Mountaineers Cruise in Season Opener

It was a typical beautiful mid-September day but far from an ordinary home-football opener around Mountaineer Field. The college football atmosphere that we all have grown so fondly and accustomed too was absent Saturday as the West Virginia University Mountaineers beatdown the Eastern Kentucky University Colonels 56-10.

Athletic Director Shane Lyons announced on August 21st, that the fans would not be allowed to attend the game outside of player's families, which made for a peculiar atmosphere. Still, over the last six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were times where it felt like there may not even be a season, and there isn’t for some.

“Very grateful to have an opportunity to play today,” said West Virginia head coach Neal Brown. “Just playing to me was a win. All these teams that are playing today and the last couple of weeks is just playing college football is a win, and I mean that. To win and to win big is a bonus but just playing was a win.”

West Virginia came into the game as one of the youngest teams in the Big 12 Conference, and an hour before kickoff, Brown announced the suspension of 11 of his players for the season opener that included four starters, two of which were on the starting offensive line. However, the ability to play football overshadowed any anxiety that Brown would have on any typical season opener.

“Probably as relaxed as I’ve ever been on a game day, and it didn’t have anything to do with who we were playing or where we were playing,” said Brown. “It was just understanding this feeling of gratefulness, and we talked about that as a team. I thought our guys prepared, they were very appreciative of the opportunity, and they went out, and they played to our standard. We respected EKU, but we were playing against our standard, not necessarily against EKU, today.” Adding, “Missed our fans today. Kind of surreal. Hope they felt like they were a part of it at home.”

West Virginia got off to a hot start, particularly in the running game after Leddie Brown took the handoff on the game's first play, bursting through a big hole on the left side for 38 yards. Three plays later, Brown found the endzone capping a four-play 82-yard drive.

“We took the ball right out the gate, said Neal Brown. “Won the coin toss - took the ball… We felt like getting off to a hot start was important."

On the Mountaineers second offensive series, quarterback Jarret Doege drove the offense right back down the field. West Virginia was facing a third and six before Doege found Winston Wright Jr wide open over the middle for 24 yards. Wright finished the day with three catches for 34 yards.

West Virginia went back to the ground game handing it off to Leddie Brown and ripping off a 13-yard run. Then, Doege started working the short passing game inside Colonel territory before Eastern Kentucky snuffed out a screen and forced West Virginia into a second and 15.

Doege responded, hitting freshman Sam Brown over the middle for 22 yards, and then, two plays later, Doege found Brown out of the backfield as he darted up the sideline for six from 15 yards out.

Eastern Kentucky slowed the Mountaineer offense on the ensuing possession, forcing a punt that set up the Colonels at their own 28, but offsetting penalties resulted in replaying the down, and the West Virginia special teams took advantage pinning the Colonels back inside the one.

Eastern Kentucky grabbed their first, first down of the game but was forced to punt from their own 19, and after a 38-yard punt and a three-yard return from Alec Sinfield, West Virginia was set up just inside the EKU 49-yard line.

Four plays later, Doege and Sam James connected for a 32-yard touchdown and took a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter by winning on all three phases of the game in concession.

Eastern Kentucky responded, putting together their best drive of the day ending with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Parker McKinney to Keyion Dixon on a busted coverage that Neal Brown tabbed as a miscommunication.

Then, West Virginia turned the running game over to Alek Sinkfield as he ripped off 43 yards and a touchdown, on the third offensive series, to push the Mountaineers back up 21 before Leddie Brown eased his way to 123 yards first-half yards, two touchdowns, and a receiving touchdown.

Jarret Doege finished the first half delivering a strike to Bryce Ford-Wheaton for an eight-yard touchdown pushing the Mountaineers lead to 35, 42-7. In one half, Doege went 19-25 for 228 yards.

West Virginia coasted to the 56-10 lopsided victory but not before Alec Sinkfield crossed the 100-yard plateau matching Leddie Brown with 123 yards and two touchdowns.

As a team, the Mountaineers put up 624 yards of total offense, 329 of it coming from the ground, marking the first time a WVU team has gained at least 300 yards rushing since Dec. 2, 2016 (311 vs. Baylor).

Also marking the first time WVU has had two 100-yard rushers in a game since Sept. 23, 2017, at Kansas (125 by Justin Crawford and 105 by Kennedy McKoy).

“Just because we did it today doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, we’ve arrived running the football, but it was a start,” said Brown. “I did feel like our offensive line has communicated better through the entirety of camp. We’ve had less run-throughs, less negative plays, and I felt like Leddie, once we started practicing in a physical nature, he has risen his game.” Adding, “I was happy for him and well deserved.”

West Virginia did what they were supposed to do in the dismantling of Eastern Kentucky, although there is still plenty of room for improvement, Neal Brown liked what he saw out there in the opener.

“I thought it was a pretty clean game, offensively,” stated Neal Brown. "I’d like to play better in the second half—overall good win. Played well in our opener, we showed some maturity. We showed some signs of improvement.”

West Virginia will have next week off, and then they go on the road to Stillwater, OK in the Big 12 opener against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday, September 12.

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