out utilizing multiple quarterbacks against the Mountaineers.
“Absolutely. Why not? That’s another, not an advantage per se, but it certainly makes their defensive staff think a little bit, because they’re so uniquely different,” Beard said.
Alley admitted Tuesday he has no way of knowing what to expect entirely from Coastal, and has checked into what Beard and Petrino did at Missouri State in addition to Chanticleers that are either holdovers from the previous regime or newcomers to the program.
“They have a couple returning starters that were at Coastal last year and they had some transfers who came from Missouri State,” Alley said. “You would assume they have a leg up on the guys that were brought in as transfers to be able to play, but I’ve told our guys this week, we’re going to watch all the guys we think could be in the top 22 on offense as far as a personnel standpoint. I’m always honest with the guys. I don’t know who is going to roll out there. We’ll find out when it gets to game day I guess. But certainly a lot of turnover and question marks with the first game. I think they have 80-something new players as well.”
As for how Beard is preparing his team defensively, the 37-year-old head coach wants the unit ready for what he believes will be a multitude of challenges Hawkins presents.
“Michael Hawkins Jr. is a tremendous talent. He can run the football. He can make every throw on the field. He has good vision,” Beard said. “Sometimes he’s labeled a runner, but the one thing the young man does such a nice job of is he’s elusive in the pocket and keeps his eyes down the field to make those big, explosive plays. You have to understand have great rush lanes and you have to be selective when you pressure, because when you pressure, a lot of times, you have less eyes on the quarterback and you have to understand kind of the tempo of the game and how that looks.
“You have him, Cam Cook, the freshman [Amari Latimer] that is all world. We understand that they’re going to try to run the football and we have to be effective at stopping the run game and make him sit back there and play quarterback.”