On Tuesday, West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown spoke on his weekly Neal Brown Radio Show with WVU play-by-play commentator Tony Caridi, discussing WVU's primetime matchup against former head coach Dana Holgorsen and the Houston Cougars on Thursday, discussing preparation and what to expect on Thursday night.

Below is a comprehensive summary, in chronological order, of what Brown had to say on Tuesday ahead of Thursday's inaugural matchup against Houston in the fourth edition of the Neal Brown Radio Show this season.

— Neal says he owes a lot to Dave Wolfley in terms of relationships with donors and alumni and that he was the one to educate Brown on tradition of the program and everything he needed to know about WVU. Brown said it was a sad few days and that Wolfley was an ambassador for how college football should be.

— Brown said the team has practiced well since Friday but this bye week they've had is different because of the physical and high stress games they've played in through the first five games. Brown said the players were given Sunday through Tuesday off, with a light practice on Wednesday, then were off on Thursday before they went back into full practice on Friday. When they got back and did Houston prep, the players had high energy and were ready to go, so they handled it well and seem prepared and ready to go. Brown’s excited to see how they are.

— In practice, they have to be physical on Tuesday and Wednesday but the coaches must be smart with how many reps are given by who's getting the reps because of how physical they practice.

— There was so much that happened during the TCU game and Brown said they handled the diversity well. With two players being carted off, Brown had never dealt with that as a coach before. Brown thought the players fought through it and they competed really hard for the win. He said they handled the first five games as good as they could and he was proud of how they especially handled adversity against TCU.

— Brown said this team has encountered the good and the bad but they’ve come out on the other end of it, but now it’s how they handle their success. With the bye week, the success they’ve had has set in and it’s easier to handle negativity rather than the changes that come with the positivity and that's different. The team needs to get a lot better and stay humble because it’s a long season. Brown said it's a challenge, because they must continue to get better because every team will give them their best shot.

— Brown thinks both of the QBs are doing much better and the time off was good for them in terms of recovery. Nicco Marchiol’s ankle injury wasn’t as bad as Greene's and Greene will once again get the start on Thursday. Brown is confident in Greene’s abilities and expects him to have a breakout game sometime, which could prove his abilities to the program and the fanbase.

— The offensive line group has came into its own this season and Brown said that group was built the traditional way, through recruiting and developing each player. Now, that group's work ethic has spread to the defensive line and it helped them get better every day, so those two groups against each other are some of the best competitions every practice. WVU has played two tempo teams in the last two games, so being able to rotate different defensive lineman against other teams tires out the opposing offensive line since WVU can rotate fresh guys in.

— Brown feels like the natural tendencies from fans is that when someone leaves their team that they’re bad. He says that Dana Holgorsen did a lot of good things in his time and that time can heal all wounds since he won 10 games twice and won an Orange Bowl here at WVU. The players don’t necessarily feel that it’s a personal game because of the coaching connection however.

— Something that's interesting to Coach Brown is how Houston and WVU have never played before. The buildup for fans comes from Dana’s connection but there’s no history there besides that.

-- Now, WVU is nowhere near the Top 25 rankings and Brown thinks this is a chance for the team to show how much better they’ve gotten with not much football on TV since Houston has played well in their first two Big 12 games. The Cougars are really good at the skill positions but their defensive tackles, defensive ends and cornerbacks are good, so WVU's hands will be full. Brown said that the truth is, they’re 4-1 and there are other teams that are ranked ahead of them with bad losses who have played less Power 5 opponents and Brown thinks they should be ranked but they need to prove it.

— When it comes to recruiting in the state of West Virginia, Brown hasn't had to change much since West Virginia high school kids are transferring and changing schools more often now. He said it comes down to the program tracking high school kids in terms of what schools they're attending.

— In the offseason, Brown said the team put an emphasis on less penalties with focus on proper blocking, hand placement and leverage and avoiding procedural penalties. Brown thinks that on a week to week basis, penalties especially play an impact in close games.

— For Thursday's game against Houston, West Virginia is wearing blue Country Roads helmets, with blue numbers on white jerseys, white pants and white cleats.

— Brown thinks that the advantages of Thursday games is that there are a lot of eyes of on the team in terms of recruiting. Brown said you also get more time before and after the game in front of their. next game, which is nice to have. Brown admits that Conference USA teams, such as former WVU coach Rich Rodriguez and Jacksonville State, are playing a lot of midweek games and he said that it would be so hard to get on a schedule or routine when you could play any day Tuesday through Saturday in a single week.

— In Brown's eyes, assistant coach Blaine Stewart has done a nice job with the tight ends and backup tight end Treylan Davis has made an impact in short yardage, inside the red zone and on kick return. Houston does a good job on the kick return team so Davis will have a big challenge this week according to Brown.

— Each week, Brown wants to be unique so they reuse some basic schemes and then they try to dress those up differently and disguise it. Brown thinks that the running game has some issues but it’s not struggling. They're able to use tight ends as a second blocker and for them to use two running back sets, they would need to block better for each other. Brown says they’ve been good but they could play better in the running game. CJ Donaldson had two of his closest friends go down and get carted off against TCU and that affected him and his performance alongside the one-year anniversary of his season-ending injury. Brown thinks he’ll continue to improve and play much better this week.

— Brown said that safety Aubrey Burks, who was carted off the field in the last game, is getting better but it’s too early to say if he’ll play on Thursday against Houston. It was a scary deal but he’s improving and going through protocol.

— Brown thinks that this game will be important to Holgorsen and their program. He admits that they have some exceptional pieces and they’ll want starting quarterback Donovan Smith to get some space and try to scramble like they like to do. Offensively, they’ll want to get their top two wide receivers, Sam Brown and Matthew Golden, in space as well. Along with Sam Brown, former Mountaineers Tony Mathis and Mike O'Laughlin will all play for Houston and it’s an exciting game for those three guys that used to be here. Brown thinks that it will become a new normal to see players playing against their former teams more often, but communication must be considered to make the necessary changes with the former players.

— Brown said that Houston does a good job mixing up their fronts and will play man coverage and on defense, they’ll have their guys ready. Their defensive tackles have stuck out to him, they’re really strong and they won't get moved easily. Houston's defensive ends have really good speed and their cornerbacks have played really well and covered everybody.

-- Wide receiver Devin Carter played really well before his injuries and has had his moments this season but they need more out of him. Punter Oliver Straw is having a really good season and has been putting it together while dealing with injury. As a punter that can kick with both feet, he gives them a lot of flexibility.

— Since punt returns have become more difficult with more gunners and punters being able to place the ball all over the field, Brown thinks catching a punt is one of the hardest things in football. WVU's punt returner, Preston Fox, has done a great job for them and has earned a lot of respect as a threat at punt returner.

— For this week's PARCS Superstore Hardest Worker of the Week, Brown picked in-state running back Judah Price, who has won special team’s players of the week and special teams scout player of the week and he continues to get stronger. Brown said that the players from West Virginia like Price have taken full advantage of the strength and conditioning at this level to get stronger.

-- Brown said that there are 10 to 12 schools that have more NIL financial availability than others so it's important to see how they'll balance that.

Kickoff against Houston on Thursday night will be at 7 p.m. with the television broadcast available on FS1.

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