MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia managed just over 100 plays in its first full scrimmage of preseason practice under the lights at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday night.

Quarterbacks Garrett Greene And Nicco Marchiol threw two touchdown passes each, while BYU transfer Ryder Burton threw a beautiful 47-yard touchdown throw to TJ Johnson late in the training game.

Real newbie Dior Hubbard made a long touchdown run, while Jahiem White And Jaylen Anderson both crossed the goal line during situational work in the red zone.

In addition to Johnson, Will Dixon, Jaden Bray, Hudson Clement And Justin Robinson. Tight end Cole Taylor made the catch of the practice game – a one-handed catch of a Greene heater up the middle for a 15-yard gain.

The quarterbacks wore white jerseys and white helmets and were not tackled. Big 12 referees were assigned to conduct today’s practice.

“We probably played 120 plays (105), and most of the time you’re defending 65 to 70, so when you start doing the math … and we also made four or five drives when we started in the red zone,” said West Virginia’s coach Neal Brown he stressed afterwards. “As a coach you really have to look at it, evaluate each session and evaluate each person individually, and then we have to make significant improvements from this Saturday to the next Saturday.”

Brown said he was pleased with the way the defense started today’s practice game, forcing three-and-outs on its first two possessions. The coach said it was a continuation of the solid work the unit put in earlier this week during Wednesday and Friday practices.

“I thought we tackled well early on and did a good job on some of our four- and five-man attacks. We really tried to focus on that to see if we could get into some one-on-one situations,” he noted.

On offense, Brown felt that his two best quarterbacks, Greene and Marchiol, performed effectively even under pressure.

“We really wanted to put a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks tonight to get them to complete passes. We had more drops than ever before, but I think the guys who made drops came back later in the practice game and made plays, which was encouraging,” he said.

“I haven’t seen the numbers yet, but I think we were a lot more efficient at passing the ball than we were at times last year, which was pleasing,” Brown added.

The coach said he was disappointed with the pass coverage in the second part of the practice game when some of the substitutes were on the field and he also mentioned some missed tackles that need to be improved.

“However, some of these things were to be expected in the ninth exercise,” he stressed.

“On offense, I was disappointed with the slow start. We got too many penalties. That’s partly because it’s still early. But we have to get that under control,” he said.

Operationally, the installation of the new communications system is still underway, Brown said, but work has been underway since Duke’s victory over North Carolina in the Mayo Bowl last year.

“We’ve been using it all spring and all nine practices, so I think we’re probably further along than most, and when we get the tablets, that’s going to be a game changer,” he said. “We’ve tried to take some time between series, like we would if we had tablets, to talk to them about what they’ve seen and things like that, but we need it.

“There’s a reason we go to the stadium on Saturday and Tuesday. Then we’ll do two big practice games and a simulated game and get a feel for the routine,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of newbies at halftime, so we’ll get some of those things worked out.”

Today’s practice game ended with some situational third-down actions.

Overall, almost everyone who changed did a few drills under the bright new LED lights in the stadium, including the new quarterbacks. Ryder Burton And Khalil Wilkins.

“I’ll have to check with the coaches because they have to organize their rooms, but we brought Ryder in and he threw a nice touchdown pass,” Brown said. “He’s been a great addition to camp so far and Khalil is really talented. He still has some development to do, but he can run and has a strong arm.”

Brown said today’s practice game simulated a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. The remaining practices and scrimmages will simulate other game times, including the noon kickoff against Penn State to open the season on Saturday, Aug. 31.

“Next week we’ll start at 1 p.m. and then we’ll do the simulated game again at night,” he said. “Then we’ll practice two Tuesdays in a row at noon to try to move some start times around so the guys can get used to it.”

No on-field activities are planned for Sunday. Brown is scheduled to meet with the media after practice Monday morning.