MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It was 1983 when Morgantown High won its first Class AAA state title with a 42-20 win over Barboursville. That was four years before a man named Glen McNew, a Morgantown outsider, took over the head coaching job.
That began the Wing-T era at MHS, one that saw the Mohigans make many playoff appearances, win two state championships and play in three title games. It may have taken McNew 11 seasons to reach the state championship game, one that ended in a 69-52 loss to Nitro and star quarterback J.R. House, but the fact remained, the Wing-T was incredibly successful within the program. So much so that, after McNew stepped down following the Mohigans state title year in 2002, John Bowers decided to continue running the offense. Bowers would lead the Mohigans well, taking them on many more playoff runs and two back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005 – the latter surely making up for the 1998 loss to Nitro, a year he was an assistant. Now, the Wing-T has returned with the hiring of another Morgantown outsider, former Keyser head coach Sean Biser.
The same year McNew took over the Mohigans’ football program, John Kelley took over the program atop Price Street at the old University High. In his first year, Kelley took the Hawks to a Class AA playoff appearance. Seven years later, the Hawks were competing for the AAA title against South Charleston. They also defeated Morgantown in the first-ever Mohawk Bowl that season. Since those days on the hill, the Hawks have moved into a bigger and better facility on Bakers Ridge and have seen many more playoffs appearances under Kelley.
Yet, no matter how appearances each team has made, what remains is the importance of the long-standing rivalry between the Hawks (2-2) and Mohigans (2-2). Although it’s recently been dominated by MHS, it’s consistently been a hyped-up game and one that both squads look forward to. In the last three years, MHS holds a 2-1 record over UHS, capped by a 52-6 win last year in a season both teams likely want to forget. Neither looked like their normal programs, but this year – despite the COVID-19 pandemic knocking out half of their season – things have begun to turn around. And while this virus likely isn’t done throwing wrenches into the season’s cogs, this is a game of playoff implications with both teams hanging onto the No. 16 spot.
“It’s a huge game, we’d love to both get in,” Biser said. “All we can do is come out, put our best foot forward, play the best game we can possibly play and whatever happens, happens.”
Kelley, however, had a different thought about the playoffs.
“Playoff implications, yeah it’s there because we’re both in the top 16, but here’s the thing, I don’t think we should have playoffs this year,” he said. “Some teams aren’t going to qualify because they only play four games who are probably as good as anybody in the state, some teams like us and Morgantown are only going to play six games, some teams will play 10, it just doesn’t feel right or sound right. There’s the possibility some of the top 16, maybe three or four won’t be allowed to play because of the COVID map so then they’ll go down to 17, 18, 19, so either everybody ought to get in or maybe they wipe it out this year. The playoffs don’t have the taste they had in the past.”
Playoff implications aside, Kelley will be staring down that familiar Wing-T he played for nearly 30 years. After beating Preston last week, he called Biser the “master” of that offense and that MHS was a “sleeping giant” that had awoken. That has certainly shown the last two weeks as the Mohigans have put up over 1,200 yards on the ground. The offense has been led by seniors Cam Rice, Deondre Crudup and Caden Biser, but of the three Crudup is the one who rings a bell in Kelley’s mind. Last year in the blowout, Crudup led MHS with three touchdowns.
Last week against Linsly, Crudup posted 207 yards and two touchdowns against Linsly. Biser had 182 yards and two scores and Rice added 150 yards and three scores. Further, Morgantown never threw the ball in that win, totally relying on their speedy and big runners.
To counter that grinding offense, Kelley says it will come down to blocking, tackling and executing. The size differential, too, of the older UHS-MHS matchups.
“They execute extremely well, they’re bigger and stronger than we are up there and he’s got basically four running backs in the backfield and [Crudup] is the size of a tank,” Kelley said. “They’re disciplined and execute. Here’s the big thing: [We] have to tackle. We’ll stop it some but not completely. Hopefully, we aren’t going to give up 668 yards or it’ll be a long night.”
Offensively, his spread is led by seniors wide receiver T.T. Brooks and running back Eliki Barner and sophomore quarterback Chase Edwards. Against Preston, Brooks grabbed three touchdown receptions, all in the second quarter, to blow open the game which was tied at zeros after the first quarter. Edwards hit Sage Clawges on a 20-yard passing score and bullied his way into the end zone on a 9-yard rush to secure the Hawks’ other two offensive touchdowns, too. While Barner was unable to find the end zone last week, he still racked up 128 yards against the Knights. Two weeks ago, Barner was crucial against Wheeling Park with 181 yards and a touchdown.
“We’re going to do what we do like they do,” Kelley said. “They’ve got great defensive backs and a good situation. They’ll try to get to our quarterback and we’ll try to exploit some of the things they do. We’ll run our offense and see if it works, if not we’ll be in for a long night. We’re not going to do anything different, just like he [Biser] isn’t going to do anything different. We’ll try to create situations where we can have one-on-one and do some things like that, but we have to be able to run the football some, establish the run early. If we do all those things I think we can be in the game.”
Biser’s mindset around stopping the spread, a system his team has played against in the last three games, is to maintain composure and play their game. He knows you can’t give UHS’ weapons any room to breathe or trouble ensues.
“We can’t control what they have, we have to just worry about ourselves and make sure our coverages are run the way we call them and done the way we taught them to do,” Biser said. “If we do that we have a chance to be OK but if we don’t do that then it’s going to be bad for us.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Pony Lewis Field. The only people allowed to attend the game are players’ household family members and grandparents, and tickets must be ordered online in advance.
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