WVU Spring Game Re-Cap

[saevrick]

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com

April 17, 2004

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kay-Jay Harris ran for two touchdowns for the Blue team and Chris Henry caught 13 passes for 200 yards for the Gold in Saturday’s annual Gold-Blue Spring game at Mountaineer Field.

The contest ended in a 20-20 tie.

“Obviously we’re not in game shape and we got a little tired in the heat but I’m glad it happened because it showed our players how much they need to work this summer to play our style of football,†said Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez.

The Gold team crossed the goal line on its first possession when quarterback Charles Hales slipped in from two yards out. Hales directed a lengthy 15-play drive that began at the Gold 30.

The Gold team tacked on three more at the start of the second quarter when freshman kicker Andy Good converted a 22-yard field goal.

The Gold team led at the half, 10-0.

In the second half the Blue team finally got on the scoreboard when Harris turned the corner and raced 24 yards for the first of two TDs. His second score came eight minutes later on a 10-yard run. Harris had a third TD called back when clipping was called on a 92-yard TD scamper.

“I thought Kay-Jay ran very average in the first half and he didn’t stick it up in there,†said Rodriguez. “He ran harder and better in the second half.â€Â

Sandwiched between two Brad Cooper field goals was a nifty 25-yard Chris Henry touchdown catch where he was able to wrestle the football away from the Blue defender before stepping out of the back of the end zone.

Good completed the scoring with a 29-yard field goal as time expired.

“The only thing I wasn’t pleased with was the Blue offense in the first half,†said Rodriguez. “I didn’t think they played with any intensity and didn’t have any leadership and we addressed that at halftime.â€Â

Harris was the leading rusher for the scrimmage running 15 times for 96 yards. Freddie Little paced the Gold team with 48 yards on 11 carries.

Charles Hales and Dwayne Thompson combined to throw for more than 300 yards for the Gold team. Hales finished the day 11 of 14 for 153 yards while Thompson completed 13 of 21 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown.

“I think Charles Hales has proven that he is a guy we can win with … not just at quarterback but also at receiver,†said Rodriguez. “Charles is going to play a lot of football for us at both spots.â€Â

Rasheed Marshall completed 6 of 11 passes for 90 yards for the Blue team, while Adam Bednarik hit on 9 of 13 passes for 75 yards.

“Clearly Rasheed had the best spring of all of the quarterbacks and he will be the starter going into the fall,†said Rodriguez. “But knowing if he starts to slip or the other guys do a great job they will be nipping at his heels.â€Â

Marshall played the scrimmage in a black jersey meaning defenders were not allowed to hit him.

“We weren’t really scheming on either side and when you start substituting on both sides you’re not sure if they’re all going to be on the same page so we didn’t want that to happen,†said Rodriguez. “Plus, he had kind of proven himself over the first 10 or 11 practices when it was live that we didn’t need to do more of that with him.â€Â

Rodriguez says the Blue quarterbacks were handicapped by the fact that wide receiver Miquelle Henderson wasn’t able to play with a strained groin and Dee Alston left during the first series after catching a 21-yard pass.

“The next thing you know the Blue offense is missing two starters at wide receiver and the two most veteran players you have so that probably didn’t help their passing game,†said Rodriguez.

John Pennington led the Blue team with 5 catches for 82 yards. He also caught 4 passes for 43 yards for the Gold to finish the scrimmage with 9 catches for 125 yards.

Pac-Man Jones picked off a Rasheed Marshall pass and also had a pass deflection for the Gold defense. Freshman Davaznzo Tate led the Gold defense with 8 tackles. Linebacker Scott Gyorko was in on 6 stops and Vince Beamer and Kevin McLee added five tackles each.

Linebacker Marc Magro forced a Kay-Jay Harris fumble when he put a crushing hit in the running back. Harris was able to recover the ball.

Linebacker Brad McClung had 13 tackles for the Blue defense and safety Ridwan Malik added 10. Jason Hardee forced a fumble for the Blue defense that was recovered by linebacker Bobby Hathaway. The Blue team had three sacks recorded by Hathaway, L.J. Montinar and Joe Sykes.

There were no live special teams for Saturday’s scrimmage and the beginning of each drive started at the 30 yard line.

A crowd of 7,517 witnessed the scrimmage.

“It was a great crowd today and I really appreciate the support,†said Rodriguez. “There was a tremendous atmosphere out there for our guys for the spring game.â€Â

Saturday’s Gold-Blue game concludes spring practice for the Mountaineers.

“We’re still not good enough not to play hard and win,†Rodriguez said. “Sometimes when you get extremely talented you can not play your best and still win or you can have a lack of execution and overcome it with some big plays. We’re not good enough to do that so that tells me that we’ve got to continue to do what we’ve been doing: play hard, execute well and hope the other team makes some mistakes and go from there.â€Â

Scoring Summary

Gold – Hales, 2 run (Good kick)

Gold – Good 22 FG

Blue – Harris 24 run (Cooper kick)

Blue – Harris 10 run (Cooper kick)

Blue – Cooper 24 FG

Gold – Henry 25 pass from Thompson (Good kick)

Blue – Cooper 30 FG

Gold – Good 29 FG

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Blue – Harris 15-96, Bednarik 5-39, Mundle 8-37, Marshall 3-minus 3, Total 31-169; Gold – Little 11-48, Colson 10-29, Thompson 9-24, Hales 6-19, Jackson 3-10, Total 39-130.

Passing: Blue – Bednarik 9-13-0-75-0, Marshall 6-11-1-90-0, Total 15-24-1-165-0; Gold – Thompson 13-21-0-154-1, Hales 11-14-0-153-0, Total 24-35-0-307-1.

Receiving: Blue – Pennington 5-82, Austin 4-34, Harris 2-8, Alston 1-21, McClintic 1-12, Myles 1-9, Mundle 1-minus 1, Total 15-165; Gold – Henry 13-200, Pennington 4-43, Jackson 3-46, Little 2-minus 2, Colson 1-17, Bolden 1-3, Total 24-307.

This somewhat alleviates my worries, but there's still a lot to work on.  Great showing by Kay-Jay (15-96 yds-2 TDs), Henry (13-200 yds-1 TD) and Pennington (5-82 yds) as well.  Things are slowly shaping up.

[smazza]

is pennington related to chad?

[saevrick]

I don't believe so.. I think Chad was from Knoxville, TN, while John is a Charleston, WV native.  I can't find anything that says otherwise.

[bulls96go]

they get tired in the heat

note to new AD schedule wvu in august and september only

so tampa heat becomes our 12th man

[saevrick]

*laughs* That wouldn't be hard considering our winter was about 6 months long.  50 degrees is practically t-shirt weather here, so if it's averaging over 65 our team will probably deem it hot.