WVSports.com continues with our popular feature: The 3-2-1. We'll breakdown three things we learned that week, two questions we have and give one prediction.
Here is the next installment of the 3-2-1 looking at the West Virginia football program, the latest on basketball and what’s happening in recruiting.
3 things I learned:
1—The Neal Brown era starts with a win. West Virginia didn’t play a perfect game against James Madison, in fact nowhere near it. But what they did manage to do is play well enough to start the Brown era off on the right foot by getting past the Dukes 20-13. It was clear from early on in the game that this game wasn’t going to be easily won and the Mountaineers got the best shot from Curt Cignetti’s club. It just wasn’t enough to keep West Virginia from rolling up its record to 20-0 against FCS programs.
James Madison provided a good test for several reasons considering they returned a very experienced team with 20 of 22 starters back from a season ago as well as some talented transfers infused. The defense will be one of the best at the FCS level this coming season and was able to take away some things from the Mountaineers and force them to adjust as the game continued.
In the end, the less experienced team made less mistakes and that played a significant role in the decision as the Mountaineers adopted the demeanor of their coaching staff by not panicking despite managing only 3 points and 107 yards at the half. It was touch and go for a while but the second half was a different story and West Virginia was able to string together just enough for the win.