West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was straight forward with the current status of the Mountaineers during his Big 12 Media Days debut Tuesday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas: young and inexperienced.

Along with the coaching shift, the Mountaineers have been tasked with replacing numerous starters and playmakers from last year’s team on both sides of the ball such as quarterback Will Grier, wide receivers David Sills and Gary Jennings, safety Dravon Askew-Henry and last season’s Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in linebacker David Long.

“What we're going to look like in the fall I'm not sure yet. I'm really not,” Brown said. “I like our guys. They're hungry, very humble, and I'm looking forward to working with them. It's going to be a fun group.”

“We're going to be a young football team and I think our fan base understands that and there's going to be some patience,” he later added.

There are numerous holes on the roster and position battles that will continue into fall camp such as the quarterback spot which will see Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall, Jack Allison and Trey Lowe all compete for the starting job come August.

Other looming question marks for the Mountaineers include the safety positions which may see Josh Norwood move to one of the safety slots from cornerback with safeties Derrek Pitts and Kenny Robinson leaving the program. The offensive line is a question mark as well.

READ: Most concerning? Looking at the WVU positions on both sides of the ball

Despite some of these holes, there are position groups to feel confident about heading into the season such as running back with four of the team’s top backs in Martell Pettaway, Kennedy McKoy, Leddie Brown and Alec Sinkfield returning.

The defensive line will feature key returners such as Reese Donahue and the Stills brothers as well as some newcomers in Taijh Alston and Michigan graduate transfer Reuben Jones.

READ: Most comforting? Looking at the WVU positions on both sides of the ball

To combat some of the team’s immediate needs and departures such as wide receiver Marcus Simms and Pitts and Robinson, Brown and the staff were able to add some late additions to the 2019 recruiting class in junior college safety Noah Guzman and offensive lineman John Hughes, another JUCO recruit.

But perhaps one of the most notable strategies the staff has used to address immediate needs during the spring and this summer has been transfers.

In addition to Guzman and Hughes, Brown and company have also landed transfers in Jones, wide receivers Sean Ryan (Temple) and George Campbell (Florida State), quarterback Jarrett Doege (Bowling Green) and safety Alonzo Addae (New Hampshire).

Landing transfers, especially JUCO players, has been a common strategy for the West Virginia program in terms of filling immediate needs in past years. Brown obviously has shown that he’s not against bringing transfers in, but he’s primarily focused on building the roster through high school recruiting.

“We're always going to try to build our team through the high school football recruiting. I think that's how you build your foundation,” Brown said. “I think it's important to have guys in your program for four and five years, but we're also going to be creative in how we build our roster. If you look at what we've done over the summer you'll see that. We're going to be creative, and really it's a year-long approach to building our roster.”

READ: What's left for enrollment for the WVU football program in 2019?

Brown’s hiring in early January has been well-received in Morgantown along with the primarily young and energetic staff he has brought on board.

The former Troy head coach credits the marketing staff and administration for how they have presented Brown, his assistants and their families to the state of West Virginia as well as his Kentucky roots and current record as West Virginia head coach.

“I think it's because we're undefeated,” Brown joked. “I think there is a lot of relate ability from Kentucky, Brooke and I, my wife, we're five hours from our hometown and I can't say enough about how we've been received, really, and not only myself and my family but also our staff and their families. It's exciting.”

Brown, who has previous Big 12 experience having served as the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech from 2010-12, won’t be the only new head coach in the conference this season with Matt Wells entering his first year at Texas Tech, Chris Klieman taking over the reigns of the Kansas State program from the legendary Bill Snyder and Les Miles returning to the sidelines looking to turn around the Kansas Jayhawks.

Though these four programs round out the bottom of the Big 12 preseason poll, the conference presents a grueling schedule each season no matter where a team may lie in the standings, but what it’ll offer West Virginia is a chance to see where the program stands week after week in Brown’s first season.

“We're going to be a group that really grows and improves as we go through our Big 12 Conference and what is a very challenging schedule,” Brown said.

----------

• 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, @PatrickKotnik

•Like us on Facebook