It's competition season for WVU special teams with jobs open
West Virginia has some things to settle when it comes to special teams.
Gone are both placekicker Mike Molina and long snapper Nick Meadows, necessitating the needs to fill those spots with either a new or perhaps old face this coming fall. That's going to cause a shakeup at several spots meaning battles are underway.
Don’t expect any of the ongoing battles to end anytime soon but there is good news when it comes to finding replacements.
The Mountaineers have more options to choose from than they did a year ago.
With the departure of Molina, West Virginia already had an in-house option built in with redshirt sophomore Evan Staley returning after handling first the kickoff duties last year before sliding over to field goal late in the season after Molina injured his hip.
Staley improved over the course of the season in the first department, while he connected on six of his seven field goal attempts, actually out pacing Molina in the percentage department. But only one of those attempts was past 30-yards and that’s where his miss fell as well.
“Evan gained quite a bit of experience last year, obviously with kickoff and the last part pf the year in kicking field goals,” assistant Mark Scott said.
The other player competing there is new to the program after just arriving in January, but has far more on the field experience in Western Kentucky transfer Skyler Simcox. The Virginia native started his career at Emory & Henry, a division three school and connected on 9-11 attempts before electing to transfer to Western Kentucky where he would hit on 16-22 field goals including a pair of 50-yarders.
But Simcox would sit out last season after leaving the team during fall camp before ending up at West Virginia as a transfer that will have two years of eligibility left. No risk involved, as his experience and leg strength will only further ramp up the competition for the two open spots.
And there is a clear plan the coaches have put into motion.
“Both guys have really good legs. We have two quality guys, and whoever wins that field goal battle, the other one is probably going to have a leg up on the kickoff competition,” Scott said. “We’ll see how it plays out and see how durable those guys are.”
Aiding in that competition is the addition of special teams graduate assistant Mike Molinari, a former kicker at West Virginia, who’s prime responsibility will be to chart kicks and help come up with ways to fuel the battle between the various spots on special teams.
“Being able to put those guys in as many practice situations as we possibly can to be able to let those guys compete with pay dividends,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said. “Need to do the same at punter.”
But it doesn’t just stop with those kicking the ball. With Meadows gone, the focus also has shifted to finding possible options that can handle long snapping duties and competition is at a fever pitch there too with an open job and several competing for it.
While they are short on in-game experience, West Virginia has redshirt junior Rex Sunahara and redshirt sophomore Kyle Poland as well as more help ont he way.
Just like at the kicking spots, coaches are charting them every day in pre-practice and during drill work. Once the focus of practice shifts to full-group reps, they’ll be slotted into high pressure situations.
“Whoever comes out of the spring as No. 1 that’s the first step of the battle. We have all summer long, all of fall camp to really hone in to see who our guy is going to be,” Scott said. “We want to create as much competition with those guys as we can and give them as many reps as possible.”
For now the coaches don’t know who that will be, but they’ll be finding out soon enough.
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