Neal’s deal: Three key items from West Virginia's 52-14 loss to Oklahoma
WVSports.com looks at the Oklahoma postgame press conference from West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown and determines the three 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 forward.
1. A struggle all game long - West Virginia’s 52-14 loss to the Sooners on the road saw the Mountaineers struggle in a number of areas.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Oklahoma offense were able to gain over 500 yards of total offense as Hurts had just one incompletion, 316 passing yards, 75 rushing yards and five total touchdowns.
Overall, Oklahoma’s offense averaged 9.5 yards per play, 20.2 yards per completion and 5.2 yards per rush.
West Virginia on the other hand struggled to move the ball for most of the game and was held scoreless in the second half. During the third quarter, the unit was held to 27 yards of total offense and 92 yards the entire second half.
Again, the Mountaineers’ run game struggled, gaining just 51 yards on 30 carries, averaging just 1.7 yards per carry.
The special teams unit did convert a fake punt on what turned out to be a touchdown drive for the West Virginia offense, but the punt team would give one right back in the third quarter with a blocked punt that was recovered by Oklahoma for a touchdown.
Brown simply said the team didn’t do what it had to do to make the game competitive for all four quarters.
“It was a struggle all day for us,” Brown said following the game. “We got outplayed and honestly we were outmanned at several positions, several areas. For this to be a competitive game, we needed to play clean which we didn’t, we needed to be able to run the ball which we couldn’t, we had to force some turnovers which we didn’t. We had to minimize their explosive plays and we didn’t do it.”
2. Kendall’s return to Norman - Saturday marked quarterback Austin Kendall’s return to Norman since transferring to the West Virginia program from Oklahoma in January.
The redshirt junior finished the game going 15-of-31 passing for 182 yards with two touchdowns during the loss and wasn’t sacked. Kendall and the offense also managed to not turn the ball over during the game.
Brown inserted redshirt freshman Trey Lowe into the game during the fourth quarter after he made an appearance for one play during West Virginia’s second offensive drive.
Regarding Kendall’s return to Norman and his performance, Brown believes Kendall handled things well and that the offense needs to get better around him before they can make any determination on where he’s at.
“I don’t think today was a good indictment on Austin,” Brown said. “I don’t know if this season has been because we have just not played well enough around him. Outside of two games we haven’t been able to establish any type of running game around him. I think we had at least four drops in the first half.”
“I thought he made good decisions. He missed two plays there on the last drive he was in,” Brown later added. “We didn’t win any 50/50 balls, that’s something that we knew coming in we were going to have to do. I thought he emotionally handled it well, I really do.”
3. Personnel switches - Injuries and departures have left the Mountaineers playing a lot of different bodies this season including some inexperienced underclassmen due to the lack of depth at some positions.
One of the personnel changes that occurred was safety Josh Norwood moving to cornerback and safety Kerry Martin starting at Norwood’s spot at free safety.
True freshman Nicktroy Fortune started at cornerback for the second straight game with Keith Washington out with a muscle injury and Norwood filled in at the other cornerback spot with Hakeem Bailey having to sit out the first half since he was ejected for targeting during the second half last week against Iowa State.
Brown also said walk-on Devan Wade played most of the second quarter until Bailey could get on the field in the third quarter
“We moved (Josh) Chandler move over to the mike and started him and played (Dylan) Tonkery a lot at bandit--just trying to get our best people on the field,” Brown said. “But then Chandler got hurt today early I think in the first quarter. (Quondarius) Qualls got hurt. Came into the game kind of beat up and it was more of the same in this game.
Miscommunication also played a factor for West Virginia during the loss due to the injuries which resulted in different combinations of players and groups being on the field who aren’t used to playing together.
According to Brown, an example of this took place on the blocked punt, a unit that Chandler starts on.
“We didn’t do as good a job communicating, we leave a guy unblocked,” Brown said. “We just didn’t communicate.”
WATCH: West Virginia Mountaineers head football coach Neal Brown | Oklahoma Postgame
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