West Virginia Football Spring Game 2017: 5 things to watch for
By John Buhler
The West Virginia Mountaineers will hold their annual Gold-Blue Spring Game on Saturday. Here are the five storylines heading into this glorified scrimmage.
The West Virginia Mountaineers had a strong 2016 season under head coach Dana Holgorsen. They went 10-3 (7-2) and finished the season ranked at No. 18 in the final AP Top 25 Poll. West Virginia’s only Big 12 losses were to the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Those two in-state rivals settled the Big 12 Championship in the Bedlam Series at season’s end.
That being said, this could be a pivotal year for Holgorsen and his Mountaineers program. West Virginia draws regional rival Virginia Tech in a neutral-site non-conference game plus the annual nine-game Big 12 slate. West Virginia could be in the mix to win the conference or even miss out on a bowl.
It all begins with the annual Gold-Blue Spring Game in Morgantown on Saturday, April 15 at 1:00 p.m. ET at Mountaineer Field. Here are the five storylines to pay attention to in the Mountaineer’s annual spring game.
5. How are the junior college transfers going to look?
For much of the last decade, West Virginia has been a football program that has succeeded with plenty of junior college transfers. The Mountaineers’ ability to find the right guys to help them win that went the junior college route has helped them reload annually.
West Virginia is a football school but doesn’t have the elite talent in-state to sustain a traditional blue-blood. Going into the junior college pool has given the Mountaineers a great competitive advantage during the Holgorsen era.
Though outside linebacker Bruce Irvin arrived in Morgantown before Holgorsen did, two of the Mountaineers’ most celebrated players of the last few years were junior college transfers in wide receiver Kevin White and cornerback Rasul Douglas.
Irvin has had success in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and the Oakland Raiders. White hasn’t found it yet but was a top-10 pick by the Chicago Bears. Douglas should be a solid day two pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Keep an eye on guys like running back Justin Crawford and Kyzir White at safety. Either way, West Virginia is better than most schools in scouting the junior college market. The Mountaineers reap the benefits of that talent pool almost annually.