The Case For Goose Crowder

Morgantown, West Virginia – Look, Neal Brown clearly isn’t going to give Garrett Greene a real opportunity to succeed as the starting quarterback for the West Virginia Mountaineers.  For whatever reason – whether it’s his inexperience, his inability to make the right reads, his height – Neal Brown is never going to hand over the keys to the offense to Greene.

Jarret Doege continues to struggle and the idea of him playing another season as the starting quarterback for the Mountaineers seems increasingly preposterous.

With that said, West Virginia’s current third string quarterback makes the most sense for the remainder of this lost season.  Will “Goose” Crowder, a 6’2 freshman out of Gardendale, Alabama, played briefly against Long Island University and completed 2-2 passes for 28 yards.

During press conferences, Neal Brown absolutely gushes over Crowder’s maturity and ability to complete passes every opportunity he gets.

“I’m really excited about him,” Brown said.  “He can really throw the ball, he’s been a terrific leader on the scout team and he just completes passes.  I’m really excited about Goose.”

Brown continued: “Goose is just unshakable.  I’ve never seen a young man handle pressure better than him.  I threw him in with the starters during the bye week just to see how he would do and he got it done.  He just completes passes and he’s a really great kid.”

Crowder lacks game experience, so this is really a perfect opportunity for West Virginia to look to the future and give him a chance to show what he can do.  Everyone knows what Jarret Doege is capable (or incapable) of, Garrett Greene is clearly never going to be the starting quarterback under Neal Brown, and Brown seems to be enamored by Crowder.

Crowder has only played in one game so far this season and could finish out the season as the starter without burning a year of eligibility.  Although Brown lacks the fearlessness to make a decision like this, starting Will “Goose” Crowder for the remainder of the season almost makes too much sense.