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 2019 schedule.

1—The injury carousel. If there is one thing that has been true this season when it comes to this weekly review it’s that injuries have been at the forefront of it all and that wasn’t any different this week. Sophomore linebacker Josh Chandler will miss at least a month with his knee injury denting an already razor thin linebacker corps. The Mountaineers also won’t be getting back wide receiver Sean Ryan who is starting to run but isn’t expected to play against Baylor after he had surgery a few weeks back. The good news is that cornerback Keith Washington is likely to return after the bye week after dealing with a groin issue and there is a chance that the Mountaineers could even welcome back cornerback Dreshun Miller at some point this year although that will depend on his recovery after he also had gone under the knife earlier this year and at first there was a thought he wouldn’t be able to return.

There are some week-to-week deals as well with bandit linebacker Quondarius Qualls banged up but his availability will depend entirely on how he responds over the next couple weeks. That is still up in the air but one thing that is crystal clear is that this is a very banged up football team. They could get some good news though on some of these situations which is encouraging for the final five games.

2—Austin Kendall is the starter. Brown didn’t sugarcoat things that the Oklahoma graduate transfer remains the starter although he did leave the window open that Bowling Green transfer Jarret Doege could potentially see some time at some point. There were some eyebrows raised when Doege made the trip to Oklahoma but that was more related to getting him some experience in those situations than it was a sign of things to come in that game. Still, Kendall is going to have to show improvement after struggling in the second half at Oklahoma and it could be an interesting battle.

Brown stopped short of saying that Doege could play but he did say that those situations will be evaluated moving forward. Doege does bring experience to the table after throwing for 39 touchdowns during his two seasons at Bowling Green but it seems pretty clear at this stage that this is Kendall’s football team. If Doege does play, it likely isn’t going to be any more than the four allotted games in order to preserve his redshirt season. So while we could see him, it’s going to be in small doses.

3—Some recruiting adjustments. I was interested in the subject so I asked Brown now that he’s seven games into his tenure if there have been any adjustments to what they initially planned to do coming into the job to now and interestingly enough there has been. With the scholarships they have remaining, expect the Mountaineers to take more defensive backs than originally planned with at least one of those being an older junior college or transfer option. That means that there is going to be a focus on finding more depth and talent in the back end of the defense which could help balance out the talent in those rooms given how many young players have been forced into action this year.

Do not expect Brown and his coaching staff to do a full blown dive into the junior college waters however as he still intends to plan to build the base of the program through high school options to establish a long-term culture in the program. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to see some junior college players but a bulk of those are going to come from a pool of prospects that the coaches already have long-term established relationships with to address immediate needs.

They’re making some adjustments but still very much trusting the climb when it comes to their plan of building this roster in the long term.

4—Young players will play. Given all of the injuries we highlighted above, Brown and his coaching staff doesn’t really have many options outside of taking advantage of the redshirt rule to get some of the younger players on the roster into the mix. One of those that is expected to take advantage of that rule is freshman bandit linebacker Jared Bartlett who was actually on track to potentially avoid a redshirt in fall camp before a sprained ankle cost him most of the month of August. With the status of Qualls still very much up in the air, Bartlett is the next man up and is going to have to fill a role although the coaches want to ensure that it doesn’t cost him a year of eligibility in the process. There could be other spots given the same treatment moving ahead and as those injuries continue to pile up it’s becoming rather obvious that getting those players experience now will pay off long term for the future.

5—Five game season. West Virginia enters a mini-bye week and it’s an important time for this team to hit the reset button and see what they’re made of entering the stretch run of the season. The Mountaineers entered into a brutal October slate and lost all three games and it doesn’t get easier traveling to undefeated Baylor on Halloween night. But how this team closes over the next five games will be how it’s ultimately defined in the history books. This is an opportunity to regroup and get ready for the stretch run and now the focus is to show improvement on a week-to-week basis.

That had been happening until the second half of the Oklahoma game but Brown has been encouraged by the mindset of his seniors and how this team has competed. There are a lot of young players that have brought energy to the team and the effort has been there every week, although it hasn’t been pretty at times.

Still at 3-4, there is still the possibility of a bowl game and the close will be what this team becomes remembered for especially when it comes to building a foundation and creating some momentum heading into next year.

WATCH: Musings from the Mountains | West Virginia Football | Episode 34

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