2023 B-U football schedule released; Morgantown to replace John Marshall

Duane Carpenter
May 16, 2023

TENNERTON – The WVSSAC recently released the football schedules for all West Virginia high school football programs and the Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers will have their usual slate of 10 games.

The Bucs will have one new opponent on the schedule for 2023 as the Morgantown Mohigans will replace the John Marshall Monarchs. The Mohigans will make the trip to Buckhannon on Sept. 22.

“It wasn’t making much sense taking the 2 ½ trip to Moundsville when we were going past a Class AAA team in Morgantown that was only an hour away,” said Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Zach Davis. “Plus, Morgantown is our region in other sports, it just made sense to have them back on the schedule.”

The Bucs will play six Class AAA teams and four Class AA teams.

“We have to play at least six Class AAA teams to be eligible for the post season,” noted Davis. “We want to play a competitive schedule but one that is manageable for us as well.”

All four Class AA teams are from the Big 10 Conference while three are considered to be longtime local rivals in Philip Barbour, Elkins, and Lewis County while Grafton is the fourth Class AA team on the schedule.

The six AAA teams are Bridgeport, which the Bucs open with on Aug. 25 along with Ripley, Morgantown, University, Oak Hill and Preston.

The Bucs’ bye week will be during week 11 of the season. While most coaches would prefer to have the bye week during the middle of the season for rest and recovery of injuries, Davis is taking a positive approach to the bye coming in week 11.

“The bye week during week 11 will give us a great opportunity to rest up before the playoffs,” said Davis.

The Bucs will also close out the season with someone different than the Elkins Tigers, who have been the finale for the last several years. B-U will play Elkins in week four and will now close out with the Preston Knights on Oct. 27.

“The game with Elkins wasn’t moved to the middle of the year for any particular reason,” stated Davis. “It was simply how things worked out this year.”

The Bucs will begin fall practice on Monday, July 31.