—West Virginia head coach Neal Brown pays his respects to Gary Patterson and said he’s been a great mentor to him in his head coaching career especially early and has been a great ambassador for the game.
—Brown felt that while it wasn’t a sell out with bad weather they had 45,000 that showed up and it was a tremendous atmosphere at the end of that game. He doesn’t know how long the Let’s Go Mountaineer chant went on but it went for a long time. Appreciate everybody that showed up. They made enough plays to win the game.
—Special teams they had to continue to be creative with the kickoff. They got dinged once and used some speciality kicks to control it. Tyler Sumpter has continued to punt the ball well. And Casey Legg has been really consistent. On defense too many big plays with a missed assignment on the pass play and a missed alignment on the run play. If you take those two big runs out they did a good job managing Breece Hall. The fumble at the goal line was huge and they did a good job getting off the field on third down. Offensively they were good on first down and were able to score touchdowns in the red zone. They played really good complimentary football. Iowa State scored and West Virginia was able to match it.
—Oklahoma State is the No. 11 team in the nation and their only loss is to Iowa State on the road. The job that Mike Gundy has done is tremendous and he’s within stood the test of time. Special teams wise they’ve always had good specialists with an Australian punter that can spray it all over. They’ve returned a kickoff for a touchdown and make field goals. They want to run the football and Jaylen Warren runs as physical as anybody in the league. The Big 12 is blessed with a lot of talented running backs. He runs the ball angry and is a violent runner. He’s a tough tackle and Spencer Sanders is a dual threat guy that is strong and can run but can make all the throws. They play great complimentary football. They run the ball and are able to hit shot plays and they are one of the top teams in the country defensively with a lot of experience. They make it difficult and they have big interior guys that make it difficult to run and they have a lot of talent across the board. They look like you’d expect.
—Award winners special teams was Sam James due to what he did on punt return and punt coverage. Defensive player of the week was Josh Chandler-Semedo who is playing the best football of his career. Offensive was Jarret Doege. Offensive lineman of the week was Wyatt Milum. Blue collar award was T.J. Banks on offense and Akheem Mesidor on defense. Scout team players were Victor Wikstrom on offense, Brayden Dudley on defense and Preston Fox on special teams. Will Scoonover was the juice award recipient.
—Major Harris will have his jersey retired and it was well earned. The hope is they’ll have a big crowd.
—The offensive line is playing the way it should be played. More physical at the point of contact and straining to finish blocks. Cleaned some things up to help protection during the bye week and in the run game they are doing things at a higher percentage than they were earlier. A lot of football left to he played in that group.
—There is a really good group of defenses in the Big 12 and Oklahoma State will take some risks and be aggressive. They are bigger up front and a lot older in some spots than West Virginia. They’ll get physical and play close to you.
—James Gmiter last year got sick and missed some time. He came to fall camp and played different and his demeanor was different and he’s really proud of how he has prepared week in and week out.
—It was the best that Banks has played. Mike O’Laughlin will miss the remainder of the season and Nicktroy Fortune will miss the remainder of the regular season. Brown feels a lot better with Banks now that O’Laughlin is out when it comes to running the football. You’ll use different formations and Charles Finley will be playing a bigger role. You have to create an edge.
—Mike Joseph is a tremendous person and has a heart for the program and each guy individually. Every former player that comes through here that’s the first person that they ask about. First stop for Noel Devine was to see Mike Joseph. He is one of the most selfless people in the building. He’s well regarded in the strength and conditioning field. He has the perfect mix of science and toughness.
—In the secondary they are thin. Jackie Matthews and Scottie Young has been rotating around and they have rotated several others. They’ve tried to get the young guys into the game to get some snaps at the safety spots.
—The kickoff issues has been the location and one was low and they missed a tackle at the point of attack. They want them to be around the goal line at 3.8 halftime. The location is important depending on the coverage call.
—They didn’t have a single opportunity to return a kick last week.
—The fumble on the goal line was inconclusive. You can’t tell when it was out but it was out.
—Uniforms are one of his least favorite things to talk about. They haven’t made a decision yet. Sometimes it’s better not to make a decision.
—Each opponent is different but they made an effort to do things differently in the second half against Iowa State.
—Andrew Jackson deserves a lot of credit. Dante Stills has played his best football over the last month. Sometimes that shows and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s enabled the linebackers to play better. You have to get push off the ball and they did a nice job. For them to be good on defense they have the most depth and experience.
—Brown felt that while it wasn’t a sell out with bad weather they had 45,000 that showed up and it was a tremendous atmosphere at the end of that game. He doesn’t know how long the Let’s Go Mountaineer chant went on but it went for a long time. Appreciate everybody that showed up. They made enough plays to win the game.
—Special teams they had to continue to be creative with the kickoff. They got dinged once and used some speciality kicks to control it. Tyler Sumpter has continued to punt the ball well. And Casey Legg has been really consistent. On defense too many big plays with a missed assignment on the pass play and a missed alignment on the run play. If you take those two big runs out they did a good job managing Breece Hall. The fumble at the goal line was huge and they did a good job getting off the field on third down. Offensively they were good on first down and were able to score touchdowns in the red zone. They played really good complimentary football. Iowa State scored and West Virginia was able to match it.
—Oklahoma State is the No. 11 team in the nation and their only loss is to Iowa State on the road. The job that Mike Gundy has done is tremendous and he’s within stood the test of time. Special teams wise they’ve always had good specialists with an Australian punter that can spray it all over. They’ve returned a kickoff for a touchdown and make field goals. They want to run the football and Jaylen Warren runs as physical as anybody in the league. The Big 12 is blessed with a lot of talented running backs. He runs the ball angry and is a violent runner. He’s a tough tackle and Spencer Sanders is a dual threat guy that is strong and can run but can make all the throws. They play great complimentary football. They run the ball and are able to hit shot plays and they are one of the top teams in the country defensively with a lot of experience. They make it difficult and they have big interior guys that make it difficult to run and they have a lot of talent across the board. They look like you’d expect.
—Award winners special teams was Sam James due to what he did on punt return and punt coverage. Defensive player of the week was Josh Chandler-Semedo who is playing the best football of his career. Offensive was Jarret Doege. Offensive lineman of the week was Wyatt Milum. Blue collar award was T.J. Banks on offense and Akheem Mesidor on defense. Scout team players were Victor Wikstrom on offense, Brayden Dudley on defense and Preston Fox on special teams. Will Scoonover was the juice award recipient.
—Major Harris will have his jersey retired and it was well earned. The hope is they’ll have a big crowd.
—The offensive line is playing the way it should be played. More physical at the point of contact and straining to finish blocks. Cleaned some things up to help protection during the bye week and in the run game they are doing things at a higher percentage than they were earlier. A lot of football left to he played in that group.
—There is a really good group of defenses in the Big 12 and Oklahoma State will take some risks and be aggressive. They are bigger up front and a lot older in some spots than West Virginia. They’ll get physical and play close to you.
—James Gmiter last year got sick and missed some time. He came to fall camp and played different and his demeanor was different and he’s really proud of how he has prepared week in and week out.
—It was the best that Banks has played. Mike O’Laughlin will miss the remainder of the season and Nicktroy Fortune will miss the remainder of the regular season. Brown feels a lot better with Banks now that O’Laughlin is out when it comes to running the football. You’ll use different formations and Charles Finley will be playing a bigger role. You have to create an edge.
—Mike Joseph is a tremendous person and has a heart for the program and each guy individually. Every former player that comes through here that’s the first person that they ask about. First stop for Noel Devine was to see Mike Joseph. He is one of the most selfless people in the building. He’s well regarded in the strength and conditioning field. He has the perfect mix of science and toughness.
—In the secondary they are thin. Jackie Matthews and Scottie Young has been rotating around and they have rotated several others. They’ve tried to get the young guys into the game to get some snaps at the safety spots.
—The kickoff issues has been the location and one was low and they missed a tackle at the point of attack. They want them to be around the goal line at 3.8 halftime. The location is important depending on the coverage call.
—They didn’t have a single opportunity to return a kick last week.
—The fumble on the goal line was inconclusive. You can’t tell when it was out but it was out.
—Uniforms are one of his least favorite things to talk about. They haven’t made a decision yet. Sometimes it’s better not to make a decision.
—Each opponent is different but they made an effort to do things differently in the second half against Iowa State.
—Andrew Jackson deserves a lot of credit. Dante Stills has played his best football over the last month. Sometimes that shows and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s enabled the linebackers to play better. You have to get push off the ball and they did a nice job. For them to be good on defense they have the most depth and experience.
