MORGANTOWN — WVU coach Neal Brown took the yellow no-contact jersey off quarterback Garrett Greene during last week’s scrimmage, hoping to take the redshirt freshman for a bit of a test drive.
Greene played sparingly as a true freshman last season, but it was quick to see the Tallahassee, Fla., native has the charisma to play at the Power 5 level, and he also has the ability to do just as much with his legs as his right arm. He had more rush attempts (6) than he did pass attempts (4).
With Austin Kendall deciding to transfer after being one of the heroes of the Mountaineers’ Liberty Bowl win over Army, Greene stepped into the clear backup role behind Jarret Doege. As a result, he’s getting plenty of reps this spring with the No. 2 offense and is even working a bit with the No. 1s.
While he was able to take contact, Greene shined in the scrimmage, tossing for three touchdowns and gaining big chunks of yards on the ground.
“Garrett was live all day,” Brown said. “He had some big runs, which was a positive. He was able to make something out of broken plays. He also made one big pass down the field on a scramble. I don’t like doing it all the time, but we told him going into the spring that we would do it one time. I thought today was a good day to do it, and he needs to do it. It’s important for his confidence. Some of the best things he does come when the pocket breaks down.”
Greene’s confidence can provide mesmerizing plays on offense, but it can also cause him to be a bit overzealous at times. Sometimes it’s safer to just throw the ball out of bounds rather than force it down the field, and that’s something Brown wanted to work with Greene on this spring.
However, making mistakes is the best tool to make sure those same mistakes don’t happen again, according to Brown.
“The purpose is to get them to make mistakes because mistakes are great teaching tools and you hope they don’t repeat that mistake a second time,” Brown said. “If that happened in a game, it’s a major issue but in spring practice we make the correction. Garrett’s got this ability to extend plays, to get out of the pocket and when he does, he makes some wild throws and wild runs.
“The flip side of that is he also makes some major mistakes. You don’t want to put your thumb on it because what makes him special is his ability to ad lib, so you don’t want to harness it.”
Doege, who started all 10 games for the Mountaineers last season, came into spring as the obvious choice to be the starting QB, but with his benching in the bowl, it was interesting to see how he would respond this spring.
According to Brown, it’s been nearly all positive for Doege.
“He had one bad period on [April 15] in some of our situational work, but other than that, he’s really done a nice job,” Brown said. “He’s one of our most improved players, which is a positive for him.”
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