West Virginia was true to their word that Rodney Gallagher was going to see time on both sides of the football this season.
Gallagher played a total of eight snaps on the offensive side of the football and turned that into one catch for eight yards on a total of five pass routes.
Some of that was limited by the issues on offense, but he was able to touch the football and spring a screen pass.
“We threw one to Rodney Gallagher and that popped pretty good,” coordinator Chad Scott said.
The Mountaineers have looked to find ways to get Gallagher the ball quickly in order to allow him to try to make some plays in space but a focus of the off-season was to continue to diversify his route tree at the position. That is an area that will need to continue to develop.
But on the flip side, the sophomore played 11 total defensive snaps lined up as a slot cornerback where he recorded a tackle and allowed a seven-yard catch. It was something that the Mountaineers wanted to do given his ability to play man coverage and he was in that role.
“I thought he did a good job.” coordinator Jordan Lesley said. “It was a very limited menu of what we asked him to do. That’ll probably grow as the year goes on. We very simply asked him to cover and the reps we had him in that’s what we asked him to do.”
Lesley points out that in two of those reps they were playing two-back with tight ends that the Mountaineers were playing as if it was one-back until they figured out what they wanted to do on that side of the ball. But once, they figured that out they got Gallagher out of that situation but the tackle on the goal line was not his play to make.
Now, the Mountaineers are hoping that role continues to develop as well as the coaching staff looks to take advantage of the skill set that he brings to the table on both sides.
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