WVU Football 2025 Spring Showcase Observations

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The current landscape of college football warranted a change from a spring game to just a “showcase” event. However, even with the change in format, the WVU football program still wanted to offer fans a glimpse at the 2025 team in year one of Rich Rodriguez’s second tenure leading the Mountaineers.

Due to the switch from a game to more of an open practice, the below bullet points will serve as the key takeaways from the day. These observations are from the scrimmage play.

• Sophomore running back Clay Ash wins 2025 Tommy Nickolich Memorial Award
• Ash earned several carries and a couple targets as a receiver.
• The refs weren’t shy to throw flags, granted coaches often tell them to over call if anything at practices.
• Rodriguez mixed up his quarterbacks and switched them in one after the other during scrimmage play.
• Wide receiver Cam Vaughn stood out with a couple impressive catches, including one that saw him get by a defender and into red zone territory. Vaughn appeared to be the No. 1 target for whoever was in at quarterback.
• Quarterback Jaylen Henderson overthrew some deep ball attempts. He also threw an interception. He did have a 13-yard touchdown run.
• Redshirt freshman Abe Fenwick showed off his scrambling ability.
• Quarterback Max Brown led multiple touchdown drives, but they were capped off by running backs on the ground. Brown did run for a first down.
• Running back Diore Hubbard scored a touchdown on a short run.
• Quarterback Nicco Marchiol was the last of the notable quarterbacks to take snaps.

Fans were able to pick plays

• Rodriguez let fans pick plays. The first fan play did not work the first time, but Rodriguez demanded it be run again and it resulted in a touchdown the second attempt. The play was a short pass to a wide open receiver on the left side of the end zone.
• The second fan play worked on the first try and was also a short pass, but on a curl route.
• The third fan play was a pass to the back of the end zone. One ref said it was a touchdown, but the other said it was incomplete and not in bounds.

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

For a related story, WV Sports Now’s Mike Asti offered his takeaways after attending the only open practice prior to the Spring Showcase early in the spring practice period.