4/30/2023 football Edit

West Virginia looking at examples of turnarounds

The West Virginia Mountaineers football coaches are looking at all avenues for improvement.

Keenan Cummings • WVSports

Managing Editor

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown doesn’t shy away from the fact that last year wasn’t good enough.

The football program has finished with a losing record in three of the four seasons with Brown atop the program and is coming off a year where the Mountaineers were 5-7.

So, naturally the football program is looking at all avenues when it comes to turning things around including similar situations.

After the 2021 campaign, TCU also finished 5-7 and 3-6 in the Big 12 with a loss to the Mountaineers as the program was searching for answers.

The Horned Frogs elected to undergo a coaching change with longtime head coach Gary Patterson stepping down and the program bringing in Sonny Dykes from SMU.

And while there were changes to the coaching staff, overall the roster didn’t have massive shifts.

Yes, the Horned Frogs were able to secure a few pieces from the transfer portal such as a tight end from Texas, a cornerback from Lousianna Monroe, a safety from Colorado, a linebacker from Navy and a center from SMU.

But they also lost some critical parts of their roster such as an all-conference defensive lineman in Ochaun Mathis and all-conference running back Zach Evans.

“The unique thing about what TCU did and we talked about with our team is they were a significantly better football team with not a significantly different roster,” Brown said.

That gives Brown hope that West Virginia can take a similar path without massive roster turnover. The Mountaineers lost some key pieces from the roster, but also brought back plenty of players that saw action last season.

The program also has been able to get a number of key transfers to plug holes.

The Mountaineers have been looking at more instances where teams have made jumps in a short period of time in order to see the recipe for the overall improvement. And it remains to be seen if that will occur but the program is looking at all avenues.

“The lesson to be learned from TCU is how much better the guys on their current roster got from fall 2023 until playing in the national championship game,” Brown said. “That’s the story, we use that.”

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