Kirkland

MORGANTOWN — It’s hard to work on special teams during the spring. It’s done here and there, but most of the spring has an emphasis on offense and defensive install, especially with all the new players for West Virginia. Rich Rodriguez had been asked a couple of times throughout the spring if they practiced special teams, and he said they’d be working on it towards the end of spring.

During the second-to-last practice, Rodriguez said the team practiced a bit more on special teams. Not a lot, but more than they usually do.

“Obviously, we did the field goal, punt and we did punt block,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve been doing that quite a bit, but we kind of introduced the kickoff and kickoff return. I wanted to kind of see our kickers, and I wanted to see some guys that maybe had a natural feel. We didn’t get into the nuts and bolts of all the techniques. I just want to see 11 guys run down, 11 guys try to block.”

The curiosity of special teams this spring is a product of the fact that the special teams unit for 2026 will look entirely different from 2025. There’s no Oliver Straw punting the ball away, and there’s no Kade Hensley kicking it through the uprights.

WVU spent some of the transfer portal cash on filling those spots with players with some experience. The Mountaineers added Alabama transfer kicker Peter Notaro and Western Kentucky transfer Jack Cassidy. The Mountaineers’ lone punter on the roster is Colorado State transfer Bryan Hansen.

“I think we got a lot of older guys,” special teams coordinator Pat Kirkland said. “We put a really big emphasis, coach has this spring, you don’t have that spring portal anymore, so the guys that are in your program now are the ones that you’re going to be playing with in the fall. We had a lot of special teams work today. I think the guys have done a good job of embracing the scheme and the effort that we need.”

At place kicker, WVU has had two kickers kicking a majority of this spring. Notaro has been banged up with a foot injury, so it’s been mostly Cassidy and Fairmont native Nate Flower. Flower handled the kickoffs for six games last season, and Cassidy, who is a 6-foot-6 Irishman, was 3-for-3 last season on field goals and had 51 touchbacks for the Hilltoppers.

“I think all three of those guys are doing a great job,” Kirkland said. “We’ve got a competition. I foresee this going into fall camp and close to probably Week 1. We’ve got three guys right now, Jack Cassidy, Peter Notaro and Nate Flower, that have all really stepped up. I think they’re kind of feeding off of each other as far as competing. Doing the extra stuff they need to do to have some success. We chart all that stuff, and right now, we definitely got a competition in that room.”

WVU did some punting as well. Hansen is the only official punter on the roster at the moment.

“There was a little bit of wind,” Rodriguez said. “Thought we punted pretty well today.”

The returners are also being tested, and Kirkland said every practice, the team works on fielding punts. To get potential candidates for returners, Kirkland listens to position coaches who know who has good hands, has some speed and has some vision.

Right now, Kirkland mentioned that Andre Devine, Troy transfer D.J. Epps, Armoni Weaver-Bomar and 4-star true freshman athlete Matt Sieg are fielding punts and kickoff returns. Sieg might not be getting action in on offense, but he’s being looked at as a potential returner.

“I feel good about the group that we have,” Kirkland said. “Now, it’s just finding out, probably over time, same thing, competition going into fall camp. Who can be that consistent guy for us?”

There hasn’t been too much special teams work this spring, but there’s a chance WVU does some special teams in front of fans for the Gold-Blue Spring Festival. However, one of the end zones is being used for the stage, so only half of the field is being used for play. Kickoffs will probably be out of the itinerary.

Even with limited work, the special teams unit is making “progress.”

“Our special teams coaches have done a good job with them,” Rodriguez said. “It’ll be some open comp. There’s not like, this guy’s guaranteed to be one field goal guy or not, there’s some good competition going on there.”