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 road trip to Cincinnati.
1–A new defensive coordinator. Brown made the decision during the bye week to relieve Jordan Lesley from his role at defensive coordinator and replace him from within with Jeff Koonz. The former inside linebackers coach is somebody that has called a defense before during his time at Cincinnati and has had opportunities to take coordinator roles at other schools but has turned them down to stay in Morgantown. That patience was rewarded with Koonz getting tabbed to lead the defense down the final four games of the season. Brown felt that Koonz has done well every time they’ve put him in charge whether it’s a lead in recruiting, the punt team or on special teams.
He has coached both linebackers and safeties which ties together in that role as a defensive coordinator. Brown said that he addressed the situation with his players up front and explained why they were making the move and how they were moving forward with Koonz in the role.
The main focus will be on consistency on the defensive side of the ball as that’s been a major issue for the unit throughout the course of the season. That starts with simply getting lined up correctly and then trickles down into getting takeaways and minimizing explosive plays. The bye week allowed the coaching staff the chance to tweak some things and self scout and the main focus is not being so predictable on that side of the football. The personnel is what it is at this stage but the focus is going to be on trying to get the most out of each of those players on the field.
2–Injuries. The Mountaineers are coming off a much-needed bye week which allowed most of the team to get healthy after they were a beat up football team in the win over Arizona. But that isn’t going to be the case for all of the injured players on the roster. West Virginia will be without spear Aubrey Burks, cornerback Ayden Garnes and wide receiver Jaden Bray against Cincinnati, while starting quarterback Garrett Greene is considered doubtful to play against the Bearcats.
Greene left the Kansas State game at halftime and didn’t play against Arizona and now it seems likely that he will miss his second consecutive game although Brown did say that he is expected to throw this week but they’re goign to be careful with him as he continues to recover. It remains to be seen what will unfold at the position when Greene does return but if he is unable to suit up it will once again be redshirt sophomore Nicco Marchiol that gets the call.
West Virginia will get back left tackle Wyatt Milum who returned to practice Thursday as well as running back CJ Donaldson and safety Keke Tarnue after those players either missed or were injured during the game against Arizona. So, while things are improving there are still some concerns.
3–Staff shifts. With Koonz now in charge of the entire defense he will still work with the linebackers some on top of moving around but Luke Nardo will handle some of the individual things at the position. On special teams, Koonz will relinquish his role as the lead on the punt team with Tony Thompson taking that over in addition to his role with the punt block team. Assistant Chris Haering will continue to serve as the lead on the kickoff and kickoff return teams.
Still, there isn’t as much shifting in responsibilities overall given the fact that so many different coaches can not work with the players on the field.
4–Marchiol needs to sustain and improve. If Marchiol is again called upon to be the starter, Brown wants to see him continue to play well in the department of taking care of the football and being efficient. That was certainly the case in the road win over Arizona and will need to be a focus for him moving forward in his role as the quarterback.
But in terms of improvement, Brown wants to see Marchiol hit on some of those big shots down the field and make some better decisions in the run game and on third down. Still, the focus is on the coaching staff putting him in the best possible position to succeed with how they are both game planning and calling the offense with him on the field.
5–A big November. West Virginia sits at 4-4 on the season with games still remaining on the road at Cincinnati, at home against Baylor and UCF and the closing at Texas Tech. There are a lot of different possible outcomes still on the table for this football team and the message from Brown to his players is that they still have an opportunity to remain in the Big 12 Conference race and finish strong. The sixth-year head coach said that the fate of the season is going to be determined over the next four weeks and the players on the roster are fired up and determined to finish strong.
Brown made it a point to say that his teams have played their best football in the month of November and they will need to live up to that billing this year as well.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
