--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said it was a good win over a quality, well-coached football team. West Virginia competed hard and did well enough to win the game. Special teams they have to improve on punt blocking and the last two punts of the game weren't good enough. They had one kickoff return they had numbers and didn't execute blocks. On special teams, they won the field position battle and had two punts inside the 10 and both were stops. They had a good punt return and scored a touchdown before half. Michael Hayes has been consistent all year field goal wise, but his kickoffs have been much better since the Pitt game. Rodney Gallagher has really worked on his punt return and he will do that when Preston Fox is done. The punt and kickoff coverage has been really good all year and they made some big time plays on kickoff. Taurus Simmons made an unbelievable play on kickoff running a double team into the returner. On defense they were scrambling on defense, but they have to do better with their rush defense. That's a really good running team and they can't give up that many yards. They have to play blocks better and use their hands more effectively and be better on end of possession downs. On defense, West Virginia really bounced back and finished strong. Five drives that ended the game, West Virginia got off the field on four of them and minimized their explosive pass plays. They did a much better job containing the quarterback by staying in their lanes. Tyrin Bradley will be rewarded by the Big 12 but Fatorma Mulbah played his best game and Sean Martin did as well. Anthony Wilson played well and Josiah Trotter continues to show up. On offense, the negatives were two turnovers and the first pick Brown felt it was pass interference but the other one they had an explosive pass play and were hit when they were throwing. They weren't bad in the run game but not up to their standards. It's a team run issue, it isn't the offensive line, tight ends, receivers. The two minute offense was great and Greene made a bunch of plays. Hudson Clement won against man coverage and played his best game since he's been here. Treylan Davis is playing really well.
--West Virginia will practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and coaches will be on the road Friday and Saturday and will practice Sunday.
--Hopeful they will have everybody back for the Oklahoma State game from injuries. Brown said other than the head stuff, he feels confident they will have everybody back.
--Jacolby Spells had his most extensive playing time of the year made some critical errors but did some good things fundamentally. TJ Crandall needs to recognize some personnel things but he played some quality snaps. They wanted to play Ayden Garnes at corner, but they had to play him inside at nickel a lot more. From a schematic standpoint they did a better job in the secondary. Where they got hit on some balls was underneath coverage at the linebacker level and they need to play better there. They executed their base coverages.
--Reverse happened right in front of me and when Tyrin Bradley let the ball get out it was over. You have to play for two possessions and you have to go into a two-minute mindset. They immediately scored and they said they're going to go for two. When you score they know immediately to get in the huddle and go for the next play. Brown knew they wanted to get into some spread stuff and he was going to complete passes or run around because Kansas was having issues with that. If they were going to play man they didn't have a lot of eyes on the quarterback. That play should have hit a lot earlier on the two-pointer, but they got it. They had three minutes and some change left there, with three time outs and four with the two minute timeout. You don't want to start using timeouts until 2:30 minutes. You use it because even worst case scenario you get it you should get the ball back if you can hold them. Brown said they sold out on the third and 4, they played zero coverage and blitzed. If they get it they still have time to adjust and they played that like it was the final play of the game. The message to the quarterback is we're playing for a touchdown and not going to force anything but they've got time. There was 31 seconds on the last play, they didn't have any timeouts with about 16-17 is about all the time you can run a field goal team out.
--Brown said they will get back this week and work Rodney Gallagher on defense, too. He will continue to play offense and has looked good with the ball in his hands.
--Brown said they have to see if some guys are ready secondary wise such as Key'on Washington and Israel Boyce. Then they have to get others like Trae'Von Dunbar and Diore Hubbard ready because Brown could see that they'd need them. Elijah Kinsler is a guy that they might need as the year goes on and Nate Gabriel is somebody who's role is going to increase. DayDay Farmer hasn't been able to get going but he needs to practice better as well but he is talented.
--As far as freshmen, Khalil Wilkins is super talented and has some wow plays that go both ways. There is going to have to be some patience there to get him fundamentally where he needs to be and he can really run and he's going to be a problem. They just have to get him honed in and they knew that it would be a learning period. At receiver, Brandon Rehmann is a guy that is going to be a really good player. Dom Collins is fast, but he has to learn how to play the position. Genross doesn't have a redshirt but it's been a big jump in level of play for him. He would be Kole Taylor's backup. The offensive lineman needs some time but Brown feels good from an athletic standpoint. The freshmen linebackers Curtis Jones is playing on special teams and Rickey Williams is going to be a high level player here. Keyshawn Robinson is playing on special teams. Zae Jennings just has to learn on defense. Makai Byerson is going to be a really good player, he is battling through injury but is going to redshirt and be a factor as he learns to play the defensive line.
--Two-point play is a good play and a look off a play they run a lot. They've hit that four or five times. He likes two point plays with multiple options and there was a run/pass option there. That was the thought process.'
--Brown said it's all in the eyes of the beholder whether he is aggressive or conservative as a play caller. He said they go for it a lot on fourth down, they are in the top ten in explosive pass plays. They are going to run the ball on third down to go for it on fourth and there are a lot of two down thought processes there. Brown said he hasn't stopped to think about his evolution as a play caller and each game is different with how you call it. There is a lot more to think through when you're the head coach calling a game because you know the strengths and weaknesses of the whole team. He is older and thinks about it from a whole team perspective.
--As a play caller you get a feel that the best opportunity was to spread them out and use plays where it's one/two run. You allow Greene to be where he is but there are some things that are really frustrating for Brown but he can't coach him to break tackles, etc. Brown doesn't outwardly get frustrated but when they decide to do some things you have to be O.K. with it.
--Greene does some things that if he would consistently do what he needs to do with his feet he would be at a higher completion percentage. When the play is in the pocket, he has to be fundamentally sound. Greene throws the deep ball extremely well but in rhythm throws he has to make sure his base stays the way it needs to be.
--Sometimes people want to really this is what high level quarterback play is but to Brown it's about scoring points and moving the ball. Greene does it very similar to watching Lamar Jackson and he's not comparing the two, but he does it different than the guy that's calling the game Tom Brady. But Jackson is still pretty special. As the game continues to evolve quarterbacks have more freedom and he is more comfortable with the uncomfortableness of backyard football.
--At lot more matchup zone to confuse the quarterbacks and there are better athletes rushing. It won't always be the best answer what they did Saturday, but it was for that game.
--If you spread it out all the time you make it hard for the defense and if you do that all the time you're going to allow the opponent to prepare for that. That isn't the first thing that opponents are thinking of it's the run game, quarterback run stuff and how they keep the ball in front of them on shot plays. There's some cat and mouse stuff they need to.
--It's happens every three or four years with a double bye and it's a positive for West Virginia. They have a tough stretch coming off the bye week and it will give them an opportunity to catch their breath.
--West Virginia won a bunch on Saturday in man coverage. It's hard when they got the back of your collar. That's the best they've done this year against man coverage against Kansas.
--Brown is hopeful that Burks will be back. It was an injury he took during a play and it didn't affect him until he was on the bench.
--Jordan Lesley will remain in the box.
--West Virginia felt that they were going to play Nate Gabriel in the spring but he has gotten fast tracked since Eddie Vesterinen got hurt. He gave them good push and allowed Hammond Russell to play in the boundary.
--Home field advantage matters in this league and coaching is at a high end and there isn't a huge talent disparity in the Big 12. And a lot of times it isn't who is going to make the big plays but who won't make the big negative and another thing is which team can run the ball.
