How Every WVU Quarterback Can Win the Starting Job
West Virginia’s quarterback play throughout the 2019 season was, to be generous, lacking at times. From Austin Kendall’s downfield struggles and battles with injury to Jack Allison’s spot duty against Iowa State and Jarret Doege’s lack of Power 5 experience, no signal caller was perfect for the Mountaineers.
Head coach Neal Brown made it clear that there would be a competition for the starting spot beginning in the spring, but COVID-19 changed those plans. With players back on campus for summer conditioning and fall practice rapidly approaching, that competition is imminent.
Here’s how every quarterback on the roster can win it.
Austin Kendall
- Improve the deep ball
- Fix decision making over the middle
Kendall sat behind a pair of Heisman winners at Oklahoma and Lincoln Riley’s addition of Jalen Hurts led him to transfer before the 2019 season. Beating out Jack Allison and Trey Lowe, he started nine games for WVU, throwing for 1989 yards and 12 touchdowns against ten interceptions.
A laceration on his throwing hand against Missouri was the first of a pair of injuries to disrupt the North Carolina native’s season. Throughout the season, he appeared perfectly capable, but left something to be desired in the playmaking department.
A large part of that issue seemed to come from his struggles in the deep passing game. Kendall’s deep passes seemed to hang in the air, often landing short of their targets, something that could be chalked up to that lingering hand injury.
Fixing that is the biggest thing he can do to reclaim the starting job.
Kendall was sharp with his underneath passes throughout his nine starts, but the further downfield his attempts went, the more common his struggles became. While his downfield difficulties seemed to stem from a mechanical issue, his problems in the intermediate game looked to have much more to do with decision making.
Most of his interceptions came on balls over the middle of the field, often throwing into traffic late in the play. With so many of these turning into drive killers, it became a frustrating point of contention throughout the season.
Kendall has a lot of talent at the quarterback position and he was put in a pretty rough spot during the 2019 season. If he comes out in the fall with these adjustments made, he cannot be counted out as a potential starter this season.
Jarret Doege
- Prove it wasn’t just the element of surprise
- Make the fourth quarter the standard
Jarret Doege’s late transfer from Bowling Green flew largely under the radar until Kendall’s struggles really started to become clear. With a shoulder injury hindering his early progress at WVU, he spent much of the season as any other redshirt would.
However, a healthy shoulder and waiver to play in 2019 gave him the chance to play in four games and when he did, there was a difference in the Mountaineer offense. There were still some inconsistencies under center but Doege’s play seemed to spark the rest of the team to life.
In total he made four appearances with three starts, throwing for 818 yards and seven touchdowns with three interceptions, all of which came against TCU. While he impressed, Doege needs to prove that his success had more to do with his ability and less to do with a lack of preparation by the other team.
Having not played since 2018 with a bad Bowling Green team, West Virginia’s opponents had no idea what Doege would look like until he took the field against Texas Tech. Even then, the limited amount of action he put on film last season made him extremely difficult to scout.
His ideal spring performance would see him perform at a similar or better level to what he did a year ago against a WVU defense that will be prepared for him. The next step involves the late game heroics he displayed in each of his starts last season.
Going 2-1 in starts in 2019, all three were decided in the fourth quarter with Doege playing spectacularly down the stretch. If he can flip the switch that seemed to come on in the fourth quarter earlier in the game, he has the potential to be one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12 this season.
If Jarret Doege can prove his late season performances were not a fluke and turn his clutch play into the standard, the Big 12 needs to watch out because the WVU offense will take a huge jump in 2020.
Garrett Greene
- Don’t let the game get to fast
- Bring a new element to the offense
As one of Neal Brown’s first recruits and an Elite 11 finalist, Mountaineer fans are salivating over a future quarterback competition between Garrett Greene and 2021 recruit Will “Goose” Crowder. Despite his youth, you can’t count Greene out as a dark horse in 2020.
The biggest issue that many young quarterbacks face is that the game moves too fast for them to make decisions and mistakes happen quickly. If Greene can prove to be an exception to this, he immediately becomes a real threat to the starting position as a freshman.
The biggest reason for this is the added element he brings to the table: mobility.
In 2019, Austin Kendall and Jarret Doege combined to rush for 173 non-sack yards across 12 games. Meanwhile, Greene ran for 930 yards and 15 touchdowns as a senior at Chiles High School in Florida.
Throughout his time at Troy, Neal Brown proved to be able to adjust his offensive scheme to fit what was best for his team’s success. He won with dual-threat quarterbacks and pocket passers and if he thinks this team will have the most success with Garrett Greene under center, he will put him in a position to do well.
Greene should certainly be looked at as a quarterback of the future in this program, but if he can tick a few boxes in the fall, he could be pressed into action much earlier than expected.
Trent Jackson
- Keep throwing the best deep ball
- Improve in the short game
Before the quarterback position was decided last season, Neal Brown said that walk-on Trent Jackson was throwing the best deep ball on the team. Outside of winning offensive scout team player of the week against Tennessee during his redshirt season, that is about all we’ve heard about the Virginia native.
Jackson has posted videos on social media through quarantine showing that he’s still been putting in work and if the rest of his passing ability can catch up to what he does downfield, he could one day challenge for playing time.
It will take a big jump for Jackson to be a real competitor for the job this season, but with a great frame at 6’3”, 211 pounds and what Neal Brown called the best deep ball on the team, he has a ton of physical potential to build on.
Matt Cavallaro
- Continue his junior college success
- Show what he can do when fully committed to football
Matt Cavallaro is not your typical walk-on quarterback. A two-sport athlete at Delaware Valley High School in Matamoras, Pennsylvania, he was named PIAA 6A first team all-state as a senior while also playing in the New Jersey Devils youth hockey program.
After high school, he decided to continue his hockey career, playing a year and a half of junior-level hockey for the South Shore Kings of the U.S. Premier Hockey League. Following the 2018-19 season, he returned to the game of football, enrolling at the WVU stronghold of Lackawanna College.
There, he won the starting job as a freshman and led Lackawanna to the NJCAA national championship game where he was defeated by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and fellow Mountaineer Jackie Matthews.
Graduating in one year as a full qualifier, he comes to West Virginia as a preferred walk-on with three years and a redshirt year remaining.
His film at Lackawanna shows that Cavallaro thrives throwing the ball down the field and does an outstanding job stepping up in the pocket under pressure. With clear arm talent and a record of on-field success, he brings more to the table than what you typically see from walk-ons.
Matt Cavallaro seems to be far from reaching his maximum potential on the football field. With record-setting high school talent and outstanding performances in his first season back on the field, a quick learning curve could see him surprise a lot of people.
