Neal Brown “Has a Plan at Quarterback”
Delmus Burge
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Neal Brown has a plan for what he’s going to do at quarterback for this weekend’s game at Kansas State, but he will not reveal it prior to the game.
Fans wondering whether Brown will start Austin Kendall or Jarret Doege will have to wait until the first snap of the game on Saturday.
In his weekly press conference, Brown announced, “I have a plan for what I’m going to do at the quarterback position, but I won’t share it before the game.” Brown went on to say that the quarterback position has not been the issue with the offense but admitted that play at the quarterback position hasn’t been outstanding either.
In his postgame conference following the Texas Tech loss, Brown said of his decision to play Jarret Doege, “Just because. He has four games and I wanted to get him some reps. I thought he did some good things. The same things that plague Jarret are the same things that plague Austin. We dropped the ball, all right, we didn’t do a great job of protection. I’ll say this, I wish quarterback was our problem. I wish quarterback was our problem because that’s an easy fix.”
According to Brown, Austin Kendall is not the problem and Jarret Doege didn’t do anything better than Kendall has done. I’m not entirely sure what Brown saw, but while Doege only had three possessions, the offense looked very different than it did in the first three quarters with Kendall under center.
Doege finished 11/17 with 119 yards and a touchdown, but what was most impressive was his poise and patience in the pocket. Doege, when pressured, calmly and coolly avoided the rush with outstanding footwork and a beautiful spin move at one point. Doege appeared to be a quarterback who has been there, done that and knows what he’s doing and how to get the job done.
West Virginia’s final drive, a 7 play, 61 yard drive took 2 minutes and 18 seconds and resulted in a touchdown pass from Doege to Freshman running back Tony Mathis. This was by far the most impressive drive of the game and a glimpse into the future of West Virginia football.
Until then, Austin Kendall will likely remain the starter with Doege getting snaps if/when Kendall has a hard time leading the offense.
Brown promised the fans following the loss to Texas Tech “that we will build a successful program here.” The start of building towards the future hopefully starts this Saturday in Manhattan.