MORGANTOWN — Spring football is a great time to experiment. You can try something for a day or two and if it doesn’t work, what’s the harm?
That’s the approach WVU head coach Neal Brown has taken recently while having sophomore wide receiver Rodney Gallagher take snaps at nickel cornerback.
“We’re not really coaching him much,” Brown said after practice on Wednesday. “We meet with him for about two minutes and then he goes out there. If he looked bad we’d go ‘Just kidding, come back over (to offense).’ But he’s looked pretty good so we’re teaching him a little bit now.”
Although was recruited as a receiver, Gallagher is more of just a pure athlete on the football field. He played both ways in high school at Laurel Highland (Pa.), playing quarterback on offense and outside cornerback on defense.
“I used to give him a hard time because he played over there and he never showed up in the picture (on film), he never made tackles or anything,” Brown said. “But what you could see is he can play man coverage.”
Gallagher’s main focus in high school was quarterback. It was his raw athleticism that let him play cornerback and, eventually, transition to receiver for college.
“He didn’t spend any time on it,” Brown said. “He was a raw football player in general and most of his practice time was spent at quarterback.”
Brown said Gallagher’s basketball skills will also transfer to defense.
“I knew he had great ball skills and I knew he had great change of direction,” Brown said. “I knew he had skills where he could go over and play defense.”
No matter how well Gallagher does this spring, this is not a permanent move to the other side of the ball.
“He’s an offensive player, don’t get me wrong,” Brown said. “He’s pushing to be a starter at receiver and he’s a guy we want to get the ball. But he’s also a guy that could give us some snaps at nickel and maybe that doesn’t put stress on us where we don’t have to go find somebody else.”
In the best-case scenario, Brown said he could see Brown playing six-to-10 snaps on defense per game while still having his full offensive workload.
Gallagher touched the ball 20 times on offense last season between receptions and hand-offs and gained 135 yards.
Biggest risers
The most-common way young players get on the field for the first time is by playing special teams. Players Brown thinks could make the jump to playing time this fall are running back Jaylen Anderson, tight end TJ Johnson, fullback Colin McBee, linebacker Reid Carrico, defensive back Zae Jennings, defensive lineman Derek Berlitz and defensive back Jordan Jackson.
Early enrollees
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of spring camp are the early enrollees. These players, who should still be seniors in high school, get a jump start on their college football careers.
A couple standing out to Brown this spring are Jennings, fellow defensive back Israel Boyce, defensive linemen Nate Gabriel and Elijah Kinsler and tight end Jack Sammarco.
“I don’t know if it’s going to happen as quick as this fall, but (Sammarco is) going to be a quality tight end for us,” Brown said. “He has really good hands and as he gets stronger, he’s going to be good at the point of attack because he’s big.”
Injuries
- Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Corey McIntyre suffered a lower-body injury earlier this week and is out for the time being. “We’ll know more about that later on in the week; it didn’t look good though,” Brown said. McIntyre has been mentioned several times this spring as a guy who was going to be a factor in WVU’s defensive line rotation.
- Colorado State transfer cornerback TJ Crandall is still being held out with a hamstring issue that is not expected to be serious.
- Defensive back Jacolby Spells and receiver Graeson Malashevich have both had procedures and will miss the rest of spring. Spells is expected to be out until around the start of the season. Brown thinks Malashevich will be cleared in a month.
- Running back CJ Donaldson, offensive lineman Tomas Rimac and tight end Kole Taylor have been limited this spring and are all now cleared to do individual work.
- Defensive lineman Asani Redwood’s recovery is on track and he will remain out all spring.
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