MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Keith Washington had several split second decisions that needed to be made during West Virginia’s win last Saturday over N.C. State.
One of those decisions nearly cost the senior cornerback the remainder of the game.
In the same series that teammate Josh Norwood was ejected for targeting in the first quarter, Washington was called for the same as he dove toward a sliding Wolfpack quarterback Matthew McKay.
“It put me in a tough position,” Washington said. “I was just trying to make a football play with the tackle — I was just hoping that I didn’t hit him head-to-head. Once I saw the replay, I figured I wasn’t going to get thrown out.
“It’s kind of scary, though, but I knew I was good.”
West Virginia’s Elijah Battle was ejected for a similar play against TCU in 2016. A TCU ball carrier had given himself up, but Battle already began his slide to make the stop. Although he tried to pull up, Battle hit him helmet-to-helmet, which by rule, regardless of intent, is an automatic disqualification.
On Washington’s play, he narrowly missed McKay’s helmet, but knows that was by sheer luck.
“It’s just a spare of the moment thing,” Washington said. “You’re just coming down to make a hit and the next thing you know, he’s on the ground and you’re on the ground. It’s a fast play and there’s really nothing I can do about that — I’m just playing ball.”
The review was brief and the targeting call was reversed, which was critical for the rest of the secondary that relied on freshmen in the back end.
But later in the game, another quick decision ended up being the wrong one for Washington. Playing an out-pass flawlessly, he didn’t really know how good of a break he got on McKay’s pass and instead of grabbing an easy interception with a clear lane down the sideline, he batted it down like a volleyball player would an ace.
As soon as the play was finished, Washington slapped his hands on his head in frustration that he didn’t try to catch it.
“I just broke on that route and I didn’t trust what I saw,” Washington said. “I got there faster than I thought I would and made the safer play instead of going for the pick-6, which I knew I could have gotten. I was kind of disappointed, but that happens.”
Remembering Alex Miller
Wearing one of his old maroon dress shirts from his time at Troy, WVU coach Neal Brown opened Tuesday’s news conference by sending condolences to the family of Alex Miller, a senior Roane County football player who died after collapsing on the field between the first and second quarters of his team’s game against Clay County on Friday night.
“On behalf of our football program, I want to offer our condolences to the family of Alex Miller and his friends, teammates as well as everyone in Roane County,” Brown said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them. It’s a really sad event. I wanted to make sure everyone in Spencer and Roane County knew that we are thinking about them.”
A statewide “Maroon Out” was called upon, and Brown said he reached out to Roane County coach Paul Burdette and has something planned to help out the program during its time of grief.
