COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jack Allison’s sudden desire to transfer out of the West Virginia football program with four games left on the Mountaineers’ schedule wasn’t as abrupt as it seemed on the surface.
After his poor second half against Iowa State, replacing an injured Austin Kendall, Allison didn’t check into a game again, while Trey Lowe got snaps at Oklahoma and at Baylor.
All was quiet from Allison, but with four games left on the schedule — that’s an important detail — coach Neal Brown announced Allison was going to graduate in December, thus allowing him to transfer and play immediately next season to finish out his college career.
Behind the scenes, I’m sure Brown and the coaching staff informed Allison that his playing time would be slashed significantly, because under the new redshirt rules, Jarret Doege was going to see a lot of action during November.
The writing was on the wall — with four games left, Doege could play the remainder of the regular season and maintain his redshirt, which Brown said was the plan in August when Doege was ruled immediately eligible after transferring from Bowling Green.
Brown wasted no time in making Doege the backup quarterback behind Austin Kendall, announcing it on his weekly radio show before the Texas Tech game last week, even ahead of Lowe.
In what’s slowly becoming a lost season, Brown may be putting his eggs in Doege’s basket. Doege replaced Kendall toward the end of the third quarter against the Red Raiders and finished out the game.
So, with three games left beginning with today’s matchup at Kansas State, and a bowl game looking bleak, should Brown look toward the future and see what he has in Doege, or continue to play Kendall, who hasn’t been as bad as many think?
“Our quarterback play hasn’t been tremendous, but it hasn’t been the reason we’ve struggled,” Brown said.
Kendall’s had his fair share of ups and downs during his first season as a starting quarterback since high school. He sat behind Heisman Trophy winners at Oklahoma, and decided to move on after the Sooners brought in Jalen Hurts from Alabama.
Kendall was named the starter at West Virginia ahead of Allison and Lowe coming out of fall camp, but the offense as a whole has struggled severely, which like Brown’s said many times, the quarterback gets too much credit when things are going good and too much blame when things are going bad.
Kendall’s started every game (he only played one drive against Iowa State before getting hurt), and has 1,989 yards, 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, along with a 62% completion rate.
Those stats are serviceable in most instances, but the Mountaineers’ lack of a running game, poor offensive line play and drops at wide receiver force a need for Kendall to do more, and he hasn’t been able to do that.
By no means is Kendall having a bad season, but he’s not having a great one, either. Coming off the heels of Will Grier, it’s obvious quarterback play has taken a major step backward, which would be fine if the rest of the offense was producing.
So with Doege, the hot shot transfer who put up great numbers as a freshman and sophomore at Bowling Green, is the most popular man in town. Against Texas Tech, he completed 11 of 17 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown, compared to Kendall’s 26 of 43, 355-yard no-touchdown and two-interception performance.
Doege threw for 4,041 yards, 39 touchdowns to just 15 interceptions in two seasons at Bowling Green. While Kendall came from one of the most successful programs in the country before WVU, Doege easily had the most experience.
However, if Doege replaces Kendall for the remainder of the season, which many fans are clamoring for, the other problems on the offense won’t magically be fixed. The running game, which has been bad all season, won’t be better because of a new quarterback, and a young offensive line won’t suddenly be full of veterans because Doege is behind center.
But at this point, it’s not about this season. The Mountaineers have to go 3-0, doubling their win total this year, to reach a bowl. Kendall, a junior, will be back next season. Doege, taking a redshirt this year, will have two years remaining since he will be a redshirt junior in 2020.
While Kendall hasn’t played poorly enough to be benched, if you’re Neal Brown, your sights should be set on the future. If he believes Doege is truly the future at quarterback, then he should get all of the reps to end this season.
Starting Kendall only to eventually replace him with Doege mid-game, ala the Texas Tech game, isn’t fair to either — Kendall will be unfairly bashed by critics and Doege won’t get the experience of starting at a Power 5 school before next season, which could prove invaluable.
