West Virginia is set to open the season 2 p.m. Aug. 31 against James Madison and WVSports.com provides the latest edition of our popular feature Insider Notes.
The notes are a collection of news and notes from the West Virginia coordinators as well as the players ahead of the opening match up against the Dukes.
Here are a few of those notes:
--There are always a lot of unknowns and speculation when it comes to a season opener against a new coaching staff but they’ve spent a lot of time watching Charlotte and Elon to get a grasp of what they did at those stops. You try to examine a lot of little things in order to see what they did there and how it matches the personnel that they inherited once arriving at James Madison. They used 12-personnel (1 RB, 2 TE and 2 WR) around 35-percent of the time which means that they are expecting to see that. It’s something new as they don’t see that a lot during the season but they’ve been working on it. Curt Cignetti does a good job getting numbers to one side or the other with counters and zone plays in the run game.
--At right guard West Virginia has sophomore John Hughes and redshirt junior Chase Behrndt competing and the former has taken the edge in the battle once he was given a chance to make the most of it. It isn’t settled by any means and Behrndt has really responded well since moving back to guard especially given the fact he lost his starting position at center so it is making both players better. You don’t really expect a player to come in and play immediately but Hughes has done his job to date and has seen that he could have the potential to play and start if need be.
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