Offensive changes key in West Virginia turnaround
Neal Brown knew changes were necessary on offense.
So, dating back to the end of the 2022 season with three games left, the head coach made them.
Garrett Greene was inserted into the starting lineup at quarterback and Brown took back over the reins of play-calling from then offensive coordinator Graham Harrell with the identity focused on the ability to effectively run the football.
That’s certainly held true with West Virginia rushing for over 140 yards in every game since the change and this past season leading power five teams in rushing and third nationally at 229 yards per contest.
From there, the coaching staff built out run/action passes and involving the tight end and other aspects to make it a more balanced attack and try to generate more explosives.
Greene has continued to develop in his role, and it’s helped to take the offense to a different level. This past season Greene threw for 2,406 yards with 16 touchdowns against 4 interceptions, while rushing for 772 more yards and 13 scores as the engine of the offense.
West Virginia wanted to build the offense around the run game and the strengths of their quarterback, and the results have been hard to argue.
In the 16 games since the Mountaineers made those changes, West Virginia has gone 11-5 on the field including finishing this past season 9-4 with a bowl win.
The program also finished the 2023 season ranked for the first time in the tenure of Brown, while also recording their first three-game win streak on two separate occasions. That was on the heels of being picked last in the Big 12 pre-season media poll which served as a rally crying all-season.
The losses to teams during that 16-game span have been to the Big 12 champion Kansas State in 2022, then ranked teams Penn State and Oklahoma in 2023 along with Big 12 runner up Oklahoma State this past year.
The only loss outside of that realm was on a Hail Mary on the game’s final play at Houston in a heartbreaking defeat.
That stretch includes 15 of those 16 games coming against teams from the power five ranks, the highest total of any team in the country during that span.
Still, with more success comes higher expectations and the Mountaineers could enter the 2024 campaign ranked with aspirations of competing for the Big 12 Conference crown with a bulk of the roster returning including Greene.
Time will tell if that will be the case by the end of the season, but there’s no denying that things have started to turn. And the offensive changes have played a key role in that.
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