MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A consistent rain steadily fell as the clicks and clunks of pads sounded through the University High parking lot. The team was leaving the gymnasium after their last practice before the Mohawk Bowl, the long-standing rivalry between UHS and Morgantown.
As coach John Kelley began to make his trip across the lot to his office, the team began what looked like a mix between a mosh pit and a huddle behind a teammate’s truck. While it looked like shenanigans were about to break out, it simply turned into a celebration huddle as the team started to chant and hype each other up on the eve of the most anticipated game this season.
“They’re doing the Mohawk cut now and getting really excited,” Kelley said, watching his team from the field house. “I don’t know, they better be up for this one. If they aren’t up for this one then they won’t be up for any of them.”
Still, Kelley was happy to be in that place at that time. It has been a whirlwind of a year for Mon County teams, and to play the game he always looks forward to against a new coach and a familiar system it gave the veteran coach a breath of relief.
“I’m just glad we’re having the game,” he said. “There was a point and time where [all four] schools didn’t know if we’d have a season, so it’s really nice for the seniors to have this and the kids to be able to play this game. I look forward to it every year.”
It’s been a while since Kelley has seen the Wing-T run by his crosstown rival. In the heyday of MHS football – the years where Glen McNew and John Bowers led the Mohigans to state titles, multiple playoff appearances and many Mohawk Bowl wins – the Wing-T was pivotal, and Kelley is ready to face it again.
But this year, he’s not focused on pulling out the old playbooks, and if he is, his poker face is strong.
Instead, he said he’ll simply coach his team to play their game. On offense, he trusts his receivers to create one-on-one matchups, his running backs to get the run game going early and his sophomore quarterback to lead the offense he’s knowledgeable of. Defensively, he knows the Wing-T is a brutal offense to play against, and MHS (2-2) currently has four backs who bruise their way through tackles and into open field.
Of those running backs, senior Deondre Crudup is the one Kelley seemed most concerned about. In Kelley’s words, Crudup is a “tank” and hard to tackle. Outside of Crudup, the defense has to watch Cam Rice, Caden Biser and Davon Eldridge, too. All of them had over 100 yards last week against Linsly en route to a 668-yard rushing night for the Mohigans.
“I could name all their plays, it’s just a matter of when they run them and how well they run them,” Kelley said. “They block extremely well, continue to block to the whistle and those guys run through tackles, that’s why they get the big yards.”
The Hawks (2-2) are also fighting for a chance to reach the playoffs after two years of missing the mark. That last time they made it, 2017, was also the last time UHS won the Mohawk Bowl, and outside of the 2012 and 2016 seasons, winning the bowl was the linchpin in the Hawks making playoff runs in the last 10 years. And even while the playoffs are on the line, Kelley isn’t too big on the idea of the WVSSAC even having a postseason – not because of his current position at No. 16 but because it doesn’t feel right.
“Some teams aren’t going to qualify because they only play four games who are probably as good as anybody in the state,” he said. “Some teams like us and Morgantown are only going to play six games, some teams will play 10, it just doesn’t feel right or sound right. There’s the possibility some of the top 16, maybe three or four, won’t be allowed to play because of the COVID map so then they’ll go down to 17, 18, 19, so either everybody ought to get in or maybe they wipe it out this year. The playoffs don’t have the taste they had in the past.”
Regardless, UHS will still fight to close the gap on the overall record between it and MHS. There are some setbacks Kelley is facing, though, namely injuries.
“We had a couple of guys get nicked up in practice this week,” he said. “Donald Brandel is probably out, Sage Clawges is questionable. So we lost a couple of starters, but that’s just excuses. We’ll do the next man up and see how we do.”
These injuries come two weeks after starting punter Joseph McBee left the Wheeling Park game with a knee injury. Then, after last week’s game against Preston, starting running back Eliki Barner was icing his shoulder though nothing was mentioned about him being out this week.
Also after that game, Kelley was quick to highlight his upcoming opponent. He called MHS coach Sean Biser the “master” of the Wing-T, a big statement for sure, but also left with one last statement about the Mohigans: “We’ll beat Morgantown when we’re better than them.”
Only time will tell who’s the king of Mon County.
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