Apr 27, 2024
Nicco Marchiol
MORGANTOWN — While this year’s West Virginia University’s Blue-Gold Spring Football Game has turned into a concert, food fair, shopping mall and, oh, yes, the game itself, it nonetheless carries that certain intrigue that every spring game carries.
Who, you wonder, will emerge from the shadows of obscurity to become this year’s darling of the fans?
The other day, while riding home from football interviews with Greg Hunter of the Blue-Gold News, the name of Bryan Wright somehow made its way into the conversation, which was something of a coincidence as just the other day a random thought crossed this even more random mind wondering what Wright was doing these days.
With the spring game coming up, it was more logical than you may think, for back in 2003 the walk-on became one of those phenoms that show up as regularly as do the robins in the spring.
After his performance in the spring game of 2003, the muscular, 5-7, 195-pound Wright performed so well that some thought he might muscle his way past Kay-Jay Harris and into the starting lineup.
The next spring quarterback Rasheed Marshall, thinking about him as he was about to miss that spring game with injury, commented that Wright had become a member of the “spring game Hall of Fame,” which is about the only thing these days that doesn’t have a Hall of Fame.
I can still remember Rich Rodriguez speaking about him in 2004 when it came out that he had obtained a “dynamite” summer job. While some might think that would be the perfect job for such an explosive runner, Rodriguez wasn’t so sure when Wright explained the job.
“I was stacking 50-pound bags of dynamite all day long,” he said. “It was thousands of bags.”
“He’s got to get a better summer job than that,” Rodriguez said. “That makes me nervous.”
In the overall scheme of things, the “spring game” is more a show than a game, but the history is rich.
Take that 2004 game, a game in which the late Chris Henry stepped forth as a receiver and caught 13 passes for 200 yards and a couple of touchdowns. That led Henry into a season in which he would catch 52 passes for 872 yards, 16.8 per reception, with 12 touchdowns.
The next three top WVU receivers combined for only 56 catches.
Skip forward to 2011, a seminal season for the Mountaineers in that it was the year Dana Holgorsen took over for Bill Stewart. It was a controversial move, but one filled with hype over Holgorsen’s Air Raid offense. Fans were eager to get a glimpse, and Holgorsen didn’t disappoint in that spring game.
A record crowd estimated at 22,000 came out to Mountaineer Field, forcing them to open the upper deck, and Geno Smith and Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin did not let them down. The first six plays of the game were passes, the sixth one being a 67-yard pass from Smith to Bailey.
In all, the offenses produced 838 yards in 10-minute quarters, Smith letting the NFL folks know he would be a player in the highest league football has to offer as he completed 26 of 37 for 388 yards and 4 touchdowns.
You go back through the years and there’s a whole lot of quarterback names that have come and gone.
Take 2013, when the sides lined up with Paul Millard on one side and Ford Childress on the other.
There was another quarterback on hand that day as a spectator, a young player thinking of transferring from Florida State. His name was Clint Trickett, and by the end of the year he was the Mountaineers’ starting quarterback and a fan favorite.
In that game there was another member of Marshall’s “spring game Hall of Fame” lighting it up for the second straight year, a wide receiver they called “Squirt”, who became one of WVU’s best receivers.
His full name was Jordan Thompson and in the 2012 game he had burst on the scene with eight receptions for 66 yards and touchdown for Holgorsen’s Air Raid offense.
In the 2013 game, he was even better as he latched onto three touchdown passes and the 5-7, 176-pound Thompson finished his Mountaineer career with 117 catches for 1,370 yards and a couple of touchdowns.
In 2014 the quarterback job was Trickett’s but a walk-on quarterback from Fairmont emerged from the shadows with a nice day that included a nifty completion to Vernon Davis Jr., but the day’s highlight was Mario Alford’s 99-yard touchdown return for a score.
They decided in 2016 that a change of scenery might be nice in the spring and what better place to be than at the Greenbrier? The game drew about 6,000 fans and it was as exciting as a spring game can be with a final 49-46 score, although it doesn’t matter who won.
As topsy-turvy as it was that they weren’t playing in Morgantown, why not have the game decided in the final seconds on a pass from David Sills V, of all people, who earned his Mountaineer fame and NFL career by playing wide receiver, but who in those days had not given up on believing he was a quarterback.
Skyler Howard was the quarterback of the moment, though, and he completed 18 of 26 with three touchdowns, which was enough to have Holgorsen name him the starter for the season following the game.
In 2017, there was another quarterback who made some news in the spring. A number of former Mountaineer greats were on hand for the spring game, including Hall of Fame quarterback Major Harris, along with Kevin White and many others.
Holgorsen thought it might be fun to bring in a surprise quarterback, though, and Holgorsen sent Geno Smith in for a play with Shelton Gibson at the other receiver position and Geno didn’t disappoint, hitting Gibson with a long TD throw.
Surprise quarterbacks have always thrilled the crowds at the spring games. Back in 2021, there was a quarterback competition with Jarrett Doege and Garrett Greene and a pretty good high school quarterback coming out and showing off his skills.
They threw at a hoop with a net and that may have helped him, because Deuce McBride made that his life’s work in the NBA. It took the former Moeller High QB in Cincinnati some time to warm up, but his last toss into the corner of the end zone went swish.
In 2018, the spring game was cancelled due to winter. It seemed as a wintry report of weather led to the cancellation but the fans must have missed it because in 2019, as they broke out new uniforms, a crowd of 18,865 was on hand but you knew it wasn’t going to be a very good year when the big play of the game was a 60-yard touchdown pass to TJ Simmons as the highlight.
The 2020 game was also cancelled due to COVID and in the past two years a couple of little guys with big futures showed up, then walk on Preston Fox had five catches for 117 yards including one of 50 yards that introduced him to Mountaineer Nation in 2022, while last year belonged to Jahiem White, the then promising freshman letting the secret of his ability out with seven carries for 91 yards, including a 53-yard TD burst.
This year?
Thinking it’s time for backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol to live up to the high praise he’s been earning all spring, which is important because in this era, a backup quarterback who can play is like having a highly funded IRA account.
“He’s matured as a football player, so when he turns on the video he knows what to watch,” Neal Brown said. “He knows how to prepare and he’s done a really good job of asking for the script so he can be prepared going into each practice.
“I think from a fundamental standpoint he’s much more compact right now. His confidence has risen because he’s got a lot of repetitions but the game has slowed down a lot. Pre-snap, he has a better understanding of what defenses are trying to do to him. Nicco is right up there with the most improved players on offense.”
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