Small gains could lead to a big leap in 2024 for West Virginia
West Virginia made the major leap from five to nine wins a season ago but in order to see even more success in 2024 there's a blueprint on how to reach that goal.
There’s a major difference in going from nine to 11 wins but the good news is that the Mountaineers won’t need to overhaul most of what they were already doing according to head coach Neal Brown.
There isn’t necessarily an individual team to look to as an example but instead a holistic approach as a team that will help the Mountaineers be in a position to reach those goals.
“We don’t have to make these quantum leaps. We have to make marginal improvements in all areas. When I say marginal, I mean small improvements,” he said. “We just have to be a little bit better and if we can do that and continue to play the game the right way it’s going to give us an opportunity.”
As part of that process, the Mountaineers spent the off-season looking at the things that they both needed to sustain as well as improve. On the offensive side of the ball, West Virginia needs to continue to run the ball effectively after leading all Power Five teams in rushing and continue to convert in short-yardage situations as well as produce explosive plays.
But at the same time on offense, the Mountaineers will need to improve in critical areas such as completion percentage, converting third down and medium situations and red zone touchdowns.
“We have to be very good at those,” Brown said.
The same applies to the defensive side where West Virginia was effective in stopping the run in 2023 and will need to sustain that along with continuing to be near the top of the Big 12 in both sacks and tackles for loss. But the areas that must get better are red zone touchdown percentage, creating more takeaways and doing a better job on the first play of the series to prevent teams from getting ahead of the sticks.
That last part is something that West Virginia has tracked for quite some time and while the offense has done a good job in that area, the defense has struggled. Three and outs are significant on the defensive side of the ball and allowing teams to get ahead of the sticks makes it tough on defenses.
“It’s something we look at a lot,” Brown said.
And as part of that, West Virginia has been working on improving in that area with various drills and a focus on how to create more wins on first down defensively.
West Virginia has goals of improvement heading into 2024 and has the blueprint to do it.
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