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 road contest against Oklahoma coming off a win over BYU to push the overall record to 6-3, 4-2 in the Big 12 with three games remaining.
1–Learning lessons in the transfer portal. A year after West Virginia had much more misses than hits when it comes to the evaluation of the incoming transfer portal players, this year has basically been the opposite. The majority of the players brought into the program have performed well on the field and perhaps more importantly have been good in the locker room, too.
Cornerback Beanie Bishop, safety Anthony Wilson, pass rusher Tryin Bradley, defensive lineman Davoan Hawkins and down the list have all been great mentors to their position groups. Brown believes that through some trial and error, West Virginia has found their niche when it comes to mining the transfer portal for talent and the best overall fits in all regards.
West Virginia has developed a system on why they’ve hit and missed on players from the portal and when it opens again in December they should be better prepared. Expect the coaching staff to remain aggressive when it comes to securing help from the portal, too. The first concern is to make sure that you retain the players on your current roster that you want to retain and then be very aggressive when it comes to filling the major positional needs across the rest of the roster.
As part of that, West Virginia plans to target some younger players like they did with Tomi Durojaiye in this past transfer class that hadn’t played at their current school but has upside for the future.
2–Things are improving with injuries. West Virginia was without starting right tackle Doug Nester against BYU but he was moving around at practice early in the week and he is listed as questionable for the matchup against Oklahoma. He hasn’t been ruled out of the game yet by any means and there is a real opportunity that he could return against the Sooners.
It goes without saying that would be a massive addition to an offensive line that has been playing very well regardless of the shuffling that has occurred this season due to injuries at various spots up front. However, if Nester isn’t able to suit up, Brown is confident in what Nick Malone brings to the table.
There also is optimism that redshirt freshman wide receiver Hudson Clement will return this week. While he was cleared to return last week, the Mountaineers made the decision to hold him out until he was fully healthy. West Virginia needs to have that element of a downfield passing attack and if Clement is able to return that would certainly help on that front against the Sooners.
3–A final shot at Oklahoma. This will be the last time that West Virginia and Oklahoma will meet as conference opponents with the Sooners upcoming move to the SEC and a golden chance for the Mountaineers. West Virginia was finally able to get the monkey that had been Oklahoma off their backs with a win last season after losing on a walk-off field goal the year prior. The Mountaineers felt they were in control of that game with a chance to win it, so that provides motivation in itself. This is a primetime opportunity against one of the most storied programs in college football history.
The Sooners are as you would expect strong in all three phases. The offense plays fast and is explosive with how they move the pieces around for senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who is playing the best football of his career with his dual threat ability and command of the offense.
The defense is an attacking style that will play both man and zone while getting hats to the football. This is a big challenge for the Mountaineers and could keep their hopes alive in the Big 12 Conference race if they're able to go on the road and win.
4–Completion percentage must improve. West Virginia is throwing the ball downfield more over the second half of the season as evident by the depth of target numbers. That was 10.1 against the first four FBS opponents while that number has grown to almost 13 over the last four games. It was a conscious decision by Brown to test defenses down the field more because to be frank the completion percentage in short to mid-range wasn’t significantly different than those downfield shots.
So, the offense is calling more deep passing plays but the completion percentage needs to be closer to 55 or 60-percent instead of where it hovered around 50-percent against BYU. Redshirt junior quarterback Garrett Greene has played very well this season, but he needs to continue to improve his fundamentals when it comes to connecting on those plays.
That means not only getting his body aligned correctly but avoiding falling off to the left. Those two things must be corrected and he simply has to take some of the heat off his passes. Greene has thrown the ball very hard this year and needs to find a way to pull out some change ups in spots.
5–Freshmen are a key ingredient. There isn’t some secret formula for the freshmen that are on the field this season playing significant roles. You play your best players and while that could lead to some growing pains at times, talent always trumps experience in the long run.
Brown isn’t surprised that players on offense like running back Jaheim White, wide receiver Traylon Ray and wide receiver Rodney Gallagher are making their marks, while on defense linebacker Ben Cutter is doing the same. In fact, Brown made it clear that if true freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter was available before his injury he also would be playing this season on that side of the ball.
Brown has felt confident about his staff’s evaluation process and while they are going to need to do some things to retain that talent moving forward in the off-season, there is a lot to be excited about when it comes to the future of the program. That also includes some of the players that aren’t seeing the field much right now such as the young offensive linemen like Johnny Williams and Nick Krahe, running back DJ Oliver and redshirting players such as James Heard.
“It’s a matter of when, not if,” he said.
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