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Published Dec 9, 2020
West Virginia football excited for postseason opportunity
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Keenan Cummings  •  WVSports
Managing Editor
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@rivalskeenan

West Virginia still has one game to go in the 2020 season, but there is no doubt how head coach Neal Brown feels on the subject of a potential bowl game.

“We’ll always discuss those things with the players but as a staff and a head coach, we’d be excited about playing,” Brown said. “I feel confident that our guys would too.”

While he doesn't speak for the team as a whole, it still is a good sense of the direction that the Mountaineers would take on the subject.

There are obvious benefits to a bowl game as it would allow for more practice time for the Mountaineers ahead of an uncertain spring and afford the players a reward for a long season.

Of course, there are plenty of question marks in this current climate what a bowl game would look like given the rising concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic but it’s something that Brown would certainly like to see his team take advantage of if possible.

The NCAA has already waved the bowl eligibility requirement meaning that every team is eligible regardless of their record, but for the Mountaineers it could be a chance to finish with some momentum heading into the off-season regardless what happens in the finale.

But there are some things that Brown believes his team will need before a bowl game is played.

“I think that the big thing for them is being able to go home and see their families and then decompress for a little bit. And then come back and get the testing protocols,” he said.

That is significant considering that players haven’t been able to do so since the summer.

Among the bowls available to the Big 12 Conference outside the top two are the Valero Alamo Bowl vs. the Pac 12 in San Antonio, the Cheez-It Bowl vs. the ACC in Orlando, the Texas Bowl vs. the SEC in Houston, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl vs. the SEC in Memphis, the Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs. Big 10 in Phoenix and the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl vs. AAC in Dallas.

Multiple projections have the Mountaineers slotted for either the Liberty Bowl in Memphis against various opponents ranging from Kentucky to Tennessee or the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix against Maryland for example but there is clearly more movement to come.

“The opportunity to play in the post-season that’s the reason you kind of come to college,” Brown said.

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