Fall Camp Practice Report: 8-8-13

Rain forced the West Virginia football team into Caperton Indoor Practice Facility on Thursday as the Mountaineers took the field deep within their second week of practice.

In the 30-minute session open to the media, the Mountaineers placed heavy focus on simple fundamentals, spending the entire session confined within individual drills.

Although the team was practicing within the 50-yard confines of the indoor facility, Coach Dana Holgorsen deviated little from a typical practice schedule, opening up with a brief stretch with the team at "midfield."

At the same time, quarterbacks were in their familiar spot toward the sidelines, working with Coach Shannon Dawson on a variety of passes and scenarios.

Once the team broke away, players made their way to individual workstations to get the practice underway.

Wide receivers and running backs joined the quarterbacks on one end of the field where they would work on a variety of passing drills throughout the practice. Coaches Lonnie Galloway and JaJuan Seider joined Dawson and Holgorsen as the coaches called out various patterns for the players to run.

Galloway and Dawson took turns in the defensive backfield, playing the role of defenders, motivating the players and scolding them when necessary.

"You keep dropping the ball like that you're going to see your ass at the bottom of the depth chart," Galloway told one receiver after he let an easy pass sail through his fingers.

As for the quarterbacks, the two were in action at any given time, tossing balls to the receivers and running backs in the drills. However, no one QB received any more reps than the other, as the three rotated in and out between each play.

Defensively, Coach Keith Patterson and the rest of the position coaches ran things a bit differently from the offense. The defenders were split among their position, rotating from drill to drill with a different coach at each station. No one drill focused on any particulars of the position, instead, the coaching staff worked through the defense on various fundamental drills.

For instance, Patterson worked with his players near the media session on running to and scooping up fumbles. During the drill, a player would zig-zag through various cones before scooping a loose ball, with Patterson making sure he was using proper. The defensive coordinator was pleased with the effort he saw from a number of players during the drill, but used the work of Wes Tonkery as an example of proper technique.

Sophomore Garrett Hope worked out with the offense Thursday, spending his time with the fullbacks during the course of the open session. Hope was spotted going through blocking drills with the rest of the group and sporting a white No. 42 instead of his usual blue attire.

The Texas native has bounced around to several spots during his time on campus ranging from inside to outside linebacker, but Thursday was his first look at offense in front of the media's eyes.

Ricky Rumph continued to work with the safeties Thursday and it was the second consecutive practice open to the media that he has been at that spot.

In a red, "no contact," jersey Thursday were several players including redshirt freshman offensive lineman Adam Pankey, sophomore cornerback Nana Kyeremeh, redshirt sophomore wide receiver Dante Campbell, sophomore wide receiver Jordan Thompson and freshman cornerback Carlton Nash.

True freshman wide receiver Shelton Gibson once again donned a green jersey but appeared to practice with no limitations once again.

Junior College transfer running back Dreamius Smith had not practiced in the past couple days prior to Thursday according to Holgorsen, but he was full-go during the 30-minute open session.

Still no signs of any of the three unaccounted for scholarship players with junior college linebacker d'Vante Henry and true freshmen Darrien Howard and Isaac McDonald not on the practice field.

Practice continues tomorrow, but the next open session for the media will be Monday.