MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Morgantown High football team released its 2020 schedule Wednesday, bringing with it a solid group of games and some changes from 2019.
The Mohigans will begin its preseason on Aug. 15 with a morning scrimmage against Cambridge, Ohio, before wrapping up with its second and final scrimmage against Capital at Laidley Field on Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. One week later, on Aug. 28, Morgantown once again opens the regular season with a road game, but this year travels to South Charleston. Other changes include a Week 3 bye, adding a game with Woodrow Wilson and ending the season with a home game against Spring Mills for senior night.
The upcoming season marks head coach Sean Biser’s first year at Morgantown after coaching at Keyser High for 16 years. Biser holds a 127-58 overall record with the Golden Tornado and led KHS to 14 postseasons including eight quarterfinal appearances in the last 12 years. Last year Keyser ended its season at 10-2, falling to Bluefield in the state quarterfinals.
“The schedule overall looks really good,” Biser said. “It’s a good mix of triple-A power, gives us some great competition and I think looking through it, it’s one of the only times in my career I’ve played an only-West Virginia schedule. That’s going to be a little different for me not playing any out-of-state teams.”
Biser was named head coach on Feb. 25 after longtime coach Matt Lacy stepped down. Lacy resigned after the Mohigans went 3-7 in 2019, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Biser will likely bring back a favorite of the MHS program, the Wing-T scheme that helped Morgantown to four state titles in six seasons. Two of the titles came under now-athletic director John Bowers in 2004-05. It was also a mainstay at Keyser during Biser’s tenure.
“When I became the head coach at Hampshire, I think we ran a Split Back Veer, and the next year we ran the Triple Option [and] Double Wing, then from there on it was the Wing-T,” Biser said. “I played a Wing-T in high school, and I’ve played in the Spread [and] I-formation offense and when I was at George Washington [as an assistant] we were Split Back Veer and Shotgun stuff – I’ve been exposed to a lot of different stuff.”
The Wing-T is great for misdirection and short passing plays, utilizing two running backs, a strong-side wing back and a weak-side wideout. One skill player that’s likely to benefit from this is Deondre Crudup, who came into the spotlight in the tail end of last season, bullying defenses and bolstering MHS’s running game. The 5-foot-8, 255-pound junior ended the season with three touchdowns in the Mohawk Bowl, plus 114 yards and a touchdown in MHS’s blowout win over John Marshall on Oct. 26.
“The Wing-T we run has evolved over the years,” Biser said. “We dress it up a little bit and we had success at Keyser [where], maybe we were outmatched by teams, it was keeping us in games. Depending on your personnel, [you can be] dangerous. It allows you to maximize your personnel and hide some weaknesses you may have.”
Although Biser has looked at his new personnel, he wants to work with them on the field and see where their commitments lie. From there, he’ll evaluate them and put them where he thinks they fit.
“I see great talent,” he said. “I’ve seen all [the] kids, but I want to see them in person and what their abilities are. When I came to Keyser, I saw kids who were on the line that played running back for me, some kids that were running backs played on the line. Until I get them on the field and see I don’t want to say too much in terms of where everyone is playing. Like I told the kids, ‘It’s a new start. What you’ve done before is great, but I want to see what you do moving forward.’ And that starts in the weight room and going from there.
“I’m excited to get started. We had the buzz when we first got started, we got some workouts done in the weight room and then all of it was put to a halt. We’re trying to build the numbers, and hopefully, some kids that haven’t played in a while or new kids will want to give it a try so we can build our numbers. That will be important for us.”
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