Neal Brown is getting creative to put guys in pressure situations
West Virginia head coach Neal Brown knows week one is anything but easy when they host No. 8 Penn State. In order to better prepare, Brown is using different strategies to see how guys perform under pressure.
"You got to trust your gut a little bit too and you got to do a really good job of creating pressure situations within practice. Part of the high school evaluation, if it's a freshman we're talking about or transfer, part of that evaluation process is how they handle pressure situations," Brown said.
For the most part, West Virginia knows who they are going to have to count on. Whether that be Garrett Greene for example at quarterback or CJ Donaldson and Jahiem White at running back, but there are also guys who are pushing for playing time as backups and in other areas of the roster, who Brown has to know he can fully trust in a big-time situation.
While predicting how they perform under pressure seems like a tall task, understanding how they do during intense practice sessions as well as in high school or previous stops in college is important to Brown.
"Brandon Rehman's got a really good chance to play as a freshman, he's played in three state championship games. He's had to go out there and play when it really, really, matters. TJ Jackson, he's a transfer but he's logged a ton of snaps, he's played two conference championship games. Those are both 12-o'clock ESPN kicks, he's had to play when it's bright," Brown said.
"That's how you kind of weigh it, if they've performed well, even if it hadn't been on your team, if they've had to do that. If I used the example with Rodney, he had to step up in the WPIAL and hit free throws in Pitt's arena and all eyes are on him. He'll probably handle this alright, you just kind of use some evaluation tools too."
Brown has also used practice to create pressure situations. Whether that be in one-on-one drills on the field or moments during meetings, Brown is getting creative to understand where some guys on his team are at.
"We've been trying to put them in pressure situations the whole time. We'll do simple stuff too like one-on-ones with the group. Like with the punter, I'll tell them we're going to do a pooch punt and I'll usually tell them in our team meeting pre-practice, 'Hey, we're going to do a pooch punt, if you put it inside the eight-yard line, we're not going to run, if it's outside the eight, we're going to run.' Like it or not, they're going to think about it the whole time," Brown said. We'll do a kickoff challenge where we're going to do a deep left and you got to perform a dip left or there's going to be something."
Before August 31st hits, Brown wants to have a real good pulse on where his team is top-to-bottom as far as them in the big-time moments. He knows Penn State is no joke of an opener and he demands his team be ready.
"You try to put them where all eyes are on them. And you can do it in the meeting room too, where you put a little pressure on them whether it's answering questions, making them talk, anything that gets somebody out of their comfort zone I think helps and it tells a little bit of are they going to be ready, is it too big for them. There's some guys if they fail, you better tee them up the next time to make sure it works because you want them to be ready and confidence is a big piece of it," Brown said.
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