--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said they had a productive bye week. The staff got on the road Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week. They scrimmaged the developmental guys three times and they were asked about it and it put together some standouts. About 80 total plays over three days and Taurus Simmons did a nice job. Saint McLeod was probably the bright spot of the week and will continue to play on special teams and is starting to learn. Eddie Vesterinen and Caden Biser both played well on defense also, while Davis Mallinger had a really good week. Offensively, Goose Crowder continues to grow, and Brown likes his potential. He had an impressive week. Tomas Rimac is playing in a different style of offense and had a good week, while Kaden Prather had a good week and will have a good second half. Charles Finley and Justin Johnson also played well.
--They’ve got six games left and it’s now the second half of the season. Gary Patterson is a veteran, and he has done it well for an extended period of time. Special team’s wise their return game sticks out and have one of the best return units in the nation. The coverage units will be tested. Offensively they’ve done a nice job mixing it up and have ran the ball well against everybody. The quarterback Max Duggan is a winner and competes. He’s throwing the ball better than he has and has two running backs that are extremely talented like Quentin Johnson is a difficult match as well. They are playing seven guys on the offensive line, and they haven’t fallen off. On defense, they take away what you do best, but it starts at defensive end. Mathis, Coleman are really good and are tough in pass protection while their corner is a great player. They do a good job developing their secondary positions, too.
--Brown said they were mentally exhausted and physically beat up. They did good on good work with a shorter amount of time with fundamental work, too. They gave the guys off a few days, and they are excited about the week and ready to go about business.
--They were looking for solutions during the bye week and they did a lot of self-scouting. They understand what they’re capable of doing and then trying to find out how to correct or avoid the mistakes that have cost them games.
--Ownership is a big piece of it and from a coaching perspective just because it’s a scheme you used in the past and had success, if your current personnel can’t execute it you can’t do it. The things you’ve got to correct are fundamental mistakes like footwork and pad level. If it’s a schematic issue, you have to eliminate it. Even if it was good for you a year ago or in the past, you have to eliminate it if it doesn’t fit the current personnel.
--You try to look and say where you can attack them at, and you match what you do well against those. When you watch them on tape, Oklahoma has some different personnel and did some really good things schematically against TCU but that isn’t really a fit for what West Virginia has. TCU makes subtle tweaks to take away what you do best, and he does a really good job in between series adjusting. If you look on tape you see what people are having success doing and what matches up with what they do well.
--Four down front, they do get into a three down front some. The thing the 4-2-5 does which is similar to the personnel grouping they use is they’re not a sub in or sub out. They can line up against any formation with the same people on the field. They do a good job of playing plays. They take away what you do best and whatever your go to plays are they try to eliminate them.
--There’s a couple things they tried to emphasize during the bye week. You’ve got to get your hands on more balls and get your hands up in the passing game like on RPOs. They’ve got to be more aggressive in the secondary going after the ball and breaking on it. They have to cut them loose and let them go after it now.
--Recruiting this week was both evaluating players that were committed and guys that aren’t. You try to see all the committed guys and then top priority list with 2022 players and then 2023. All 11 of them were out on certain days in order to see players and it was a good run.
--The TCU backs are special. Evans and Miller are impressive.
--The Texas Tech game is a little misleading because they got up so much in the first half. Their scores are a little bit different. Go up and down their defensive roster and see how much players have missed time. It’s a lot of them. Their secondary has been a rotation through due to injuries. It’s not a group that they take lightly at all on the defensive side.
--One they’ve got to make a call on is Andrew Wilson-Lamp. They’re going to play Davis Mallinger and Saint McLeod, but they need to decide on Hammond Russell. Eddie Vesterinen, Kaden Prather, Justin Johnson, Wyatt Milum are going to play.
--Yards per attempt passing is not what you’d like it to be. They haven’t passed for as many touchdowns and had interceptions early in the year, but Brown doesn’t look too much at the statistic passing efficiency.
--Brown said they need to start winning some games and that’s why they prepare. You need to put a product out there to give yourself a chance to win. You need to have a sense of urgency all the time and they need to play better and go out and try to win.
--They’ve been trying to get the running game on track. It’s been close but it hasn’t been consistent enough. They’ve had some issues against the run this year and it’s their hope they can take advantage of that. They have to do a better job controlling the extra hat schematically but they’re giving up more rushing yards than they have in the past. For them to have success, they have to rush it.
--Garrett Greene is the second leading rusher, but Tony Mathis had a better practice during the bye week and they’re going to let that play out against Justin Johnson this week.
--They haven’t hidden the fact they want to run the football and they have to put them in must pass situations which means first down will be significant. They feel good about their run defense, but it’s going to be their biggest challenge this week.
--In the red zone, they have the ability to run the football and they’ve done a nice job with a big target at wide receiver. They do a good job getting in short yardage situations.
--Greene is going to play but a lot of it is going to be how he goes about it this week. He’s coming off one of his better games against Baylor, but he has to continue to grow. He has to get the wide receivers the ball and he has to show the most growth.
--Scottie Young is back, and Jackie Matthews will start at the spear. Matthews has been one of the most consistent performers and is aggressive. It gets him closer to the ball and lets them play more man coverage and he’s a good blitzer. Young is back and will be out there this week.
--They’ve got six games left and it’s now the second half of the season. Gary Patterson is a veteran, and he has done it well for an extended period of time. Special team’s wise their return game sticks out and have one of the best return units in the nation. The coverage units will be tested. Offensively they’ve done a nice job mixing it up and have ran the ball well against everybody. The quarterback Max Duggan is a winner and competes. He’s throwing the ball better than he has and has two running backs that are extremely talented like Quentin Johnson is a difficult match as well. They are playing seven guys on the offensive line, and they haven’t fallen off. On defense, they take away what you do best, but it starts at defensive end. Mathis, Coleman are really good and are tough in pass protection while their corner is a great player. They do a good job developing their secondary positions, too.
--Brown said they were mentally exhausted and physically beat up. They did good on good work with a shorter amount of time with fundamental work, too. They gave the guys off a few days, and they are excited about the week and ready to go about business.
--They were looking for solutions during the bye week and they did a lot of self-scouting. They understand what they’re capable of doing and then trying to find out how to correct or avoid the mistakes that have cost them games.
--Ownership is a big piece of it and from a coaching perspective just because it’s a scheme you used in the past and had success, if your current personnel can’t execute it you can’t do it. The things you’ve got to correct are fundamental mistakes like footwork and pad level. If it’s a schematic issue, you have to eliminate it. Even if it was good for you a year ago or in the past, you have to eliminate it if it doesn’t fit the current personnel.
--You try to look and say where you can attack them at, and you match what you do well against those. When you watch them on tape, Oklahoma has some different personnel and did some really good things schematically against TCU but that isn’t really a fit for what West Virginia has. TCU makes subtle tweaks to take away what you do best, and he does a really good job in between series adjusting. If you look on tape you see what people are having success doing and what matches up with what they do well.
--Four down front, they do get into a three down front some. The thing the 4-2-5 does which is similar to the personnel grouping they use is they’re not a sub in or sub out. They can line up against any formation with the same people on the field. They do a good job of playing plays. They take away what you do best and whatever your go to plays are they try to eliminate them.
--There’s a couple things they tried to emphasize during the bye week. You’ve got to get your hands on more balls and get your hands up in the passing game like on RPOs. They’ve got to be more aggressive in the secondary going after the ball and breaking on it. They have to cut them loose and let them go after it now.
--Recruiting this week was both evaluating players that were committed and guys that aren’t. You try to see all the committed guys and then top priority list with 2022 players and then 2023. All 11 of them were out on certain days in order to see players and it was a good run.
--The TCU backs are special. Evans and Miller are impressive.
--The Texas Tech game is a little misleading because they got up so much in the first half. Their scores are a little bit different. Go up and down their defensive roster and see how much players have missed time. It’s a lot of them. Their secondary has been a rotation through due to injuries. It’s not a group that they take lightly at all on the defensive side.
--One they’ve got to make a call on is Andrew Wilson-Lamp. They’re going to play Davis Mallinger and Saint McLeod, but they need to decide on Hammond Russell. Eddie Vesterinen, Kaden Prather, Justin Johnson, Wyatt Milum are going to play.
--Yards per attempt passing is not what you’d like it to be. They haven’t passed for as many touchdowns and had interceptions early in the year, but Brown doesn’t look too much at the statistic passing efficiency.
--Brown said they need to start winning some games and that’s why they prepare. You need to put a product out there to give yourself a chance to win. You need to have a sense of urgency all the time and they need to play better and go out and try to win.
--They’ve been trying to get the running game on track. It’s been close but it hasn’t been consistent enough. They’ve had some issues against the run this year and it’s their hope they can take advantage of that. They have to do a better job controlling the extra hat schematically but they’re giving up more rushing yards than they have in the past. For them to have success, they have to rush it.
--Garrett Greene is the second leading rusher, but Tony Mathis had a better practice during the bye week and they’re going to let that play out against Justin Johnson this week.
--They haven’t hidden the fact they want to run the football and they have to put them in must pass situations which means first down will be significant. They feel good about their run defense, but it’s going to be their biggest challenge this week.
--In the red zone, they have the ability to run the football and they’ve done a nice job with a big target at wide receiver. They do a good job getting in short yardage situations.
--Greene is going to play but a lot of it is going to be how he goes about it this week. He’s coming off one of his better games against Baylor, but he has to continue to grow. He has to get the wide receivers the ball and he has to show the most growth.
--Scottie Young is back, and Jackie Matthews will start at the spear. Matthews has been one of the most consistent performers and is aggressive. It gets him closer to the ball and lets them play more man coverage and he’s a good blitzer. Young is back and will be out there this week.
