A Day of Festivities and Football

The annual Gold-Blue Spring Showcase drew 10,160 fans, offering a blend of entertainment and football action. The event included:

• A pre-game concert featuring The Powell Brothers.
• A fan experience zone with food trucks, inflatables, and games.
• On-field activities inside the stadium.

Admission was free, with donations encouraged for WVU Medicine Children’s, a tradition dating back to the 1980s.

Scrimmage Highlights

The showcase featured close to 90 plays, providing an opportunity for players to demonstrate their skills.I was wanting to get between 70 and 80 plays today, and the second and third guys getting three-fourths of them, coach Rich Rodriguez said, adding, I think it kind of worked out that way.

The format was modified, and no official statistics were kept. The scrimmage aimed to put the kickers under pressure early, mirroring the format of other scrimmages.

Navigating the New Landscape

The current era of college football is defined by the transfer portal, revenue sharing, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals.This has led to increased caution among coaches regarding showcasing their players.

Several coaches, including Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, USC’s Lincoln Riley, and Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, have scaled back or canceled their spring games. Rhule noted the impact of the transfer portal, stating, The word ‘tampering’ doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just an absolute free open common market. I don’t necessarily want to open up the outside world and have people watch our guys and say, ‘He looks like a pretty good player.Let’s go get him.’

Rodriguez echoed these concerns,limiting media access and data released from the scrimmage. There is a certain level of trust I have with the media, you guys, I trust you so much and we’ll see where that takes us, right? he said, joking, Our media knows what to show and what not to show because they love the Mountaineers, too, right? Ask me that question again in a month.

Coaches are hesitant to discuss their players until the transfer portal closes on April 25. We need a bunch of new players and guys who want to come in and compete, and we’re going to have to get a few more in here in a couple of weeks, Rodriguez stated. Now, I’m not going to sit here and point out which guys have really shown out and done a great job this spring who can be an all-conference guy … and you know why I’m not saying that, right?

He added, When they change this portal date, I will be talking about every guy, their strengths and weaknesses. But right now, I’m not saying squat.

Team Progress

Despite the limitations, Rodriguez believes the team has made progress during the 15 spring practices. I don’t know if we are on target, but we’re further along than we were day one, which I would hope so being three months into it, he said. I’m not panicking. This is my eighth time (with a new team) and that first spring, not one of them has been good. The majority of them have been ugly and some of them have been catastrophically ugly. Then, four months later, it’s okay. I don’t have that feeling now, but there is still a lot of stuff that we have to get right.

The alternative to the spring game would have been just another practice. This wasn’t a true game, and we were not keeping score, Rodriguez clarified. I did that one time where you had a certain scoring system for three-and-outs, first downs and so forth. Hell, after five minutes I got confused. Let’s just play football.

He also mentioned, I wanted to put the kickers under a little bit of pressure early, so it was the same format as some of the other scrimmages. The only thing we didn’t do at the end, which I wanted to do, was some two-minute-drill stuff.

Engaging the Mountaineer Faithful

Rodriguez involved fans directly in the scrimmage, selecting two from the stands to call two-point conversion plays. The first attempt was successful.

I was going to run six two-point plays and somehow the coaches screwed up the first one and that threw it off schedule, he explained. I won’t say I wanted the fans to call a bad play and boo them, but that would have been fun if it happened.But then they wind up calling better plays than I called.

Following the scrimmage, fans were allowed on the field to take pictures with players and coaches, fostering a connection between the team and its supporters.

The Road to August

West Virginia will kick off the 2025 season on Saturday, Aug. 30, against Robert Morris at Milan Puskar Stadium. Season tickets are available through the Mountaineer Ticket Office.

For ticket information, visit WVUGAME.com.