Neal's deal: Five key items from West Virginia football

WVSports.com looks at the weekly press conference from West Virginia head coach Neal Brown and determines the five most interesting topics of discussion.

We examine what was said as well as what it means for the football team both this week and moving ahead as the Mountaineers navigate the 2021 schedule.

Next up is Texas Tech and Brown discussed that matchup, issues with his team and what needs to happen moving forward.

1—West Virginia hasn’t played well against Texas Tech. This isn’t a shock to anybody that’s watched the two games the past two seasons, but the Red Raiders have clearly had the Mountaineers number. The game in 2019 might be the worst of the entire Neal Brown era given the opponent and the fact the game was in Morgantown and last season the Mountaineers lost a game in Lubbock that they probably should have won with miscues and mistakes at critical junctions of the game.

Turnovers, an inability to run the ball effectively and in the red zone have been the biggest issues as to why West Virginia hasn’t been able to win, and Texas Tech has gotten things done in that two-year window. Those things must change in this meeting between the two.

Fast forward a year later and Texas Tech will come to Morgantown off a 70-35 loss to Texas. That isn’t an indication of this team as a whole as the Red Raiders had played very well through three weeks but ran into a buzzsaw in Austin against a talented Longhorns team.

Texas Tech will bring the same starting quarterback as a season ago in Henry Colombi who gave the West Virginia issues with his ability to scramble and extend plays in the win last season. They also feature a talented group of skill players led by a deep running back group and pass catcher Erik Ezukanma. The defense was not accurately represented in that game against the Longhorns either as the unit has been improved in the other contests this year.

This is huge game for both clubs and with West Virginia being at home it is a chance to change the recent history between these two programs and find a way to win at home.

2—Second half scoring struggles. Brown didn’t shy away from the fact that his offense has failed to put up points in the second half this season against FBS teams with only 9 over the three opportunities. He also took blame for that against both Maryland and Virginia Tech, although he did admit to taking the air out of the ball a little too early against the Hokies. But Brown did make a good point about the offense against Oklahoma, where the Mountaineers only had a total of three possessions.

Those three possessions resulted in a field goal, which could have been more if not for some miscues inside the ten-yard line, a possession where they missed an open man on third down and the misfire on the snap where the offense had drove the ball to the Oklahoma 27-yard line.

That could have resulted in another score had that miscommunication not occurred which means that the offense could have walked away with two scores on three possessions on the road against the No. 4 team in the nation. That is something that many would take, but ultimately the snap halted the drive, and the Sooners would drive the ball down for the game winning field goal.

It’s clear that the Mountaineers have to improve in that area and Brown admitted that they had to find ways to create more explosive plays. West Virginia came in with a plan to shorten the game and minimize the possessions, but the offense wasn’t able to capitalize in those situations. He did admit that he has to do a better job schematically to put them in position to put more points on the board.

Brown admitted they need to save more for the second save and there are some other adjustments that they can do in order to have more success with different looks. Still, it’s clear they have to get better and find a way to score more in the second half of games.

3—West Virginia has to trust its depth. Coming into the season, Brown made it clear that West Virginia was going to have to rely on some younger and relatively unproven players at spots on defense. That was the case against Virginia Tech, but the Mountaineers didn’t do that as much against the Sooners playing only a total of 17 players and one of those only was in the game for a total of four snaps.

Brown admitted that West Virginia got tired at defensive line and linebacker late in the game against the Sooners and the final two drives were the difference in the game. On the line, the Mountaineers need more production from some of those second team players such as Sean Martin, Darel Middleton and Jalen Thornton as they continue to develop.

Overall, Brown believes that this defense has a chance to be as good or better than the unit last year that finished No. 4 nationally but the schedule is more challenging with who they have to play.

West Virginia had every opportunity to beat Oklahoma on Saturday night. The team has shown that it’s improving in several key areas, but it has to continue to improve on both sides of the ball and with the usage of those on the depth chart on defense to spell some people and give them a chance to win those close games along with more effectively play on the offensive side of things.

4—Those snaps. Brown made it clear that two plays did not define the performance by sophomore center Zach Frazier and overall, he played “his ass off,” against the Sooners. On the first snap infraction, it was simply a bad play by the center where he was falling backwards and the second misfire that put the Mountaineers out of field goal range it was a situation where he thought that the quarterback wanted the ball snapped and he didn’t. That led to the loss of yards that effectively killed the drive.

Brown wasn’t sure if Oklahoma might have said something to confuse matters because it’s hard to say in that instance, but it was a significant play. But just one play out of an entire game’s worth to review.

Brown left no doubt that outside of those two plays, Frazier played very effectively against a very difficult Oklahoma front which is no easy feat. He said he will take him every single time in that situation in that moment and he will continue to learn from it moving forward. Frazier has been one of the highest graded players on the entire offense this season and that one play should not define him.

5—Finding a second back is key. West Virginia has a proven starter in running back Leddie Brown, but the Mountaineers have struggled for the second season in a row to generate much when he is out of the game. Brown is getting some touches but has played too many snaps which has affected his ability to stay fresh late into games and give the Mountaineers some juice when they need to grind things out.

The Mountaineers have done a good job of not allowing free hitters to him at times and he has done the same with generating yards after contact, but they have to do a better job getting the ball to him in the passing game. Because of the struggles up front, Brown has had to be used in protection more and while he’s done a great job in that role it does take away from what he can do on that front.

It’s on them to find somebody else that is going to emerge in order to give them more production when Brown needs to come out of the game. Outside of the Long Island game, the backups have carried the ball 2 times for a total of 5 yards. That has to change not only for the offense to be more productive but for Brown to stay fresh when the Mountaineers need him late in games.

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