Neal Brown Continues to Defend Jarret Doege

Morgantown, West Virginia – In the first half of today’s huge victory over the 15th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies in The Battle for the Black Diamond Trophy, Jarret Doege was inaccurate at times but actually made some big throws for the Mountaineers.

In the second half, it was an absolute disaster for the redshirt senior quarterback.  Doege, who finished the game 15/26 for 193 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception, made an inexcusably bad decision late in the fourth quarter that almost lost the game for West Virginia.

Following the game, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said the following about Doege’s interception: “Really bad decision.  I take ownership on it.  That’s my play on the third down.  Just so you can get inside my head.  They didn’t have any timeouts. We haven’t punted the ball well and on third down, you’ve got to go for it.

That’s a play that we’ve hit for 35-40 yards during the game and Virginia Tech played it well.  Credit to them.  We make a bad throw and the momentum swings.”

Brown continued: “I’ll take responsibility for it.  They did a great job playing it, but we were trying to hit something that we thought could hit quick because we had a hard time protecting late in the third and early in the fourth.  He (Doege) floated the ball a little bit.  We wanted to throw that ball in the ground, but I’ll take the hit on that one because I should have put him in a better position.”

The point is that the Mountaineers should have never been in that position in the first place.  West Virginia outplayed Virginia Tech in every way today and still almost lost the game.

Although the Mountaineers got the win today, Doege once again showed that he’s not the quarterback that is going to lead the team to big victories.  Today, the West Virginia defense won the game.  Jarret Doege very nearly lost it.

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Brad Smith, "The Voice of Morgantown", is the most trusted, accomplished name in West Virginia sports journalism. Smith is the foremost, preeminent authority on West Virginia athletics and a lifelong fan of the Mountaineers. Smith, a proud graduate of West Virginia University, resides in Morgantown most of the year, but has a home in Jacksonville, Florida, where he lives during the winter.