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WVU Blue-Gold game ends in tie
West Virginia Blue team defensive back Vaughn Rivers knocks away a pass
Barry L. Reeger/Tribune-Review
Paul Schofield can be reached via e-mail or at 724-853-2109.
The kick highlighted 74-yard drive engineered by backup quarterback Dwayne Thompson and concluded spring practice for the Mountaineers on a positive note.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez was not displeased with his team's performance yesterday or during the spring. He knows there is still plenty of room for improvement, but the team came away achieving one of its goals.
"I thought the defense had a good spring," Rodriguez said. "They were a little more intense and executed better than the offense as a whole.
"We still have a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball. But more than that, we've almost identified most of the guys who will be working in our two-deep (depth chart), which is one of your goals going into spring practice. We wanted to identify who the top guys are. For most part, that cleared up."
The starting defense played well yesterday, shutting down the starting offense, which was directed by quarterback Rasheed Marshall. It did not allow the starting offense to score. The starting unit was minus wide receivers Chris Henry, Eddie Jackson and John Pennington. Those three wide receivers worked with backup quarterback Charles Hales and all had big games.
Henry caught 13 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown, Pennington ended the day with nine catches for 125 yards, and Jackson had three catches and ran the ball three times. Pennington was forced to play for both teams
in the second half because of injuries. He caught five passes for 82 yards for the Blue team, and 4 catches for 43 yards for the Gold.
Defensive back Adam Jones, playing for the Gold defense, had the game's only interception.
"We've been real happy with the progress we've made on defense," WVU defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel said. "Marc Magro really came on. Jay Henry really came on. Scott Gyorko has done a nice job. (Bill) Kirelawich's (defensive line coach) guys really know what he expects from them. We've had some of the young players really step up."
Magro had the best hit of the scrimmage when he drilled running back Kay-Jay Harris and forced a fumble.
Other defensive players to receive praise from the coaches were defensive ends Jason Hardee, Andrea Wright, Joe Sykes and Warren Young, nose guards Ben Lynch and Craig Wilson, and linebacker Kevin McLee.
"You're not always completely happy," Casteel said. "But I think we've made some strides. The big thing is will we be able to pick up in the fall where we left off."
The offense was slowed by injuries to the top running backs. Erick Phillips missed the entire spring while recovering from surgery, Bryan Wright did not play yesterday, and Hikee Johnson missed the game for family reasons.
Harris, who had a 92-yard touchdown run called back because of a penalty, rushed for 96 yards, and had touchdown runs of 24 and 10 yards.
Both scores came in the second half to help the Blue erase a 10-0 halftime deficit.
Jason Colson, who is expected to share the running duties with Harris, carried the ball 10 times for 29 yards. He also was slowed by an ankle injury.
All four quarterbacks had decent days, but Rodriguez said Marshall will remain as the starter. Marshall completed 6 of 11 passes for 90 yards, while Hales completed 11 of 14 for 153 yards. Thompson (13 of 21 for 154 yards) and Adam Bednarik (9 of 13 75) also performed well.
"We limited Rasheed because of protection issues," Rodriguez said. "He proved himself in practice. We're pretty comfortable with both Rasheed and Charles."
Rodriguez even plans to experiment with Hales and Thompson at wide receiver. He said he wants to get his good athletes on the field more.
