Neal Brown says team leaders have helped solidify WVU's identity
West Virginia and head coach Neal Brown have tried to find an identity for his football program over the last few years and now he feels they are at that point.
"The identity piece for us is something we really spent a lot of time on over the last 19 months of who we need to be to be successful at West Virginia. I feel like we found that and our team has bought into it, more importantly, the leadership of our team is we’re going to be a tough unit that’s really disciplined and plays smart football and we do those things with an underdog mentality with a chip on our shoulder," Brown said.
At Big 12 Media Days, WVU was represented by Aubrey Burks, Garrett Greene, Sean Martin, and Wyatt Milum, four players who have been under the direction of Brown and company in recent years.
"Garrett Greene he isn’t getting talked about as much as some others and his production speaks for itself, Wyatt Milum we feel he’s as good or better than any offensive lineman in the country and he’s our starting left tackle and I could go on and on," Brown said.
The four players mentioned will be the leaders on a team that hopes to take a jump from nine wins and a bowl game victory last season.
Martin will be one of the main producers on WVU's defensive line, what Brown calls the best part of the Mountaineer defense.
"Defensively, I think our defensive line is our strength there. We return a lot of those guys off one of the best units defensively last year in sacks and TFLs. I’m excited about our linebacker unit, we have more depth there. I really think that people are going to talk as we get into our season, they’re going to talk about some of our young linebackers — Josiah Trotter, Ben Cutter, Trey Lathan, are really talented players," Brown said.
"The Achilles heel for us has been in our secondary and we’ve got to play the pass better. We went out and addressed that in the transfer portal. We bring back Aubrey Burks who’s graded out extremely high the last couple years, but we went out and got some help in the secondary in the portal and I’m looking forward how that comes together when we get into practice."
Offensively, there is also a bulk of production returning, led by Greene and then Milum up front.
Brown said he believes games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and this year they will still be able to have a talented offensive line despite losing two starters, headlined by Zach Frazier going to the NFL.
"We got a big hole to fill, Zach Frazier got drafted by the Steelers, he will be the center of the future for the Steelers. He set the tone, he really did. He really changed our program and the trajectory just with how he worked. We return six of our top eight guys there," Brown said.
"Top two running backs, I really feel feed off each other. We have Jahiem White, who’s a shifty, fast, kid, then we have CJ Donaldson who’s 240 pounds, powerful, and then Garrett Greene is electric with the ball in his hands. Now people know what we’re going to do right, so to be able to continue that success, we’ve got to continue to innovate and I think we’ve found some ways we can do that during the offseason," he added.
Greene will be a focal point as a leader entering his second year as the full-time starter, and he also recognizes the identity of this Mountaineer team.
"I think keeping the main thing the main thing. We relied heavily on our offensive line last year, we look forward to doing the same. Our offensive line is anchored by Wyatt Milum who is the best tackle in the country. I look forward to playing behind him and him helping us win some games," Greene said.
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