Four months ago, on October 17, 2019, I wrote an article entitled, “Trey Lowe to Get First Career Start Against Oklahoma.” The Mountaineers had lost two consecutive games against Texas and then Iowa State, and it was becoming very clear that Austin Kendall was not the answer as the starting quarterback for the team.
At the time, a source of mine informed me that Lowe had received first team snaps throughout the week leading up to the Oklahoma game and that he would be the starting quarterback for the Mountaineers when the team traveled to Norman to play the Sooners.
In response, I wrote an article breaking the news and I was unfortunately mistaken. Journalists and media outlets often get things wrong, but for some reason this continues to hang over my career as West Virginia’s most influential writer.
In addition, I released an article called “West Virginia Doesn’t Need Jalen Bridges” over a year ago. This led to an outpouring of negativity from fans aimed at me and even more support for Bridges. Obviously this was another moment in time that I was wrong and I again apologize for it, just as I did multiple times to fans and to Jalen and his family.
Journalism is not just about presenting facts to the public, but also expressing thoughts and feelings and giving an opinion. This happens all over the world and across the United States in numerous publications. Although other journalists in our state do not give opinions, remember that I am a pioneer and we are blazing a trail (of greatness). The Voice of West Virginia will always be opinionated and speak for the silent 1.8 million amazing people in our state, and if that means that we’ll occasionally get things wrong, so be it.
