Rivals.com has teamed with Pro Football Focus and as part of that we can provide incredibly detailed statistics on the West Virginia football team.
In today's article, we use the PFF grades to show you how the true freshmen Mountaineers performed to date as well as statistics for each.
Following the article is an explanation from PFF on how the grading scale works:
Game 1: Penn State: Total Snaps 11 | Grade of 57.6
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 0 | Grade of N/A
Game 3: Pittsburgh: Total Snaps 2 | Grade of 57.7
Game 4: Texas Tech: Total Snaps 23 | Grade of 61.3
Game 5: TCU: Total Snaps 16 | Grade of 46.5
Game 6: Houston: Total Snaps 68 | Grade of 65.1
Game 7: Oklahoma State: Total Snaps 61 | Grade of 57.3
Game 8: UCF: Total Snaps 40 | Grade of 50.9
Game 9: BYU: Total Snaps 34 | Grade of 59.0
Game 10: Oklahoma: Total Snaps 50 | Grade of 67.3
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 45 | Grade of 65.6
Game 12: Baylor: Total Snaps 49 | Grade of 60.5
Ray emerged in fall camp with his level of play and was able to earn a role in the rotation from the start of the season at wide receiver. That took a significant leap after the bye week where he was routinely seeing a lot of snaps at the position. The Florida native didn't even arrive on campus until late June but finished the 15 catches for 230 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the air, while completing a 21-yard pass. The sky is the limit here as Ray continues to develop in the off-season.
Game 1: Penn State: Total Snaps 1 | Grade of 60.0
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 33 | Grade of 50.7
Game 3: Pittsburgh: Total Snaps 9 | Grade of 53.5
Game 4: Texas Tech: Total Snaps 8 | Grade of 54.9
Game 5: TCU: Total Snaps 27 | Grade of 49.6
Game 6: Houston: Total Snaps 18 | Grade of 55.3
Game 7: Oklahoma State: Total Snaps 11 | Grade of 54.9
Game 8: UCF: Total Snaps 14 | Grade of 72.3
Game 9: BYU: Total Snaps 44 | Grade of 65.2
Game 10: Oklahoma: Total Snaps 13 | Grade of 55.8
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 12 | Grade of 68.1
Game 12: Baylor: Total Snaps 49 | Grade of 55.5
Gallagher started to carve out more of a role for West Virginia as the season progressed as he was used in an athlete role on the offensive side of the ball. He saw action in all 12 regular season games and finished with 10 catches for 74 yards receiving along with 15 carries for 87 yards rushing. The focus this off-season is going to be on developing his overall route running and improving his strength but there's a lot to be excited about.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 24 | Grade of 78.2
Game 3: Pittsburgh: Total Snaps 4 | Grade of 60.0
Game 4: Texas Tech: Total Snaps 6 | Grade of 65.1
Game 5: TCU: Total Snaps 18 | Grade of 64.2
Game 6: Houston: Total Snaps 18 | Grade of 63.2
Game 7: Oklahoma State: Total Snaps 3 | Grade of 60.4
Game 8: UCF: Total Snaps 20 | Grade of 85.4
Game 9: BYU: Total Snaps 31 | Grade of 80.7
Game 10: Oklahoma: Total Snaps 28 | Grade of 62.0
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 44 | Grade of 89.9
Game 12: Baylor: Total Snaps 41 | Grade of 77.0
White had the biggest impact of any of the true freshmen as he finished the regular season rushing for 708 yards and 3 touchdowns, while grabbing 3 passes for 110 more yards and 2 scores. The Pennsylvania product brought an explosive element to the offense and averaged a total of 8.2 yards per carry while taking over the starting running back role down the stretch run of the season. The arrow is pointing up.
Related: A look at the recruiting areas for the West Virginia assistants
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 28 | Grade of 53.7
Game 4: Texas Tech: Total Snaps 9 | Grade of 65.5
Game 5: TCU: Total Snaps 47 | Grade of 66.3
Game 6: Houston: Total Snaps 48 | Grade of 43.7
Game 7: Oklahoma State: Total Snaps 66 | Grade of 59.4
Game 8: UCF: Total Snaps 45 | Grade of 85.4
Game 9: BYU: Total Snaps 40 | Grade of 70.1
Game 10: Oklahoma: Total Snaps 60 | Grade of 54.3
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 48 | Grade of 43.2
Game 12: Baylor: Total Snaps 38 | Grade of 48.1
After playing on special teams in the opener, Cutter was thrust into a much larger role than expected after the TCU game when starter Tray Lathan was lost for the season due to a lower leg injury. The true freshman learned on the job at times, but finished with 51 tackles and a pair of sacks. The tackle mark was good for fourth on the team.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 13 | Grade of 60.5
Game 9: BYU: Total Snaps 6 | Grade of 39.8
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 4 | Grade of 65.9
Neal Brown said that McIntyre, a legacy and the son of Corey, was going to see the field in his first season and he kept his word. He was used primarily in a reserve role and saw action in three games in order to preserve his redshirt. He had 3 tackles.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 15 | Grade of 56.3
Oliver saw his opportunity to see the field late against Duquesne and turned that into 38 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. A big, physical running back Oliver made his impact on special teams in his first year but the Mountaineers elected to redshirt.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 24 | Grade of 74.1
Game 9: BYU: Total Snaps 15 | Grade of 49.3
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 6 | Grade of 64.4
Williams is a massive offensive tackle prospect that could have a major role in the future for West Virginia but the Mountaineers were able to preserve his redshirt.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 2 | Grade of 60.2
Game 11: Cincinnati: Total Snaps 1 | Grade of 59.6
Heard was expected to see more time on the field but West Virginia was able to redshirt him as others emerged at the bandit position. The coaching staff believed that he had a very bright future as he continued to develop but he elected to enter the portal.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 2 | Grade of 60.0
Nelson saw the field late in the game against Duquesne but that was it when it came to action as the Mountaineers were able to preserve his redshirt.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 3 | Grade of 70.1
Fisher was able to redshirt after seeing just limited action in his first year which was completely expected as he continues to develop his body.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 6 | Grade of 63.5
Jackson played six snaps in his defensive debut for the Mountaineers against Duquesne and while there is plenty of belief that his future is a bright one in Morgantown but he spent this year developing.
Game 2: Duquesne: Total Snaps 3 | Grade of 60.0
Jackson played a total of just three snaps against Duquesne but the converted running back who is now playing cornerback garnered some attention in fall camp. Jackson redshirted in year one and now will have his full compliment of eligibility.
On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play.
At one end of the scale you have a catastrophic game-ending interception or pick-six from a quarterback, and at the other a perfect deep bomb into a tight window in a critical game situation, with the middle of that scale being 0-graded, or ‘expected’ plays that are neither positive nor negative.
Each game is also graded by a second PFF analyst independent of the first, and those grades are compared by a third, Senior Analyst, who rules on any differences between the two. These grades are verified by the Pro Coach Network, a group of former and current NFL coaches with over 700 combined years of NFL coaching experience, to get them as accurate as they can be.
From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation; this ranges from where a player lined up to the dropback depth of the quarterback or the length of time he had the ball in his hand and everything in between. They are finally converted to a 0-100 scale and appear in our Player Grades Tool.
Season-level grades aren’t simply an average of every game-grade a player compiles over a season, but rather factor in the duration at which a player performed at that level. Achieving a grade of 90.0 in a game once is impressive, doing it (12) times in a row is more impressive.
It is entirely possible that a player will have a season grade higher than any individual single-game grade he achieved, because playing well for an extended period of time is harder to do than for a short period, Similarly, playing badly for a long time is a greater problem than playing badly once, so the grade can also be compounded negatively.
Each week, grades are subject to change while we run through our extensive review process including All-22 tape runs and coaching audit, so you may notice discrepancies among grades published in earlier articles compared with those in the Player Grades tool until grade lock each week.
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