Brown talks Backyard Brawl, its importance on weekly radio show
On Thursday, West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown spoke on his weekly Neal Brown Radio Show with WVU play-by-play commentator Tony Caridi, touching on and previewing the importance of Saturday's Backyard Brawl matchup against Pittsburgh and previewing what this game means to him but also what to expect from the Mountaineers in their first home game against the Panthers since 2011.
Below is a comprehensive summary, in chronological order, of what Brown had to say on Thursday ahead of Saturday's massive matchup against Pittsburgh in the third edition of the Neal Brown Radio Show this season.
— Saturday's game in Morgantown against Duquesne is the third time in program history at home, that there has been an elongated delay due to lightning. The two other games were against Virginia Tech and Marshall.
— Coach Brown has a feeling for a big football weekend and can feel the energy around this game. This weekend's game is the first true Saturday night game in Morgantown since 2016 against Oklahoma and kickoff will be at exactly at 7:42 p.m.
— Brown said that this game against Pittsburgh is not one that requires him to motivate his players and get them ready. They’ve had a great week in practice this week and he expects that they’ll be amped up. He views Saturday as a chance at redemption for last year’s loss as well a redemption in the team's second primetime Saturday game of the season.
— Brown felt bad for the band's performance and skipping the halftime last week and although he knows it's out of everyone's control, he feels for them since they've now lost a game or "lost a rep."
— Against Duquesne, Brown believes that WVU came out and started fast defensively but then a fluke play happens on the punt return where the ball bounces off a WVU player, and then the Dukes converted a big play. It took the Mountaineers longer to get started on offense than they would have liked but Brown doesn’t think that the adversity is a bad thing for the team. Brown didn’t berate his players during the break, but he told them they needed to do better and then they took care of business. Getting a sizeable lead allowed the team to play a lot of young guys and these guys are developing. Brown thinks that it’s an important positive to play an FCS opponent, since it could influence players to work hard and feel motivated since they got an opportunity. But overall, he was impressed with how they showed up out of the locker room after the break against the Dukes.
— One player that popped in last week's game was freshman linebacker Ben Cutter but Brown said he got beat in some pass coverage and that's something he'll continue to learn. Others that popped included defensive lineman Tomiwa Durojaiye and Corey McIntyre Jr. at nose guard. Johnny Williams IV on the offensive line was impressive to Brown and other offensive lineman Cooper Young, Nick Krahe, and Sullivan Weidman had some good snaps.
Brown said freshman half back Jaheim White’s role will continue to grow this season and of course Hudson Clement showed up and will start this week following his huge performance. Fellow freshman running back DJ Oliver also had some good snaps.
— Brown said it was good that sophomore quarterback Nicco Marchiol got to play the whole second half and it was some valuable and meaningful snaps for him and he continues to get better. Brown said it’s hard to play Power 5 quarterback, but Marchiol is on a normal progression and has made a huge bump in progress over the last 18 months or so, which makes Brown think that he will be a big time player at quarterback for WVU.
Starting quarterback Garrett Greene showed how he can throw the ball in front of a big setting in front of the home fans and he will continue to grow. Greene can throw the football but he will continue to work on his accuracy and Brown likes where he’s at and is confident that he’ll continue to progress. Brown said that obviously on the other hand, they need to catch the football better.
— Brown said the team needs to catch the ball better offensively and also need to improve in covering the passing game on defense and everyone was able to see that. Brown said that it simply boils down to playing zone coverage and everyone meeting their responsibility. Each player must get hands on anyone in their zone and keep their eyes on QB and reach their spots, but three to four specific players are repeat offenders with missing their assignments and if one guys doesn't do his job it causes problems.
— The team played better in practice and scrimmages at defending the pass but Brown isn't sure if it's performance anxiety that affects them in the game. However, he’s confident in his guys, but he needs to see them perform in a game. Brown said, "if you prepare, you have an opportunity to perform on Saturday but if you don’t prepare, you have no opportunity." In terms of personnel, Brown has made some changes after Penn State that he didn't want to show on film. Safety Marcis Floyd will be back in the lineup and Brown believes that he’s intelligent and can play multiple positions.
— Pittsburgh has a veteran coaching staff and Brown said you have to respect what they’ve done over the last two years. They've had nine or more wins, won an ACC championship and have had multiple draft picks. He said they're a confident group in terms of their defensive identity up front and they’ll be aggressive, pressure you, make it hard to run the football, challenge receivers and earn yards in the pass game. Pittsburgh struggled last week against Cincinnati, but they’re creative on offense and they have a group of quality running backs. They play to the identity of head coach Pat Narduzzi and their quarterback has played a lot of football but hasn’t performed well, so Brown said might see a different guy on Saturday.
— Brown thought that WVU surprised Pitt last season running the football, in terms of both scheme changes and freshman CJ Donaldson toting the ball. He said they ran the ball more efficiently last year than Graham Harrell had done before but the Panthers' defense made some mistakes against West Virginia that they didn’t make through the rest of the year, some of those first-game type of errors.
— When disguising plays and gameplanning, Brown said you don’t mess with the quarterback's in pass game progression and the run game, but you can move around a lot in other places. The concepts they've shown in Week One is what they want to do every week and keep that identity, but they can dress their base plays differently against every opponent to maintain their identity. When introducing new schemes, the coaching staff tries to make it different and it builds energy to do new and different things, which helps them stay locked in.
— Brown said that tight end Kole Taylor has unique length and exceptional ball skills. He's also a bright player and a hard worker. He just said he needs improve on having a lower pad level in blocking situations but Brown’s excited about what he’s added to the offense and where he’s going.
— Brown doesn't feel like this game is career defining for Greene but it’s definitely the biggest game that he’s played in his career and he understands that. The players this year know what the rivalry is and they felt it last season. This fanbase can be hard and Greene has got some coaching about the ups and downs of the position.
— Brown has a full back in Luke Hamilton that he likes and they plan to continue to use him. They want to play multiple TE’s and they've been consistent in using both of their running backs and plan to use both of them going forward.
— Brown says punter Oliver Straw will be a game-time decision for Saturday's game. Straw’s kicking foot got hit in the air and it is a sprained ankle for him, which is really tough for a special teams guy who depends on it. Backup punter Leighton Bechdel will be ready to punt if Straw can't go, but he's rehabbed hard.
— Brown said that freshman wide receiver Rodney Gallagher III has that it factor and since he was a highly recruited, that can sometimes cause an ego, but they didn’t have to deal with that for him. He’s came into the program and has worked really hard and he's played on punt return team where people haven't noticed. He’s been hungry and humble and his role will increase as the season goes on, but he’ll be a great player for WVU.
— Brown felt like defensive line group is best group they’ve had. All together, he believes they’ve got real talent and defensive lineman Sean Martin is playing well right now and had seven or eight NFL scouts who came to see him and the offensive line. Nose guard Mike Lockhart is growing according to Brown and Edward Vesterinen is someone the fans should love, since he’s a blue-collar, hard worker. Fellow defensive lineman Asani Redwood will come back this week as well, so there’s a lot of guys up front they’re getting quality snaps from.
— Linebacker Lee Kpogba has played better and he’s made a big jump from year one to year two according to Brown. He’s a tough player and acts as the personality of the defense. Freshman linebacker Trey Lathan is extremely athletic but the game is still new to him, but he’s blitzed well.
— Brown said Pittsburgh will utilize a lot of shifts and motions, along with incorporating multiple TE’s. They will challenge you in the running game and take shots down the field on your defense when you're forced to load the tackle box. To stop Pitt’s running game you have to lock in on blocks and close running lanes.
— Pitt’s kicker is really good, made all but two field goals last year, he’s left footed, with an extremely strong leg. Punt team does lots of formations, and he’s apart of their punt team shield. Kickoff return has always been good but they lost main returner Israel Abanikanda.
— Brown said having Pittsburgh as a regualr on the schedule makes sense for the program and he thinks the one Power 5 non-conference game every year should be Pitt versus WVU. He believes the game is nationally relevant and the fans love it. He thinks it makes a lot sense to play it every week.
— In terms of injury, Brown said they should be full speed with freshman wide receiver Traylon Ray and Devin Carter practicing every day this week and both returning for Saturday. Ray won’t necessarily start on Saturday, but he’ll see the field. Wide receiver E.J. Horton will be a game-time decision in terms of his injury.
— In other news around the Big 12, Brown said that Texas got a great win and what K-State did against Troy was impressive, despite the Wildcats' early seasons issues they’ve had before. He also thought Cincinnati got a quality win for the Big 12. Brown thinks that Will Howard is one of the most underrated players in the conference. He just thinks it’s a bit too early to see who these teams are and what they're made of.
— Brown was excited that former Mountaineer J.T. Daniels performed very well and completed a big win against Houston this past week. At West Virginia, he did everything Brown and the coaching staff asked of him and they wish him well.
The Neal Brown Radio Show will take place every Thursday before every WVU matchup this season from 6 to 8 p.m. on Mountaineer Sports Network. Two exceptions include the two weeks leading up to matchups against Houston and Baylor, which this show will be broadcasted on Tuesday, Oct. 10, and Tuesday, Nov. 21
Kickoff against Pittsburgh will be at 7:30 p.m. in Morgantown on Saturday.
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