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 a home contest against Oklahoma State with West Virginia at 4-4 and the head coach dove into some key topics not only for this week but the rest of the season.
1—Update on injuries. West Virginia is going to be without two players at least through the rest of the regular season as Brown announced that tight end Mike O’Laughlin won’t play again this year and cornerback Nicktroy Fortune won’t be back through at least the rest of the regular season. It’s a significant blow to a team that already has been dealing with depth concerns in multiple areas especially with how both players had been playing of late. O’Laughlin had been playing his best football of the season and had emerged as the primary option at tight end, but that role now must be filled by a combination of redshirt junior T.J. Banks and redshirt freshman Charles Finley.
Banks played his best game of the season against Iowa State seeing a total of 49 snaps and serving not only as an impressive blocker but catching 3 passes for 34 yards as well. That is going to need to be a weekly occurrence moving forward as Banks is going to be counted on to raise his level of play.
At the cornerback spot, redshirt junior Charles Woods filled in for Fortune against Iowa State and will continue in that role moving forward. The Illinois State transfer has played well since taking over the last six quarters but those behind him are going to be asked to elevate their game as well.
In response to the injury, the Mountaineers will move cornerback Jackie Matthews between spear and cornerback while redshirt senior Scottie Young will backfill at other spots. It’s not easy to replace experienced players but over the final four games this team doesn’t really have a choice.
2—Wyatt Milum, rest of line developing. The true freshman was named the offensive lineman of the week after earning the start with eight knockdowns and was the most productive on that unit. There was a lot of high expectations for Milum over the course of his career but with this level of play you can’t help but wonder if he’s even ahead of schedule.
The Mountaineers settled on a starting five of left tackle Brandon Yates, left guard James Gmiter, center Zach Frazier, right guard Doug Nester and right tackle Milum and the unit has played its best football over the past two weeks coming out of the bye. The unit has gelled at the right time and is a big part of the success on the offensive side of the football as the Mountaineers have averaged 33.5 points per game over the last two contests after averaging just over 20 in the first five against FBS teams.
The group is simply playing more physical up front and is straining to finish blocks, which wasn’t necessarily the case early in the season. In pass protection, the coaches cleaned up some things schematically to help out the offensive tackles while the run game has simply been more consistent with the attention to details in playing better in that spot. That means the footwork, hand placement and eyes are all aligned and it’s leading to results in a lot of different areas.
3—Patching holes in the secondary. With Fortune now out for the rest of the regular season, West Virginia has moved to a rotation where starting spear Jackie Matthews will rotate with former starter Scottie Young at that position while Young also will rotate at the other safety spots in the scheme.
Matthews also will play a role at cornerback to help fill in there, while redshirt freshman Daryl Porter and redshirt junior Charles woods will serve as the starters. The fourth cornerback is former walk-on Malachi Ruffin, but there are clearly depth concerns at those positions down the final four games.
With the fourth safety spot, the Mountaineers plan to rotate the younger safety bodies to get snaps with Caleb Coleman playing that role against Iowa State, while they could use Saint McLeod, Davis Mallinger and some others that could work their way into the mix at times.
4—Defensive line work. Dante Stills is playing the best football of his career over the last month and while that might now show on the stat sheet every game, it’s enabled those around him to play better. The same can be said for Akheem Mesidor and Brown credits the improvement of the fundamentals up front as a big piece of that. Position coach AJ Jackson has that group getting push off the ball and if this team is going to be good defensively it has to be up front.
There is more depth there compared to other spots on the unit and down the stretch run of this season the defensive line is impacting the game and really helping to cover up some other areas on the field.
5—Joseph’s impact. Mike Joseph, head of West Virginia’s strength and conditioning program, is revered not only by the current players but former ones. Brown said that any former player that returns always stops in to see Joseph first and he is one of the most selfless people in the football building. He has strong ties to the state and is really well-regarded in the field.
He has the perfect mix of science and toughness, which sets him apart from many in the field of strength and conditioning. He has a nice approach with the players that really resonates and his work has played a major role in the development of the team over his career.
Brown credited the work that Joseph did in helping the team perform better against Iowa State with the work they did over the off-season and that’s going to be key down the stretch run as well.
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