MORGANTOWN — A light drizzle began to fall at Milan Puskar Stadium just as the WVU football team walked off the field following their first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday.
After over a week of drills and doing rep after rep, the first scrimmage, just three weeks before the season opener Sept. 4 at Maryland, is when camp hits a critical level, according to head coach Neal Brown.
“Now, the clock is ticking,” he said Saturday. “We have a real clear picture of what we’ve got to get better at, and now, we have to make that improvement with urgency.
“It’s urgent, and that means right now. We’ve got to get better right now. We’ve got to fix procedure penalties right now. We’ve got to tackle better right now. We’ve to communicate better in the secondary right now.”
Brown was overall upbeat about his team’s performance immediately after the scrimmage, but the coaching staff was expected to break down film later in the afternoon. But he was quick to point out aforementioned mistakes, especially offensive procedure penalties by less experienced players.
The second team lineman were caught with false starts, wide receivers were too eager on the outside and quarterbacks took the snap before everyone was set after going in motion.
“I can probably get up here and excuse them, but that would mean I’m allowing it,” Brown said. “We’ve got to get them fixed. What happens is, a lot of little things add up. If you don’t get them fixed right now, then we look poorly coached on game day.”
Penalties were an issue last season — the Mountaineers were 118th nationally in penalties per game at 8.2, and 116th in penalty yards per game at 74.1
One positive from the scrimmage was the continued emergence of sophomore running back Tony Mathis. Starter Leddie Brown did not play much, according to Neal Brown, but Mathis has played well through spring practice and into fall camp.
“Tony Mathis was the guy who really stood out offensively,” Brown said. “He had a couple touchdowns and thought he ran the ball with great balance, broke tackles. I’m excited for him.”
Other highlights include quarterback Jarret Doege, who Brown said had a good day and overall good camp. The interior of the offensive line — James Gmiter, Zach Frazier and Doug Nester, also did some good things.
Defensively, they were able to get pressure on the quarterback, the most they’ve been able to so far in camp, led by Bandit linebacker VanDarius Cowan and nose tackle Akheem Mesidor.
“I think Akheem Mesidor has a chance to be special before it’s all said and done,” Brown said. “VD had his best day of camp. He had a lot of pressures and had a forced fumble.”
Brown also mentioned redshirt freshman Lanell Carr as being disruptive as defensive end, calling him the most natural pass rusher on the team. Carr is rotating between end and Bandit.
