The names have indeed been changed to protect the innocent, or in this case to keep the foxes out of the henhouse in Mo-town. The new and improved Gold and Blue Spring Football game put a capper on spring practice for West Virginia University’s football team recently.
The addition of “festival” in the title is extremely accurate and allows for a marathon day in Morgantown. Early bird enthusiasts made their way to Milan Puskar Stadium to pick through a huge selection of Mountaineer gear, allowing them to represent their favorite WVU squad. Die hard members of Mountaineer nation were ready to break down the doors before they were set to open at 9:30 a.m.
To have a true festival, , there are essentials needed to bring the party to life. Food trucks are tops on the list and there was no shortage of them at Mountaineer Field on this glorious day. Toss in some inflatables, photo booths, face painting, cheerleaders, and the Mountaineer mascot and now you have a party.
This year’s version of this event actually included an 11 on 11 scrimmage which was an added bonus that for years wa taken for granted. In recent times with all of the player-poaching that goes on in football, you can’t be too careful. That is part of the reason that you cannot find statistics on this scrimmage and video footage is also hard to come by.
It is like traveling through the Bermuda triangle for the day.
Here today, gone tomorrow is the worry for the coaching staff. An example is Akheen Mesidor, a former Mountaineer that took his talents to South Florida. After starring at Miami, he was recently chosen as the 22nd player in the NFL Draft. Because of this reason, the scrimmage itself was not a long-lasting event and the play calling was as bland as my cooking. WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez used six quarterbacks and he probably would have given country music star Jake Owen a snap or two.
Actually, Owen was better on the defensive because his stage was blocking part of the field in preparation for the headlining event and it kept Maliek Hawkins from actually going to the house on his scoop and score on a fumble recovery that put the finishing touches on a 30 to 30 victory for the Blue team.
The real winners here were Rich Rod and his team as there were 18, 475 fans in attendance
