MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With four games left on the schedule for the West Virginia football team, coach Neal Brown and the rest of the staff will have to make decisions on freshmen they plan to redshirt and if so, which games they will play.
Brown said there will have to be decisions made within the next 24 hours heading into Saturday’s game against Texas Tech at Milan Puskar Stadium, with the Mountaineers needing to win three of their final four games to become bowl eligible.
“We’ll go over how we want to use a lot of those guys,” Brown said during Monday’s Big 12 coaches teleconference.
“Those guys” include mainly offensive players who have not played a down yet this season. Brown’s specifically mentioned running back Tony Mathis as someone nearly guaranteed to get snaps at some point, and with the current situation at running back, it could be this weekend.
Mathis, a 5-foot-11, 192-pound freshman from Orlando, Fla., was one of Brown’s top targets in last year’s recruiting class while he was at Troy, but Mathis obviously chose to sign with West Virginia. Brown ended up getting his guy anyway, but with the early-season depth at running back, it was obvious Mathis was going to redshirt.
With the decision to redshirt Martell Pettaway, as well, and with the wear and tear of the season for the rest of the running backs, Mathis is a perfect candidate to take advantage of the new four-game redshirt rule. However, he’s dealt with injury issues of his own throughout practice.
Mathis was limited with a knee issue prior to the Oklahoma game on Oct. 19, but Brown said he bounced back in a big way during the bye week.
“If I had to pick one guy that stood out last week, it’s Mathis,” Brown said during his news conference Oct. 28. “He’ll get carries at some point this year.”
Brown also said lineman Parker Moorer and quarterback Jarret Doege will be evaluated to see how they could fit into the offense.
“It’s tough to play offensive linemen early, but Moorer’s really come on.”
Brown’s made no mention of how Doege will fit into the game plan, but hasn’t ruled out that Doege won’t play certain snaps instead of Austin Kendall.
Defensively, Jared Bartlett made his debut at Baylor last Thursday, so he will have three games left the coaches can toy with. Lineman Jalen Thornton, the son of former WVU all-American John Thornton, is another Brown mentioned could see playing time.
Darius Stills earns Big 12 honor
Junior defensive tackle Darius Stills earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week after a dominant performance against Baylor.
Stills finished with 10 tackles, including three sacks, and received praise from Baylor coach Matt Rhule after the game.
“No. 56 (Stills) is one of best players we’ve played against,” Rhule said. “I said that coming in. I told people, ‘Hey, this kid 56, he’s everything that I thought he was going to be.”
Brown also talked about how Stills has improved over the last month to be one of the best players on WVU’s defense.
“Darius has been our most consistent guy as far as just making plays,” he said. “I’m really proud of his maturation as we’ve gone through the season. He played at a super, super high level.”
Kansas State kickoff time announced
The Big 12 announced that WVU’s Nov. 16 football game at Kansas State will be at 3:30 p.m. will and be televised on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. Network designation will be determined this weekend.
Saturday’s home game against Texas Tech will kickoff at noon and will be aired on ESPN2.
