Neal Brown has made the message clear to his West Virginia football team.

While the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic are obviously out of their control, how they respond to what has unfolded is certainly not.

“A tremendous challenge presents tremendous opportunities,” he said.

Brown has not been able to discuss football with his players due to the Big 12 Conference’s suspension of all organized activities until March 29 but they have been able to check on their health and well-being. That puts the onus on the players themselves to take the lead.

That makes this break a positive in some circumstances as the accountability leaders and overall leaders on the team are rising up to take ownership maybe faster than they normally would.

“As we go through the process of building a program and that’s what we’re doing right now is you want to eventually go from a coach led team to a player led team and we’re having to do that probably quicker than we imagined,” he said.

This will help to determine just where the Mountaineers are at on that front and that is something that Brown is anxious to observe.

“I’m excited to see how the leadership on our team reacts to this and how accountable we are to each other,” he said.

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For now, work is still ongoing on the Puskar Center project.

The facelift for the facility will cover 72,000 square feet of space to go along with an additional 13,700 square feet expansion as well. The project is set to provide West Virginia with newer and bigger locker rooms, coaches offices, position meeting rooms and more.

Construction has been ongoing with the massive renovation which had previously displaced several branches of the football staff into trailers in the parking lot above the original Puskar Center location.

“The construction is ongoing, they’re continuing to work,” Brown said.

The meetings over the project have been handled remotely but the construction group is still in place although the crews must abide by the social distancing policies. It’s too early to tell if there has been any effect on the timeline of the project but things are still moving forward.

Brown has not been able to view the progress himself due to remaining home throughout the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the week.

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