The message to the West Virginia football team was a simple one all week from head coach Neal Brown.
Empty the tank. And sitting at 3-4 with a bye week on the horizon that’s exactly what the Mountaineers were able to do outlasting an Arizona comeback 31-26 on the road.
“We felt like this was a critical game for us and we needed a win. So, I talked to our guys about emptying the tank. We were going to empty the tank as coaches, empty the tank as far as effort,” Brown said. “I thought we did that.”
It was a message that was received loud and clear.
“Coach Brown was talking all week, about empty the tank so really just going out there and playing our hardest for the 60 minutes we did play. It was big for us to get this win,” defensive lineman TJ Jackson said.
The Mountaineers came into the game after a difficult two-game homestand where the program fell back-to-back in home night contests to ranked Iowa State and Kansas State. That put the program in a tough spot where the program needed to find a way to win on the road with some key absences across the roster.
West Virginia played the Wildcats without three of their four captains even making the trip out west as quarterback Garrett Greene, left tackle Wyatt Milum and spear Aubrey Burks didn’t travel. That was on top of a number of other injuries such as wide receiver Jaden Bray, cornerback Ayden Garnes and several others.
That’s where the makeup of the team comes into play. Winning cures a lot of issues and with the adversity that the team has gone through Brown felt that they displayed the ability to come together. That was aided by being on the road and having the chance to spend two full days together to strengthen those bonds.
“You all have heard me talk about the character of our team. The character of our team is really good, and our season hasn’t gone exactly the way we wanted. Now part of that is we played really good people, and that part of the story continues to unfold,” Brown said.
The Mountaineers have dropped four games to ranked teams this season that are a combined 28-1 on the season, but out of the bye the win over Arizona puts the program at 2-2 during the past four-game stretch. That now leaves the program at 4-4 with four games remaining following the second bye week.
“That sets us up for a November stretch. We need some time to heal up. We need to get away and rest and recover for a few days but then we get back and that November stretch is going to be critical and how we finish is going to really matter,” Brown said. “We have to continue to win.”
Brown felt that the Mountaineers prepared well all week but now the focus is on regrouping and healing up before taking on the last stretch of on the road at Cincinnati home games against Baylor and UCF and then the finale on the road at Texas Tech.
“We’ve got a critical four-game stretch and a couple of those teams are playing well. We need some time off, kind of regroup but hopefully we get some of these guys back and be ready for a really strong stretch run,” he said.
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