MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown is faced with replacing several key pieces from its state semifinal team from a season ago as the Mohigans enter 2017.
After 2016, the Mohigans lost their top running back, Jordan Page, and top two receivers, Camron Henderson and Ben Waibogha, to graduation.
But junior quarterback Logan Holgorsen’s July transfer to St. Frances Academy in Baltimore gave Morgantown yet another starter to replace.
“His announcement came after three weeks (of summer practices) were over and it came a little bit out of left field,” Lacy said. “But we just sold to our team what the truth is – no one guy is bigger than the team. He’s a very good football player, he was very well respected, he was a great leader and has a very good skill-set at quarterback.
“But it’s not going to change anything we do defensively or special teams,” Lacy said. “It won’t change anything in our run game. It will have an impact in our passing game, we’ve kind of pared things back a little bit. He did have a very strong arm and could get the ball down the field, stretch it a little bit more than we might now.”
Holgorsen, as a sophomore, threw for 1,355 yards and 14 touchdowns with seven interceptions in 2016.
“In hindsight, it may even make us a better football team overall, because we are concentrating more on some of the little things,” Lacy said. “We’ve also been spending more time focusing on the running game, doing some different things there that we might not have done if he was at quarterback.
Junior Aaron Alvarez and sophomore Preston Fox have both been in the mix during the preseason to replace Holgorsen at quarterback.
“Preston (Fox) can also be one of our top receivers that we have, he’s such a great athlete,” Lacy said. “He plays baseball and he can throw the ball a little bit – he can run and gives us some more options, being a running-type quarterback.
“Aaron (Alvarez) is 6-foot-3, he can see over the line and he has a nice arm,” Lacy continued. “Aaron knows the offense, he knows it and he’s studied it.”
Alajuan Robinson and senior receiver/running back Jayron Wilson will both be relied upon heavily for the Mohigans as well, building a chemistry with their new QB.