This was a unique off-season for many reasons.

With contact limited to essentially zoom meetings and other digital options due to the COVID-19 pandemic it made it difficult for coaches, particularly those new on staff, to get to know their teams. That was no different for Gerad Parker, the offensive coordinator who just joined the staff in January.

Parker inherited an offense which returned a number of valuable pieces from a season ago including quarterback Jarret Doege, who started the final three games of 2019. While he isn’t tasked with calling the plays, he is integral in the game planning aspect of things which made his familiarity with his personnel all the more important in a year with plenty of obstacles.

But because of how things unfolded in the off-season it allowed Parker to get a good idea in what he had in Doege well before he ever formally won the starting quarterback job.

How did that occur with only two spring practices and an off-season that was anything but normal? The two actually spent time together virtually as part of an initiative from West Virginia head coach Neal Brown in the Accountability teams.

Those teams are designed to force competition between the players on the roster by dividing them into ten teams with ten different captains. Those captains then pick the rest of their team and then the real fun begins as everything within the semester is scored and evaluated.

From the start of winter conditioning until fall camp, the team is split apart and competes in all phases. That continued even with everything else shut down football wise.

Doege was the captain of the team that Parker was overtop of and that allowed the two to get to know each other off the field before they ever could really accomplish that on it.

“When we were going through the pandemic together and during a lot of time virtually, we had a lot of conversations about how we were going to lead our team better,” Parker said. “It allowed us to have a lot of leadership discussions. He’s a great leader.”

That allowed Parker to form a strong opinion of what he was able to see out of Doege with his work ethic and how he inspired to become better in the area of leadership.

Doege also put in the work on his own to get better with his feet, which only continued once he was able to start working with quarterbacks coach Sean Reagan. That allowed him to stay balanced through his throws and his work in the weight room added to his overall arm strength.

Doege would eventually win the quarterback competition leading into the opener by beating out Austin Kendall, a nine-game starter last year, and put together a strong performance in the opener in a half of football. The time he spent on the field last season, as well as his time as the starter at Bowling Green beforehand, allowed him to settle into his role and grow.

“We think he does a really good job of staying poised. He doesn’t get too high or low and you need that out of the quarterback position,” he said.

Even through nine games, Parker has been pleased with the growth of Doege, who has bounced back after some difficult circumstances on the field. Some bad luck sprinkled in with a bad decision and Doege found himself in a tough spot against Baylor. But he was able to adjust and lead his team on several critical drives to win the game.

While they didn't win the games at Texas Tech or Texas, Doege put together perhaps some of his best performances to date by delivering the ball and getting it out on time. Against TCU he completed 73-percent of his passes with no turnovers. That continued growth is exactly what you want to see out of a leader.

"I think his decision making has been really good. He's done a great job with his eyes because your eyes can get you in trouble," Brown said.

He's gone over 300-yards in four of his last six contests and improving his completion percentage in the process.

"That’s the tough one. Everybody is looking at you, everybody has something to say about every decision you make. We trust Jarret Doege. I trust him, the staff trusts him, and his biggest thing is trusting himself. Being decisive in the pocket, making great decisions and trusting his training," Parker said.

The first thing Doege does when he makes a mistake is talk to Reagan on the phone to see what he did wrong and discuss what he saw. Then he goes to the offensive line and lets them know they'll go to the next play, while doing the same with the wide receivers.

"Reset my mind and play the next play," he said.

And those leadership traits have shone through with his ability to lead and push the rest of his teammates without over doing it, while communicating the right way. That delivery is key and is something that Parker picked up on before a snap was even taken.

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