Quick Hits: Early Thoughts on Spring Ball, Standouts + More

Hiring Rasheed Marshall to the staff

"We've hired him in a full-time role as the Director of Player Relations. Great player here, obviously. Big East Player of the Year as a quarterback and fifth-round draft pick. Got to know him over the last four years and he's been involved in different aspects of our Fifth Quarter Program. [He's] been around our guys and done media some things as well. When the job opened up, he expressed interest. I'm excited. He's not only been a great player here. He's done really well professionally. He wanted to be a part of the program. He loves West Virginia. And he's really passionate about developing young people."

How practice has gone so far

"I thought the offense had a nice day on Tuesday and Thursday. And then on Saturday, I wasn't very pleased with them. We just didn't have the same urgency. We've got to be able to handle some success. I thought Tuesday and Thursday were clean from an alignment/assignment, but also practice with urgency and really good effort. I thought Saturday just didn't meet the standard. It wasn't good enough. Defensively, I thought Saturday was by far our best day. And it works out that way because you got pads on, so you add the physicality aspect that you don't have on Tuesday and Thursday. And for our first day in pads, I thought our guys did a really nice job of running to the football and then thudding."

Standouts through the first few practices

"Devin Carter, Preston Fox, I think those two are probably the receivers that have stood out thus far. Defensively, Sean Martin has gotten stronger. You can see that. He's got some more push. I thought Lee Kpogba had a good day on Saturday which was good to see. And Aubrey Burks is a guy that we have really high expectations for and I think he's off to a good start."

First impressions of WR Devin Carter

"He's really led that room from a work ethic standpoint. He's been humble in his approach but I think he's really helped that group. There's some guys that are a little bit younger and I think he's done a good job of setting the standard. And then he's gone out and made a bunch of plays in the first three days. He's made a lot of plays and a lot of contested catches."

What LSU TE transfer Kole Taylor brings to the team

"He's long. He's 6'6" plus. He's open. I call it open by birth. He's got a distinct advantage over the linebackers and safeties he's playing and a lot of times that's four or five inches. That's why we brought him here. We brought him because we thought he'd be an able blocker and we'd be able to put him in positions where he could help us in the run game but to give us a vertical threat downfield."

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