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 2023 schedule.
Next up is a home matchup with BYU coming off a road win against UCF to push the overall record to 5-3, 3-2 in the Big 12 with four games remaining.
1—Injuries. Starting right tackle Doug Nester went down with a lower leg injury against UCF and did not return. Brown labeled him as doubtful heading into the week, meaning that if he can’t suit up the job would again go to Nick Malone who filled in on the left side when Wyatt Milum was out earlier this year.
The good news is that both wide receivers Hudson Clement and Traylon Ray will both play against the Cougars, while Brown is hopeful that starting spear Hershey McLaurin also will be back after missing the contest against UCF and thrusting Raleigh Collins into a much larger role.
Andrew Wilson-Lamp will be back as well and while he hasn’t played a big role on the defense, has been a very key piece on special teams for the Mountaineers. The only other player that definitely won’t be suiting up is holder Graeson Malashevich will miss due to a freak issue at least one more week.
Offensive lineman Brandon Yates will be back as well and there are no lingering effects after he left the game for a play but returned against the Knights.
2— Defense has to improve. Yes, West Virginia gave up 28 points and 463 yards to UCF but overall, it was a much better performance than the week prior against Oklahoma State. Things started slowly for the group, but they were able to settle in and play much better in the second half. After allowing 162 rushing yards in the first half, the defense held the Knights to just 27 in the second.
The Mountaineers forced a total of four turnovers which resulted in 21 points and tackled much better in the second half although they did miss a total of 12 for the game. Some of that can be attributed to injuries which have taken a large chunk of the depth and even some starters away, but there are some things that can be corrected moving forward with the unit.
West Virginia must be better in their run fits, especially on the edge of the defense. The spear needs to do his job and maintain a hard edge which isn’t something that has gone well the past few games as teams have been picking on them there in the boundary b-gap. That needs to be addressed, while the tackling is another aspect that has to improve. The biggest reason is that the Mountaineers simply aren’t fitting it right up front and allows for a bigger gap than there needs to be.
West Virginia has to do a better job fitting the run game and when it comes to the pass, the defense has struggled with their zone drops. It’s resulted to easy completions because defenders are sinking further than they need to or they simply aren’t on their landmark. All of the zone drops are based on landmarks with depth and the location on the field and if they’re off by a yard or two it is going to allow completions. Brown pointed out the first third down of the game as one that shouldn’t have been completed into the defense that the Mountaineers were running if the landmarks were hit.
The good news is that it is a reasonable expectation for both of these things to improve and even with some of the injuries on that side of the ball there is a chance it can turn around.
3—Putting more on Greene. Brown made it clear that on offense, the coaching staff is simply putting more on the plate of redshirt junior quarterback Garrett Greene, and he has responded. His decision making on when to hand it off, when to keep it was really good and the offense is starting to resemble what the Mountaineers expected it to be before the season started.
Some of that is simply because Greene has gotten back to full health after an ankle injury that cost him the better part of two games. The Mountaineers showed the ability to get Greene on the edge and allow him to make decisions which earlier in the year they kept him more in the pocket. It wasn’t always pretty as he took a big shot when he waited to throw the ball away, but he has gotten better and better.
West Virginia has scored 39, 34 and 41 points over the past three games after some serious struggles on offense earlier in the year and Greene and his maturity has been a major part of that puzzle.
4—West Virginia glad to be home. The Mountaineers scored an all-around team win on the road beating a favored Central Florida team but that will only matter if they can continue to build off that moving forward. That starts with a home contest against BYU as West Virginia is looking to wash the bad taste out of their mouth of the previous home game against Oklahoma State.
In that contest, the Mountaineers led 24-20 at the start of the fourth quarter before collapsing allowing 28 points in the loss to the Cowboys in a disappointing effort. West Virginia will be back home for the first time in the month of November and for the next to last time this season.
Brown urged the fanbase to come out and support because BYU typically travels well and should have a number of fans coming to the game just based on the fact it is their only East Coast experience. The Cougars are a mirror image of what West Virginia wants to be as a football program as they don’t beat themselves and play hard throughout every single game. So, this will be a chance to
5—Hayes made a difference. West Virginia sought out help from the transfer portal when it came to place kicking and Georgia Southern import Michael Hayes has certainly delivered in multiple areas. Against UCF, Hayes had 8 kickoff attempts and six of those were touchbacks and seventh was called for a fair catch. The only returnable one was limited to just 18-yards taking pressure off the kickoff team and forcing the Knights to start deep in their own end. When it comes to field goals, Hayes knocked through two more to bring his season total to 9-10 on the season with the only miss being a 58-yarder at TCU.
West Virginia has hit on multiple transfers this off-season and Hayes is just the latest example of that. The Mountaineers for the most part have been able to control field position and Hayes has been a big part of that equation especially in the 41-28 win over the Knights.
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