West Virginia has settled into a routine with fall camp but that will be changing soon.

That schedule currently has the Mountaineers practicing Monday, Tuesday and Friday in what are referred to as normal practices dedicated to a lot of individual work. Wednesday is set as a team situational practice and after an off-day Thursday, things shift to the stadium Saturday. That is when the coaches try to make it as game-like as they possibly can with the players with various situations.

The team continues to work in split squads, which are essentially the entire team divided by those players that live with each other or spend time in close proximity off the field. It has its advantages and disadvantages but one thing it has allowed for is more time for younger players to receive quality reps.

Because of that the expectation is that more freshmen and newcomers should be able to see the field in their first year than during the first season under head coach Neal Brown.

“We’re going to have to be ready. One of the real positives is they’re getting a lot more reps than they normally would so they’re going to be more ready to play than in a normal situation,” Brown said.

However, another thing by design is that West Virginia has yet to tackle in practice but that is expected to be changing in the near future as the two-week window that Brown set for the split-squad work is quickly approaching. That means that the team will shift into a more traditional practice.

With the season opener set for Sept. 12 against Eastern Kentucky, things have to shift soon in order for the Mountaineers to be physically ready for the challenges of the year. That means tackling and a more physical element that can now be transitioned to after Brown was able to ensure the protocols and guidelines were being followed by his team in the first two weeks of camp.

The coaches were also able to learn ways to mitigate and mistakes to avoid from teams that were practicing for a week zero game and NFL clubs.

“We have to get into the physical portion of fall camp. We can’t go into a game on the 12th and the 26th and not tackle at all or not have physical practices,” Brown said.

Routine is a good thing, but it’s now time to shake it up and move to the next phase of gearing up for the 2020 football season in Morgantown.

NOTES:

All of the transfers that signed with the West Virginia football program are now on campus. After safety Scottie Young (Arizona), bandit linebacker Bryce Brand (Maryland) and punter Tyler Sumpter (Troy) started practicing last week, offensive lineman Ja’Quay Hubbard (Virginia) and wide receiver Zack Dobson (Middle Tennessee State) have joined them. The last remaining transfer in linebacker Tony Fields (Arizona) is indeed on campus but is going through the standard COVID-19 transition process.

“As soon as he clears that he’ll be ready to go,” Brown said.

True freshman Georgia linebacker James Thomas also is on campus.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @JaredSerre

•Like us on Facebook