Neal Brown hasn’t coached a single game at West Virginia yet but his athletic director Shane Lyons is prepared for a potential rebuilding process with the football program.
Lyons met with media members for his annual summer state of the West Virginia athletics address and quickly tempered expectations when it comes to the upcoming 2019 football campaign.
“We have to be a bit realistic here,” Lyons said. “We lost five guys to the NFL Draft. Several key players on the offensive side of the ball.”
Those five players were quarterback Will Grier, left tackle Yodny Cajuste, wide receiver Gary Jennings, tight end Trevon Wesco and linebacker David Long. Each of those were seniors outside of Long who elected to forego his final season of eligibility while wide receiver David Sills also graduated.
So naturally there are going to be challenges facing a first year head coach that is trying to put his stamp on the program and develop a culture.
“He’ll talk about how our running backs are good, but we’ll be a little weak in a receivers’ standpoint,” Lyons said. “On the offensive line we can be OK if everybody’s healthy, but we don’t have a whole lot of depth. The defensive side a lot of players have seen some playing time in the past, but probably no big, big names. Hopefully a few have a breakthrough year.”
That became even more critical with the departures of leading wide receiver Marcus Simms, all-Big 12 Conference safety selection Kenny Robinson and projected starter Derrek Pitts at the other safety spot to the transfer portal. Only Pitts has enrolled at another school after selecting Marshall.
Lyons has spent a lot of time with Brown on the road traveling with caravans and other events and has been impressed with how he and his coaching staff have hit the ground running.
“From my lenses it’s been exceptional,” he said.
While there are holes to fill, Lyons has been impressed with how hard the coaches have worked to address those and everything else that has been going on at the Puskar Center.
“There are some holes to be filled. But he’s filling those holes and building a great culture,” he said.
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On the subject of adding additional sports such as men’s track or softball, Lyons said that he is not focused on any additions as much as he is on improving the 18 sports currently available. Adding non-revenue sports is difficult to navigate with the costs so the focus is currently continuing to upgrade and improve what is already on the lineup of sports at West Virginia.
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Lyons said that the discussion of naming rights continues and officials are going through the process of potentially exploring that as an option at the various university athletic facilities. It offers a possible revenue stream to look at in the future but it will be important to find the right partner as much as it would be to add the funding that could be earned from it. Still, it is something that is being explored.
Also be sure to read: Lyons focused on continuous improvement to WVU football facilities
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