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Neal Brown is still in the process of figuring out his football team.

That stretches into all areas from simply learning about each player personally to what they bring on the field to all areas of the program. That’s even going to be true when it comes to how the Mountaineers will practice once spring football opens up March 19.

Brown wants to be careful with how much his football team does full speed work until he is able to get an idea on how the team practices as a whole. And what he means by that is when determining how much and when the sessions will be live, he will keep his eyes to the ground – quite literally.

“If we go through our first two or three days of practice and we have guys on the ground all of the time, then we’re going to have to really limit it,” he said.

That’s because in order to practice at full speed teams have to mimic those at the NFL level where players are operating at that level and the sessions are clean. So if the Mountaineers aren’t equipped to handle it at first, Brown will change habits and teach them how it’s done.

West Virginia will have three scrimmages in the spring and they plan to use each of them to see how the team has progressed in live situations but how much additional full-speed contact will entirely depend on how the team develops in that department.

“We have to evaluate how our guys practice,” he said.

The scrimmages themselves are referred to by the coaching staff as “moving days,” where the players have the opportunity to produce in a situation that as closely resembles a game-day atmosphere that the coaches can create in spring time.

Those will be important for determining some of the things that will be used to build the team heading into the summer and fall.

But once the pads come on, how many of those practices that will be spent in live situations is still a topic that is very much up in the air and will depend primarily on what the Mountaineers have.

That answer is coming for Brown and the Mountaineers sooner than later.

“We really have to get a feel for what we have,” Brown said.

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