MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia fans were thrilled with the performance of new quarterback Jarret Doege, earning his first start with the Mountaineers last Saturday at Kansas State. At a 67% completion rate for 234 yards and three touchdowns, it’s hard to argue Doege got off on the right foot, especially in a 24-20 upset win.
Even the Big 12 agreed, naming Doege the Newcomer of the Week.
But leave it to a head coach to find imperfections in what appeared to be a flawless performance.
“Jarret, in his first start, handled himself well,” Neal Brown said on Monday’s Big 12 coaches teleconference. “He didn’t do anything that got us beat, and I know that kind of sounds underwhelming, but he got rid of the ball a couple times under pressure. There’s a lot of things he can do better, and that’s part of — we’ve got to get him better.”
Brown credits Doege for protecting the ball with no interceptions or fumbles lost, which has been a problem this season for the Mountaineers. Of his nine starts, former starter Austin Kendall did not throw an interception in just four, including the Iowa State game where he was injured on the second drive. Kendall threw multiple interceptions in three games (all losses) and had 10 combined this season.
With Doege, even he had trouble with turnovers while at Bowling Green. Last season with the Falcons, he had 12 interceptions, which tied for the lead in the Mid-American Conference. The WVU coaching staff knew of Doege’s issues about forcing the ball into coverage.
Against K-State, he didn’t do that, and it also caught the attention of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, who WVU will host at noon Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“It looks like they’ve found a quarterback that they might settle in with,” he said. “He played really well. He was effective at Kansas State and threw for 250 yards or so, took care of the football and made plays. Manhattan’s not an easy place to compete and play on the road, and he was very successful. So I’m sure he’ll have another opportunity this Saturday.”
All Legg
With kicker Evan Staley missing his third-consecutive game for the Mountaineers, Casey Legg got the call again at Kansas State, and promptly booted a 51-yard field goal with plenty of room to spare.
WVU was in an awkward position on the field, facing a 4th and 26 from the K-State 34-yard line, so it was too far to go for it and too close to the end zone to punt, down six points in the fourth quarter. With the wind to Legg’s back, Brown elected to give him another shot.
“I knew Casey had the leg, so I thought the positives outweighed the negatives in that situation,” Brown said.
On the attempt, Legg looked like a veteran who has kicked for years, but earlier in the game, he wasn’t close on a 37-yard field goal just before halftime and missed another wide right that was canceled out because of a personal foul on K-State.
He appeared to lack confidence, but Legg, a redshirt freshman, wasn’t even a kicker in high school — the Charleston native was a soccer star at Cross Lanes Christian.
He is still inexperienced as a placekicker, but Brown knew he had the ability to make that 51-yarder, which proved critical.
“Casey has answered all of our challenges,” Brown said. “We try to put all of our kickers in really tough situations in spring, fall camp and during the week, and he’s always handled those extremely well.
TCU game time changed
The Big 12 announced WVU’s Nov. 29 road game at TCU will be kick off at 4:15 p.m. and be televised on ESPN. It was originally scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.
