West Virginia football: Studs and duds from the 2019 season

Stud No. 1: Darius Stills, Defensive Line

West Virginia’s best player in 2019 — or their No. 1 stud — was also a defensive lineman — from Fairmont — with the last name Stills. We’re talking about Dante’s brother, Darius Stills. Darius blossomed into more than just a building block for the WVU defense as a junior in 2019. He became a star.

Darius was second on the ‘Eers defense is tackles for loss (12) and sacks (6), but did plenty more than just wreak havoc in the backfield. He tallied two forced fumbles and two pass deflections from his nose tackle position, while also recording a blocked field goal in the opener. He finished the year with 43 total tackles, 27 of which were solo.

This production earned Darius Stills All-Big 12 first-team honors and plenty of interest from the NFL. Deciding to put those dreams on the back burner, though, Darius is returning to WVU for his senior season. Can the 6-foot-1 senior anchor the West Virginia defense in 2020?

Dud No. 1: T.J. Simmons, Wide Receiver

After all the turnover at wide receiver from 2018 to 2019 for West Virginia — losing Gary Jennings and David Sills to graduation, losing Marcus Simms over the summer to the Supplemental Draft — all eyes were on T.J. Simmons to step in and be the guy. And although he stepped in, he was rarely, “the guy.”

That role went to Stud No. 3, Sam James pretty early in the season. But Simms still produced. He finished third in catches (35), receiving yards (455) and was second on the team with four receiving touchdowns. And all of those were improvements from a year ago, but Simms just felt like a huge letdown.

He was  great leader for the younger guys, but his production just didn’t match his potential. Simms only recorded one game with more than 100 receiving yards. He’s only had one such game in his career. Matter of fact, he’s only ever had one game with more than 75 receiving yards. That isn’t to say he stinks or he didn’t give great effort, he simply didn’t live up to his potential and therefore was a dud.

I wouldn’t expect this type of season — or anything less for that matter — from Simms in 2020, though, his senior campaign. Just about everything that could go wrong, went wrong with the Mountaineers’ offense in 2019. But a fresh slate with a solid foundation at quarterback and receiver? The WVU passing attack will once again strike fear in their opponents.