TJ Simmons Shows He's a Big Time Playmaker

Morgantown, WV - This season has probably not gone the way that TJ Simmons expected it too. With the departures of David Sills V, Gary Jennings, and Marcus Simms, the junior was being looked at as the leader of a very young group of wide receivers that would be relied on early and often in their Mountaineer careers. Instead of becoming a monster of a competitor and translating that fire he showed throughout his sophomore season, Simmons wound up taking a backseat to redshirt freshman Sam James who quickly became WVU's most dynamic target and emerged as a building block for the future of the program.

Simmons' slow start resulted in him becoming a clear number two, and sometimes number three, option for quarterback Austin Kendall. He put together just 125 yards on 13 catches through the first quarter of the 2019 season with nearly half of those yards coming in the first game of the season against the Dukes of James Madison. That all changed with his performance against the Texas Longhorns.

Finally showing the big-play ability that made him an Alabama recruit four years ago, Simmons made seven catches for 135 yards, career highs in both departments, an impressive showing of the potential he showed in the past. Most importantly, he made several big plays to set the Mountaineers up with great scoring chances. This began early in the second quarter as Simmons caught a pass from Austin Kendall deep over the middle and broke a tackle as he brought the ball in, taking off down the sideline for a 44-yard catch and run down to the Texas five. Three plays later, Kendall took himself on a QB keeper and tied the game at 14 with that rushing touchdown.

As the game rolled on the Birmingham native continued to rack up yardage with snags of 21 and 25 yards, constantly serving as a source of big plays for a Mountaineer offense that found itself stuck in the mud more than once throughout the day. With the clock rolling under four minutes and WVU trailing 35-17, Simmons struck again, taking a pass from Kendall and sprinting down the right sideline picking up 19 yards and breaking a tackle at the goal line for his first touchdown of the season and just the second of his career.

Big plays were going to be a necessity if WVU wanted to have any chance to matchup with Texas and TJ Simmons brought them in spades at Milan Puskar Stadium. It seemed as if any time Austin Kendall went downfield. Simmons was on the other end, hauling the ball in and making a big run after the catch as well. Without his ability to stretch the field, as well as make tough plays over the middle, the game would have likely been far more tilted in the Longhorns' favor from the opening drive onward. It was a huge turnaround for Simmons and his attitude appeared to reflect that postgame. The receiver seemed quite pleased to have that improved performance in game 5.

"I just wanted to make this plays whenever my name was called, whenever my number was called." the junior said, "I think I did that. I think I helped my team. Other than the pass catches and stuff like that I think me, and the other receivers did a good job of blocking on the perimeter. That was the real main focus. They said if we block on the perimeter well then the pass was going to come open so we did."

TJ Simmons is a player that WVU needed to emerge as a big contributor if there was any chance of this team having prolonged success this season. As the leading returning receiver on a team that lost so much production, he has always been looked at as the alpha dog in coach Xavier Dye's wide receivers room and will only be counted on more going forward through the season. Highly touted upon his transfer from Alabama, Simmons, until this game, had been noted more for his boneheaded mistakes in the past than his prolific receiving talents. If the WVU offense is to continue its improvements over the final seven games of the season, TJ Simmons is going to have to have a lot more performances as he did against Texas, and with the confidence, he showed on the field, there seems to be a good chance for that to happen.