{"id":22365,"date":"2019-07-29T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosoncfb.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22365"},"modified":"2019-07-28T23:45:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T03:45:23","slug":"mountaineer-wishlist-the-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2019\/07\/29\/mountaineer-wishlist-the-offense\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountaineer Wishlist: The Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall camp begins in just days, with players reporting on August 1.\u00a0 Fan day occurs just a few days later, on August 3.\u00a0 With the beginning of the season just around the corner, we wanted to start our 2019 season coverage in earnest.\u00a0 The athletic department and the staff have been managing expectations<\/a>, but the Mountaineers are moving forward<\/a> regardless.\u00a0 As we previously wrote, there are reasons for optimism.\u00a0 But a lot needs to happen for the Mountaineers to exceed preseason predictions.\u00a0Here is our Mountaineer wishlist on the offensive side, with one player we would like to see step up at each position for West Virginia this season.<\/p>\n

Mountaineer Wishlist: The Offense<\/h2>\n

Quarterback<\/h3>\n

As of today, the Mountaineers have not yet anointed a starting quarterback.\u00a0 We wrote about the competition here.\u00a0 However, pre-season reports out of Norman last season claimed that eventual Heisman winner Kyler Murray<\/a><\/strong> barely edged out four-star signal caller Austin Kendall<\/a><\/strong> for the starting nod for the Sooners.\u00a0 Lincoln Riley<\/a><\/strong> echoed that sentiment.\u00a0 And a recent report from The Athletic<\/a> strongly suggests that Riley meant what he said.\u00a0 The vigor with which he fought against Kendall\u2019s transfer adds more support.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Head Coach Neal Brown<\/a><\/strong> could use a strong quarterback to lead his first-year offense.\u00a0At Big XII media days<\/a>, Brown said that each quarterback competing for the job had a strong skill set, but that one would no doubt set himself apart from the crowd.\u00a0 If Kendall can take that step forward, then the offense will be in capable hands.\u00a0 Regardless, Kendall\u2019s name tops our Mountaineer wishlist on offense.<\/p>\n

Wide Receiver<\/h3>\n

Last season, the Mountaineers brought in five-star USC transfer Kenny Bigelow<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 After he suffered several season-ending injuries, the Mountaineers offered Bigelow a second chance he did not pass up.\u00a0 And Bigelow made an instant impact, blowing up the Tennessee offensive line on the first defensive play of the season opener.<\/p>\n

This year, the Mountaineers brought in five-star Florida State transfer<\/a> George Campbell<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 The recruiting services do not hand out five star ratings easily.\u00a0 Campbell even earned a lofty top ten ranking for all Class of 2015 high school recruits by ESPN.\u00a0Campbell\u2019s career at Florida State was similarly marred by injury, and he never put his skills together in the Seminole offense to make an impact.\u00a0 But he has a second chance in Morgantown, and West Virginia\u2019s offense could definitely use a productive deep threat after the loss of Marcus Simms<\/a><\/strong> after Spring camp.<\/p>\n

Running Back<\/h3>\n

The Mountaineers return an abundance of talent at the running back position, and they even added the highly-regarded Tony Mathis<\/strong> out of Georgia in their 2019 class.\u00a0 Kennedy McKoy<\/strong><\/a>, Martell Pettaway<\/strong><\/a>, and Leddie Brown<\/strong><\/a> will undoubtedly share the vast majority of the carries this season.\u00a0 Each of those backs offers a slightly different skill set, but Alec Sinkfield<\/strong><\/a> possesses burst and high top-end speed that will provide a unique change of pace for this group.\u00a0 The diversity that he can bring to this offense assuming he has fully recovered from the injuries that limited his use last season cannot be understated.<\/p>\n

Tight End<\/h3>\n

Jovani Haskins<\/strong><\/a> rightfully earned a spot on the Mackey Award watch list, so he would be the obvious choice here.\u00a0 But the Mountaineers could benefit tremendously from a second tight end either to anchor two tight-end sets or to simply allow Haskins relief through the course of a long season.\u00a0 West Virginia\u2019s roster includes several candidates for this second tight end.\u00a0But T.J. Banks<\/strong><\/a> offers the most intrigue.\u00a0Banks carried a four-star rating (from Rivals) coming out of East Allegheny High School.\u00a0 And Banks stands at 6\u20195\u201d while weighing in north of 250 pounds. That size could help him rumble for extra yards or pick up blitzing defenders off the edge.\u00a0 No matter how his size and skills are used, the Mountaineers could benefit from his development.<\/p>\n

Offensive Line<\/h3>\n

Outside of Mike Brown<\/strong>, the starting four offensive linemen for the Mountaineers logged plenty of snaps the last two seasons.\u00a0 Brown appears poised for a breakout year, and he offers the size and strength (at 6\u20193, 345 pounds) Coach Brown and company look to develop.\u00a0 Beyond the starting five, however, West Virginia has serious question marks.\u00a0 Returning snap counts beyond the starters and Jacob Buccigrossi<\/strong><\/a>, whose status after two straight seasons marred by injury is in doubt, are low. Having at least a couple second-string linemen step up would answer many of those questions.\u00a0 A 3-star redshirt freshman out of Atlanta, Junior Uzebu<\/strong><\/a> could easily fill that role.\u00a0Known for his run blocking skills in high school, his strengths could complement the power run game that Coach Brown clearly seeks to establish.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he takes the last spot on our offensive-side Mountaineer wishlist.<\/p>\n

Mountaineer Wishlist<\/h3>\n

If the Mountaineers can add production from each of these players this season, they could exceed the modest expectations set for them.\u00a0 Even if they do not, production from these players certainly would help West Virginia establish a strong foundation for the future. This completes our Mountaineer wishlist on the offensive side of the ball.\u00a0 In our next article, we\u2019ll present our candidates for each position group on defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fall camp begins in just days, with players reporting on August 1.\u00a0 Fan day occurs just a few days later, on August 3.\u00a0 With the beginning of the season just around the corner, we wanted to start our 2019 season coverage in earnest.\u00a0 The athletic department and the staff have been managing expectations, but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2744,"featured_media":22390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[3419,3379,3420,4950,3989,1953,4948,1712,4949,237],"class_list":["post-22365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","tag-alec-sinkfield","tag-austin-kendall","tag-jovani-haskins","tag-junior-uzebu","tag-kennedy-mckoy","tag-leddie-brown","tag-martell-pettaway","tag-neal-brown","tag-t-j-banks","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}