Austin Kendall Named West Virginia’s Starting Quarterback
Neal Brown and the West Virginia Mountaineers have named Austin Kendall the team’s starting quarterback for the 2019 season, which opens up Saturday, August 31st against James Madison.
It was somewhat surprising when just last week Brown said that the quarterback competition was still, “up in the air”. But Kendall was always the favorite to win the job over Jack Allison and Trey Lowe.
Kendall is a former four-star prospect who transferred somewhat controversially from Oklahoma, where he sat the last couple of years behind Heisman winners Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.
Brown said on Tuesday, “Austin Kendall won our starting quarterback job. It was clear after Friday nights scrimmage that he earned it. He’s won the respect of his teammates, he’s done everything he’s supposed to do.”
Kendall’s stats from his time in Norman are fairly limited, but pretty impressive. Last season he played in six games, completing 12 of 17 passes for 122 yards and one touchdown. He also had 21 rushing yards on seven carries.
Kendall has big shoes to fill, replacing the Big 12’s leading passer in Will Grier who is now in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers. However, Kendall will not have nearly the plethora of talent at wide receiver, with David Sills and Gary Jennings both moving on to the next level.
Oh, and good luck to Kendall, who has the toughest non-conference schedule in the Big 12 Conference, bar none.
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