Notes, Takeaways From Scrimmage of WVU Football Spring Festival

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Saturday marked a festive afternoon in Morgantown, starting with a WVU football scrimmage and ending with a concert. The Gold-Blue Spring Festival, a first of its kind, capped off the spring practice period ahead of Rich Rodriguez’s second season back in West Virginia.

Below are notes from what happened throughout the day: 

• A blue vs. gold team scrimmaged for about 45 minutes before halftime.
• The blue team led the scrimmage 30-19 at halftime.
• The blue team won the scrimmage 39-30.

• Scotty Fox faked took off for a big run to the outside on his first play under center.
• Fox’s first competition was a short five-yarder to Jaden Bray
• Fox threw a touchdown pass to DJ Epps, who broke away from multiple defenders to get into the end zone.
• Michael Hawkins’ first scramble was called back, saying he was down for a short loss when he tried to stay upright.
• Cam Cook was able to get yards when running around the tacklers.
• Max Brown led the offense down the field in multiple possessions.
• Safety Matt Sieg saw time on offense.
• Andre Devine saw significant time at running back.
• Malik Hawkins recovered a fumble, running it back all the way as far as possible – the concert stage sat in the end zone.
• Chris Talley set up a Hawkins touchdown pass to Robert Oliver on the first drive of the second half.
• There was only one true turnover – the fumble recovery, but several times the ball was turned over on down.

Fan play calls:

• Hawkins ran the first fan play call – the successful play was called back due to a penalty.
• Brown ran the second fan play call – Brown threw an incompletion and missing a wide open target on the other side of the intended receiver.
• Brown ran the third fan play call – he kept the ball and ran into the end zone.
• “Hollywood” Johnson ran the fourth fan play call – he scrambled far behind the line of scrimmage and threw an incompletion to none in the end zone.

Below are takeaways from what happened throughout the day: 

• Hawkins looked poised in the pocket and in control of the offense when out there. He did fail to lead his first two drives into the end zone – they resulted in field goals, but he showed much more than Jaylen Henderson, the 2025 veteran transfer addition, did in last year’s spring event.
• Brown was sharp able to get outside the pocket just as well as Fox and Hawkins. Without as much speed, he was still able to move the ball and completed passes while on the run.
• Cook’s strength was evident, making him a difficult tackle.
• Other than a turnover, any offensive group on the field appeared to be able to move the ball, granted it’s hard to truly evaluate that with the quarterbacks wearing “no contact” jerseys, eliminating an opportunity at a pass rush.
• Oliver seemed to be a favorite target of Hawkins – he was able to get separation and open.

Find more coverage of the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.