Quick Hits: Injury Update, Roster Numbers, Duties of the New GM + More

Injury update

"Brayden Dudley had a little offseason surgery. He's limited. We're hopeful he'll be back by early in the year, if not by the first game. Josiah [Trotter] is well into his rehab. He's handled it well. Asani Redwood is ahead of schedule. Pleased with where he's at he's doing some non-contact stuff. Cortez Braham, he may or may not be out there tomorrow. Nothing serious, he's sick. Davis [Mallinger] continues to come back from his surgery that he got at the end of last year. He was out there limited, not full-go yet."

Roster numbers

"Our depth is better. We need some walk-on o-linemen. We lost a few of those guys. We've got enough scholarship [guys], but I'd like to have a few more walk-on offensive linemen. And then at linebacker, because of Trotter's injury, I'd like to be a little deeper there. From a numbers perspective we can go out there and practice and have two full units where everybody's getting work and the competition is still good enough."

What he likes most about the QB battle

"The thing I like about both those guys is very even keeled. Garrett as a younger player and maybe even in the spring to a lesser extent, he's got great energy and his juice level is extremely high and what happened previously when he was a younger player is he had really highs and really lows. If you're a guy that has a bounce to you and you're up every day, your lows are really magnified. Today, his energy level was really good. He made a couple bad decisions but it didn't effect him and he was able to bounce back. And the same with Nicco. I think he's more comfortable. He's at ease. Both of them are competing for the job and sometimes what happens when you get in these competitions is guys get really tense and they feel like the decision is based on every single play. Nicco was a little bit like that in the spring and Garrett, a little bit. But I thought both of them were much more at ease today and didn't try to force things and handled negative things better."

Which transfers they need to play big roles

"Really to be honest, all those guys that we took in that May transfer window, we need them to play. Tyrin Bradley, he needs to push Jared Bartlett. We need to be able to play both of those guys at the same time. Beanie Bishop, we need experience and he's got versatility. He can play inside and outside, like, we need to get him ready to play. Anthony Wilson, we need a safety with experience. He's played a ton of football and he's a good tackler. Tomi [Durojaiye], we needed somebody that could play and had length. We need him to be a factor. Fatorma [Mulbah], an older guy who was kind of a role guy at Penn State, we need him to increase his role here and really push Hammond [Russell] and Mike [Lockhart] at that position. Noah Massey, last year guy. We wanted a guy that is a big, physical presence at slot receiver. EJ Horton, he was just coming on at Marshall. He's played. He's got a unique skillset and he can really run, so he's going to get plenty of opportunities to go do it."

Addition of GM Drew Fabianich

"When we opened that position, it was non-negotiable we wanted somebody with NFL experience and he's got 18+ years of NFL experience at both the regional and advanced scouting levels. Instant credibility within our building and being able to communicate with our staff and our current roster what the NFL is looking for, how they evaluate, what the individual player needs to do to continue to grow to put themselves in a position to play in the National Football League. And then having the scouting background, because that's essentially what you're doing in the portal. Your taking the NFL model from a scouting perspective and applying it to a little bit younger guy at the college level."

You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us on Twitter:

Facebook - @MountaineersNow

Twitter - @MountaineersNow and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_.