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WVSports – Spring teaches valuable lessons, but focus shifts for West Virginia

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WVSports  –  Spring teaches valuable lessons, but focus shifts for West Virginia


Spring ball is now in the rearview mirror and West Virginia head coach Neal Brown found out some valuable things about his football team over the course of the 15 practices.

For now, this version of the Mountaineers is similar to the one that surpassed expectations last year in the sense that it’s a hungry football team that wants to compete at every level.

That was evident how the players handled business across the first 14 practices of the spring and it’s a group that likes to practice.

“Been stressing to our coaching staff that we want the best people that love football,” he said.

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The winter program benefited his team as well and West Virginia emerged from that bigger and stronger on both of the line of scrimmages. Across the board, the Mountaineers are a team that embraces physicality and that revealed itself throughout the spring as well.

“We tackle. We’ve tackled a bunch. We’re better,” Brown said.

West Virginia also has developed some depth on the offensive and defensive lines, while the linebacker group has as much competition as it has at any point under Brown. The young wide receivers on the roster also have taken steps forward in their second year in a major role which has eased most of the concerns there.

So overall, the program exits the spring in a good spot but there are still some pitfalls ahead. West Virginia must navigate the next few days when it comes to the transfer portal but due to scheduling won’t have to do that for long.

The spring window will remain open until April 30 which puts college programs in a difficult position with players electing to move on this late in the game. Brown is not a fan of the second window but understands where the priority must be when it comes to his team moving forward with spring ball done.

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“Most important thing is to continue to hold our roster together and we’ll look to add some pieces potentially in May,” he said.

The Mountaineers have already started with that last part adding Charlotte cornerback transfer Dontez Fagan over the weekend. The senior cornerback spent one year with the 49ers where he played 623 snaps and posted strong coverage numbers with 21 tackles and an interception overall to go along with 5 passes defended.

The Oklahoma native entered the portal this past week and quickly scheduled a visit to campus in order to fill a need in the secondary. He has one year left and that likely isn’t the last addition the program will make in the coming weeks.



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Projected winners in Maryland's 6th District

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Projected winners in Maryland's 6th District


This week’s primaries are ovah, so we’re calling it a night! Here are the most important races where ABC News has reported a projection:

Maryland’s Senate matchup is set. In the GOP primary, former Gov. Larry Hogan easily dispatched his primary opposition, giving Republicans their best possible nominee for what will still be a very tough general election in deep-blue Maryland. In the Democratic primary, meanwhile, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks edged out Rep. David Trone in an expensive, hard-fought race. She now has the chance to become just the third Black woman elected to the Senate in U.S. history.

– In Maryland’s 3rd District, state Sen. Sarah Elfreth won the very crowded Democratic primary, defeating Harry Dunn, the former Capitol Hill police officer who helped defend the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Given the district’s blue lean, Elfreth should win in November, adding more women to the House, where women are still just 29 percent of its members.

– Attorney General Patrick Morrisey won the Republican primary for West Virginia governor in a close race over former state Del. Moore Capito. He’s heavily favored to win in November in this red state and will likely be a hardline conservative governor, as he’s associated with the tea party wing of the party.

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– In the GOP primary for West Virginia senator, Gov. Jim Justice easily defeated Rep. Alex Mooney, carrying all but four counties in exurban Washington, D.C. Justice will be heavily favored to win the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who announced his retirement last year.

– In the Republican primary for West Virginia’s 1st District, incumbent Rep. Carol Miller fended off a far-right challenge from former state Sen. Derrick Evans, who’d previously served three months in jail after being found guilty in a case related to the Jan. 6 insurrection. She’ll be favored to comfortably hold on to her seat in November.

– In the Republican primary for West Virginia’s 2nd District, state Treasurer Riley Moore romped to victory over several other GOP candidates vying to succeed Mooney (who ran for Senate). Moore is the nephew of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and the grandson of former Gov. Arch Moore; he’ll be a shoo-in this fall for the deeply Republican seat.

– In Maryland’s 6th District, which was vacated by Trone for his ill-fated Senate bid, Democrats went with a familiar name in their primary: April McClain Delaney, a former Biden administration official whose husband, John Delaney, held this seat for six years before Trone. On the Republican side, voters once again expressed their support for Neil Parrott, a local lawmaker who was the GOP nominee in 2020 and 2022. Delaney will be favored in the general election, but this is a seat that could get competitive under the right circumstances for Republicans.

– In Maryland’s 2nd District, Democratic voters nominated Baltimore County Executive John “Johnny O” Olszewski Jr. to face off against Republican political commentator and frequent political candidate Kimberly Klacik. Biden won general election voters in this district 59 to 39 percent in 2020, so it’s highly likely Johnny O will be the next representative of this northern-Baltimore seat.

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– In Nebraska’s 2nd District, Rep. Don Bacon easily turned back a primary challenge from right-wing Republican Dan Frei. That’s bad news for Democrats, who would’ve had a much easier time beating Frei than Bacon in November in this swing seat.

—G. Elliott Morris, Monica Potts, Nathaniel Rakich and Geoffrey Skelley, 538; Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor; and Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections



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Polls are now closed in West Virginia

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Polls are now closed in West Virginia


As Nathaniel mentioned earlier, West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District’s Republican primary has a candidate, Evans, who served three months in jail after filming himself storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. His performance in the district, which includes the state capital city of Charleston, will be a good illustration of where the party is when it comes to how important election denialism remains. Evans apologized for his actions in court, but after leaving jail, he began calling himself a “J6 patriot.”

This evolution mirrors what has happened in the Republican Party, as GOP primary voters have become less likely to believe Trump is to blame for Jan. 6, more swayed by conspiracy theories about the insurrection and less likely to say Biden was legitimately elected, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll from the third anniversary. As Mary mentioned earlier, Democrats are much more worried about a repeat of the insurrection and worried that democracy in the U.S. is in peril.

So far there’s only about 3 percent of the vote reporting, and Miller has opened up with a lead with 65 percent of the vote. But if Evans upsets the race and pulls out a win over the incumbent Miller, who has also shown unwavering support for Trump, his actions on that day are unlikely hurt him in this deep red district.

—Monica Potts, 538

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Virginia lawmakers to study campus safety policies after series of protests – WTOP News

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Virginia lawmakers to study campus safety policies after series of protests – WTOP News


Police with riot shields detain a pro-Palestinian demonstrator on the ground as a National Lawyers Guild representative holds up an…

Police with riot shields detain a pro-Palestinian demonstrator on the ground as a National Lawyers Guild representative holds up an emergency contact notebook, on the University of Virginia campus, in Charlottesville, Va., where tents are set up, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)(AP/Cal Cary)

The Virginia House of Delegates has formed a select committee on maintaining campus safety and allowing students to exercise their First Amendment rights, after more than 125 arrests at four of Virginia’s college campuses.

According to Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, the Senate will announce its plans to form a similar committee on Tuesday.

“I’ve heard very different scenarios from those who were on the ground and in encampments either as students or as community members that were part of those protests,” Hashmi said. “I think it’s important to get a very clear picture of what’s happened.”

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Demonstrators and faculty members have criticized law enforcement and college administrators for their handling of anti-war protests, including using pepper spray to clear encampments. While the majority of the protests in Virginia have called for a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants and have drawn attention to the deaths of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian citizens, some demonstrators have also claimed that protests have connections to antisemitic activity on campuses, WRIC reports.

Hashmi, who serves as chair of the Senate Education and Health Committee, said on Monday she wants a more precise picture of how the protests unfolded after hearing various reports about the demonstrations that have yielded 80 student arrests at the University of Mary Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia over the Israel-Hamas war.

On Saturday, several graduating students walked out at the start of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s keynote address at VCU’s commencement ceremony after he expressed his support of law enforcement’s response to campus demonstrations at Virginia’s colleges.

Two days later, the House announced a 12-member select committee would be formed to provide potential legislative recommendations.

House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said in a letter that Virginia must understand the policies allowing students to exercise their protected right to free speech while maintaining campus safety.

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“It is imperative that we understand the protocol followed and resources used by our local and state police when requests for assistance are made by our institutions of higher education,” Scott wrote. “We should identify areas where we can improve state policies in order to mitigate the incidents of unrest and arrest that we have witnessed this spring.”



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