Neal Brown was disappointed but not discouraged by what happened at Missouri.

There’s a reason for that, despite the 38-7 score that probably wasn’t even as close as that. When he arrived in Morgantown, he certainly expected some bumps in the road.

It’s not as if he, or even athletic director Shane Lyons, didn’t try to warn anybody that would listen. It’s that last word that was the important part in all of this as many imagined it was just a smoke screen. Brown said countless times during fall camp that when West Virginia looked bad, it was really bad. Well, it’s only one game on the schedule but some of those concerns have now been realized by the fan base at large.

“I’ve known since probably our first winter workout that we have some deficiencies on our football roster. I’ve known we were going to have some challenges in year one,” he said.

That doesn’t mean that Brown is shying away from the challenge – and the opportunity to get this team better. It’s exactly what he means by his original statement. He wasn’t blindsided by some of those challenges or believes that it’s an effort issue, so now it’s about trying to get better.

To put it quite frankly, West Virginia was exposed in certain areas and now the challenge will be to put players in positions to be successful in the immediate term and recruit to address holes down the line.

For the Mountaineers that obviously means better play up front on the offensive line as the program has only been able to generate 64 yards on 56 carries and has yet to break a 10-yard run through two games.

Brown believes it’s a situation where it isn’t the entire unit, but one or two guys on each play which has led to the struggles trying to establish the ground game. Again, he came into the year knowing that he would have to be creative and it wouldn’t be easy but this has been worse than that.

“To say we were going to be the worst rushing team in America after two weeks I wouldn’t have gone that far but I knew it was going to be a struggle,” he said.

That could lead to shakeups on the offensive line, as Brown notes that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. As to who could fill those holes? That is something the coaches are still evaluating and hoping to determine based on practice.

Those struggles on the line made it difficult to chart how starting quarterback Austin Kendall performed considering he was hit on eight of his first 16 plays over the three opening series according to Brown. The redshirt junior must do a better job with his eyes and decision making, but things also must improve around him if the offense is going to have any success.

The Mountaineers deflating loss to Missouri was an eye opener for several reasons, but one that the head coach believes that the current players can learn from moving forward.

“It’s not going to be a smooth road the whole year though. I’m disappointed in our performance, we can play better but I’m not discouraged by the direction we’re going and where we’re going to take this program,” Brown said.

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