WVU’s head coach tosses in a tasty nugget

But in the thirst for new news, WVU head coach Neal Brown sparked interest from the assembled media when midway through his regular press conference on Wednesday he threw in a juicy nugget.

“We’ve been messing around playing Rodney (Gallagher) a little bit as a nickel on defense,” tossed in the coach when talking about his receivers. “We’re messing with Rodney there because he has really good lateral quickness. He played some defense in high school, and this would give us some flexibility there. He’s done pretty well, and we’ve been throwing him in there a little bit (more).”

Before Gallagher fans storm the gates at Mountaineer Field about the concept of moving the promising 5-foot-10, 178-pound sophomore receiver away from offense permanently, that’s not the plan. It’s more about utilizing the Uniontown, Pennsylvania, native’s athletic skills as a two-way player … actually it’s possibly three-way, as he’s also getting a lot of practice reps as a punt and kickoff returner.

“It’s to be determined,” said Brown on whether using Gallagher at multiple positions will work. “I remember telling Big Rod (Gallagher’s father) about this idea during recruiting. (Gallagher III) played corner in high school, and I gave him a hard time because he played over there, but he never showed up in the picture and never got tackles or anything. But what you could see was he could play man coverage, even though he didn’t spend any (practice) time on it. Most of his practice time was spent at quarterback.”

Gallagher’s elite basketball skills, where he was a four-time, first-team all-state selection for Laurel Highlands High School, also translate to defensive back.

“I saw Rodney play basketball a lot (in high school). Whatever is the number of legal times I could see him — I think that’s three times — I saw him,” noted Brown. “When you play man in basketball against good people and you stay in front of them and have a presence where it is ‘man-me-ball,’ which he did really well, that means something.

“That translated into two areas for me,” added WVU’s sixth-year head coach. “No. 1, I knew he had good ball skills, even though you didn’t see him catch a bunch of passes in high school because he was throwing them if they were throwing. The other thing is I knew he had great change of direction and he had skills where he could go over and play defense.”

The process of making Gallagher a two-way player is still in its infancy stage, as he’s only practiced on defense a few times this spring.

“We told him what he was going to do and met with him for about two minutes. If he looked bad, we would have said, ‘Hey, just kidding, come back over (to offense)’,” chuckled Brown. “But he’s looked pretty good, so we’re teaching him a little bit more now.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s an offensive player,” WVU’s coach emphasized. “He’s pushing to be a starter at receiver, and he’s a guy we want to get the ball. He had a great scrimmage on Friday, like really a great scrimmage. I’m really excited about his growth at receiver, but he’s also a guy who if he stays can potentially give us some snaps at nickel.

“The kid a Colorado, Travis Hunter (who is starting at both receiver and cornerback for the Buffs), what he’s doing is special because he’s playing a ton of plays. I don’t think we’re at a point where we need (Gallagher) to do that, but I think it’s a deal where he could play six to 10 (snaps) on defense, and it wouldn’t take away from anything he’s doing on offense. We’d just have to watch what we do with him on special teams.”

It’s been quite a while since the Mountaineers have had someone play both offense and defense. Pac-Man Jones, normally a cornerback, saw some additional duty at receiver in 2004, and while he didn’t catch any passes, he was used on jet sweeps three times that season, totaling 46 yards.

Brown had a two-way player at Troy, though. Marcus Jones was a sophomore cornerback with the Trojans in Brown’s final season there (2018), and he also got some opportunities at receiver that season, where he caught five passes in limited duty. Jones is now in the NFL with the New England Patriot. He is again being used mainly as a cornerback and returner, though he also caught four passes in 2022. He missed most of last season with an injury.

“You can do it. I think you can dabble for sure,” said Brown of playing some on both offense and defense.

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The Mountaineers entered spring drills on March 25 with a number of players who were unable to participate in the contact portion of practices, as they were recovering from injuries.

Running back C.J. Donaldson, tight end Kole Taylor, offensive guard Tomas Rimac, offensive guard Bryce Biggs and defensive lineman Asani Redwood have not been utilized in any contact work this spring, though each is coming along and should be back to 100% by the start of the regular season, said their head coach.

“C.J. has done everything but take contact. He could play in a game if we had a game. He’s going to be fine,” explained the coach. “Kole had a little operation. He’ll be released in the summer and be full go. He’s doing some (non-contact) individual drills. Tomas was released to do (non-contact) individual drills last week. He won’t do any 11-on-11, though.”

Unfortunately, a number of new injuries have cropped this spring, a couple of which could still be problematic when the 2024 campaign begins on Aug. 31.

“(Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Corey) McIntyre had a lower-body injury on Monday,” noted Brown. “We’ll know more about that later in the week. It didn’t look good, though.

“(Senior receiver) Graeson (Malashevich) had another procedure. He’s had really bad luck, lower body. I think he’s about a month out from being able to run on hard ground.

“(Junior cornerback) Jacolby Spells, that’s going to be right up until the fall, early in the season (with an upper-body injury),” concluded Brown. “(Sophomore cornerback) T.J. Crandall has been down with a hamstring. It’s not serious, but it’s nagging.”

From the coach’s description, the injuries to McIntyre and Spells could feature the most long-term concerns.