Brown wraps up PSU loss and previews Duquesne on 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, recapping what went wrong in Saturday's loss against Penn State, previewing what to expect for the Mountaineers in their home opener against the Duquesne Dukes, and talking storylines around college football.

Below is a comprehensive summary, in chronological order, of what Brown had to say on Thursday ahead of Saturday's home-opener against Duquesne in the second edition of the Neal Brown Radio Show this season.

— To sum up Penn State, it was missed opportunity for Brown. He thought that if WVU could keep the game close in the fourth quarter, they could have applied pressure on the Nittany Lions. The team missed opportunities on multiple third and fourth down conversions that were there and Brown wanted to see the game get back to one score, because he liked the team's chances.

— Brown thought several groups won their individual battles, including WVU's offensive line versus Penn State's defensive line and then WVU's defensive line versus Penn State's offensive line. The passing offense and passing defense weren’t able to make plays when they needed too and gave up easy completions and explosive plays according to Brown.

— Brown says the team needs more repetitions of passing under pressure, but he thought WVU's wide recievers were able to win som against man coverage.

-- Defensively, he said they need to tweak small things in terms of coverage and that the defensive secondary players' situational awareness and fundamentals need to improve. He thought the team tackled well, especially against those two elite level running backs, but they just need to get off the field on third and fourth down and sure up some coverage issues.

— Brown expected that the environment at Penn State wouldn't bother the players and it didn’t in his opinion because there were not many procedural penatltes. He said that his guys were prepared and the noise didn’t affect them.

— Purely in terms of NFL-level talent, Brown said Penn State is the most talented team on their schedule, but he believes that Oklahoma should also be considered as one of the most talented squads on WVU's schedule.

— Brown thinks that PFF and its grades are good and bad since they specifically grade every play. Brown said Greene graded well but that he also proved that he's a competitor and leader, that pushes people to meet his standard of energy and effort. Brown says he handled the environment well, he handled the read run plays well and he was decisive in when to scramble and when to not scramble.

-- Brown says Greene needs to focus on making "100% of his layups." Greene missed two open passes that he should make and that inaccuracy is dependent on his feet being messed up and his body not being aligned. Brown thinks that if Greene can build on his good stuff, that the team can be really good.

— WIth Donaldson coming off of injury, Brown thinks his snaps against Penn State was a good number for where he's at, but you must be careful with running backs in terms of snaps.

-- Brown reiterated that the team's best players played well at Penn State. Center Zach Frazier was dominant and offensive lineman Doug Nester and Wyatt Milum did good things. On defense, defensive end Sean Martin and linebacker Lee Kpogba played really well and were impressive to Brown. Donaldson was another who played well and Brown said Nick Singleton was a great player, but he likes his guy.

— Brown said that he thinks WVU's indoor facility is nice and it has gotten a makeover recently with a video board, graphics, new turf and new paint, However, it has its disadvantages against other schools, such as only being 80 yards in length compared to a standard 120 yards. Brown said to improve, it would need LED lights and more space, but the area for that facility is landlocked. This is not an issue most of the time for Brown and he's appreciative since a lot of schools don’t have an indoor facility.

— Brown said that the rule on QB slides is that the official will mark you down where you start sliding, not where you go down or finish the slide. He thinks it’s unsafe but if you can dive for a first down, then it would be based on where the ball is. Brown admitted that sliding is something that Garrett Greene needs to get used to and get better at doing it and against Penn State he was hit late on two slides.

— Brown was upset on the sideline about a procedural penalty in the game and now looking back, he believes it was a penalty since WVU was lined up incorrectly. Brown said the officials crew did a good job calling the game though.

— To get receivers open against the Penn State man coverage, Brown said they utilized bunch formations, condensed formations, motions and wide receiver stacks to create separation. He thinks the wide receivers did win some of those battles and the man coverage wasn’t a factor since they hit deep balls and won on slant routes, but he wanted to connect more on those patterns. Brown is encouraged by his wide recivers winning on those routes and competing against the man coverage and they'll continue to see man coverage against Pittsburgh and Texas Tech this season.

— WVU must take care of business against Duquesne according to Brown but he’s unsure how the players will show up and react. He said there’s no excuse for not being ready when you have a week of practice to prepare for game. Brown said home games in Morgantown are events for the people of West Virginia and he expects that his players will be and must be ready to go.

— New additions around Milan Puskar Stadium include the Almost Heaven Village with a concert. party and tailgate area along with the Almost Heaven Donor Area in the south end zone as an area for fans to buy on-field tickets if they donate to the Mountaineer Athletic Club.

— Brown announced that cornerback Montre Miller will not play on Saturday due to injury and that his status will be updated early next week.

— Brown said that his special teams unit had an effect on the Penn State game, especially with the two missed field goals and a punt block that was missed by inches. Brown thought the net punt yard average was good and that West Virginia won the special teams field position battle.

— Brown said that the reason he took back over the play calling duties this season is because he believes it gives West Virginia the best chance to win games.

— Brown said he's not bitter about the team's scheduling blunders or results and he thinks they need to change it and there’s a path set forth to make change. Brown just thinks it was not smart scheduling in the past.

— Brown says Duquesne runs a spread offense and will test the Mountaineers by throwing the ball downfield and he expects them to try and control the clock. The Dukes' quarterback played well last week in his first true career start and he added that Duquesne has a Power 5 transfer as their running back. Brown has respect for them since they’re a good program with five conference titles in last nine seasons. The Dukes beat Ohio University two years ago and played Florida State last season.

— Brown says WVU's last scrimmage in fall camp was good and you can see some good things brewing from that. Brown said there’s a stigma that Garrett Greene is limited as a passer but he’s not. Brown believes that he has as strong as an arm as anyone playing college football right now, besides Tennessee's Joe Milton III. He said that Greene just needs to grow in handling his emotions while making different throws and putting touch on the ball.

—On the defensive side, Brown said Duquesne will mix things up on the defensive front and make them throw the ball while putting pressure on them and changing the players within the tackle box. Brown thinks WVU's pass protection, run blocking and picking up assignments is at an elite level.

— Brown said he got inspiration from Netflix's Quarterback documentary, Andy Reid's openness for new plays with his team and the Kansas City Chiefs on the spinning huddle play named "The Arctic Circle of Death." He also said that he found the idea for a “push” quarterback sneak from watching a Western Michigan football game from 3 years ago.

— Brown said the main reason that the two-quarterback trick play on fourth down against Penn State was blown up was because the ball was snapped too soon and that Greene would have been wide open on the opposite side.

—Brown made announcements on a few injury updates, where he said that freshman running back Jaheim White practiced this week and he should play on Saturday. He also said that freshman wide receiver Rodney Gallagher III should play on first two series if everything goes right.

-- Brown complimented White as a strong and powerful runner and that he’s a true running back. After the fact, Brown now said that Gallagher should have played more against the Nittany Lions and that he’s still learning how to play at this level. Brown thinks that he’s a hard worker, has great ball skills, that the moments are never too big for him and that he’s always making plays.

— Brown said that the recent conference realignment is unpredictable and is interesting with California and Stanford moving to the ACC. Brown's glad that WVU has a seat at the table and that they have had a partner to rely on the whole time in the Big 12 conference.

— In terms of other Big 12 teams losing in Week One, Brown said that you must be careful in making predictions about teams in the Big 12 this early into the season. Brown thinks that you will find out each team's true identity around Week Six, but he thinks it’s too early to put much stock into Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech losing to lesser opponents.

— Brown is confident that women's flag football will soon be a sanctioned high school sport across the country and could creep into the college levels.

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 Duquesne will be at 6 p.m. in Morgantown on Saturday.

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