A Comparison Of The Toughest Athletes

"I have thrown a lot at him, giving him a ton of reps," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said. "I think the kid has the right mind set. You can tell that he has played a lot of football. He was actually a quarterback at Rice at one point and then he has been a receiver. He has played at the college level. Really right now he is trying to figure out the offense and all of the ins and outs of it. He can hopefully get out there and help us. I have been pleased with how he is so far, we just have to keep repping over these next two weeks and developing him and getting it to where he starts to think slow is what I’m trying to accomplish with him."

“This team will probably go down in history maybe as one of the best ever for what we accomplished this year,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said. “I think our guys showed a lot of heart, a lot of tenacity and there are Mountaineer fans everywhere super proud of our team. We made a lot of Mountaineer baseball fans that weren’t Mountaineer baseball fans prior to this year. This is a statement about our program, where it’s going and the direction it’s headed. We’ve got us a baseball program that we can be super proud of. We have a great facility, great administration and great fan support. This is not the end. This is the beginning of a great baseball program.”

With the loss of starting QB Devin Gardner (1,896 yards passing, 10 TDs) and leading receiver Devin Funchness (733 yards receiving, 4 TDs), Coach Harbaugh starts a new era in Michigan football with a couple of junior running backs and a few returning offensive lineman as the basis of the team's 2015 offense. Harbaugh acknowledges this is going to be a rebuilding process and hopefully fans will give him time to employ his own experience. For now, his offense will revolve around two talented RBs who shared time in 2014. The team's leading rusher was De'Veon Smith who had a total of 519 yards and 6 TDs. He will be competing for playing time with Derrick Green who had 471 yards and 3 TDs. With 7 QBs listed on the roster, the starting QB role will most likely be determined by who is able to show leadership qualities during practice before the season starts.

There is 5 minutes and 36 seconds on the clock, the Knights needed to drive 86 yards to take the lead or even possibly win. The last time something like that happened, they lost in heartbreak to Jacobs, however on Friday Night at George Gattas Memorial Stadium, The Knights would not let that happen again.

Quarterback Skyler Howard passed for 3,145 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2015. But he threw 14 interceptions and surpassed 300 yards only two times.

"Well, they have a couple guys who are over 300 pounds," Crook said. "They got a couple guys who come really fast off the edge. It is what college football is today. You see great athletes lined up at defensive end that are fast, that are long, explosive and can come around the corner really quick. You are going to see guys inside that are hard to move. They anchor against the run game. You have a 300 pounder pushing into you trying to push back towards the quarterback, it's hard for a certain guard to anchor in there and stop it. Everything they do is hard to control, hard to block."

After briefly leaving for El Camino Community College to pursue a career at quarterback, the 6-foot-4, 203-pound junior returned to West Virginia University last January and settled in at wide receiver.

“If we are shooting the ball well, we can beat anybody. The playoffs are fun and the kids are excited.”

The 6-foot-3, 175-pound sophomore was forced into the starter role with Butler last season. He threw for 1,841 yards and 13 touchdowns.

"They’re either one or the other," Orlosky said. "They either do really good against the run or really good against the pass. Obviously, being the balanced offense that we are, I think we’re both really good at running man and passing the ball. Obviously, we’re a run first offense, so I think if we’re able to establish the run, I think our pass game will open up and make it so that both our pass game and run game will be good,"

“It’s going to all focus off the run game.” said Fisher. “If need be we’re going to hand it off to Todd (Gurley) and if someone says, ‘we’re not going to let you do that’, then we’re going to spread it around. And so when it’s all said and done, I think we’ll be able to look back and I think see Tavon maybe double in catches over what he had last year. And that’s the most important thing; it’s just to get the chunks downfield.”

Vernon Adams, the fall-through-the-crack QB form Eastern Washington, who is making quite a name for himself in the his collage day view. Vernon Adams has transferred form the collage of Eastern Washington to Oregon He has had a big impact on Oregon’s offence. And he is living the dream. The hardest part of Vernon’s adjustment would be the play book. Oregon fans and team member know how fast he is and how willing he is to hanging in the pocket under pressure to deliver the ball and not flinch. Adams was the star of the biggest recruiting battles of the winter. But in high school he was a no star recruiter he could get any major program collage to look at him. The community collage didn’t want him. Dean Harrington, who

Washington whom taken over the reigns as the Aggies head football coach; has been the defensive coordinator for the Aggies and has establishes himself as on of the best defensive minds in all of college football. Since Washington’s arrival in 2012, the Aggies has never finished outside of the top 30 in total defense nationally. Even better, under Washington the Aggies defense has been no. 1 in the conference twice, has had the no.1 run defense four times and on two separate occasions the Aggies ended the season being the No.1 scoring defense . So for Washington, this Spring Game served as an opportunity to instill his mark on the team collectively, and to focus on player development.

"He looks like a senior," Holgorsen said. “He looks like a starting senior quarterback to me. Everything makes sense. The signals and communication looks good. His checks are outstanding. You are starting to see timing with the receivers improve. He and (redshirt junior wide receiver) Shelton (Gibson) had a deal last year. He is developing that with (redshirt junior wide receiver) Ka’Raun (White), (senior wide receiver) Daikiel (Shorts Jr.) and some of these running backs as well."

Offensively we were able to open up our passing game. We are a solid running ball club, but we do have the ability to pass the ball effectively. We always try to "stay ahead of the sticks (gain 3+ yards on 1st down)." Friday night we were able to gain positive yards not only on the ground, but through the air. Blake Hays has a much better understanding of the passing game. His quick decision making, along with some sure handed receivers, created a great deal of offensive versatility.