MORGANTOWN — West Virginia head coach Neal Brown alluded to a personnel move that was upcoming on special teams during his spring news conference last Thursday.
It didn’t take long for that to come to fruition with the commitment of Florida State graduate transfer kicker Parker Grothaus. The kickoff specialist initially walked on to the football team in Tallahassee before he earned a scholarship offer from the Seminoles.
Grothaus spent the last three seasons handling kickoffs for Florida State, hitting touchbacks on 89 of 168 kickoffs or 52-percent during that time. That is a significant improvement over what the Mountaineers mustered on that front last season with touchbacks on only 12 of 68 kickoffs.
“That’s something that was a real struggle for us a year ago our starting field position was one of the worst in college football,” Brown said.
Grothaus attended Indian Lake School in Ohio before enrolling at Incarnate Words. From there, he walked on with the Seminoles and earned the starter role on kickoffs. He also was 19 of 20 in point after touchdowns and 3of 4 on field goal attempts during his time in Tallahassee.
Grothaus will have one season of eligibility remaining in his career and will immediately serve as an answer to address the Mountaineers woes in the kicking department. He finished last season rated just under 80.0 on kickoffs according to PFF and was right around that mark during his career.
Overall, Grothaus is the fifth transfer taken by the Mountaineers this offseason and is expected to be the lone addition with the remaining scholarships used on special teams.
West Virginia has six scholarships remaining in the 2022 class to address various roster needs.
This might not be the most attention grabbing move, but was a necessary one in order to fix the various roster issues that plagued this team throughout the 2021 season.
By KEENAN CUMMINGS
