WVSports.com looks at the weekly press conference from West Virginia head coach Neal Brown and determines the five most interesting discussion topics.
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 2024 schedule.
Next up is a trip to Oklahoma State.
1—Oklahoma State better than their record. The Cowboys have lost back-to-back Big 12 Conference games at home against Utah and on the road at Kansas State and are now facing almost a must-win situation at home against West Virginia to keep their conference title game hopes alive.
Those two losses are against some of the most talented teams in the league and head coach Mike Gundy has a proven track record of getting his teams reset and refocused especially at home in what is one of the toughest venues across the Big 12. The Cowboys used an RPO-based offense that can hurt you with the run or the pass and the centerpiece to that is running back Ollie Gordon who last season blew open the game against the Mountaineers with 282 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Despite the slower start, Gordon is a special athlete, and the offense starts and stops with him.
The Cowboys have a veteran quarterback in Alan Bowman who does a great job of getting the football out quickly to a mix group of speedy wide receivers across the board. Bowman has only been sacked once this season and has shown the ability to distribute the football.
On defense, Oklahoma State is a four-down look, and they have players at all three levels that have performed better than the statistics would tell you at this point of the year. West Virginia has seen firsthand the ability for Gundy to turn things around in a hurry and are expecting the Cowboys’ best.
2—Injury updates. The bye week came at a perfect time as a number of players were dealing with injuries across the roster, but head coach Neal Brown expects all of them to return against Oklahoma State with the exception of cornerback TJ Crandall who is currently questionable and wide receiver Justin Robinson as that will depend on how he practices throughout the course of the week.
But the others such as safety Aubrey Burks, linebacker Reid Carrico and wide receiver Preston Fox all should be ready to go this week after having time to recover and rest up. That is a significant development.
3—Off week was good all around. West Virginia was able to hold four scrimmage-type practices last week for the developmental players on the roster which were each about 30 plays. The practices were productive, and several players stood out with backup left tackle Johnny Williams emerging as the standout offensive lineman, while true freshman safety Jacob Boyce was a standout on defense. Boyce was able to not only fit the run well from his safety spot but played well in coverage.
The other standout on offense was true freshman running back Diore Hubbard who did a nice job running the football but held up in protection as well.
The open week allows a deeper self-scout than you would do in a typical game week so the Mountaineers coaching staff was able to look at the tendencies they had put on tape and what they could correct or do to break those tendencies, especially in the areas they’re struggling.
There is also a personnel component to that where they can look at personnel that they aren’t getting the most out of and who isn’t currently playing at could potentially help them down the line. There was a lot of good one good during those sessions as well, but ultimately Brown thinks that those currently playing give his team the best chance to win but they’ve got to prepare some of those younger players for roles in case there are any injuries or things happen to shift that line of thinking.
Boyce is a player who will likely see a larger role, while others such as Elijah Kinsler on the defensive line is the next man up if there are any injuries there and the same can be said for wide receiver DayDay Farmer on offense. So, that was a major focus during the week to determine who those guys are.
4—Building confidence. The 11-point turnaround in the win over Kansas was a major swing for West Virginia and while it’s hard to sustain momentum after an off-week from that result, it isn’t when it comes to building confidence in key spots.
West Virginia was able to score twice down the stretch to come back in the final five minutes and also made two stands defensively to secure that win and now will hope that comes into play on the road in a tough venue against an Oklahoma State team that has their backs against the wall.
5—Brown confident in West Virginia’s NIL situation. One of the big national stories last week was what unfolded at UNLV as starting quarterback Matthew Sluka elected to sit out the remainder of the season due to being verbally promised $100,000 and not receiving that payment. The key part of the story is it was a verbal promise that came outside of the school’s NIL collective and each of those situations is unique. Brown didn’t want to speak directly about that situation but said that it was something he didn’t address with his team, and he is confident in the processes that are in place in Morgantown to avoid those instances.
That isn’t necessarily something that Brown would have said a few years ago, but he is now confident in what the program is doing and the direction they are heading on that front although he did say that there still needs to be more money raised. The Mountaineers are doing well with not only how they make those decisions but also how they communicate them to their players.
But truthfully, Brown said that he won’t complain about the system in general because people don’t want to hear that a well-compensated head football coach makes excuses over the issue and it’s part of his job to figure those types of problems out.
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