MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There was one word West Virginia head Neal Brown and offensive coordinator Matt Moore used frequently when discussing Saturday’s quarterback situation heading into the game at Oklahoma — plan.
Whether or not Austin Kendall is healthy is the biggest part of said plan, but if he can’t go after injuring his check last week against Iowa State, the coaching staff wants to keep its plan close to the vest.
“We have a plan moving forward with the quarterback position — it’s not something I want to sit up here and talk about,” Brown said. “If Austin can’t go on Saturday, we’ve got a plan, and we’ll move forward with that plan.”
Moore nearly echoed the head coach’s sentiments, not disclosing what the Mountaineers will do if Kendall doesn’t play.
“We’ve got a plan ready if Austin can’t go, we’ve got a plan ready if he can,” Moore said.
Kendall threw Monday afternoon and Brown said he was supposed to throw again Tuesday, but as of Tuesday afternoon, he was definitely questionable to play against his former team in the Sooners.
“If he’s not 100%, we won’t play him,” Brown said.
If Kendall can’t go, that leaves two options to get the start at quarterback — Jack Allison and Trey Lowe. Allison played in relief of Kendall against the Cyclones to mixed results. He played a much better first half than second, finishing with 140 yards, a touchdown and interception.
But the unknown is Lowe, a redshirt freshman who has yet to play this season and made a brief appearance in the bowl loss last year. Lowe can do more with his legs than Allison and would be tougher to defend in the running game. However, he is inexperienced and playing on the road at O.U. would not be a simple task.
Whether or not Lowe will be a part of West Virginia’s plan at Oklahoma remains to be seen, but he is continuing to improve at practice while getting limited reps.
“We put Jack in the game because we felt he gave us the best chance a week ago,” Brown said, “but Trey is getting better. We just thought Jack gave us the better chance on Saturday.”
Reps were also limited for Allison at practice heading into the Iowa State game, so although he played most of the game after Kendall was hurt on the second drive, he didn’t have a rapport with the No. 1 receivers.
This week, all three quarterbacks could get equal chances in practice, and receiver Sam James thinks it could pay dividends against the Sooners.
“It was tough because the quarterback you’ve been working with and getting repetition with all week is out,” he said. “It was kind of weird because I haven’t really been practicing with Jack with our timing and rhythm, stuff like that. Whoever’s starting, it’s going to be a lot better than the showing in last week’s game — just getting the timing down with the quarterback, doesn’t matter who’s starting. It’s going to be better and I can’t wait.”
