West Virginia head coach Neal Brown held his weekly radio show on Thursday evening in Morgantown, discussing how his team performed against Baylor last week and the threat UCF poses as an opponent this week.
Breaking Down the Baylor Loss
West Virginia suffered a 49-35 loss to Baylor this past weekend. Trailing by a touchdown at halftime, WVU didn't score again until the final minute of the game.
"For us, we didn’t do a really good job on critical downs. We had a third down and three fourth downs," Brown said.
Brown added that they didn't make the necessary plays when it mattered the most, and that's what cost them. He said they are holding each other accountable this week, and that's an important piece of it going forward.
"We talk about owning it, and I think you have to be accountable. As coaches, you have to be accountable, as players, you have to be accountable for what didn’t go well," Brown said.
Brown also said WVU's struggles on defense with their physicality especially on the outside when Baylor got the ball towards the sidelines.
"We got big-boyed on the perimeter. Baylor has good size... to me, that’s the telltale, they physically got after us on the perimeter," Brown said.
Replacing Traylon Ray and Eddie Vesterinen Injury Update
One of the more impactful things that took place last Saturday was West Virginia losing Traylon Ray.
Brown gave an update on Ray, who was carted off and had season-ending surgery on Sunday.
"The injury looked really gruesome. The positive is it’s very manageable. He had surgery on Sunday morning early, the surgeon and orthopedic surgeon feels really, really, good about it," Brown said. "They’ll have him back up in January, and he’ll probably be back running full speed by February," Brown said.
Brown added they are going to have to rely upon the other receivers to step up, most notably Hudson Clement and Justin Robinson.
"Hudson is the one that’s got to pick up the slack, and he’s capable," Brown said.
Brown said Eddie Vesterinen who has missed the majority of the season with an injury will hopefully redshirt and the plan is for him to come back next season.
"That’s his plan right now. We’re excited to get him back, he’s not only a good player but one of the hardest workers in our program," Brown said.
Previewing UCF
The running game will determine who will win this weekend between WVU and UCF. Brown said what UCF does well on offense is what WVU does well on defense — run the ball.
"Quality team. They’re sitting in there, their season hasn’t gone as well as they’ve liked. They’ve played well the last two weeks... they’re going to be healthy, they’ll be fresh, and they’re coming in here with one of the best offenses in the country," Brown said.
Brown said it's also the same on the other side of the ball. WVU wants to run the ball, and UCF is really good at stopping the run.
"I think on both sides. If you look at it, it’s kind of a strength on strength in both aspects," Brown said of the rushing attack.
UCF's RJ Harvey is by far the best rusher in the Big 12 and has 19 scores on the ground and 21 total scores this season.
The running back is so patient. What he does is he does a really good job getting to the line of scrimmage, and he's going to be patient and knife it vertical, or he's going to bounce it... really good player. Our gap integrity, how we play up front, is going to be absolutely critical," Brown said.
As far as facing UCF's defense, Brown said they are going to face a new defensive coordinator, and structurally, they are the same, but tendencies might change.
"Schematically, the structure of what they’re doing, they’re a four-down front team, they play a 4-2-5 grouping," Brown said.
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