WVU Football

West Virginia didn't get running back Rushel Shell the first time around in 2012. 

Shell, a former 5-star prospect from Aliquippa, Pa. (Hopewell), committed to Pittsburgh over offers from Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, and yes, the Mountaineers. 

But, Shell's career with the Panthers never fully materialized. Following his freshman season, in which he finished as the team's second-leading rusher, Shell left the team. After briefly flirting with the idea of going to UCLA, Shell transferred to West Virginia. 

It's a second chance for Shell, just as it is a second chance for the Mountaineers. A feature on Shell from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last October by J. Brady McCollough showed just how much is riding on that second chance. West Virginia assistant coach Tony Gibson, a former Pitt assistant who's twice recruited Shell, told McCollough:

Right now, he understands this is it for him. What he has to do is make sure he accepts his role, and his role right now is to go down on the scout team. Sometimes guys who are highly recruited guys, it's hard for them to swallow, and he's done a tremendous job just going down there and working, giving us a good look.

Shell sat out the '13 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules. He'll be in the thick of the running back competition this offseason, along with Dustin Garrison, Wendell Smallwood and Dreamius Smith. Andrew Buie, who left the program last August, returns this spring as well.

There's no doubting Shell has skill, but what kind of season can he have in 2014? West Virginia's backfield is nothing if not loaded. 

There has been an interesting trend, though. The 'Eers have had a different leading rusher in each of the past four seasons. Noel Devine led the team in 2010, Garrison in '11, Buie in '12 and Charles Sims in '13.

There are different reasons, of course. Devine and Sims were seniors, while Garrison spent the 2012 season recovering from a knee injury he sustained prior to West Virginia's Orange Bowl victory. 

Can Shell be the fifth different leading rusher in as many years? He has the size, speed and strength that coaches look for in an every-down back. But he won't be able to do everything by himself. 

The running game, which was the strength of the West Virginia offense a season ago, will be tested with a new-look offensive line. For as inconsistent as the Mountaineers were in the trenches, they had some veteran guys. Seniors Pat Eger, Curtis Feigt and Nick Kindler are gone now. 

When it comes to great offensive line play, it's all about repetition as a group.

Most importantly, Shell has to prove that what Gibson said about him last October is true: That he's recharged and refocused on turning his talent into greatness. Whether Shell stays at West Virginia one more season or three, he's going to be watched closely and probably scrutinized. 

That's part of the territory for a high-profile transfer—Shell's used to it by now. 

All he can do is move forward. The departure from Pitt wasn't the end of the world for Shell. He has another opportunity to finish what he started with the Panthers. 

If Shell can cement himself in West Virginia's running back rotation, his comeback should be considered a success. Anything more would simply add to it. 

Ben Kercheval is the lead writer for Big 12 football. All recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.

The "competitive nature" of West Virginia's Week 1 game against Alabama remains to be seen. Still, there's a potentially interesting storyline for next season's Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. 

With ex-Florida State quarterback Jacob Coker officially signing with Alabama—he will enroll later this year after graduating from FSU in May—the Tide and Mountaineers will have a former Seminole on their respective rosters. 

It's the second year in a row a Florida State quarterback sitting behind Jameis Winston has transferred from the program. Last year, Clint Trickett transferred to West Virginia and started seven games. Trickett led the team in passing with 1,605 yards and had seven touchdowns to seven interceptions. 

Trickett had offseason shoulder surgery that could sideline him for part, or all, of spring practice. Still, he is expected to be in the thick of the quarterback race by preseason camp. 

So what are the odds Trickett and Coker start for their respective teams by the time they meet in Atlanta?

Barrett Sallee, B/R's SEC lead writer, thinks Coker's chances of starting for the Tide right away are "pretty good." 

Head coach Nick Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin wouldn't bring in a two-year fix unless they felt he could contribute immediately.

The 6'5", 230-pounder pushed Winston to the end of spring practice last summer for the Seminoles' starting spot, and that system isn't much different than the one both Kiffin and Alabama have separately employed over the last few seasons.

Coker, who will have two years of eligibility remaining, figures to be in a quarterback competition loaded with candidates. That competition should go all the way into preseason camp.

Still, experience is at a premium for Alabama. AJ McCarron took a majority of the snaps in 2013, so Blake Sims is the only other quarterback to record passing stats (18-of-29 for 167 yards and two touchdowns). 

Last season, Coker completed 18-of-36 passes for 250 yards.

West Virginia's quarterback battle will have a bit more experience. Trickett and senior Paul Millard have started before and split playing time last season. Since redshirt freshman Ford Childress is no longer with the program, the other two candidates in the 'Eers' quarterback battle will be JUCO transfer Skyler Howard and freshman William Crest (should he sign his letter of intent). 

Unless Howard impresses as an early enrollee, or if Crest wows coaches right away, the competition could come down to Trickett and Millard. If last season was any indication, Trickett gives West Virginia a better chance to win.

That said, no one has a firm grasp on the job yet. 

But if things do work out, if Coker and Trickett start the 2014 season, Florida State could lay claim to three starting quarterbacks—in the same year. 

Ben Kercheval is the lead writer for Big 12 football.  All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. 

Quarterback depth was a major issue for West Virginia in 2013. Not even one month into 2014, the Mountaineers have already reportedly lost a quarterback.

According to Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail, redshirt freshman Ford Childress will not enroll for the spring semester after being suspended by head coach Dana Holgorsen. 

Childress was suspended for the entire semester earlier this month by head coach Dana Holgorsen. Childress, who was 1-1 as a starter this season before an injury ended his season, was not at a team meeting Wednesday, the first day of the spring semester. Childress informed WVU he would not enroll this semester.

The reason for the suspension is unclear and West Virginia has not confirmed the report. However, Childress is no longer listed on the online roster. 

Childress' reported departure hurts West Virginia the most in spring practices, when depth will be at a premium.

Since redshirt senior Clint Trickett will be rehabbing a torn labrum he sustained during the season, Paul Millard and early enrollee Skyler Howard will be the only scholarship quarterbacks healthy enough to compete. Incoming freshman William Crest, should he sign with the Mountaineers on national signing day next month, will enroll in the summer. 

West Virginia's quarterback situation looks shaky at best after an underwhelming and injury-filled 2013 in which the Mountaineers went 4-8.

Childress started two games, going 1-1 vs. William & Mary and Maryland before a torn pectoral muscle sidelined him for the rest of the year. 

Millard started three games and threw for 1,119 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions. Trickett, the team's best option at quarterback because of his mobility and experience at Florida State, threw for 1,605 yards, seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. 

Childress is the more physically gifted of the three rotating quarterbacks. At 6'5" and 234 pounds, he possesses ideal size and arm strength.

Barring a comeback, however, Childress' time in Morgantown will leave fans wondering what could have been.

According to 247Sports.com, he was a 4-star prospect who held scholarship offers from Arizona, Arizona State and Florida State coming out of The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas. Childress showed promise in the 41-7 win over Georgia State, throwing for 359 yards and three touchdowns.

However, in a 37-0 blowout to Maryland the following week, Childress completed just 50 percent of his passes for 62 yards and a pair of interceptions. Head coach Dana Holgorsen confirmed after the game that Childress had been playing with the torn pectoral muscle. 

With Trickett out and Crest unavailable for spring practices, Millard and Howard will have an opportunity to get valuable extra reps in the quarterback competition. That's something that could have benefited Childress greatly. 

Howard is a relatively unknown prospect from Riverside, Calif. 247Sports indicates that his only other Division I offers came from New Mexico State and San Diego State, and he doesn't have great size at 5'11" and 200 pounds.

However, he was a productive dual-threat quarterback in his JUCO career with 3,151 passing yards and 33 touchdowns in 2013. 

Millard has essentially been a career backup, mostly to Geno Smith over the past two seasons. 

Unless Howard or Millard has the best spring practice in the history of football, expect the competition to continue into preseason camp. There will simply be too many players missing for Holgorsen to accurately name a starter. 

If Childress hypothetically came back in time for fall practices, he'd be in the mix as well. If his two years in the program were any indication, though, he would have his work cut out for him trying to catch up. 

If 2013 was any indication, however, the player named the Week 1 starter may not have a tight grip on the job. 

Ben Kercheval is the lead writer for Big 12 football. You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenKercheval.

Breaking away from the pass-first narrative, the Big 12 has been home to some outstanding running backs this season. A lot of teams are two-deep or more at the position. 

Baylor's trio of running backs—Lache Seastrunk, Glasco Martin and Shock Linwood—makes up the best overall group in the conference in terms of yards and touchdowns.

However, Texas' Johnathan Gray, Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron aren't far behind. Then, there's Oklahoma's duo of Brennan Clay and Damien Williams. And who could forget Kansas State's John Hubert? 

But there's one running back new to the Big 12 who is living up to his preseason billing of Newcomer of the Year: West Virginia senior Charles Sims. 

"I would challenge you to find anybody in the country who does more for their team at running back than Charles Sims," said Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen on Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference. 

There certainly aren't too many players in the Big 12 who are more versatile and impactful. Sims, who transferred from Houston in the offseason, leads the Mountaineers in rushing with 847 yards—a number that is only second to Seastrunk's 888 yards—and eight touchdowns. He's also the team leader in receptions (41) and fourth on the team in receiving yards (342). 

For an offense that has taken a major step back from a year ago, Sims is about the only consistent bright spot from week to week.

Not surprisingly, his two best games of the season have come in the past two weeks against TCU and Texas, two of the better defenses in the conference. Sims had 189 total yards and two touchdowns against the Frogs and 135 total yards and three touchdowns against the 'Horns. 

Besides player turnover, WVU's scoring problems stem from an inconsistent offensive line. For Sims, there aren't too many times when he isn't evading defenders before he gets to the line of scrimmage. 

But Sims has deceptive quickness for a player his size (he's listed on WVU's official site at 6' and 213 pounds), and he's hard to tackle in traffic. 

Yes, the touchdown shown is against William & Mary, but as you can see, Sims appears to be bottled up two yards behind the line of scrimmage. Yet he finds a hole and goes from dancing to downhill running in an instant. 

Against TCU in Week 10, Sims also shows patience and vision on this 31-yard touchdown run. 

The Frogs only have six players in the box, so a run is the natural play call. But TCU does a good job of getting penetration right up the middle of WVU's offensive line. Sims is able to get away from that pressure and bounce it to the outside. With the help of a bad angle or two, Sims has the speed to break away for a long gain. 

The other part of Sims' versatility comes in the passing game. It's not just catching balls out of the backfield and in the screen game, either; it's not uncommon for West Virginia to line him up as a receiver and use him as such. 

Seastrunk gets the label as the most dangerous running back in the Big 12. With 8.7 yards per carry and 11 touchdowns, both of which lead the conference for running backs with at least 20 carries, you're not going to get any argument here. However, statistically speaking, Seastrunk is more limited than Sims since he's a run-only back. That's right, Seastrunk has zero receptions on the year.

That can't be pinned on Seastrunk, though. None of Baylor's running backs have a reception. They simply aren't involved in the passing game.

The above example from Sims' time in Houston shows the multiple ways he's used, from the screen game to inside running and everything in between. Sims is better known for his finesse, but he's capable of putting his helmet down and getting the tough yards, too. 

Sims won't get a lot of national recognition because his numbers aren't the best and he plays on a 4-6 football team. But put Sims on Baylor's roster, and that would change considerably. 

This year is perhaps the deepest and most talented pool of running backs the Big 12 has had in a while. Charles Sims deserves to be listed as one of the best.

The phrase "get X player the ball" can be overused, but with Sims, it's both accurate and necessary for WVU. 

Ben Kercheval is the lead writer for Big 12 football. All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenKercheval. 

It appears the West Virginia Mountaineers are ready to part ways with troubled wide receiver Ronald Carswell.

After he was suspended for last week's overtime victory over TCU for an unspecified violation of team rules, Carswell's name is not included on the Mountaineers' preliminary depth chart for this week's home game against the Texas Longhorns.

Sources tell BGS that Ronald Carswell has been dismissed for violation of team rules

— BlueGoldSports.com (@Blue_GoldSports) November 4, 2013

Well, that didn't take long. I'm now assured by a source that Ronald Carswell is no longer on the team. We'll have to sort this out soon.

— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) November 4, 2013

Ronald Carswell no longer listed on the roster. Like many others have been saying, looks like he wont be back with the program. #WVU #Big12

— Gold And Blue Zone (@GoldAndBlueZone) November 5, 2013

On Tuesday, coach Dana Holgorsen told media that Carswell had been suspended indefinitely from the team, and that his status with the Mountaineers going forward would be re-evaluated at the end of the season.

Holgorsen says Ronald Carswell is suspended indefinitely. Will revisit his status after the season. #WVU

— Geoff Coyle (@GFCoyle) November 5, 2013

It is reported that Carswell had made the trip with the Mountaineers to Fort Worth for the TCU game, leading to rumors that the incident resulting in his suspension and apparent dismissal occurred in Texas.

Mario Alford, another junior college transfer, stepped into Carswell's place on the roster for the TCU game, making three catches for 62 yards.

A former standout recruit at Alabama, Carswell transferred to WVU this year after being suspended for the Crimson Tide's 2012 spring season. He spent the 2012 season playing for Itawamba (Miss.) Community College.

Carswell's suspension from the Crimson Tide was also for unspecified reasons.

Coach Dana Holgorsen has prohibited summertime enrollees from speaking to the media this season, reports WV MetroNews. However, in a preseason interview with his hometown newspaper, Carswell said the immaturity issues that plagued him while he was at Alabama are behind him.

“I won’t say I was cocky back then,” Carswell said. “But I was, let’s say, over confident. I didn’t think that anything bad could happen to me, and I still had a lot of growing up to do. I made some mistakes, and I paid the price.”

Unfortunately for Carswell, and for the Mountaineers staff who believed in him, it appears he hadn't left his past completely behind him.

Carswell is fourth on the 2013 Mountaineers roster in receptions with 20 and second in yards with 413. He's scored two touchdowns, including a 69-yarder in the team's win over William & Mary.

Carswell wouldn't be the first West Virginia player to be dismissed from the program this season. Redshirt linebacker d'Vante Henry was let go in September after being charged with sexual assault. Prior to the season, defensive lineman Korey Harris was booted from the team after allegedly committing an armed robbery.

(Every Monday, Big 12 coaches answer questions for the Big 12 coaches teleconference. On Monday, Oct. 28, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen took over with numerous quotes about the state of Mountaineer football.)

West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen doesn't always have a way with words, but that doesn't mean he's always off-base. 

Take his comments after WVU's 37-27 loss to Texas Tech in Week 8, for example. Holgorsen said the Mountaineers lacked the "will" to win. From Dave Hickman of the Charleston Gazette: 

In the fourth quarter, when we were up [27-16], we didn't have the will to want to knock them out, Holgorsen said. They had the will to want to win more than we did. And that starts with me.

Yeah, that rubbed some WVU fans the wrong way. 

Holgorsen later clarified on a previous Big 12 coaches teleconference that he meant WVU is still learning how to win late. Based on the fourth quarter problems this team is having, he's certainly not wrong and he is accepting responsibility for it. 

But Holgorsen raised some more eyebrows Monday when asked about where West Virginia needs to improve. 

"We need a lot of things," Holgorsen said, adding that a discussion about the state of the program "would take a long time." 

But, again, when you look at what WVU has gone through as a program over the past two years, it's difficult to argue Holgorsen doesn't have a point—even if he communicates it bluntly. 

"The transition from the Big East to the Big 12—we knew was going to be challenging," Holgorsen explained. "The Big 12 obviously plays some of the best football across the country. They have top teams with facilities, recruiting and players."

Both Holgorsen and TCU coach Gary Patterson agreed Monday during the latest coaches conference call that it takes two or three years to get familiar with opponents, with Patterson adding it takes another three to five years to catch up in recruiting. 

The Horned Frogs, like WVU, are 3-5. 

Compounding bigger-picture problems for WVU is inexperience on offense. The Mountaineers lost over 90 percent of their offensive production from a year ago. Defense, which was one of the worst in college football in 2012, is improved, but is being asked to do too much by an offense that can't stay on the field. 

Turnover hasn't been limited to the roster, either. Only one of Holgorsen's assistant coaches, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, has been with WVU since arriving in 2011. (Wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway was an assistant under former coach Bill Stewart, but was not part of Holgorsen's original staff.) 

"It’s been challenging," Holgorsen said. "I’ve never dealt with it before. I’ve never dealt with this many guys that are new.

"You got a coaching staff that continues to learn how to coach together and game plan together and call plays and react together." 

It's all added up into more losses than wins lately for Holgorsen and West Virginia.

But Holgorsen isn't defeated. That's not how he's wired. Is he frustrated? Absolutely, and he has every right to be. For all anyone knows, his team could be getting better each week in practice and it simply isn't translating to on-the-field performance. 

Firing Holgorsen in 2013 would be a mistake. It wouldn't fix the uphill battle the Mountaineers face in recruiting, which they've always had, and it could set the program further back. If the last two years have shown anything, it's that West Virginia needs continuity. 

Even if it's only to see if that continuity will work. 

Ben Kercheval is the lead writer for Big 12 football. All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless noted or linked otherwise. You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenKercheval. 

The West Virginia Mountaineers are nearly halfway done with the 2013 season, but question marks still surround the team. From the quarterback situation, to special team woes, to a missing link in the receiving corps, the Mountaineers are still searching for answers.

Prior to that first game on August 31 against William and Mary, Jordan Thompson was expected to be the biggest receiving threat for Dana Holgorsen's offense.  He was seen as the only true returning player from a year ago and had hype surrounding his speed and quickness once he's in space.  After catching six balls for 123 yards and three touchdowns in the Spring Game earlier this year, that hype wasn't without reason.

Now, as the season breaks into October, Thompson is no where to be found.  Just about all the action he receives is when he's fielding punts, but even when he does that he's making noise in all the wrong ways.

The Mountaineers rank in the bottom 20 nationally in both kick and punt returns. While the team averages four yards per return on punts, Thompson himself isn't even putting up a positive average.  He has three punt returns this year for a total of -3 yards. It's clear Thompson is struggling with his role on special teams, but he's not putting his head down just yet.

"It has been a learning experience," Thompson said earlier this week. "I never really had a main role as a punt returner, but it is just a process. I am getting more comfortable being back there to catch punts. Now, it is about getting more reps so I can become more comfortable during returns." 

Special teams is one thing, but it's no secret West Virginia's offense is struggling. As the team continues to search for a stable option at quarterback, the offense is No. 57 in the country in passing/receiving yards per game.

Jordan Thompson has just four catches for 35 yards this season. Comparatively, nine players on the team have more receptions and just one player, freshman Wendell Smallwood, has less.

"Squirt" has plenty of potential and has a place on this team. Just last week against Oklahoma State he showed fans he can catch a ball with a huge play on third down late in the fourth quarter. If Thompson doesn't bring down the ball, the Mountaineers may have never defeated No. 11 Oklahoma State.

"I think it is something that will continue to happen. As a receiver, Coach Holgorsen expects us to make big plays in crucial situations," he said. "On that play, I made a good catch, but as soon as I caught it, I knew I had to get lined up, because coach likes the tempo."

Ronald Carswell, Daikel Shorts, and even Charles Sims out of the backfield are the players receiving the most action in the passing game. From a year ago, the offense is still finding a new identity with the new personnel. The young receiving corps has plenty of open field in front of them for the years to come, but 2013 is running out.

Jordan Thompson continues to be a mystery.  It seems clear that at this point, he doesn't factor much into Dana Holgorsen's game plan.  Daikel Shorts is the same style receiver but is receiving much more attention out of the slot.

The hope for Thompson is Holgorsen will continue to line up four receivers out wide on a consistent basis.  As long as Thompson is on the field, he has a chance. And as long as he's making plays as he did against Oklahoma State, his quarterbacks trust in him will continue to grow.

For now, Thompson remains a work in progress. His special teams work will be the most of his opportunity but with consistency at quarterback his offensive work could increase. One thing is for sure, with another top 25 match-up coming against Baylor, mistakes won't be affordable for Thompson and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

*All quotations included in this article are courtesty of WVUsports.com.

Clint Trickett was the third different quarterback to start for West Virginia in four games this season. But he was the first signal caller to orchestrate a major win for the Mountaineers in nearly a year. 

WVU's 30-21 victory Saturday against Oklahoma State couldn't have come at a better, and in a way, stranger time. The Mountaineers had been shut out for the first time in over a decade just a week prior in a 37-0 loss to Maryland, an exclamation point (or, maybe, a question mark) to what has been one of the most astonishing meltdowns of the past year in college football. 

West Virginia's defense was the story against the Cowboys. The numbers are impressive: 10 forced punts, three turnovers and a goal-line stand that resulted in a missed field goal for OSU, a team averaging 45 points a game coming into Week 5. 

This is easily one of the most improved units from a year ago in the Big 12, and probably, all of college football. 

But the win will also be known as the one where Trickett showed a tremendous display of toughness. Hampered by an apparent shoulder injury in the fourth quarter, Trickett still managed to orchestrate a short, yet nevertheless crucial, drive ending in a field goal. It was as big an offensive possession as there was for the Mountaineers all year since it all but officially sealed the win. 

It was the kind of gutsy performance that every fan and coach alike wants to see. On top of it all, it came from a player with West Virginia ties. 

Trickett's father, current Florida State offensive line coach Rick Trickett, is from Masontown, WV and was an assistant for the Mountaineers from 1975-79 and then again from 2001-06. As a result, Clint spent a lot of time growing up in West Virginia and still has relatives in the state.  

Though Clint did not sign with the Mountaineers out of high school in 2010, he said via Twitter in May, upon announcing his transfer to WVU, that playing for West Virginia was "dream come true." 

ESPN's broadcast team noted during Saturday's game between WVU and Oklahoma state that Clint felt uncomfortable playing for his father at Florida State. Additionally, he sat behind two quarterbacks in Christian Ponder and EJ Manuel who would eventually be picked in the first rounds of the 2011 and '13 NFL drafts, respectively. 

The Seminoles' new quarterback, redshirt freshman Jameis Winston, may find himself in a similar situation a couple of years from now. Regardless, Trickett was beat out once again. 

But since Trickett graduated in three years, he was able to transfer to another school without sitting out a year to satisfy NCAA rules. 

Trickett's transition to WVU wasn't a seamless one. Despite the fact that he was projected by some *ahem* to win the starting quarterback job following the departure of Geno Smith to the NFL, that ended up not being the case. Rather, junior Paul Millard took a majority of the snaps in WVU's Week 1 win over William & Mary while Trickett led just two possessions.

Those "drives" were disastrous: a pair of three-and-outs, no completions and a near interception. Trickett didn't return to the game and wouldn't see playing time against until last Saturday. Despite the experience, Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen said Trickett is still learning on the job. 

"What we do offensively is still foreign to him [Trickett]," Holgorsen said Monday during the Big 12 coaches teleconference. 

But with redshirt freshman Ford Childress, who started two games against Georgia State and Maryland, out with a torn pectoral muscle, and with Millard generally ineffective, it was Trickett's turn to try and provide a spark for a WVU offense that looked nothing like the Holgorsen offenses of old. 

Trickett may still be learning the offense, but his experience and grit was enough to move the ball Saturday for the Mountaineers when it mattered. The redshirt junior was willing to push the ball downfield more even though he lacks arm strength and Oklahoma State mostly won the one-on-one battles deep. 

He took a lot of hits too, more than someone listed at 180 pounds should. Still, he made critical throws when he needed to and extended plays just long enough to get the ball out. 

Trickett's stats aren't always the best and he's not the biggest player on the field. Who knows, he may not start another game for West Virginia this season. But the coach's son with hometown roots came through when he was asked. 

Those are the kind of performances that are remembered. 

Ben Kercheval is the lead writer for Big 12 football. All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenKercheval.