West Virginia had the benefit of a bye week prior to the Oklahoma State match up and with that came some opportunities to fix some issues as well as get an extended look at some of the freshmen.
The Mountaineers had four scrimmage-type practices with around 30 plays each in order to see where players have developed and if they have the ability to help the program moving forward this year.
Three players that took advantage of that opportunity were redshirt freshman Johnny Williams on the line, true freshman safety Jacob Boyce on defense and true freshman running back Diore Hubbard on offense. Williams has already seen action in games but has continued to grow and mature to the point that the coaching staff is comfortable putting him into a game if need be.
Boyce had been performing well in practice and has put himself in a position to be in the rotation at safety as he demonstrated not only the ability to fit the run well but also play well in coverage. Finally, Hubbard is at best third on the totem pole at running back but has shown the ability not only to run the football but hold up in protection at the position as well.
It’s unclear how much, if at all, these players will factor in immediately because head coach Neal Brown believes that those who have been playing give West Virginia the best chance to win but each of them needs to be prepared to step into a larger role if the situation presents itself.
“I think it really comes down to injuries,” Brown said.
Others that are in a similar boat are true freshman defensive lineman Elijah Kinsler as the next man up in that position group and true freshman wide receiver DayDay Farmer as both played well in practice.
“I don’t know if anybody steps up after the bye week and plays a ton of snaps, but I think it’s about guys that are prepared if we have some injuries,” Brown said.
But that is just one piece to the bye week formula, as the coaching staff was able to look at all three phases in order to see what tendencies they have put on tape through the first four games and where was the team getting exploited in each of those phases. The hope is to find a way to correct those and break some of those tendencies as well as looking at the personnel.
That includes looking at what personnel the coaching staff isn’t getting the most out of and what needs to improve on top of who’s not playing that can potentially help.
“Anytime it comes around that four-five game mark that's a good point to self-evaluate a lot of things and a lot of things. And I said this at the beginning, you find out, especially, you know, with rosters the way they are now, you find out first what you can do and what you thought you could do, maybe that you couldn't. So it gives you an opportunity to look at that,” defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said.
The goal is to improve.
“We did a good amount, probably more than we normally do, of god on good work during the bye week. A lot of it was pass game work, offense versus defense,” Brown said.
And while the coaching staff won’t know if those adjustments worked until they play a game, the general thought was that a lot was accomplished even without actual football being played.
“That’s the hope,” Brown said.
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