WKU Football: 2018 Spring Game Recap and Reaction
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Bowling Green as WKU took the field for this year’s spring football game.
There have been many questions, rumors and speculation since WKU last took the field in the Cure Bowl in December and during this game we got a small look at what we can expect for this year’s team.
The biggest concern/question most people have for this upcoming season is who will be Sanford’s choice for starting quarterback now that Mike White leaves the Hill and prepares for a future in the NFL. Although no one has won the starting job as of yet, we got a look at three of the contenders for the job.
Senior Drew Eckels started the game for the Red team and had a strong first drive that led the offense down the field that was capped off by this short-yardage throw for the first touchdown of the game.
Eckels didn’t play too many snaps, but still looked pretty strong in the plays he was a part of on the field. Steven Duncan didn’t get too many snaps either but still made some nice completions as well and looked poised in the pocket.
After Eckels left the field, we got to see redshirt freshman Davis Shanley who I, personally, was impressed the most by. Shanley got the most snaps at quarterback for the afternoon and played well. One impressive thing I noticed was his elusiveness in the pocket and his mobility to escape being sacked. There was one run that he had for 30 yards and he had this short run for a touchdown as well.
One thing you should lookout for this upcoming season is the usage of the RPO (run-pass option) style offense regardless of who gets the starting nod at QB. This is the kind of offense Sanford has been a part of the majority of his career as a coach and player so look for him to fully implement it this year. He probably would’ve used it more last season, but Mike White wasn’t exactly the most mobile quarterback in the world so now that he has players that are capable of running the plays he wants, it could be another weapon for WKU’s offense next year.
Another big question/concern for next season is the run game. WKU had the worst running game in the FBS last season so they can only improve, right? Even though Quinton Baker was kicked off the team and Jakairi Moses is hurt this offseason, Ferby, Trigg and Samuel should be able to carry the load for the running backs this year. With Ferby being fully healthy now, I imagine he will be the starting running back and hopefully have scoring plays like he did here.
Trigg had a good spring game as well with some strong runs including a rush for 36 yards.
Defensively there wasn’t a whole bunch that happened although Roger Cray picked off Shanley for an interception with a nice return and Jeremy Darvin had a sack as well. Ben Holt did have a BIG hit that you could hear echo through the Houch that got a nice reaction from the crowd.
Overall, it was a pretty balanced game and the Red team was able to defeat White 24–14. While we don’t have all the answers to many of the burning questions we’ve been getting, we got a nice glimpse of what this year’s team will look like. Now we get to wait patiently and speculate until we finally get to see WKU play a full game against Wisconsin on August 31.
