Shane shines at WVU

Shane Commodore, grandson of the late Jim Commodore, Class of 1950, and son of Jim’s son, John Commodore, and Donna Commodore, is getting a lot of attention for a WVU football redshirt junior walk-on after his performance against TCU.

Shane was second team All-State at Morgantown High. He  played in five games for the Mountaineers in 2015.

Bob Hertzel’s story about Shane:

Commodore proves to be unlikely hero against TCU

·       By Bob Hertzel | For the Times West Virginian

·        

MORGANTOWN — Four years ago — plus a day — Shane Commodore played what he thought might be the most important football game of his life, performing in his final Mohawk Bowl on the artificial surface at Pone Lewis Field.

His Mohigans went into the game at 7-2 against crosstown rival University, which was 8-1, the only loss being to Bridgeport while it had won its two previous games, 93-0.

They were to some underdogs, but not to themselves for they tore the Hawks apart, 35-14, with Commodore all over the field on defense while carrying 13 times for 122 yards and a touchdown.

Yeah, that was as good as it gets, he figures, until this past Saturday when he made what well might have been the best, and the key play, in a 34-10 victory, this time doing it before 61,780 fans and a national television audience at Milan Puskar Field for WVU.

In every way that is the way it’s supposed to work out when you have a big time, grow up in a college town that hosts a big-time state university ... be a fan, show you can play, be a walk-on and work your way into becoming a Saturday hero ... modest, but a hero nonetheless.

It was the opening kickoff against TCU, a game that figured to swing on any single play. This just happened right out of the chute, Commodore not only making the stop on the kickoff deep in TCU territory, but ripping the ball loose and then managing to find a way to go get it.

Listen to head coach Dana Holgorsen on the play:

“We sit in here every Sunday and every single player on the team and every coach, we watch all the special teams’ plays,” Holgorsen related. “All I said was, ‘If you want to get in on one of these units, play like this.’

“He did a great job avoiding a block, making a tackle, forcing a fumble. He could’ve gotten up and started celebrating but he got right up, chased after the ball, after it was fumbled around one or two more times he ends up getting the recovery.

“That’s what special teams is all about, that effort, that non-stop getting after the ball, especially on the coverage units. That’s what we want out of all 10 of our guys running down the field.”

It comes from something within, something that grows as the player grows in the city of Morgantown.

Commodore doesn’t quite remember his first Mountaineer game, but knows he was about 5 years old when he first watched them play in then Mountaineer Field.

He does remember the best Mountaineer game he ever attended.

“I do remember the Virginia Tech game in 2003, when we beat them and they were No. 3 in the nation,” he said.

That game, in 2010, was rated No. 4 in the 30 most unforgettable games in Mountaineer history by the WVU sports information department.

The Big East was falling apart at that time and Virginia Tech was heading for the ACC, carrying a national No. 3 ranking and a 6-0 record. The Mountaineers were suffering through a sour season at 2-4 ... but this was Virginia Tech and WVU mussed their hair good at 28-7.

Games like that stick with you and Commodore grew up with the Mountaineers, through the Pat White era, through Bill Stewart’s upset of Oklahoma.

Then, in his senior year, coach Tony Gibson asked him if he’d walk on.

He had offers in Division II but it was a no-brainer.

You grow up in Morgantown and WVU owns you.

“You ask any kid on any Saturday here in town what they’re doing and they say they’re going to the WVU football game,” Commodore said. “I’d rather go here than anywhere else.”

It was a long, difficult road. The first year he redshirted; the second he didn’t get into a game.

“I always felt like I could play here,” Commodore, now a backup safety in addition to his special team duties, says.” It was more like me just trying to prove myself.

“I feel like the spring of my sophomore year I really felt like I could play here. That’s when I started getting some reps with the defense. It wasn’t a surprise to me. I wouldn’t have come here I didn’t think I could do it.”

Moving up the ladder as a walk-on, though, is a tough task.

Coaches tend to be more forgiving with scholarship players, players they have staked their own reputations on recruiting and into whom a lot of money is going.

A walk-on had a tougher time.

“It takes a lot of hard work,” Commodore said. “The one thing is no matter how hard they make it you have to keep pushing forward, keep getting better. Everyone is going to get their chance. Some may get it earlier, some later, but everyone will get their opportunity to prove themselves.”

What’s tougher is to get a second chance. They give scholarship players time to develop. The coaches may not be as forgiving of walk-ons.

“If you work hard, the coaches will understand that and be more likely to give you that second chance,” Commodore said. “if you prove to them you are committed and will work hard, they are more likely to give you a second chance.”

And so it is that now he’s a player, traveling with the team, seeing different schools and being impressed by what he sees, but ... “When we go on road trips, I’m like, ‘This place is cool, but it’s not home.’” he said.

See, for Shane Commodore, home is where his helmet is.