Doege To Return In 2022 Per ESPN

During the broadcast on ESPN2, the sideline reporter Taylor McGregor dropped a bombshell when the ESPN2 play-by-play caller Anish Shroff threw down to Taylor

“Taylor, Jarret Doege chose not to walk today on Senior Day. Why?”

“He told me he has a lot of unfinished business, pointed out specifically his relationship with [wide receiver] Bryce Ford-Wheaton. He feels like they are just getting started and they’ve grown so much on and off the field together. He said ‘We’re so excited about what we could potentially do next season’”

This seemed to catch the booth off guard as you could hear them whispering in the mics as the ball was snapped and the play developed. The play needed to be reviewed and a TV timeout. This gave the crew a chance to regroup and after Leddie Brown picked up a first down, Anish once again came back to the conversation asking,

“Taylor, did Jarret Doege say he was coming back for sure next season?”

Taylor responded, “He did. He said he elected not to walk today because he plans to come back next season and there were a lot of reasons I mentioned, Bryce Ford-Wheaton, but he also said multiple times ‘I lead the Big 12 in passing’ so if that’s what he could do this year, with another year in this offense, another year to develop with his receivers, he feels that this team could be even more special next year”.

This has been the biggest question mark involved about the program, would the Big 12 passing leader come back and use his final year of eligibility. For head coach Neal Brown, who is likely facing a need to put together a quality season in 2022, Doege’s return answers one of the largest questions in the offseason. It also gives Brown and his staff an experienced signal caller to lead their offense.

The downside is the fans. Fans are split on Doege and rightfully so. Doege does lead the Big 12 in passing, but he also leads the Big 12 in interceptions. Doege has thrown 10 while the number two person, Texas quarterback Casey Thompson has thrown 7. West Virginia’s quarterback is only seventh in passing touchdowns with 13 entering today’s game, 10 behind the Big 12 leader, Casey Thompson. [Thompson entered the game 4th in passing yardage]. Doege has also been sacked 25 times entering today’s game, 11 more than #2, Casey Thompson. Jarret’s quarterback rating is ninth [out of ten qualified passers].

In the postgame interviews after the game, Jarret was asked point blank what his plans were for next year

“My focus is really on Texas this week and Kansas next week. [I’ll] sit down and talk to coach Brown after this season [and] see what happens”.