West Virginia experimenting with Gallagher as a two-way player
Spring affords coaching staffs the ability to try some things outside the parameters of the grind of fall camp and structured practices once the season begins.
And that has been the case with what West Virginia has been doing with sophomore Rodney Gallagher as a two-way player.
Make no mistake about it, Gallagher is going to primarily play on the offensive side of the ball where he has made great strides after playing primarily quarterback in high school. That was evident in the scrimmage Friday where he put together one of his best performances of the spring.
“He’s an offensive player. He’s pushing to be a starter at receiver and is a guy that we want to get him the ball,” head coach Neal Brown said.
But the Mountaineers have been experimenting with Gallagher as a nickel back on defense for a few snaps here or there to see how he can handle the role. It was on display in the open spring practice where he took reps against wide receivers in one-on-one situations.
It’s something that isn’t out of left field as Brown pitched the idea to the Uniontown product during his recruiting process in large part because of the skills he possesses.
“He has really good lateral quickness. He played defense in high school, and it will give us some flexibility there. He’s done pretty well and really been throwing him in there a little bit,” Brown said.
Gallagher played cornerback in high school and even then displayed the ability to play man coverage even without spending any time working on his craft. But Brown also saw some of those traits that could make it a part-time fit while watching him on the basketball court.
Gallagher was skilled in man defense and was able to stay in front of the opposition and also displayed good ball skills by being active with his hands. Combine that with his change of direction and it at least opened up the possibility for him to get some work on that side of the ball if he wanted to attempt it.
Turns out Gallagher had no issues and while it started with him meeting with the coaches for about two minutes and then going out and playing, he has proven to be capable there this spring. It remains to be seen if it’s something that will stick but the door is at least opened.
West Virginia isn’t in a situation where they would even potentially need Gallagher to play a lot of snaps, but if he could play six to ten if called upon it would alleviate some concern with depth at that spot. That way it wouldn’t take away from anything he’s doing offensively but could provide some quality snaps.
“If he stays (on defense) he can give us some snaps at nickel. Maybe that doesn’t put stress on us where we have to find somebody else,” Brown said.
It’s not something that’s foreign to Brown as during his time at Troy he had Marcus Jones play both sides of the ball and was very effective doing it. At worst, it’s a neat spring experiment but perhaps West Virginia and Gallagher find the pairing one that works long-term.
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