West Virginia head coach Neal Brown wants to help his team improve when facing adversity over the course of the 15-allotted spring practices.

So, how do you accomplish that? You must create it.

“I put them out there and challenge them and create the adversity by making the practices hard. Having to think when you’re tired, that’s exactly what I’m thinking about,” Brown said. “Because we have not executed the way we need to in critical situations when we’ve been fatigued and we have not held our emotions in check as much as we need to in critical situations.”

The Mountaineers haven’t responded the way that Brown wants them to in those critical situations and if they want to take that next leap up the standings, that must occur.

Along with that aspect, the coaching staff plans to emphasize critical situations. The Mountaineers saw major jumps on third down and in the red zone last season after becoming a focus in spring, but they now plan to add two-point conversions and converting third and medium to the list.

Don’t expect any depth charts to be released this spring, as Brown instead wants to move the needle toward a teaching environment where they will attempt to get as many reps for players as possible across the board.

A function of that will be getting the players in each position group to understands that they are not competing against their teammates but instead with them.

“You’re competing for playing time in your position room but you’re also wanting to push everybody in that room to get better. So you’re competing with those guys, you’re not competing versus those guys,” Brown said.

The crux is that while the players are competing against each other, they are all still part of the same team and raising the level of play benefits the group as a whole.

In terms of practices, you can expect the coaches to be physical but smart with how they will handle hitting and tackling. The goal is to keep the players off the ground as much as possible while also limiting the reps that proven players have in those physical style drills.

The plan it to keep them sharp and put them in competitive situations, but for those that have already proven they have done it at this level won’t be asked to do it as much.

“You don’t necessarily want them to go out and play 75-plays in a scrimmage situation,” he said.

It will be a busy spring in Morgantown with some clearly defined goals.

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