MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jarret Doege had no idea what this year was going to have in store for him when he decided to transfer from Bowling Green to West Virginia last summer.
At first, he didn’t know if he would even be eligible this season — Doege asked the NCAA for immediate eligibility because his older brother, Seth, was let go from the Bowling Green coaching staff. The NCAA, in typical fashion, did not announce its ruling until less than two weeks before WVU’s season-opener against JMU.
Doege was immediately eligible, but following offseason shoulder surgery, he wasn’t physically ready to play, nor did he get enough reps in fall camp because of his uncertainty.
Luckily for Doege, though, he had a redshirt season to play with. Under the old rules, there was no doubt how this season would have gone for Doege — he would have sat out the entire year and not saw the field at all.
Under the new rules, Doege and the coaches knew he was allotted four games and would still keep his redshirt. The problem is, at quarterback, only one player gets on the field at a time. Doege’s hope of playing in 2019 was totally based on the success of Austin Kendall. If Kendall established himself as a clear-cut starter, there was no room for Doege to break into the lineup.
When he got healthy, his reps in practice increased, but the plan was still to maintain his redshirt. As the Mountaineers neared their final four games, Doege climbed the depth chart at quarterback.
It was a weird situation for Doege to be in, but he tried to simply go with the flow and be ready if he was ever called upon.
“I’ve been the starter the last two years (at Bowling Green), so I didn’t know any better,” Doege said. “I prepare every week like I was the starter. I didn’t know when my moment was going to come, but I knew it could come these last four games. I just wanted to be prepared when that time came.”
With four games left in the regular season, Jack Allison announced he would pursue a grad transfer, so Doege was promoted to backup quarterback behind Kendall, even surpassing Trey Lowe. After Kendall struggled against Texas Tech on Nov. 9, Doege made his WVU debut toward the end of the third quarter.
Since, Doege has been the only quarterback for the Mountaineers, starting the last two games, a win at Kansas State and Saturday’s 20-13 loss to Oklahoma State. He’s completed 69% of his passes for 660 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
Though the loss to OSU ended hopes of a bowl game, Doege will likely finish out the season at TCU this weekend — his fourth game — and will have all the momentum heading into the offseason to be West Virginia’s quarterback in 2020.
“Coach (Neal) Brown always says ‘Trust the climb,’ and week in and week out, I think you can see how that climb’s going,” Doege said. “We’re making strides up that mountain.”
